The two biggest airgun presences were Crosman and Gamo, both had great booth positions, large floor space, and received a lot of traffic. Their approach was somewhat different; although both presented new guns, ammo, and adjunct gear, Crosman was focused on their new guns and enhancements to existing models while Gamo had a focus on their new coherent laser light and new ammunition.
As reported yesterday, Crosman presented a couple very interesting new pcp pistols; the Marauder Pistol for hunters and the Silhouette Pistol for competitive shooters. The Marauder will be released in .22, and uses an eight shot rotary magazine that has a lower profile than the mag used for the rifle. The gun I was shooting got in the 16 fpe range and yielded 3 clip (24 shots) per fill with no appreciable shift in POI. They are looking for a manufacturer to produce a hunting style holster to carry the scoped gun in the field, and I can’t wait to get this gun out for some hunting. The other gun Iam anxious to use in the field is the Marauder .25 along with the .25 CPs that are being manufactured in parallel to the gun. It is the standard Marauder, but with eight shot magazine. The shrouded barrel provides quiet shooting, they say it’s louder than the .22, but on the range I couldn't’t pick up much difference in the sound level. A quiet .25 doing almost 50 fpe, that’s a potential game changer for urban predator hunters and will I think open the door for a lot more firearm hunters that need a tool for shooting in more populated areas. The Nitro was doing well, and available in .25 as well.
Gamo focused a lot of energy on their new ND 5 coherent laser light, and I have to say after a few months of using this light it is not a bad strategy. This is the most impressive jump in lamping technology I’ve yet seen, and it got a lot of traction across the board with mainstream hunters. They had three versions on display; two locator (full sized) and one scope mounted version. They also focused a lot on their ammunition line of specialty pellets. While they showed the PCP DynaMax, which is a multishot in .177 and .22 with a floating barrel (and a threaded muzzle) with a plunger style cocking mechanism, it didn’t come off as a center piece in their product line. As a matter of fact the head of marketing for the group told me they placed much more import on springers that were distributed through the big box stores. While this may not resonate with the hardcore airgunning community, it is certainly a valid marketing approach. The gun they were really pushing was the new SOCOM line, and are also offering a couple of their guns in .25 along with new ammo in that caliber, including the PBA. Gamo sponsored the Outdoor Channel’s special broadcast that rolled 24 hours a day in most of the Vegas hotels, and had all the heavy hitters from the hunting world, singing their praise. They are getting the word out to the non airgunning and hunting community that they are THE Airgunning Company, and are obviously chasing that demographic.
Pyramyd Airgun had a good sized booth that was getting heavy traffic, and showed their broad range of guns. They were the only place to discuss big bores and were showing the range of Sam Yang and Shin Sung guns. But the two new guns that I found very interesting were the Rainstorm and Windy City (with a Rapid style air bottle)….. two multi-shot, shrouded pcps that I’ll do full reviews and field/hunting test on in the near future. The whole back of the booth was turned over to AirArms and their traditional line up of classic springers and PCPs. They had a selection of new stocks (including a true ambi design) for the AA400 series that were done in poplar . They were beautiful, felt great on the shoulder, and super light weight. Pyramyd also gave a lot of display space to the H&N pellets they now carry. I received several tins in various calibers and designs to test out before the show, and have been well impressed. Will have a report on quantitative testing in coming weeks, and will also be working with some of their innovative new designs. One thing worth mentioning, this company has done the best job I’ve seen of labeling their product; you get style, weight, suggested range, applications, and other useful information on the lid, consist ant and clearly marked …. A great idea that you’d think every one would have incorporated into their packaging…. But havn’t!
I also enjoyed visiting with Airguns of Arizona; they have a collection of some very nice guns. Their top of the line centers on the Daystate Airwolf, the news here is they have discontinued the .223 version and are producing the new guns in .25 caliber. This was driven by two factors, the .223 ammo was harder for them to stock, and there is a growing selection of .25 pellets becoming available. The gun that took my breath away was a limited model called the Huntsman Midas. It is not related to the Huntsman of old, but revives a venerated name in airgunning. The stock on this gun is perhaps one of the finest designs I’ve ever seen on an air rifle that you need to see and hold to appreciate. I was told that there would be less than a hundred made. They also had the Brocock line of guns, and I particularly liked the compact little pcp pistol (called the Automatic). I think Brocock is a brand to watch, I thought the Draconian UK regs on their pressurized cartridges had sunk this ship, but looks like they’re coming back with some well designed and well executed products.
Looking at adjunct equipment, Leapers had a lot of new scopes available. On that I liked was the Acushot with a 35 mm tube with an 8-40x magnification! A big scope, but not unwieldy; the optics were very clear and sharp and could focus down to about 10 yards. The scope comes with rings, which is good as you couldn’t walk into the local Cabelas and ask for 35mm mounts and expect to get them! There was a trend towards 30 mm tubes on many of the newer scopes. A new entry level scopes is the Golden Image line aimed at providing a budget scope for shooters (MSRP approx $30.00) complete with mounts was also being shown. I also liked the 30 mm Holographic red dot, that had an optical quality not often seen on this type of sighting system. I’ll be doing some write ups on many of Leapers products in coming months as well. I think Leapers continues to represent on of the best values in optics for airgunners, and man their product line is extensive.
Another scope company that I spent time with was Hawke, and this is another group that continues to bring out quality product for airgunners. This group has been making inroads into the US market for the last couple of years, and leverages off their strong position in the UK and access to some very talented FT shooters and hunters, to continue refining their product line. I liked the new low profile Sidewinder models, which have a reworked reticle, and a much smaller (I think about 2”) side adjustment wheel for AO. I didn’t realize they carried a range of quality Binnoculars in their product line, but they have some excellent ones. I particularly liked the Frontier ED 8x43, compact, ergonomic, and very crisp and clear image quality. I think that every airgun hunter should carry good binos with them in the field, and as with scopes buy the best you can afford. These offer an excellent quality at a very good price.
I’ll do another installment with more information on other companies such as Airforce, Umarex, Hatsun, Stoeger, and Predator International in the next few days. I though there were some interesting trends; more guns in .25 were coming onto the scene (springers and pcp), most new gun designs with integrated shrouds, more pcp hand guns (Crosman, Brocock, Falcon), and a more extensive range of scopes, lights, and lasers targeted for airgunners than I recall seeing in the past. Also there is more awareness of airguns by the non-airgunning community than I’ve seen before. Crosman has been reaching out at a grass roots level with training and competition, and can leverage their extensive distribution and marketing resources. Gamo has made a point of going after the mass market and expanding into the traditional firearms space, and agree with them or not, has been effective in capturing mindshare in the larger potential market (traditional firearm shooters and hunters). While at the same time, companies like Pyramyd have positioned themselves as an information center with a broad range of guns for new shooters researching and choosing airgun products.