SHOT Show Vaporware: 9 Guns That Never Were

SHOT Show is a great show. We, as gun writers, users, buyers, sellers, etc., get to clash together in one big convention center to see the latest and greatest in firearms.

You see everything, from the latest defensive pistols to finely tuned Italian shotguns that cost more than most cars.

With that said, sometimes SHOT Show is the first and last time we ever see some of these products. Sometimes, a product never makes it to market, whether it is due to supply chain issues, law changes, importation problems, bankruptcy, or just dumb design.

Vaporware is a term typically applied to software that never makes it to market, but I’m applying it to guns. And today, we are checking out a few guns that currently qualify as SHOT Show Vaporware.

Vaporware Guns of SHOT

1. Signal 9 Reliant

I love weird guns and appreciate interesting designs. The Signal 9 Reliant was certainly weird, and I can appreciate that, but not much else.

It was a derringer or pepperbox-style pistol with four barrels.

Signal 9 promised to use interchangeable barrels that allowed it to shoot various cartridges, including .38 Special, .32 ACP, various other .32 cartridges, and even .380 ACP.

Beyond the four-barrel, it had a 1911-style grip. Inside that 1911-style grip sits a speed loader that held four extra rounds for a quick reload.

This gun used a double action with a rotating firing pin, much like the old-school Mossberg Brownie. Sights include both a small set of iron sights and a Lasermax laser under the barrel.

The gun itself was compact but not that compact at 5.25 inches long, 4.25 inches tall, and 1.25 inches wide. It held only four rounds despite being bigger than a five-shot revolver and much bigger than a Ruger LCP.

Price-wise, its MSRP was around $500, not making it exceptionally affordable either. It simply didn’t have a niche to fill and fell away.

2. Constitution Arms Palm Pistol

Palm pistols are nothing new, with designs dating as far back as 1882 with the French-made Protector Palm Pistol.

Although palm pistols faded into obscurity after the early 1900s, a company called Constitution Arms decided to bring them back.

They didn’t necessarily copy any particular design. In fact, they produced a single-shot version instead of a repeating design that was not particularly small and was somewhat oddly shaped.

The gun chambered the .38 Special cartridge and used a pair of squeeze safeties and a pair of buttons on both the top and bottom of the gun to fire the weapon. Loading and ejection were handled by the barrel swinging to the side.

According to the designer, it’s aimed at shooters with poor hand dexterity. Constitution Arms even produced a rifle variant with a 16-inch barrel, AR-type handguard, and AR-type stock as well. Why? Who knows.

It’s an odd gun, but heck, I’ll buy an odd gun for its oddity. However, the Palm Pistol was going to cost around $1350. At that price point, even oddity can’t sell it.

Announced way back in 2016, no real-world production has taken place as of yet.

3. S333 Volleyfire

I remember Range Day 2017, where I stumbled across the Standard Manufacturing booth and found a gun far from standard.

The S333 Violleyfire was a six-barrel handgun that certainly fits the pepperbox genre. The little pistol offered shooters a double-action-only design with rotating firing pins.

Yes, pins (plural) because the gun fired two rounds at a time. One long press of the trigger fired two barrels at the same time and delivered two rounds of .25 ACP.

While it was at Range Day, we never got a chance to actually shoot it. They just had them out to see.

This oddball never made it to the market, but Standard Manufacturing later produced the two-barreled S333 Thunderstruck, which fires two rounds of .22 WMR per trigger pull.

4. Caracal CC10 Carbine

Caracal certainly produced some interesting firearms in their early days.

The company hails from the United Arab Emirates, and they originally produced a very cool pistol that was recalled before being enhanced and reintroduced years later.

Along the way, they had a pistol-caliber carbine that never made it to the market — the CC10.

It was first unveiled in 2013 and then shown in 2014, which was the last time we saw this cool cat.

The CC10 is a 9mm rifle that gave off some serious Beretta vibes but used a magazine forward of the pistol grip.

Speaking of, the gun used Caracal magazines. It makes sense in some ways but not in all. Matching mags to your gun is great, but the Caracal magazines were expensive and never easy to find.

Mags were limited to 12 rounds, with a promise for 30-round magazines. The rifle reportedly had some pretty bad sights, although the optics rail would alleviate that.

There was also an SBR variant shown that looked exceptionally cool, but sadly, neither version CC10 ever made it to market.

5. Saint Edge PDW

Oh, SHOT Show 2020, how naive and optimistic we were. It was a good show with a few surprising releases.

Two of those releases were micro-sized ARs from Springfield, the EVAC, and PDW, both of which were braced pistols. However, the PDW never made it into consumers’ hands.

This ultra-short and very loud gun has a 5.5-inch barrel and a collapsing brace design. It was so small and so cool.

The Saint Edge PDW was fun to shoot, loud, and obnoxious but ultra cool. It featured a slick-looking billet lower; a flash can to make life a little easier, and an M-LOK rail.

Springfield produced a few PDWs that made it out to reviewers but never to the open market. A few months later, COVID hit the states, supply chains shut down, and production shifted to other guns.

By the time things calmed down, gun companies were in the midst of dealing with quick-changing ATF rulings on braces. As a result, the Edge PDW has seemingly disappeared for the time being.

6. Kalashnikov USA AK Alfa

Kalashnikov USA came out swinging in 2016 with the promise of a modern AK called the AK Alfa.

The AK Alfa series was a team-up between Kalashnikov USA and the Israeli company CAA to produce a very modern AK design.

This AK would have a modern optic rail and handguard that’s easily accessorized. The gun would have both a left and right-side charging handle, a folding stock, a modern safety, and an improved magazine release design.

It looked fascinating, and it was barely recognizable as an AK. In fact, it bore more resemblance to a Galil ACE.

The Alfa was shown over and over at SHOT Show but eventually disappeared. KUSA has produced various other new guns since then, but the Alfa seems doomed to the vapor-sphere.

7. Diamondback RTS Shotgun

I’m a shotgun guy, so I often notice new shotguns hitting the market and pay special attention to SHOT Show for shotgun announcements.

Diamondback famously makes ultra-compact firearms, AR-15s, and even the neat DBX 5.7 platform.

But at SHOT Show 2012, they showed the RTS — an ultra-tactical pump-action design that was very 2012ish. There were rails everywhere, pistol grips at the front and rear, a folding M4-style stock, and a side saddle.

The Diamondback RTS shotgun had an 18.5-inch fluted stainless steel barrel. It also featured an interesting adjustable trigger that allowed the user to adjust the gun’s trigger from two to seven pounds.

Diamondback utilized a very Mossberg 500-type design but produced the gun entirely themselves. It looked big and heavy and tactical as the era dictated.

With that said, Diamondback never produced the shotgun. It seemed a high price of production kept it from launching. A reported MSRP of around $1000 would have been a hard sell for a gun that was not much different from the affordable Mossberg 500.

8. Radical Firearms RX03

The Radical Firearms RX03 was a really cool idea that was one of the big surprises at SHOT 2019, at least for me.

The RX03 comes from a company called Fire Control Unit, which originally produced something called the X01. Fire Control Unit built its business around the P320 Fire Control Unit and designed a big, large format, braced pistol that used the FCU as its core firearm.

The RX03 promised to do the same thing but used an AR-15-style rifle design. I say style because it’s obviously not your typical AR-15 design. It uses a striker-fired bolt carrier group and a P320 trigger, and it is not a firearm until a P320 FCU drops in it.

The design was a 5.56 caliber rifle that used AR mags, uppers, and a wide variety of AR-compatible parts. AR manufacturer Radical produced a good portion of the design and partnered with Fire Control Unit to produce some 3D lower prototypes.

The RX03’s ability to move your P320 FCU into a rifle was certainly an interesting idea. The RX03 was promised to ship in 2019, but sadly, we’ve seen nothing of it gun since.

9. Iron Horse Sentry 12 Firearm

Box magazine-fed shotguns are an interesting mix of crap-tier designs and occasional awesomeness.

The Sentry 12 is a pump shotgun produced from the ground up to be mag-fed, and it showed that with intelligent design. Iron Horse built the Sentry 12 to be modular with easy swap barrels and stocks.

One variant they promised was a “firearm” variant. The Sentry 12 firearm would have a much shorter barrel but would not have a stock and be over 26 inches long in total, classifying it as a firearm and not a short-barreled shotgun.

When we saw the Sentry 12 firearm, it sported a Shockwave-style brace. But at the time of its premiere, the ATF was doing some tricky stuff with braces on firearms.

Sadly, Iron Horse likely made the safe and smart legal decision not to follow through with the Sentry 12 firearm design. It faded away, but Iron Horse seems to produce the shorter barrels for those still looking for an SBS experience.

Final Thoughts

Much of what is announced at SHOT Show eventually hits the market, but sadly, some never do.

Vaporware ranges from nonsensical guns to really cool designs that we would love to have. But sometimes, these guns just aren’t produced for reasons related to safety, legality, production issues, or just plain marketability.

Are there any guns that you think should have made the list? Let us know in the comments below! Not everything is vaporware, so be sure to check out our article on the Best Guns of SHOT Show 2023!