It’s natural that all the excitement at the SHOT Show and IWA is focused on airguns. After all, they’re the exciting part of our sport. But there’s many airgun pellet manufacturers involved in the IWA 2018 show. And many of them are exhibiting at the show for the first time.
Of course, the major airgun pellet manufacturers have booths at the IWA show. Crosman and Gamo are there, with Gamo – in particular – making a big splash about their pellets, as we saw in the previous HAM report. And, H&N and JSB are also significant exhibitors.
But 2018 saw the emergence of a number of airgun pellet manufacturers that have not exhibited before. They’re trying to break out of their home markets and are using the IWA Show as a forum to make new contacts and sales.
Here’s some of the airgun pellet manufacturers exhibiting at IWA 2018…
Here’s the H&N booth at the 2018 IWA Show. In fact, it seems that their products are so hot that they’re placed right next to a fire extinguisher station! (That’s the red box on the left).
H&N were showcasing their wide range of products, including a new Baracuda FT design. They also had Baracuda pellets available in new calibers – .30 and .35 cal, a sure indication of the growing interest in big bore airgun shooting.
Very close to H&N, we find the JSB booth.
JSB was introducing the new redesigned Jumbo Monster pellets – you’ll see a review of these very soon in HAM.
Also, JSB “Main Man” Pavel Kolebac showed me some new 18 Grain, lead free, .22 caliber pellets that they plan to introduce soon.
These do not yet have an official name, but Pavel shared a 50-yard target with two 10-shot groups that showed these new alloy pellets can certainly shoot!
Without doubt, the largest booth for a pellet manufacturer is that of RUAG Ammotech. This is the manufacturer of RWS pellets, as well as a huge range of firearms ammunition. Just look at the size of this booth – and this is only a part of it!
Now lets take a look at some of the smaller airgun pellet manufacturers exhibiting at IWA…
The Chinese Qiang Yan company had a booth for the first time at IWA. Their “Olympic Grade” pellets are distributed in the USA by Predator International, but they have a broader range, including domed and pointed pellets.
Of course, when we think of airgun pellet manufacturers in the Czech Republic, we always think of JSB. But there’s another Czech manufacturer, Kovohute, that aims at a less specialist market as an offshoot of their much larger lead recycling business.
Apolo is an Argentinian pellet manufacturer exhibiting at the IWA Show for the first time. Note that they spell “Barracuda” somewhat differently to the “Baracuda” of H&N!
And the Rifle pellet manufacturer from Brazil was also at the show.
And then there’s Oztay, a Turkish airgun pellet manufacturer also at the show for the first time.
It’s heartening to see so many airgun pellet manufacturers exhibiting at IWA OutdoorClassics 2018 and introducing new products. We all need pellets to shoot and there’s many companies from around the world dedicated to helping us do just that!
The post There’s A Lot Of Lead! Airgun Pellet Manufacturers At IWA OutdoorClassics 2018 appeared first on Hard Air Magazine.