SHOT Show is massive. It’s hard to understand the scale of the show until you get lost and can’t find your way out. That’s not an exaggeration, either. It’s such a big show that I get lost every year. With that in mind, it’s easy to find a ton of firearms, including some of the most premium firearms on the planet. Speaking of premium, who makes the highest-end firearms? What are the best guns at the highest prices? Well, I’ve got a few examples of what I think are the best high-end blasters. Keep in mind that this article is more for fun than anything else, so don’t take it too seriously.
The Lionheart Vulcan 9
Price – $1,599 to $1,899
The cheapest gun on our list costs nearly $1,600. This all-metal pistol comes complete with some wonderful features. It’s optics-ready with a cut so low that standard iron sights co-witness with the optic. The grips have a built-in gas pedal for increased control. It’s a low-key gas pedal design, so the gun can still be carried quite easily. The gun has a manual safety so the gun can be carried cocked, and locked, and that safety is ambidextrous.
The Lionheart Vulcan 9 is the latest generation of Lionheart pistols, using the same double-action “plus” trigger system of the previous Lionheart generations. This DA/SA trigger system allows you to lower the hammer by just pressing it forward. This doesn’t decock the trigger directly into double action. It’s the double-action “plus” mode that has a trigger pull that’s the length of a double-action trigger but at a much lower weight.
The trigger is wonderful and gives you a really crisp trigger pull. The weapon has what Lionheart calls a J-trigger, and it’s a mix of flat and curved, which is wonderful overall.
The gun is coated with an aggressive grip texture, and the goal seems to be to maximize control. The various models have beautiful finishes, and the most expensive model, the Combat model, wears a threaded barrel but packs that $1,899 price point. These guns can still be a defensive option.
Knight’s Armament KS-1
Price – $3,000 and Up
The Knight’s Armament KS-1 is the latest version of the SR-15. It represents the top-of-the-line AR rifle and one of the best modern rifles on the market. Knight’s originally designed the rifle for British Special Operations Forces, including elements of the Royal Marines. The rifle looks to be entering the civilian market in mid to late 2024. The barrel is one of the most attractive features of the KS-1. It’s a 13.7-inch barrel equipped with a muzzle device designed to mount suppressors easily.
The barrel is also dimpled to reduce weight and provide a balanced and easy shooting platform. The dimpling also likely helps reduce heat. The faster the barrel reduces heat, the better. Outside of the too-cool barrel, we also have an ambidextrous lower receiver. This new receiver design looks to be one of the more interesting AR ambi lowers. It’s rock solid and built with duty use in mind. Every feature is easy to engage and fairly large.
The KS-1 is short and easy to handle. I imagine inside buildings and in and out of vehicles, it would be the rifle to have. It seems to strike a great middle point between a standard infantry rifle and a special close-range rifle. With a can, it’ll be plenty handy for home defense.
Ed Brown Fueled Series Metal M&P
Price -$ 2,795 (with RMR)
The Ed Brown brand is well known for making extremely high-end M1911s. If you look into the high-end M1911 market, it’s pretty crowded. The same goes for the Gucci Glock market, and I can keep going on and on and on. What’s a platform that doesn’t seem to get that custom world love? The S&W M&P. That just seems odd because it’s one of the most popular pistols on the market. Ed Brown has taken several models of the Smith & Wesson M&P and customized them to fill that market, but the best is, by far, the all-metal variant.
The Ed Brown brand is well known for working with metal frames, so it must have been a pretty easy transition to hit the striker-fired double-stack market. The Fueled series M&P looks great inside and out. Inside, they replace the front block of the gun with an oversized model designed to aid in mechanical accuracy. The barrel is also a match-grade design with a target crown and a threaded portion for accessories. The slide is also custom and built for accuracy and reinforced ergonomics. It is also cut for an RMR.
Furthermore, they install a custom extractor, custom sights, custom triggers, and so much more. The gun is basically rebuilt from the top to the bottom. It’s a beautiful gun that feels great in your hand and runs like a sewing machine at the range. It costs a pretty penny, but what do you expect from a pretty gun?
HM Defense HM50B
Price – $5,995
The HM50B is what happens when you mate a precision rifle to the .50 BMG bullet. The famed .50 BMG round is often touted for its long-range potential, but a lot of rifles don’t have the accuracy necessary to get the round from Point A to Point B with excellent accuracy. The HM50B does. This is a magazine-fed, bolt-action rifle built to maximize accuracy with match-grade premium ammo. It still shoots surplus machine gun ammo pretty well, but to get the most out of it, you’ll need the best ammo out there.
This beastly rifle has a massive and heavy-duty receiver to give the barrel a rock-solid base. The upper and lower receivers are CNC machined from aluminum. The barrel is 29.25 inches long and is a match-grade barrel. It’s triple-honed and button-rifled to give you the best accuracy possible. There are some clever attachments, like compatibility with AR stocks and pistol grips. The included stock is a Magpul PRS, and you also get an Accu-tac bipod.
All you need is an optic to get shooting. The HM50B uses ten round magazines, which are detachable and proprietary. It features a heavy-duty action that is remarkably smooth. The big bolt glides without much friction and feels good. The trigger is superb, and this 29-pound rifle will get those big .50 BMG bullets exactly where you want them.
High Ground Defense Advantage
Price – ?
Sometimes, you see really cool stuff at SHOT. This includes guns you’ll never be able to own. The High Ground Defense Advantage is one such gun. It’s called a Gatling-type gun because I’m positive “Minigun” might be a trademark. This Gatling-type, multi-barreled gun serves the same purpose as the Dillion Minigun but is much lighter. At 50ish pounds, the gun cuts the weight in half. It’s still capable of firing something like 3,000 rounds a minute.
It represents a jump in technology as well, with an absolute rotor lock, a round counter, a heat monitor, and more. The design is still in the prototyping stages, so a price wasn’t necessarily available. However, I was assured with a smirk that pricing would be cheaper by the dozen! Start saving your pennies, folks; this one might cost ya the prettiest one.
Big Money, No Whammy
Man, if you start gambling at the beginning of SHOT and don’t blow it all, you might win enough to buy one of the many guns on this list. Sure, there were more expensive options, but these guns represent the modern, the useable, and the effective. I could have filled this list with $10,000 double barrels, but that hardly seems fun.
