Check out a few of our highlights from the fifth day of SHOT Show 2025!
Mossberg 590R & 590RM
The Mossberg 590 is one of the most popular pump-action shotguns on the market, and it’s hard to think of many ways to make one better, but Mossberg has managed to with the 590R and 590RM. The most radical change is the addition of an AR-style rotary safety lever that replaces the traditional top-mounted safety. Paired with an AR-pattern pistol grip, it makes it easy and fast to flick on and off and brings the familiarity of AR controls to the 12-gauge. Mossberg also extended the bolt release so it can be easily activated with the thumb.
Overall, these felt great to handle, and the simple additions of AR controls and AR grip ergonomics made the shotguns feel truly tactical given the speed with which they can be manipulated.
Aimpoint COA
Aimpoint’s new COA red dot is interesting enough on its own, but that’s not what we were most impressed by. It’s the new mounting system that for the next year will be exclusively available on Glocks that are sold as a package with the COA. Once 2026 rolls around, however, the mounting system will become available for other handgun and optic manufacturers to utilize.
What’s special about Aimpoint’s new mounting system is that it’s not just a new footprint, it’s a radical departure from what the industry has been doing up until now. In a nutshell, it works kind of like a ski boot. The front of the optic is inserted into a notch cut in the slide and then rocked back to sit on a wedge. The rear iron sight is then installed with two screws, this pushes the optic down onto the wedge and solidly locks everything in place with tension. This setup means the two screws involved won’t take any shear stress from recoil (unlike most current systems with screws through the body of the red dot) and should make for a very rugged and long-lasting system. It has plenty of other benefits too, but we’ll get to those when we take a closer look at it later on.
PSA Concept Guns
Palmetto State Armory has an interesting approach to deciding which projects they should be working on each year—they simply ask the public. The company brings out a bunch of cool concept gun prototypes to SHOT Show, puts them on display and then allows the public to vote on their top three favorites.
A few of their guns that caught our eye this year include a suppressed manually-operated .45 ACP pistol called the MSP 45, a 37mm flare launcher called the Thumper and a semi-auto .50 BMG rifle called the Sabre Lancet. If you want to see the full lineup and vote yourself, go to their website HERE.
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