Range Day is the best part of SHOT Show for me. The noise of gunfire ensures I don’t have to maintain long conversations, I get to shoot new guns, and I don’t even have to provide the ammo. It’s always the highlight of my trip, which means it’s all up hill from here.
Range Day this year was a little smaller and a lot quieter, in more ways than one. First, there seemed to be fewer people, which is great because lines suck. It’s also quieter because everyone is making suppressors, including companies like Hi-Point and Lyman. After walking up and down the range, here are the five best things I saw . . .
Ambient Arms EXO Suppressor
With the reduction of the tax stamp to zero dollars, we’ve seen a lot of companies making simple welded cans that can be sold cheaply and en masse. That doesn’t mean we aren’t also seeing a little innovation in the can market. The Ambient Arms EXO suppressor blew my mind.
If you’ve never shot a can, you might not how hot they get, and how fast they get hot. It doesn’t take too many rounds before the thing is way too hot to touch. After a magazine, you can get bacon to sizzle. That’s a downside, especially if you’re using the can for duty or defensive use. You don’t want to poke something with a barrel that will sear skin.
Ambient Arms has created the EXO suppressor to reduce that risk. It’s literally the coolest suppressor ever made. The EXO uses the Ambient intake system to pull cool air inside the silencer to keep it cool. How cool? Well, they did a display where they shot a magazine’s worth of ammo through the suppressor and then immediately grabbed the thing.
Their lawyers wouldn’t let us do the same, but the Ambient folks did it in front of us with no fear. The EXO is a low backpressure suppressor that ensures gases aren’t shot into your face. A flash suppressor end helps reduce muzzle flash LBP cans are known for. The price is around $1,400, making it quite pricey, but oh so cool.
SCAR 16S Gen 2
The venerable FN SCAR 16S was killed in 2025…only to be reborn in 2026. The SCAR series of rifles needed a revamp. It simply wasn’t keeping up with modern shooters and the competition. FN seemingly read every negative post about the SCAR and went to work fixing it. Some changes had already been integrated into different SCAR models, so excuse me if they seem redundant.
We get a non-reciprocating charging handle, fully ambidextrous controls, and an extended M-LOK handguard that now covers the gas regulator. The stock is still an “Ugg boot,” but now it has QD ports for slings. The grip now interchanges with standard AR grips and a ton of different safety configurations.
That’s all neat, but what took the gun to the next level for me is the hydraulically buffered bolt carrier. That reduces the rough, back-and-forth recoil impulse we get with short-stroke gas piston guns that can be tough on optics.
That feature makes the SCAR 16S an incredibly smooth shooter and a drastic difference from the Gen1 rifle. Oh, and the new SCAR 16S can use suppressors; it won’t kill your warranty to suppress the gun, and FN has its own line of QD cans that are compatible with the SCAR 16S muzzle device.
Auto-Ordnance Thompson in .22LR
One gun I had to wait in line for was the Auto-Ordnance Thompson in .22 LR. I love rimfire guns, and I love all those weird .22 LR rifles that are kitted out to look like a centerfire gun. It’s a symptom of my love of guns purely for their fun factor. I waited and waited and finally got my turn to shoot the little Thompson.
The gun uses a straight magazine with a Ruger 10/22-style rotary design, which likely improves overall reliability. The magazine is inserted just like a Thompson mag with the magazine guide. I don’t think most 10/22 magazines will work for that reason alone. It clones the controls of the original Thompson accurately.
It’s admittedly much lighter than a real Thompson and a lot quieter. The gun has a pic rail on the back for red dots, but I hope it’s removable because I don’t like the way the rail looks on the Thompson’s classic lines. We get the ventilated barrel, the Cutts compensator, the wood furniture, and the iconic feel of a Thompson.
And we get it all in a light-recoiling, much quieter configuration. This will be a really fun gun, but due to the sound of the Auto-Ordnance .50 BMG going off beside me, I couldn’t quite figure out the price and didn’t want to hold up the line. Hopefully, it falls within the affordable category.
Raider 365 Ultralight
I’m a PDW nerd and I like the fact that we’re finally getting a reason to use those removable fire control units. Flux has ruled this genre for a long time and their latest incarnation is the Raider 365 Ultralight. The Raider 365 Ultralight uses the P365 fire control unit and drops it into a braced format. It creates an extremely compact, easy-to-use PDW that can extend your P365 to beyond 100 yards.
The Raider 365 Ultralight’s big change is the move to polymer instead of metal. That reduces the weight a fair bit and knocks $150 off the price point. The reduction in weight makes it a much better gun to toss in a bag or even carry IWB. They even have a holster for this thing, and it works surprisingly well.
At the range, the Raider 365 Ultralight made hits out to 50 yards super easy and very controllable. I’d be lying if I said the recoil impulse was pleasant. It’s no 12-gauge shotgun, but that little brace doesn’t dissipate 9mm recoil much and jams right into you. Hold it tight with no slack and it gets better.
I love these little guns. They’re so small and easy to maneuver and conceal, and it makes landing hits much easier at extended ranges. It isn’t for everyone, but it sure as hell is for me.
The Rock Island Armory Pak-Out
I realized a little while back that there’s a big difference between guns that are good and guns that I like. I recognize what makes a gun good most of the time, which means I recognize I don’t always have great taste in guns due to my predilection for the weird. The Rock Island Armory Pak-Out is weird all the way around.
The Pak-Out is a folding 12-gauge shotgun that splits at the receiver to fold in half. There are two models: one is a firearm model with a Raptor-style grip, and the other is an 18.5-inch-barrel model that not only folds in half but also has a folding stock. Double the fold, double the fun.
The Pak-Out is US-made shotgun, which isn’t a surprise. They do weird stuff. It also has some oddities, like the spring-assisted pump-action that shoves the pump forward when released and fights you the whole way back. Loading it was a bit of a hassle because rounds kept getting stuck in the receiver inside the gun.
The folding mechanism wasn’t quite smooth, and there are clearly some things that need to be ironed out. Still, I have poor taste in firearms, but I love it. I like the shotgun more than the firearm. If they get it made well and can back it up with a good warranty, I’m in for the novelty alone.
Shots Fired
Range Day is over; now it gets worse from here. I joke, but Range Day is without a doubt the best part of SHOT. Stay tuned for more SHOT coverage and if you have any specific requests, let me know below.