Fred_Scuttle said:
Does anyone know what the usual announcement to retail time lag from SHOT is?
It varies tremendously. For example, at SHOT 2007 Smith showed a 5" version of the M&P. But that gun never came into existence. At SHOT 2008, they'll show a different 5" design, which should hit stores before Summer.
SIG showed the 556 and even took orders for it at SHOT 2006 (in February), but guns didn't start to trickle out of the factory until the very end of the year. At SHOT 2007, many people had still never seen one and most dealers were treating it like a new introduction.
Glock showed their 21SF at SHOT 2007, and they didn't start showing up until much later in the year, too.
Some SHOT "introductions" are really little more than prototype/concept demonstrations, and others are full production examples with inventory already in stock ready to ship.
The smaller M&P45 variants are much closer to the latter than the former.