An exciting new firearm industry event, this year's inaugural Shooting Sports Showcase had gun and ammo makers showing off new offerings for 2021.
The industry-exclusive event was put on by the Professional Outdoor Media Association, the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association, and the National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers and held at the Civilian Marksmanship Program’s superb 500-acre Talladega Marksmanship Park on Monday.
“This is an opportunity to put firearm manufacturers and all the innovations their teams have created for 2021 together with the very best representation of the outdoor media in a spacious, ideally suited outdoor venue, just right for COVID-conscious precautions and appropriate social distancing,” Kevin Tate, POMA founding member and current SEOPA president said. “The teams at SEOPA, POMA, and NASGW, along with the staff at CMP Talladega Marksmanship Park and key members of the firearms industry have done a magnificent job making this happen.”
While we intend to bring you some specific stories and news from the event, here are some of the interesting items we saw on display.
Glock was on hand with the prospect that things are increasingly MOS and therefore optics ready right out of the box. (All photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
The new Heritage Barkeep, an inexpensive little rimfire plinker with panache, was available. With a retail of $130~ and the ability to add a .22WMR cylinder for an extra $30, these are fun little guns. We are currently working on a review of these.
Teased in 2019, ATI says their Galeo, a well-built U.S.-made clone of the Galil ARM, is now ready in a pistol format. More on that to come.
ATI is also revamping its shotgun catalog for 2021 to include several new sporting shotguns from Turkey.
The U.S. importer for the German-made Schmeisser S60 mag, ATI is set to release a 7.62x39mm version this summer. We've been testing a few of these in 5.56 NATO and they are lit.
The company's American-made FXH-45 MOXIE, a polymer-framed M1911 railgun, retails for $399 and includes Glock-pattern sights. ATI is set to get into the night sight biz later this year, so stay tuned for more on that as it happens.
Taylor's has a new line of very sharp-looking steel-framed .44 black powder single-actions based on a chopped-down Remington New Army 1858 model. The neat thing about these revolvers is that you can pick up a .45 Colt cylinder to go along with it and have an instant cartridge conversion vibe. Above is the 3-inch Ace model.
Barnaul says they have shipments of factory fresh ammo inbound to the U.S. to help in the recent ammo shortage.
Besides traditional loads, Barnaul is bringing in a newly developed 151-grain zinc-plated 9mm subsonic load that was originally developed from a soft shooting 148-grain IPSC cartridge.
Hi-Point was using some of the 151 in a quiet carbine that was on hand for the event. While they say the Yeet Cannon is still undergoing R&D, at least all the company's well-loved carbines are now offered with threaded barrels and Pic rails rather than the more old-school Weaver rails.
And last but certainly not least, we stumbled across the Sol Invictus Arms TAC-9-- a geat little tubular receiver 9mm pistol with AR LPK internals that takes Glock mags-- and fell in love. You will be seeing more on this interesting $700 handgun in the coming days.
We look forward to attending the 2nd Shooting Sports Showcase next year and will bring you all the details of that as it happens.
