Shooting and Shopping Fun at the Texas Airgun Show

Is pepper spray right for you?
September 11, 2017
Q-Series Minimalist Holsters
September 18, 2017

The Texas Airgun Show was held this year at the Arlington Sportsman’s Club in Mansfield, Texas the last weekend of August. Although the weather left something more to be desired, there was a decent turnout. If you’ve never been, imagine a medium-sized gun show were every gun displayed for sale is an airgun in some form or fashion along with a wide variety of ammunition and accessories. In fact, no firearms are even allowed at this event. This was my third time to this annual event and this time I took my son Jackson so he could experience some of the fun I have experienced at the show over the years.



Every year I see Airforce Airguns at this show and this year they were under a large tent outside as the inside area couldn’t contain all of their products. The Airforce Texan model airgun is one I have written about many times both on this blog and in the Texas Fish & Game magazine as well as spoke about on The Best of The Outdoors podcast I host for TF&G. I have had some sponsored shooters from Airforce Airguns on the show in the past such as Rick Ward (The Urban Airgunner) and Eric Henderson (Adventures Afield). I own a .45 caliber version of this fantastically powerful single shot air rifle and this line of guns also comes in .308 and .357 calibers. The Airforce Texan SS is the new integrally suppressed version of the Texan and it was all the rage at SHOT Show this past January. The Condor, Escape, TalonP and other airguns Airforce makes are hard to beat in the accuracy, range and overall performance categories. Check them out at www.airforceairguns.com.



The second thing I ran into at this show was Sig Sauer airguns. This was their first time to exhibit at this show. They had two different rifles and two different pistols on display at the gun range outside. Jackson and I shot the Sig MCX ASP Red Dot CO2 powered pellet rifle and the Sig P226 CO2 powered pellet pistol and were immediately impressed with both airguns. The overall weight and feel of all of the various Sig airguns is directly proportionate to the corresponding firearm. This gives you real world training at a fraction of the cost.

We decided on the Sig P226 as my son was comfortable shooting it and it will be a great tool to reinforce the basics of safety and shooting fundamentals as we practice in our back yard archery and airgun range. We also picked up 500 pellets and five CO2 cartridges before we left from Sig so we were ready to start shooting this great gun when we got home. Check these guys out at https://www.sigsauer.com/store/airguns.html.



Umarex was also exhibiting at the gun ranges and had some really cool new products. I got to shoot the new MP-40 BB gun which is based off of the German World War II MP-40. This was a very fun gun to shoot for many reasons. I happen to be a World War II history buff of sorts and getting to shoot a historical replica like that was an absolute blast.

They also have a new item called the Boom! Big Blast Target Caps. Basically you charge up a standard two liter soda bottle or certain water bottles using the bottle caps that come in this kit and you get a big blow up when your pellet, bullet or arrow penetrates the bottle. I picked up two of these packages as I can see a lot of fun with both my father and his grandson at his ranch the next time we shoot together. Check this out at numerous airgun online retailers or at http://www.bigblastcaps.com.

This company also had a variety of both air powered pistols and revolvers on display. I own an Umarex full size revolver and enjoy shooting it immensely. The nice thing with these kind of airguns, as I mentioned before, is that they allow you to practice using CO2 cartridges and pellets or BBs and end up being far cheaper to shoot than the firearm equivalent while still give you the “real feel” of an actual firearm. Check out their full line of airguns at www.umarex.com.

While at this show I also met James Sellers, president of Sellmark Corporation. This company is based in the Mansfield area near where the show was held. They are the makers of Sightmark, 12 Survivors, Pulsar, Firefield and other outdoor brands. I own a Sightmark Core HX series scope which I wrote about here in a past review. The thing I like the most about their products is that they are made right here in the great state of Texas. James was great to visit with in person and I really enjoyed our conversation. Sellmark supports the Texas Hog Hunters Association and I also got to meet Scott Dover, founder and president of THHA along with his wife at this show. I support the THHA and their vision and goals and recommend our readers check them out here.



Aside from these awesome companies, Airgun Depot was one of the main sponsors of this event and had several items on display. If you are looking for accessories for your airguns, and there are many of them out there, they are a good company to check out at www.airgundepot.com. I got to have dinner with the folks from this company as well as the Eric and Chad from Iraqveteran8888, one of the most popular gun channels on YouTube.

One thing that is certain is that airguns are starting to carry their own weight in a big way. Never before has one seen so many companies entering this arena and that, my friends, is exciting to say the least. Overall, this was an incredible event as it is every year. Thanks for watching, reading and listening and have an awesome day in the outdoors!

Story by Dustin Vaughn Warncke

Loading

Comments are closed.