Happy New Year!
Every January the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trades show comes to town. That is, if your town is Las Vegas, Nevada. Held at the Venetian Expo and Convention Center attached to the Venetian hotel, the show has expanded since that nasty virus hit and actually spills over into a new convention hall call the Caesar’s Forum. An elevated walkway allows attendees to traverse between the two exhibition halls.
It is a trade show dealing with all things related to shooting and hunting — whether it be firearms, airguns, bows or blowguns, etc. — or anything remotely surrounding those endeavors and includes both the military/law enforcement side as well as the civilian side of the aisle. The show is not open to the public and I consider myself very fortunate to be able to attend the show as media along with over 52,000 of my closest friends from all 50 states and 115 countries. The show boasts over 2500 exhibitors spread over 18+ acres of floor space and this year marked the 45 annual show.
In the airgunning realm, big bore airguns are going strong with a few new items being introduced such as a new Hatsan Pile Driver in .62 caliber, Evanix’s new .50 caliber tactically-styled pistol and one you may have heard about, the AEA Zeus in .72 caliber. Umarex showed off a new .50 Hammer in a carbine configuration and indicated their Primal 20-gauge air shotgun, announced last year, will be shipping in the second quarter after running into supply chain delays.
Pneumatic arrow launchers are still making inroads. Currently only legal for hunting in a handful of states, behind-the-scenes efforts are taking place to get more states to approve them. A good thing since these items are capable hunting tools. Airforce Airguns introduced their TalonBolt that uses proprietary 18-inch, 400-grain reinforced carbon fiber bolts with shatter resistant impact collars at each end and glow-in-the-dark vanes. Sending the bolts at over 400fps, this 5.3-pound PCP utilizes a 2000psi fill and adjustable velocity to accommodate different types of hunting.
Another trend taking shape is the market for less-lethal means of self-defense against humans or animals. Umarex launched their “Prepared 2 Protect” line of .43 caliber CO2-powered launchers. Made of polymer in orange and black to help delineate them from actual firearms, they use eight or 12-gram CO2 cartridges and there is even a tactical looking rifle that uses 88-gram cylinders. The CO2 cylinders and pepperball, or other rounds, are kept loaded in the P2P device and when needed a quick tap pierces the cylinder. Byrna was at the show and has a couple of new models of their launcher, reviewed here back in August 2022. At least two other companies specializing in this segment were also present at the show this year, so the trend is growing.
Of course, many other new and exciting offerings related to all things airgun were on display throughout the show. Over the course of this year watch for more posts on some of these that airgunners are going to want to know about and then we start all over again at SHOT 2024!
At a gathering during SHOT Week, our friends at AofA teased about announcements coming in March related to Daystate, BRK and their own in-house brand of Western Airguns. Alas, we were sworn to secrecy until the big reveal. However, if you poke around on the website you may find some good info!
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