[SHOT 2026] Spotlight On Jacob Grey Firearms – The Truth About Guns

Jacob Gray Firearms is a producer I’ve had my eye on since getting my arms on their TWC Black final yr, a double-stack 1911 that ran flawlessly for me, suppressed and unsuppressed, proper out of the field in my June 2025 overview. I discovered the standard and efficiency exceptional, however quickly after found that the corporate’s origins ran deep within the close-tolerance aerospace element enterprise, which is the place such excessive consideration to element isn’t any stranger.

My TWC Black is the second iteration of Jacob Gray’s double-stack 1911-style handguns, following its predecessor, the TWC9. Since then, the corporate has launched the Hex, with upgrades together with a totally redesigned grip texture, and extra not too long ago, the Nox 9, a ported and compensated all-steel competitors mannequin that contains a newly contoured grip design for elevated ergonomics. However SHOT Present is a time for bulletins, and if there may be ever a time to go large, it isn’t in Rome. It’s on the stage 2 essential corridor of the Venetian, Las Vegas, in late January. Jacob Gray Firearms rose to the event.

With the Nox 9 being comparatively new, it was nice to get my arms on it at SHOT Present. From its exact machining and motion that looks like a sizzling Hattori Hanzo blade by way of a feeble stick of butter, this competitors gun isn’t enjoying round. This was additionally my first introduction to the newly contoured grip design, which inserts like a glove because of its palmswell, deep-cut beaver tail, rounded edges, constructive grip texture, and double undercut.

That have to be why prime USPSA shooter, Dale Ervin, signed on to crew Jacob Gray Firearms on the present. 

*Dale Ervin (middle) with the President of Jacob Gray Firearms, Todd Neice (left), and the person himself, Jacob Gray (proper).

To not make it a facet notice, as a result of everybody is aware of that wanting good is at all times vital, however the Nox 9, like all Jacob Gray weapons, goes to hit the mark like Sydney Sweeney in a pair of American Eagle denims. I’m undecided which might win in a magnificence contest, the Nox 9 with its rose gold accents and lovely traces, or the Restricted Version Battleworn Hex. 

Like I mentioned, nonetheless, SHOT Present is a time for bulletins, and Jacob Gray seized that chance by unveiling the Nox 9 Restricted, a naturally aspirated competitor with out porting or compensation, making it an ideal selection for the USPSA Restricted Optics division. 

The thrill doesn’t finish there. Additionally on show was the brand-spanking-new Hex Professional, an all-steel model of the Hex with the Nox 9 grip contour upgrades and a 4.6” chunk-ported barrel and slide. Whereas I really like the alloy-frame variations of the TWCs and authentic Hex for his or her lighter weight when carrying hid, I’m going to wager these steel-frame weapons repay by decreasing extra felt recoil from a sequence of handguns that already shoot like a finely tuned supercar. 

Lastly, SHOT Present is a good place to make a reputation for your self. Cue the advertising and marketing division. Jacob Gray Firearms determined to do that in an enormous approach. Huge and beneficiant, I would add. The corporate gave away a free firearm day by day of the present. These will not be cheap firearms, and making a gift of 4 superb handguns is definitely not the norm at SHOT Present. As a gun reviewer, I ought to have excluded myself from the raffle, however yeah, proper. Fear about your self. I needed a type of new weapons. Don’t decide me!

To not fear, nonetheless, as I wasn’t on the successful finish of the tickets on any day. However it’s important to anticipate that with such a heavy crowd descending on the Jacob Gray sales space day by day at 4pm. This was a powerful sight! The winner of SHOT Present is undisputedly Jacob Gray Firearms.

In full disclosure, my love of Jacob Gray Firearms started with my first encounter with Vice President, Advertising, Jay Duncan, whose enthusiasm for the product and the corporate struck me as extraordinarily real. Consider me once I let you know I can inform when somebody loves their job on this business. The identical is true of Todd Neice, whom I met with at SHOT Present and was capable of focus on every part with, from the corporate’s origins and trajectory to its Christian affect and extremely defensible ethics. Lastly, assembly Jacob himself was an actual pleasure. Right here’s the man who began all of it, and what’s his place? Jacob likes to lock himself in a room to design and innovate, littering the slicing room flooring till his imaginative and prescient is precisely as he needs it. He does what he loves, and it exhibits within the completed product. 

For all these causes, Jacob Gray Firearms is my private highlight to observe in 2026. In the event you’re out there for a double-stack 1911-style handgun and like the concept of a close-tolerance aerospace producer constructing one for you proper right here in America, then I extremely suggest you take a look at Jacob Gray Firearms. Thank me later.