Category: Exhibitors

SHOT Show Product Spotlight – Zenith Quest Corporation

SHOT Show Product Spotlight is inside the Zenith Quest Firearms booth to talk about the latest selections of ammunition they’re bringing to the U.S. market and to check out their latest firearms being shown at the 2015 SHOT Show. You can find Zenith Quest Corporation at booth #620 and visit their website at zenithfirearms.com.

New ‘Women Gun Owners’ NSSF Report Announced at SHOT Show

More than half of women (55.6 percent) participating in a new study commissioned by the National Shooting Sports Foundation said they intend to purchase at least one firearm in the next 12 months. That finding and many others reflect the growing popularity of firearms ownership by women, who represent the fastest growing segment of the shooting sports.

Today during the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show (SHOT Show), NSSF President and CEO Steve Sanetti discussed the findings in the new report, “Women Gun Owners: Purchasing, Perceptions and Participation.” NSSF, which owns the SHOT Show, is the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry.

“In the past decade, the number of women owning firearms and participating in target shooting and hunting has soared. This study helps us understand why women are choosing to purchase firearms and accessories and what shooting activities appeal to them most,” said Sanetti.

The study, conducted in 2014, focused on women ages 18 to 65 who owned at least one firearm. Over a third of women in the study were new gun owners, having purchased their first firearm within the last three years. This group of new gun owners, who are primarily between the ages of 18 and 34, reflects the changing demographics among women choosing to own firearms—a change captured visually in NSSF’s new infographic, “Girl Power,” which complements the new report.

“The women’s market is a force in our industry, and manufacturers, retailers and shooting ranges are making changes to their products and services to satisfy women’s tastes and needs. This report will assist anyone interested in knowing more about women’s enthusiasm for and attitudes toward firearms,” said Jim Curcuruto, NSSF Director of Industry Research and Analysis.

Among the report’s findings:

  • The most commonly owned firearm by women in the study is a semiautomatic pistol, with 56 percent of women reporting they owned at least one. Shotguns ranked second, with 50 percent of women owning at least one.
  • Women say their purchases are mainly influenced by Fit, Quality and Practicality.
  • Women purchasing a gun in the last 12 months spent on average $870 on firearms and more than $400 on accessories.
  • The majority of women report they are not driven to buy a gun on impulse but rather considered their purchase for months before deciding.
  • Nearly all women (95 percent) have tried target shooting, and more than half (58 percent) have hunted.
  • More than 42 percent of women have a concealed carry permit for their state of residence.
  • Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of women reported having taken at least one training class.

Placing a premium on safety, women say the single most important reason why they decided to purchase or own a firearm is protection—both personal and home protection. Learning to hunt and going shooting with friends and family were also cited.

The report shows women are attracted to shooting activities such as practical pistol, clay target shooting, long-range shooting and plinking; they were not as active, however, in gun collecting or 3-gun and cowboy action shooting.

Growth of the women’s market is quite visible among firearms retailers. In NSSF’s Annual Retailer Survey, more than 74 percent of retailers reported an increase in women customers in their stores in 2013 over 2012.

According to the NSSF report, female engagement in target shooting grew 60 percent to 5.4 million participants between 2001 and 2013, and was up 85 percent for hunting to 3.3 million participants during that same period.

NSSF’s “Women Gun Owners” report is available to NSSF members and to media by request.

 

SHOT Show Product Spotlight – Carl Zeiss Sports Optics

SHOT Show Product Spotlight is inside the Carl Zeiss Sports Optics booth to check out the new top-of-the-line binocular, the Victory SF, a premium crossbow scope, the XB75, and a new Zeiss Terra binocular with an UnderArmour Exclusive Edition UA Bino Harness–all debuting at the 2015 SHOT Show. You can find Carl Zeiss Sports Optics at booth #13913 on Level 2 of the Sands Expo or visit their website.

SHOT Show Product Spotlight – Vertx

Vertx returns to the SHOT Show Product Spotlight for a second year to showcase their second generation of everyday carry bags, backpacks, range bags and much more. Visit the Vertx booth #126 on Level 1 of the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nev. and be sure to visit the Vertx website.

Media Picks: Some Favorite Products of the Press at Media Day

FullSizeRender

The 2015 SHOT Show Industry Day at the Range proved to be a success to industry media members. Everyone in the media we talked to were decidedly upbeat about the day in general and the number and variety of hot new products exhibited.

Ace Luciano, book author with Gun Digest, told us, “I was very impressed with the new Benelli over/under. It’s probably the softest shooting stack-barrel double I’ve ever shot.”

Phil Massaro, another book author with Gun Digest and freelance writer for Guns & Ammo, Gun Digest the Magazine and several other industry publications found two pieces he wouldn’t mind adding to his gun safe. “The Smith & Wesson M&P .45 with the suppressor attached was so quiet and had what I felt was zero recoil. Truly an experience to shoot,” he told us. “I also fell in love with the new Stevens Model 555 over/under. Now, I’m not much of a shotgunner, so when I tell you I couldn’t miss with this gun, I’m speaking volumes about its fit. I don’t think I’ve ever had a shotgun fit me so well out of the box. It’s available in 20- and 12-gauge, and retails under $700, far below most of the over/unders on the market these days. I think one of the 20-gauges is going to find a home with me this year, though I think after my wife shoots it, I’ll probably never get to lay my own hands on it again.”

Two veteran outdoor writers, Ed Noonan and Steve Zahurak, both hailing from New York, found there was just as much value in some of the non-gun products setup for trial as they did the guns themselves.

“I saw a demonstration of the new all-in-one firearm cleaner and lubricant,” said Zahurak. “What I liked, besides that I didn’t need two separate products for gun maintenence, is that it was both nontoxic and biodegradable.”

Zahurak was also a fan of Ruger’s new drop-in trigger for the 10/22. “It’s very user-friendly,” he said.

“Two things that caught my eyes, literally, were the shooting glasses from Edge Safety Eyewear and the new Sightmark firearm sight. The glasses were very flexible, and that tells me they can take a beating without becoming damaged, while the Sightmark sight, a lightweight dot-within-a-dot arrangement looked to be a very intelligent design, one I’m looking forward to using for turkey hunting this year.”

Noonan and Zahurak also discovered a new product they think may be the ultimate training tool when you can’t make it to the range.

“Steve and I both thought the Coolfire product was pretty ingenious,” explained Noonan. “You fit the device in your gun’s barrel, fill it with air just like you would a bicycle tire, then dry-fire the gun. Though there’s no noise other than a click, the gun recoils as if you were using live ammo. That’s a great way to improve the realism of this kind of practice routine.”

Still, it was the guns that were center stage.

Another veteran writer, Tom Tabor, favored another offering from Savage, as did several others we talked to. “The new Savage rifle in .17 HMR is likely to be a hit this year,” Tabor told us. “It’s a new semi-auto chambered for that round, and Savage worked closely with CCI to develop ammo that works reliably in the action. It’s also accurate—I started shooting at small rocks behind the 100-yard silhouette targets they had set up, and this gun was spot on. With that kind of accuracy and reliability, and at the user-friendly price point Savage will be selling this gun, I expect it to do very well with consumers.”

For those looking for something at the other end of the price spectrum, Massaro told us that the Mauser 98 was one of the most beautiful guns to be shot during Industry Day at the Range, “Very true to the original, beautifully made,” he said. “For me, too, the Rigby rifle in .416 was, very simply, a privilege to shoot, and a little closer to home, the Christiansen Arms .308 with its carbon fiber barrel has almost no recoil, yet it weighs just six pounds, and its titanium muzzle brake does an outstanding job of keeping muzzle rise to almost nothing.”

As for the event itself, both media members and buyers were quite pleased with the new format of the event. Long lines into the range were eliminated thanks to dual drop-off points for the buses, and the invitation-only format allowed for better connections and engagement between exhibitors and invitees. That the chili from one of the many food trucks on the premises apparently rocked the house was just icing on the cake for everyone.

Follow the latest news from the SHOT Show on Facebook, as well as Twitter at @nssfshotshow and #SHOTShow.

SHOT Show Facts and Figures

openingday5The SHOT Show® (SHOTSM stands for Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade) is the once-a-year gathering place for the shooting, hunting and outdoors industry—manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, publishers and wildlife conservation organizations. It’s where a passion for firearms, ammunition and outdoors equipment, plus the industry’s unified support for the Second Amendment, are on display.

The SHOT Show is owned and sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation®, trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry. The show is produced and managed by ConvExx. The show generates millions of the dollars in revenue that funds NSSF programs and services that help “promote, protect and preserve” hunting and the shooting sports. Among those programs are Project ChildSafe, the industry’s firearm safety education program; Don’t Lie for the Other Guy, which works to help prevent illegal straw purchases; and First Shots, which provides introductions to target shooting. See nssf.org for more information on NSSF programs and member services.

  • The 2015 SHOT Show runs Tuesday, January 20, through Friday, January 23, at the Sands Expo and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada. The SHOT Show exhibition floor opens at 8:30 a.m. each day and closes at 5:30 p.m. except for the last day when the show closes at 4 p.m. (Law enforcement booths located in Venetian ballrooms open at 8 a.m. daily.) See complete show floor hours. The Press Room is located in the Venetian Murano Ballroom on Level 3. The Press Room opens at 7:30 a.m. each day. See complete Press Room hours. SHOT Show Industry Day at the Range, slated for Monday, January 19, at the Boulder City Rifle & Pistol Club, is for exhibitor-invited media and buyers.
  • This is the 37th annual SHOT Show. The first SHOT Show was in 1979 in St. Louis, Missouri. The SHOT Show has been held 16 times in Las Vegas, more than in any other host city, including consecutively since 2010. SHOT Show will be presented at the Sands Expo and Convention Center through 2020, under the latest agreement.
  • SHOT is the largest event held at the Sands Expo and Convention Center. Total exhibit space for the 2015 show is expected to be more than 630,000 net square feet—equivalent to more than 13 acres, the area covered by the New Orleans Superdome or the base of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
  • The SHOT Show boasts 12.5 miles of aisles—just a little less than the distance of half a marathon. Exhibitors, buyers, media and other industry professionals hail from all 50 states and 100 countries.
  • Nearly 70,000 professionals in the shooting, hunting and outdoors industry attended SHOT Show in 2014. The show is for trade only and is not open to the general public.
  • The 2015 SHOT Show will have more than 1,600 exhibitors and more than 2,400 members of the outdoor and mainstream media, including international media, cover the show and promote the products they see at SHOT in their print, Internet, radio and television stories.
  • The total weight of the exhibits for the 2014 SHOT Show brought in by Freeman, the SHOT Show’s general service contractor, exceeded 6,400,000 pounds, the heaviest show ever held at the Sands Expo Center.
  • Over 100 buses are hired by the SHOT Show to accommodate SHOT Show attendees staying at partner hotels along the Las Vegas Strip for complimentary rides to the Sands Expo Center.
  • It took 250 concessionaires to accommodate the food and beverage bistros inside the Sands Expo Center during the 2014 SHOT Show.
  • The Law Enforcement section remains the fastest growing segment of the SHOT Show. To illustrate this growth, law enforcement was started 12 years ago, covering 7,000 square feet; today it covers more than 170,000 square feet of the show.
  • Over 2,100 people attended the opening night NSSF State of the Industry Dinner at the 2014 SHOT Show.
  • Over 10,000 scans for more information were made by media and buyers of the products located in the New Product Center of the 2014 SHOT Show.
  • There were over 340,000 visits by attendees at the 2014 SHOT Show to the 2014 SHOT Show mobile app.
  • 98% of all exhibitors at the 2014 SHOT Show renewed their booth space for the 2015 SHOT Show before the 2014 SHOT Show even concluded.
  • The 2014 SHOT Show brought over $89.6 million in non-gaming revenue to the Las Vegas economy. Firearms and ammunition are a $8 billion industry. The total economic impact of the industry is nearly $38 billion, which supports more than 245,000 jobs.

The SHOT Show’s website is shotshow.org. Follow SHOT Show on Twitter @NSSFSHOTShow and #SHOTShow, and on Facebook.

2015 SHOT Show Store Grand Opening—Get Your Swag On!

SHOT_store_hatsWe all know that everybody who’s anybody in the firearms industry makes attending SHOT Show their first and top priority of every new year. But the show isn’t just about the business deals and seeing new products. For many attending, SHOT Show is also a reunion of sorts that takes advantage of the many attractions, shows and restaurants the Las Vegas area has to offer. No matter how you choose to take in the show, one thing’s for sure: it’s always a memory maker.

We’ve had many, many requests over the years for SHOT Show merchandise—the yearly pins are always a must-have item and we’re always happy to see those who wear their pins from years past and the pride they take in how many SHOT Shows they’ve been to—but dozens have told us they’d like more to remember each year’s show by. So, for all you 30-year SHOT Show pin wearers, for the many who’ve said they’d wished they’d had a SHOT Show shirt to wear as a badge of honor for walking every single aisle, and for everyone who has a dresser drawer full of “I Was Here!”  T-shirts commemorating every place away from home they’ve ever visited, the all-new 2015 SHOT Show Store is where you’ll want to be.

New for 2015, the SHOT Show store will host a variety of merchandise, including ball caps, long- and short-sleeved T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts and jackets, all proudly displaying NSSF’s 2015 SHOT Show logo. A wide variety of sizes will be available. These are limited-edition items and once they’re gone they’re gone for good, so get to the grand opening of the 2015 SHOT Show store early. The store can be found in the Level 2 lobby of the Sands Expo and Convention Center, close to the NSSF booth and just across from the staircase leading to the exhibits on Level 1.

Chris Dolnack is Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Follow him on Twitter at @ChrisDolnack.