Now that we have reached the New Year, let’s take a brief look at the 2019 Airgun Year ahead of us.
Hard Air Magazine will – of course – be bringing you coverage of the major new product introductions and significant airgun events. Here’s just some of them…
First up is the 2019 SHOT Show in Las Vegas. This “trade only” event runs from January 22 to 25. But there are pre-show events beginning as early as January 20.
The SHOT Show typically sees major launch announcements from the main US players. So you can expect news from Velocity Outdoor (Crosman), Umarex USA and SIG Air, for example. This is a huge annual exhibition with well over 60,000 attendees, as you can see below!
HAM Publisher Stephen Archer will be reporting daily from the 2019 SHOT Show, as usual. His aim is to bring you all the latest airgun news as soon as it happens!
Of course, the SHOT Show is the world’s largest covering everything associated with shooting, hunting, law enforcement and other outdoor pursuits. So, no matter how much airgun news comes from the SHOT Show, it’s relatively small compared to everything else.
Next in line is the IWA Show. Actually, it’s name is IWA OutdoorClassics, to be precise. This is the second major trade show for the world’s outdoor industry. Always held in Nuremberg, Germany, the show runs from 9 – 11 March 2019. Below, that’s Pavel from JSB who’s always very pleased to show us his latest products!
IWA is slightly smaller than the SHOT Show, more like 50,000 attendees and covers similar ground. However, the Law Enforcement section is split off as a separate show called EnforceTAC that takes place immediately before IWA, with over 3,000 attendees of its own.
But make no mistake, IWA OutdoorClassics will be almost certainly THE major event in the 2019 Airgun Year. It is every year!
This is because most European and Chinese manufacturers launch their new products there. These include many which are not even present in the US market! It’s also because there’s MUCH MORE airgun content at this show than at the SHOT Show. Again, HAM Publisher Stephen Archer will bring you daily reports from IWA on all the latest airgun news!
To find out more about IWA OutdoorClassics, check out HAM’s exclusive interview with the lady who’s responsible for running the annual IWA Show, Rebecca Schoenfelder.
After all the excitement of new product announcements at the SHOT Show and IWA OutdoorClassics, there’s something of a lull until the US competitive airgun shooting season gets underway again.
As usual, HAM will be covering the Crosman All American Field Target Competition in up-State New York in July.
Then we’ll be at the 2019 Pyramyd Air Cup (above). This Field Target competition is a major event in October. It’s held in Ohio. Again HAM will be there to report. This is another event at which new airgun product introductions can be found, as in 2018, for example.
By October, it’s time for the annual Extreme Benchrest shoot in Arizona! Again, Stephen Archer will be covering the event in daily detail for you. But it’s even better if you can be there yourself and enjoy the action.
And there will be more…
The HAM Team looks forward to bringing you the best coverage of these events – and more – throughout the 2019 Airgun Year. We look forward to meeting you at some of them, too!
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