DAY 4, the end of a hugely busy week for the team of Boycie, Li’l Stu, Dan and Steve, but what a job of work they’ve done for AIRSOFT ACTION alongside our good friends, Brothers and Sisters in arms, at SMG/The Armed Lifestyle Magazine!
With long hours and many, many miles under their boots they’ve reached the final day, DAY 4, of SHOT 2024 and now comes the job of the long slog home, and getting down to the nitty-gritty of their show report… no pressure, they’ve got an entire week to get it done…
Once again Boycie checked in late last night with his “daily” and once again our sincere thanks go to him to compiling this at the end of each long, hard day on the show floor… this is what he had to report on DAY 4;
“Our feet ache but it’s safe to say that we have all enjoyed the hard work, along with some not-so-hard fun times. It’s been a pleasure to work alongside out Swanson Media Group (SMG) colleagues Trampas, Bingo, John, Amy and Jamie. As always it’s been a cracking week of walking the floors and seeing the new and upcoming products in the airsoft and real steel worlds.
This morning Steve was away on a “real steel” business meeting, so Dan, Li’l Stu and I met up in the Press Room to chat and work out where we were going to visit on the final day. We started in the Law Enforcement hall for an hour and saw things like the less-lethal/non-lethal munitions, breaching equipment and some awesome armour for SWAT teams.
Then we decided to divide and conquer with Dan and Li’l Stu going over to Caeser’s Forum for a meeting with Debbie Hu, the General Manager of KWA; they were both also pleased and honoured to meet Mr Hu, the owner of the KWA company worldwide. Dan had a long meeting where he discussed a number of things and no doubt this “interview” will come in a future issue. I spent the morning walking the floors with Trampas, Bingo and John where we visited a number of stands relating to the training that the Swanson Training Group carry out around the USA. Heading out to lunch at The Rock House bar, the whole team sat and discussed various products that we’d seen over some really great food and soft drinks. Then it was time to head back to The Venetian Center (US SPELLING) for our final foray into the halls, where Steve re-joined us.
For me my product of the day is the AceXR Virtual Reality Training System, which can be set up for IPSC Action Air competition practice and other disciplines. AceXR were located with Shield Sights on Level 2 who have been great in helping me with sights and equipment in the past. Despite being at the end of the day there was still quite a queue of people to have a try of the system. At a price point of approximately UK£500 for the headset and a subscription of UK£30 a month this really is a viable training option for a lot of people. During Shot Show, JJ Racaza of Team Beretta and Eric Grauffel of Team CZ had a light hearted competition between them, so if it’s good for World Class IPSC shooters it will be great for us mere mortals!
The product of the day for me was the Magnetix Battle Belt on the AGILITE stand. Understandably the majority of the guys that I met last year on the stand are taken up with their military duties back in Israel, so the stand was staffed by their US guys. As part of the Agilite R&D team I sometimes get products to test and examine and I hope that I’ll be able to get one of these belts to review for the magazine.
Li’l Stu really liked the SPECNA ARMS L96; “I really like that it is VSR compatible and has a quick change spring. The quick change spring makes life so much easier than previous VSR based rifles I’ve owned and worked on. I do have a soft spot for the L96 going back to the Maruzen ones of old. For me the product of the day was my painkillers as my feet and knees are really starting to complain now. I was pleased to see Ian McCullum (aka “Gun Jesus”) in the press room though Dan tried to one up me and got to shake his hand.”
For his product of the day, Steve chose the BOLLE glasses known as the GUNFIRE 2.0 that we had seen both at the range and on the floor. Steve said; “They come with three interchangeable lenses being clear, copper and smoke. Whilst I have experience of a large number of sports glasses with interchangeable lenses, none had the ease of use of the Gunfire 2.0. You can easily snap in the arms to the different lenses within seconds, which is a really good feature for me. They are also supplied with Bollé’s platinum coating, as standard, which offers both protection against fogging and scratches. Coupled with a respectable price point of US$70 to US$75 means I think they are really good value for money. After all you only have one set of eyes, so it’s not worth scrimping on eye protection.”
Dan rounds off the last selection with his picks of the day; “I’m picking the VFC FNC GBBR. The rifle felt a lot like the real steel that I have handled. The colour and finish was really good, reflecting the quality of the externals. The FNC in AEG form is essentially a nigh ‘unobtanium’ rifle these days, so it’s also nice to see another “retro” rifle on the market when most manufacturers are producing an endless parade of M4 variants.
My accessory was actually a multiple from the same company; the ARIDUS INDUSTRIES shotgun accessories for the Beretta 1301 series. They have made a load of really cool enhancements to previously manufactured accessories and the best one for me was the handguard and heat shield assembly. What was impressive was that despite the entire catalogue of accessories being all fitted, the entire package still comes in under the weight of an out of the box Beretta 1301.”
So, that rounds off the daily reports from SHOT SHOW #46, held in Las Vegas, Nevada. I’d like to thank the team that were with me in Vegas and especially our ‘rookie’ Steve. His self-confessed “silly questions” have not been silly at all and his fresh set of eyes on our sport. Our full report will appear in ISSUE 159, but right now here’s to returning next year as SHOT SHOW 2025 which we hope will have the biggest AIRSOFT ACTION team yet!
As Kenneth Wolstenholme said “they think it’s all over… it is now”.
Once again all of us at AAHQ would like to thank Boycie, Li’l Stu, Dan and Steve for their dedication at application to covering SHOT SHOW 2024, and we’d also like to extend our thanks to Trampas and the Swanson Media Group/The Armed Lifestyle Magazine team who are always such warm and gracious hosts, and fabulous fellow media (and shooting!) professionals.
That is indeed a wrap for our Las Vegas coverage this year (other than the report to be published!), but watch out soon for our daily coverage of IWA 2024 as Bill and Jase hit “Euro SHOT” at the end of February!… next week though, back to business as usual so stay tuned for more daily news as we run up to the next monthly issue of AIRSOFT ACTION!
