3rd Annual Texas Airgun Show

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The 3rd annual Texas Airgun Show was held at the Arlington Sportsman’s Club in Mansfield, Texas on August 27th, 2016. Previous to this, I attended the first annual  Texas Airgun Show two years ago at another venue where the show was held in North Texas but this show continues to grow in size so the organizers needed a larger facility with more parking. Think of a large regional gun show with a ton of people but nothing but airguns allowed to be displayed or demonstrated. That was the scene. The inside of the show floor was packed all day with visitors from all over the Lone Star state and many folks who hailed from other states as exhibitors or attendees. This is one of the largest shows in the country dedicated to airguns and these were not your grandpa’s airguns either. Modern airguns have more power and technological innovations that put many of them in the “powder burner” (AKA firearm) realm in terms of power and accuracy at surprisingly long ranges in some cases. What’s more is that you do not need a special permit or license to suppress an airgun in today’s world, at least not in the USA, which makes the possibilities endless for quiet and enjoyable fun for the whole family.

The two main airgun manufactures representing at this show this time were Airforce Airguns, producer of the Airforce Texan, which is the most powerful production big bore airgun on the market today, and Umarex, producers of a variety of unique air powered handguns and rifles. Both companies had airguns available on the club’s vast array of shooting ranges which allowed airgun enthusiasts, such as myself, to plink to our hearts content. And that’s just what I along with numerous other attendees did at this venue. Airforce Airguns had the .22 caliber Condor and big bore Texan air rifles at the outside shooting ranges. Umarex had their full line of air pistols and fully automatic BB guns set up for attendees to shoot. Needless to say, lots of lead was going down range at this show!

I met Seth Rowland from Big Bore Airgun Ammo. I have shot his ballistic tip big bore airgun ammo before and decided to buy some hollow point airgun ammo from him at the show. He has some great ammo for the hunter and target shooter alike. If you are interested in finding out more about his ammo, you can email him at seth.rowland@att.net. Most big bore airgun ammo is made out of cast lead and isn’t cheap but it is worth it if you find the right kind of ammo for your gun. His ammunition seems to work the best for my .45 caliber Airforce Texan. Seth was one the main ammo dealers and the show and I really like his stuff.

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The club had silhouette targets set up for most of the airguns but Umarex had sporting clays set up for the full-auto BB guns and round metal targets for the air pistols. The line of Umarex air pistols are “firearm inspired” meaning that they are modeled after popular firearms but they are powered by CO2 canisters. The action of shooting these is amazing. I had a lot of range time with some of these air pistols at the NRA show. The amazing thing on the semi-automatic air pistols is that the slide actually blows back like it would in the “real deal” firearm version of the gun. This makes training with these guns a fraction of the cost of practicing with a firearm as pellets and BBs are cheap to come by for target practice. I really love what they have come up with here. Talk about budget shooting!

This show was filled to the brim with young and old alike and I am so happy to see that the shooting sports are still going strong here in Texas. That came at no surprise to me. The folks from the American Airgunner TV show were also at the show filming an episode for their TV audience. I met Rossi Morreale, host of American Airgunner, and we plan to have him as a guest on our Texas Fish & Game exclusive podcast, The Best of the Outdoors in a future episode on airguns. Rossi and the team from American Airgunner did full re-cap of the airgun show for a future episode of their TV show and it was fun watching them work. You can check out this show on the Pursuit Channel Wednesdays at 3:30pm (CST) and Fridays at 12:30am and 7:30pm (CST).

The Tom Gaylord was also at the show and he is know as the “Godfather of Airguns” as an outdoor writer and TV show personality. He gave a demonstration of one of the coolest, most versatile airguns I have seen so far in my writing work on airguns and that is the .50 caliber Sam Yang Dragon Claw. This gun can fire both a 50 caliber projectile or the new Air Venturi Air Bolt which is like shooting an arrow or crossbow bolt out of an airgun. I was amazed by this technology and innovation.

This show was sponsored by Airgun Depot which carries a wide variety of airguns, ammo, and accessories. If you have never given airguns a second thought, consider that they are fun and powerful target shooting and hunting tools. The innovations that have been made in this industry are simply amazing. The next annual Texas Airgun Show will happen sometime in August or September of 2017 so be sure to stay tuned to Texas Fish & Game’s website for details as we will be planning to promote it when the dates are announced. Thanks for reading, watching and listening!

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