SHOT Show 2026: The “Budget” Brands Are Coming for the Crown, and Sci-Fi is Finally Real
I’m currently sitting in a hotel bar that charges $18 for a domestic beer, nursing a pair of feet that feel like they’ve been beaten with a framing hammer. But the pain is worth it, folks. I’ve just finished day two of SHOT Show 2026, and let me tell you: the hierarchy of the gun world just got flipped on its head.
For the last few years, we’ve been stuck in the “Bold New Color” era, where innovation meant Cerakoting a 10-year-old design in FDE and calling it a launch. But 2026 feels different. The engineers have been let out of their cages, and the companies you thought you knew are playing in entirely different sandboxes. We’ve got Palmetto State Armory building duty-grade rifles that scare the boutique brands, ZEV building guns that belong in Cyberpunk 2077, and Kahr Arms… well, you won’t believe what Kahr is doing.
I’ve walked the 13.9 miles of aisles so you don’t have to. Here is the gritty, unfiltered lowdown on the hardware that actually matters from SHOT Show 2026.
Palmetto State Armory Sabre: The “Just As Good” Debate is Over
If you take one thing away from this article, let it be this: PSA is done sitting at the kids’ table. Their booth was the busiest on the floor, and for good reason. They dropped two absolute bombshells that are going to keep product managers at other companies awake at night.
The Sabre Core Platform This is the big one. The Sabre Core isn’t another budget build; it’s a shot across the bow of BCM, SOLGW, and Geissele. PSA is calling this a “duty-grade evolution,” and the spec sheet backs it up. We’re talking cold hammer-forged barrels standard, monolithic upper options that are rock solid, and ambidextrous controls that actually feel premium rather than like an afterthought.
PSA is flexing their manufacturing muscle here. They are openly saying they can build a rifle that competes with the “professional grade” tier for a fraction of the cost. Now we’ve heard this before with the PSA Custom line, but this time it feels real. The fit and finish on the floor models were impeccable. If the QC holds up on the production line, the mid-tier AR market just got extremely uncomfortable for everyone else.
The “MP7-at-Home” PDW (Rock 5.7 Compact) Quietly the most photographed gun in the booth. This is a compact, folding-stock evolution of their Rock 5.7 platform, and it is clearly aiming for the MP7/APC crowd without the NFA gymnastics or the five-figure price tag. It’s not a clone—it’s an evolution. It’s light, the controls are snappy, and it democratizes a format that used to be unobtainium for civilians. They are doing to the modern PDW what they did to the AK: making it accessible, reliable, and ours.
ZEV Technologies: The “Movie Gun” is Real
I’ll admit it: I stopped at the ZEV booth three times just to look at this thing. The new ZEV Folding Defensive Pistol is hands-down the coolest thing at the show.
It doesn’t look like a competition gun; it looks like a prop from a 90s action movie, where the bad guys walk in with innocuous looking tiny briefcases and pop them out into these bad boys, but it functions with serious precision. It features a futuristic chassis system with a side-folding grip mechanism that feels surprisingly sturdy. The optic sits forward, the lines are aggressive, and the whole package screams 90s movie villain.
ZEV is leaning hard into culture here. They aren’t just building for the USPSA guy anymore; they’re building for the guy who wants high-performance art. It’s not a gimmick, the engineering is legitimate, but let’s be honest: you buy this because you want to feel like John Wick in the year 2050. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
Sig Sauer vs. Springfield: The Double-Stack War
The war for the “2011” style pistol—without the custom gunsmith price tag—is officially the main event of 2026.
Sig Sauer P211 GT Series Sig has decided they want to own every inch of the market. The P211 is a hammer-fired, Single-Action-Only (SAO) double-stack that feeds from… wait for it… P320 magazines. You get the glass-rod break of a 1911 trigger with the cheap, plentiful availability of mags you likely already own. The GT5 (5-inch bull barrel) feels like a cheat code. If you can get near-custom performance for a production price and use your existing mags, Sig is playing 4D chess.
Springfield Armory DS Expansion But don’t count Springfield out. They didn’t just show one gun; they showed an entire roadmap for their double-stack 1911 line. We saw new barrel lengths, carry-focused trims, and optics-ready variants that are clearly targeting both Staccato and the new Sig line. The message from Springfield was clear: “We aren’t late; we’re scaling.” They are bringing the double-stack 1911 fully into the mainstream, making it a standard format rather than a boutique luxury.
The Glock Gen 6: Perfection, Finally Perfected?
Look, I’m as cynical as they come when it comes to Glock “innovation.” Usually, we get a removed finger groove and a press release. But the Gen 6 launch feels like Glock finally read the forums.
The G17 and G19 Gen 6 models feature a new “RTF6” texture that is aggressively tacky, but the MVP is the frame geometry. They’ve added a factory-extended beavertail and deeper palm swells. If you’ve ever suffered from “Glock knuckle” or slide bite, this is the fix. They also threw in a flat-faced trigger that feels like a $150 aftermarket upgrade right out of the box. It’s evolution, not revolution, but it’s the best a stock Glock has ever felt.
Kahr Arms: The .50 BMG Surprise
I had to double-check the signage, but yes, you read that right. Kahr Arms launched a .50 BMG bolt-action rifle.
This wasn’t on anyone’s bingo card. Kahr is known for reliable, understated carry pistols, not anti-materiel rifles. But here it is: a heavy-barrel, precision long-range platform with a muzzle brake that looks like it could land a Cessna. It’s not a novelty item; it’s positioned as a serious precision tool. This signals a massive amount of confidence and capital from Kahr. They are willing to play in extreme niches, and honestly, the machining on it looked incredible.
Nopel M1557 5.56 Gatling Gun
This was just one of those oddities that caught everybody’s attention on the USCCA stand. It’s a $1,200 5.56 Gatling Gun and it looks amazing. There’s not a huge amount of info apart from what’s in the video, and nobody seems to know who Nopel is. But it’s cool anyway.
Rideout Arsenal Dragon
The Rideout Arsenal Dragon takes low bore axis to the extreme with a fixed bull barrel and minimal slide mass as a result. This lever-delayed pistol is one of those novelties that might just come and go, but it’s cool to see.
Smith & Wesson: No More Holes
Smith & Wesson brought the heat for two very different crowds: the competitors and the purists.
The Return of the Nightguard The headline for the revolver guys: The Hillary Hole is gone. Through a Lipsey’s exclusive, S&W is bringing back the Nightguard series. These are Scandium-framed, cylinder-heavy snubbies like the Model 396 in .44 Special.
M&P9 M2.0 Metal HD For the competitors, the “HD” stands for Heavy Duty. This is a steel-frame M&P, weighing in around 35 ounces. It soaks up recoil like a sponge and is aimed directly at the Production class shooters who need that weight for fast splits.
Ruger LC Carbine Gen 2: The “We Listened” Update
Ruger quietly fixed almost everything people complained about with the original LC Carbine, and it was one of the most sensible launches at the show.
The Gen 2 features a significantly better trigger, improved balance, and refined ergonomics. They also cleaned up the suppressor-ready capability, making it much friendlier for can owners. It didn’t scream for attention like the ZEV or PSA booths, but Ruger’s strength has always been iteration at scale. They took a good concept and made it a great one.
Henry’s “Protector” Series
The “Tactical Cowboy” trend isn’t fading; it’s becoming a standard. Henry Repeating Arms has reorganized their line, and the Protector series is the standout.
These are lever guns built for the 21st century. M-LOK handguards, threaded barrels, and Picatinny rails come as standard. They aren’t just slapping plastic on a Golden Boy; these are built to be working rifles. If you live in a ban state, or just think racking a lever is the coolest sound in the world, Henry is making sure you don’t feel outgunned by the AR crowd.
The Verdict
SHOT Show 2026 was the year the giants woke up, and the lines between “budget” and “duty” blurred forever. PSA is building rifles I’d trust my life to. ZEV is building guns I’d trust to fight a cyborg. And Kahr is building guns to stop a truck.
My feet hurt, I’m dehydrated, and I’ve probably inhaled enough lead dust to set off a TSA scanner from three states away. But for the first time in a long time, I’m leaving Vegas excited.
Stay tuned for full reviews on these as soon as I can get my hands on T&E samples. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a date with a steak and a very expensive glass of bourbon.
