Shot Show 2019

[winton]

Not sure if this is the right sub forum.
Well, just went to the Shot show today in the Melbourne Showgrounds. I though I'd give my impressions.

Overall it was okay. Arrived at Midday, so had to park at the spill over parking past Gate 7. Didn't have to pay, so that was okay. Saw the gun dog display soon on entry, and that was pretty good and entertaining. There's more over priced food and refreshments choices this year thanks to the many mobile food vans.
But comparing it with what we had two years ago, it wasn't as good. The show felt a little smaller. The Beretta stand was tiny this year. Didn't see any Sako or Tikka rifles or their other retail fare. Just Beretta shotguns. And I didn't see a Raytrade or NIOA Stand, so no Remingtons or Leupold stuff. Wonder whats up with all this? (Did I miss them?)

Missing were alot of gun shops that normally have a stand, like Gunco et al.

I wonder whether it was due to some politics with those running it in the past and the SSAA wanting to take over it now?

What did you guys think?

ps. I went to the Shot Show in Sydney last year, and it was pretty good. All the big names where there.

[MontyShooter]

Not surprising gunco weren't there. The business was sold a few weeks ago.

[Shootermick]

Not sure if this is the right sub forum.
Well, just went to the Shot show today in the Melbourne Showgrounds. I though I'd give my impressions.

Overall it was okay. Arrived at Midday, so had to park at the spill over parking past Gate 7. Didn't have to pay, so that was okay. Saw the gun dog display soon on entry, and that was pretty good and entertaining. There's more over priced food and refreshments choices this year thanks to the many mobile food vans.
But comparing it with what we had two years ago, it wasn't as good. The show felt a little smaller. The Beretta stand was tiny this year. Didn't see any Sako or Tikka rifles or their other retail fare. Just Beretta shotguns. And I didn't see a Raytrade or NIOA Stand, so no Remingtons or Leupold stuff. Wonder whats up with all this? (Did I miss them?)

Missing were alot of gun shops that normally have a stand, like Gunco et al.

I wonder whether it was due to some politics with those running it in the past and the SSAA wanting to take over it now?

What did you guys think?

ps. I went to the Shot Show in Sydney last year, and it was pretty good. All the big names where there.

I went, arrived about the same time and parked in the same place. Definitely no Raytrade or Gunco, they had pretty good stands there at Hunt Expo back in May too.
I wasn’t really there to look at firearms anyway, I go into a shop for that without all the other people wandering around, many who have probably never even handled a gun, but insist on being front and centre at every gun stand in the place.
That said, I treated it as just a day out, only thing I would have liked to have found was some 6.5 Grendel factory ammo, there were more ammo stands at Hunt Expo too.
All in all not a bad look around for what it was.

[winton]

A surprise exhibitor was SA based Ignition Custom Engineering. They do up custom rifles. Not many custom rifle / gunsmithing shops doing exhibits these days. Maybe they've got enough work.

[AZZA'S HJ47]

Im waiting for the Btisbane shot show i dont know whats going on with it and cant find anything advertised anywhere. Brisbane show i think has been getting better

[hunting99]

I went as well, good amount of people were there. But wasn’t quite as good as the last one. Was hoping for more reloading equipment.
But all in all still worth going.

[green_comet]

The Beretta stand was tiny this year. Didn't see any Sako or Tikka rifles or their other retail fare. Just Beretta shotguns. And I didn't see a Raytrade or NIOA Stand, so no Remingtons or Leupold stuff. Wonder whats up with all this? (Did I miss them?)

This was my first shot show and I thought the same thing, I was hoping to get a look at a few Leupold scopes and Tikka/Sako rifles but there was nothing there. I saw a heap of people complaining on one of the Shot Expo Facebook posts, but all the negative comments have since been deleted, so they seem to be going though and removing anything bad being said about the show.

[Sergeant Hartman]

I think everyone loves to complain about anything they can complain about on Facebook ..... and many companies etc moderate out comments.

I thought it was decent enough. TRV seep was good, for people who haven't shoot before good experience. SSAA had air rifles and pistol shooting ranges as well.. and same. The big distributors except noia were there, i did notice they were selling guns at show special prices... but via a local gunshop.. so maybe.

But then a good 4 or 5 of the big gun shops had stands..badlands, mallis, i think Melbourne gun works was there... plus we know gunco changing owners. I dunno i was happy.. it was different than the arms and military fair.

[Wombat]

Stuck in a traffic line for an hour, get to pay $15 for a park a klm away, line up to buy tickets, line up to get in. Walk through crowds trying to see something worthwhile. Line up for way overpriced undercooked crap food. Nowhere near as good as the last one.
I guess SSAA would be happy lots of gate money.

[dpskipper]

I went. Was smaller than the last melbourne shot show. The lack of the larger entities was apparent. Gun emporium had a huge display with a freaking duck hunting boat last time. This years event had a few polaris quads strewn about and that was it.

I mostly went to chat with some specific shops/people and suss their products out. Exchanged cards and shook many hands.

[YoungBuck]

I went on the Sunday, thoroughly enjoyed myself. Parked up the road so didn't pay for parking. Started the show with coffee and donuts while watching a guy on stage cook up venison pasta something or rather.
Did not attend with the intention of buying anything specific, walked out with a single piece cleaning rod and larger rugged ammo case.
Had a good look at the Lithgow rifles (is a contender for the 223 that I'm sure santa is going to bring me for xmas) and finally got to have a look through an ATN X-Sight 4k (I was a little impressed ill admit).

[Crazy]

Went there on the Sunday, the line for the car park would of taken about an hour so we ended up parking in the Coles carpark it was only two hour parking but that was about the amount of time i expected to be there. Although in my opinion it wasn't like the show before hand i took a mate of mine along to show him what firearms are available to us in Australia.
Although there wasn't as much as last time we were starting to see more cool products entering the market such as the lighter and improved Warwick, the Wedgetail MPR308, the Works Precision Arms straight-pull and the forward assist module which Ignition Custom Engineering created for the Warwick on top of their other awesome custom jobs. There was also a bit of handguns like CZ's, Beretta's and Sig's but i myself was hoping to see a NIOA stand to try and get a feel for the Adler straight-pull 12 gauge.
Overall i saw some really cool firearms which i wish i had the funds for and it gave me an opportunity to show my mate what firearms he can possible get once he obtains his A/B license.

[solarpak]

As an attendee of quite a few Shot Expos this one was quite good. The exception being the trade display by Beretta - talking to a few folks 'in the know' there have been quite a few unhappy with the total lack of Beretta rifles in Sako and Tikka.

As one of Australia's most popular rifles in the Tikka, maybe Beretta wished to follow the other importers / distributors who dont feel the need to attend SHOT?
Possibly its too expensive an outlay and they dont make anything out of it??

Too hard to say but talking to a few people on the stands the gun industry is doing it tough and naturally attending such events which takes up their time , costs them $$ and in the end - they make little out of it - its not surprising .
Nioa and Raytrade dont attend - i wouldn't be surprised is others join them in 2020..

C

[YoungBuck]

I overheard a couple of guys talking about the costs of the stalls. One of the guys mentioned he was speaking with one of the owners of one of the stalls (I didn't catch which) and mentioned the cost of the stall was $15k for the weekend... You'd really want to be selling some gear and getting your name out there for that price. I'd imaging the price of the stalls goes up and down from that based on size and location.

[dpskipper]

I overheard a couple of guys talking about the costs of the stalls. One of the guys mentioned he was speaking with one of the owners of one of the stalls (I didn't catch which) and mentioned the cost of the stall was $15k for the weekend... You'd really want to be selling some gear and getting your name out there for that price. I'd imaging the price of the stalls goes up and down from that based on size and location.

I reckon the only stalls that really got their monies worth was Warwicks and Wedgetail! Those stalls where always packed with curious folk.

[Sergeant Hartman]

People are always curious. But the aim of the steal is to sell stuff and get their name out.

I dunno what price... but 15k sounds a bit to much for Australia, might be for one of the mega stall like Winchester... and i definitely saw them selling a few guns..... those czech ladies did make me want to spend $$$$

[MontyShooter]

I think the show is stuck in no man's land.
In the US, shotshow is a trade only event.
If this one is exclusively for the public, then it needs to be reorientated to a sales event or it's going to die.

[solarpak]

I think the show is stuck in no man's land.
In the US, shotshow is a trade only event.
If this one is exclusively for the public, then it needs to be reorientated to a sales event or it's going to die.

Monty,
The SHOT Show in the USA and IWA in Germany are trade fairs.....both the USA and Continental Europe have the manufacturers and industry to facilitate these huge trade fairs.
Here in Oz - we have very little in the manufacturing sector when it comes to firearms and related gear.... plus we dont have the population.

Maybe a SHOT Expo every 2 years ......based out of Melbourne - as its where the bulk of the big importers / distributors are based (with the exception of Nioa who dont attend the Expo).

Having 2 per year as the SSAA did in the past really didn't work - and the cost to the importers/distributors for a display space was very high - easily between $10-20K.

C.