Thursday, March 28, 2024

THE WASHINGTON OUTDOOR REPORT

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The COVID Pandemic put the kibosh on trade shows for the last two years to include the Shooting, Hunting Outdoor Trade Show (SHOT Show) held every January at the Sands Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada.  This year though, SHOT Show went on as scheduled though it was a very different experience.

 

SHOT Show is not open to the public, just to people who work in the industry which includes not only hunting and shooting sports enthusiasts, but also law enforcement and military personnel who want to check out the latest firearms, ammunition and other products available with an eye towards ordering them.

 

This is a huge show.  In 2020 there were 2,338 exhibitors and attendees came not only from all 50 states, but also 78 countries around the world.  SHOT Show is the biggest trade show of its type and the 19th largest trade show in the world.  During a typical year there are north of 60,000 attendees and this year the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which runs this event, expanded the floor space for exhibitors with hundreds of booths occupying not only the two floors of the Sands Expo, but also the adjoining Ceasar’s Forum.  The NSSF states if you walk every aisle of the show, you’ll cover 13.9 miles. 

 

In past years you saw firearms and ammunition manufacturers from Washington State exhibit at this show but several of these Washington based businesses have either closed or moved to more politically and business friendly states that welcome the firearms industry.  Despite that, there were several Washington based businesses at SHOT Show to include:

 

Fort Discovery Inc. – A tactical training center based in Sequim

Northwest Outfitting – A deer and elk outfitting service

Rite in the Rain – Manufacturing waterproof pens

Seattle Engraving Center – Producing custom, engraved, premium firearms

Cascade Precision – Manufacturing accessories for weapons

American Shooting Journal – published by Media Index Inc. in Tukwila

 

SHOT Show kicks off with an Industry Day at the Range.  This takes place at the Clark County Shooting Complex in Boulder City.  The sprawling complex is 2900 acres, the largest in the nation.  Media professionals arrived there on Monday morning to shoot various new models, shells and cartridges from the plethora of manufacturers there at the range. 

 

I gravitated towards the shotgun area and enjoyed shooting a well-built single shot model 555 Trap Shotgun from Savage Arms as well as a unique shotgun from the JTS Group, a Kalashnikov style shotgun with a five-round magazine.  Much to my surprise, it broke flying clay pigeons with ease, not something I was expecting from a tactical firearm.  Talking to Mike Reilly with the JTS group he said the shotgun actually works well for hunting and he had used it on a sandhill crane hunt this season in the Dakotas with great success.  Reilly did caution you do have to put an easy to install plug in the magazine so that the firearm only shoots three rounds, the maximum limit when it comes to bird hunting.

 

As much fun at as the shooting was (I literally couldn’t miss!) I think my favorite part of the day was taking a beefy electric bike out on a sandy, hilly and rocky test track set up in the Nevada desert.  The e-bike in question was a JEEP e-bike from QuietKat.  Ryan Spinks, marketing manager for the Colorado based company, told me they specialize in manufacturing tough, all-terrain electric bikes used by hunters and other outdoors enthusiasts who want to go further into the backcountry than you can on foot.  Spinks also showed me trailers that can be towed by their bikes big enough to haul in a good deal of camping gear or haul out a deer.  The bike performed extremely well on the test track, even for this middle-aged, somewhat overweight rider and the electric motor allowed you to climb all of the steep hills on the track with effort at all.

 

The rest of the week SHOT Show happened at the Sands Expo Center.  Attendance was down by about a third from previous years and approximately 10 to 15 percent of the exhibitors were no shows due to covid concerns.  In fact, several exhibitors who planned on attending had to cancel at the very last minute because either they or a direct family member caught the omicron variant of covid just before the show started.  Usually there are a number of celebrity appearances, numerous press conferences and happy hours where beer and wine are served at certain booths by exhibitors.  This year, very little of this occurred.

 

The bright side about the lesser attendance meant I got to spend more time with exhibitors who are normally very pressed for time.  A case in point, I got to interview the presidents of three major companies as well as the Director of Wyoming Game and Fish, something I would generally never get to do at a normal, loud, crowded SHOT Show.

 

Overall, the shooting, hunting and outdoor trade industry is strong and just about every company was doing better than they were before the pandemic.  This is due to the huge amount of new people getting involved in both hunting and the shooting sports.  You can find out more about SHOT Show and the National Shooting Sports Foundation at www.shotshow.org

 

John Kruse – www.northwesternoutdoors.com and www.americaoutdoorsradio.com

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