RANGING IN!
Not all of the important attractions are on the Show floor though,
and one of the most eagerly anticipated events is Industry Day at
the Range; this takes place on the Monday immediately prior to
the show at is held at the Boulder Rifle & Pistol Club Boulder City,
Nevada, approximately 25 miles out into the desert south of Las
Vegas. Coaches are provided throughout the day to transfer both
media attendees and buyers from The Strip to the range, and
once there you can rest assured that as a shooter you’re going to
have an amazing day!
Industry Day at the Range is the largest, most influential one-
day event in the hunting and shooting industry, period. For the
last eleven years, Industry Day has been the epicentre where gun,
archery and hunting manufacturers, dealers, buyers, retailers and
the media join together for one day on the range where new
products are unveiled, tested and analysed. It provides a hands-
on experience that one cannot get anywhere else, especially if
you’re from the UK as there are full-auto carbines and .50 calibre
rifles for you to shoot, and more handguns than most of us have
seen in one place before. Ammo is dished out like sweets, but the
safety aspects are always to the fore.
Along with my good friend and PMCI Staffer Trampas and his
motley crew from Swanson Media Group I had the great pleasure
of shooting some great new firearms including the Hudson HP9,
the Colt Delta Elite, the Smith & Wesson M&P 2.0 pistol, and the
DVC Carry and Tactical models from STI International.
Lewis Machine and Tool were showing off their latest PDW,
which I loved shooting, and the Kel-Tec RDB bullpup was an
absolute dream. One great find though was a heat-mitigating
fore-end from Ascendance International and I’ll be covering
this off in a dedicated review in a future issue! You name the
company though, all the big names, and they were there, and I’m
somewhat embarrassed that I must have cost the manufacturers
a considerable amount in ammunition!
There were thousands of products for attendees to see on the show
floor, encompassing firearms, ammunition, accessories, optics,
knives, gun safes, apparel and tactical equipment, among other
categories. More than 500 new products from 338 companies
were on display in the show’s New Product Centre alone, which
was sponsored by the U.S. Concealed Carry Association. In addition
to the more than 1,600 exhibiting companies on the main show
floors, the NEXT 2.0 Pavilion provided first-time vendors from
the show’s extensive waiting list with welcome visibility and
potential new customers.
If there’s something you want to find in relation to Shooting
Sports, including the very latest airsoft innovations, then “SHOT”
is most definitely the place to visit!
HITTING THE FLOOR(S)!
The doors to the show proper though opened bright and early on
the Tuesday morning, and after a brief visit to the professionally
run Press Room, sponsored this year by Carhartt, it was time to
get rolling; as much as I like to see as much as possible when I visit
SHOT, experience has taught me that you need to make a schedule
and stick to it. It’s simply just not possible to see everything, but
with so many friends in attendance there was a constant “heads
up” flow of information in relation to exciting new products.
pmcimagazine.com