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Every year, the editors of the various firearms publications meet in the inky shadows of their boardrooms to decide which products should be chosen for their annual “Best Of” awards. Best rifle of the year, best shotgun of the year, all chosen by a handful of people behind closed doors. It always seemed a little… cabalistic to me. I like it more when the people themselves – those who have bought and used the products – have a chance to make their voices heard, and choose for themselves what products they think are the best. Vox populi vox dei and all that. In that spirit, we present the second annual TTAG Reader Choice Awards. Here’s how it works . . .

Embedded below is the voting system. I have pre-populated it with all of the new guns and gear from 2014 that I can dig up. It will guide you (yes, you!) through the process of selecting which firearms and accessories you think are the best for 2014, and record your answer. If you don’t see something listed that should be considered (as long as it was first released in 2014), you can enter it. If you don’t like any of the choices, click “No Preference” and move on. Simple! Just be aware that you only one vote and we will remove any items entered that weren’t released in 2014.

The contest will run for the next week, and we will announce the winners here shortly thereafter. As we did last year, we’ll present the winners with their awards at SHOT Show 2015. That’s the plan — now get voting!

REMINDER: The SIG SAUER pistol brace came out last year, and already won this award. Any and all votes for the SB15 will be removed, as this is for 2014 only.

Can’t see the voting system? Click here!

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34 COMMENTS

  1. The choices make it pretty clear that 2014 was not a year that featured much innovation. Not that the new things were bad, but they were mostly, well, blah.

    • Last year was bananas. Companies were just trying to keep up with the massive demand, and weren’t thinking about pushing new products to stimulate sales in the future. The result is a down year, where new products are few and far between. This year, the companies are flush with cash from the buying spree and desperate to keep the sales numbers up. I foresee new guns galore, even if they are simply minor improvements.

      • Yup, and maybe it was a good thing. Otherwise, we might have been treated to more products like the “new” Remington R51.

  2. The SCR wasn’t this year? Man this survey showed I was out of touch this year. I did run into Kirsten J Weis at an airport randomly and recognized her, so I’m not a complete lost cause.

  3. Had to vote for the ARX-100, because left-handed people like me need more lefty-friendly gear. Notice I said “lefty”, not “leftist”.

  6. Im handing it to Kel-tec and CZ for being the only companies doing anything interesting to me. That’s standard practice for Kel-tec so I’m glad to also see CZ’s new Scorpion EVO is coming from way out of left field.

    • I wasn’t excited about the CZ Scorpion EVO s1 until I saw the price they announced this week. $850 MSRP (will probably sell for about 730) and $20 each for the magazines. Sig Brace adapters will be available aftermarket, or if you fill out a Form1, they will sell the original stock as well. Silencerco is already working on suppressor adapters for their suppressors for it. That beats the pants of the Sig MPX’s pricing.

  7. Weren’t there a couple Tavor triggers introduced this year? I wrote in Shooting Sight’s Tavor trigger just in case.

  8. I didn’t vote on most of the categories because I’m frankly not knowledgeable enough for my opinion to count, but I do have a couple questions:

    1. Why are guns that are not even being sold in 2014 (like the SIG MCX/MPX, or the CZ EVO S1) eligible for rifle of the year?
    2. What’s the deal with nominating ‘Any .22 LR’ for ‘New Ammo of the Year” and “Best Accessory”, etc.? Is it just snark (very funny if it is), or am I missing something obvious?

    • 1. Eh, they might not have been available to the public but they were available for review and heavily marketed this year. I’m being a little loose with the definition of “released.” But if either win this year, they won’t be eligible next year. Like the pistol brace.

      2. I’ve been removing those as I see them.

    • Come on. How awesome would it be for you to walk up to a Remington rep and hand them that award. Everyone knowing what a turd that product was/is.

    • Maybe they are hoping winning the award will cause police departments to start adopting them as duty sidearms across the country. This could lead to a great reduction in the number of improper police shootings. I can see the tagline now… “The New and Improved Remington R51 LE. Because you can’t shoot a dog if your gun won’t fire.”

  11. A lot of these guns may have been announced in 2014 but they still aren’t available. Also, a lot of these guns have been on the market for years.

  12. How are we voting on guns that aren’t even out? How can anyone judge them fairly? Plus guns like the SD HK’s which virtually no one has used? All it does is muddy the pool and really take away from the validity of any results.

Comments are closed.