Everyone with any interest in shooting and outdoor life of any sort has heard of the SHOT Show. But what’s it like? What’s it actually like at the SHOT Show?
Well. firstly it’s huge!!! As I write, the estimate is that the 2024 SHOT show exceeded 50,000 visitors. That’s why you see vast numbers of people everywhere. – plus exhibitors.
Then, many of the booths are huge, too. Particularly this is the case for the big firearms manufacturers as we see below for Smith & Wesson. This means that – realistically – airguns form a quite small portion of the whole show.
Then there’s a great deal of walking to do – missing all those other people, of course.
That’s because airgun companies are not gathered in one place, they’re spread all around the show. I’m exceeding 10,000 steps a day walking around the 13.9 Miles of aisles. That’s a lot more than normal!
A more normal size booth is represented by that of Umarex, below.
Of course, I try to plan my visit for maximum efficiency and least wasted time walking. But no matter how efficient you think you are, everyone gets lost – many times.
But this can have a benefit, such as when you find a company you’ve not previously been familiar with. In this case, I stumbled upon Turkish exhibitor ARMSAN with their AIRGO PCP air rifle that they’re planning to have available in 2025…
Then you’ll find that Meopta Sport Optics has a new range of riflescopes, including one with AO down to 10 Yards and a mil-dot reticle that could be ideal with a high-end PCP. (All the Meopta products I’ve tested all have superb optics but a price point to match).
For something completely different, you can try out a 50 caliber machine gun set-up in a helicopter side door. Well, you can think about it, all guns are actually deactivated and are not capable of firing at the show, for obvious reasons.
Or maybe you would prefer a dune buggy-style off roader with three – yes three – belt-fed miniguns mounted on it. Now that’s firepower! I wonder how the vehicle handles the recoil?
Then you’re back to airguns and meet Annie at Snowpeak, the world’s largest airgun manufacturer.
There’s several new PCPs, as you can see. HAM plans to cover them in more detail when we report from the IWA Show in Germany next month.
Then you pass Kral Airguns and see a PCP looking very much like a 50 caliber sniper rifle.
It’s the Kral Puncher Magestic. Looks like another new model that I’ll be investigating at IWA…
For my next SHOT Show post, I’ll go back to focusing on specific manufacturers – as normal. But I hope that you have enjoyed this look at some of the surprises to be found as you walk around the floor 🙂
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