The Seventh Great British Shooting Show took place over, for the first time, three days between 13 and 15 February at its new Stoneleigh Park venue in the West Midlands – and crowds of show-goers were treated a plethora of exciting new kit. Here’s a brief look at some of the highlights which we didn’t have room to include in our report in April’s edition (on sale in UK newsagents from 26th February, and available to download in digital format from www.pocketmags.com).
English bespoke specialists Rowan Engineering had their entire range of retro-fit add-ons on display, including a couple of innovative new offerings. First up is this adjustable forend mechanism, price £259.99, which should go down a storm with FT shooters after the ultimate in ‘hamsters’; the base shown here adds £80 to the price.
Rowan’s new adjustable forend mechanism, complete with base plate
Rowan’s incredibly high-tech DSW electronic range-finding system – not long from its official release date
And Rowan is just waiting to get the CE mark on its incredible new DSW system (above) – an electronic range-finding system that links up with your scope’s sidewheel P/A focus to give you the exact range of your target in a digital readout on a small screen fitted above the scope. Clever electronics even allows for temperature shift within the scope, and it’ll calculate windage drift and shooting angle among other things! Probably the most state-of-the-art technology we’ve seen – and the perfect complement, perhaps, to the Daystate Pulsar, details of which we unveiled in in the March 2015 edition of Airgun Shooter.
Seen here with Daystate’s MD Tony Belas, this amazing new electronic, computer-driven PCP stole the show as crowds flocked to get some hands-on time with various versions of it. Although it’s pricey (around £2,000 according to model), the overwhelming response was that the gun handled like no other, and was worth the money (for those who can afford it).
Daystate MD, Tony Belas, with the company’s extraordinary Pulsar PCP
It seems UK airgunners are going nuts over high-power – and, according to FX Airguns’ UK importer ASI, the Bobcat (below) is going great guns! It’s available in .177, .22, .25 and .30 calibre up to 75ft/lb – that’s a lot of smack for such a compact carbine. Price £1,210.
FX Airguns’ Bobcat – selling well in the UK in .30 calibre guise, where it’s capable of up to 84ft/lb!
Air-Targets had their usual array of innovative rapid-action targets on the indoor ranges, including these two new coloured versions of their light-up pistol plates (which have to be shot in the random order they light up).
Air-Targets’ rapid-action light ’em up pistol targets – great fun!
And seen below is 12-year-old Toby Husband ‘exterminating’ Air-Targets’ experimental Dalek targets with a BSA R10 Mk2!
Young Toby Husband, using a BSA R10 Mk2 to ‘exterminate’ some experimental Dalek targets!
As well as their £15 new retro-fit push-button air tank bleed system (refer April edition of Airgun Shooter), Best Fittings were also showing off their new hardware which now carries the name of this global company – like this Bullnose Airgun Charging Kit (below), price £47.50.
New! Best Fittings’ branded Bullnose Airgun Charging Kit
AFO’s new Pro-Value range of airguns was unveiled – the Apex Predator gas-ram is revealed in April’s magazine – alongside the first public showing the .25 calibre version of the award-winning Trophy CO2 pistol. Seen here is the new SixThreeFive model – and some PCP shooters were lucky enough to snap up AirForceOne’s all-new Air Ram Pump (£139.95 – black; £149.95 – camo) which is reportedly the most powerful stirrup pump ever to come to market.
The .25 calibre version of AFO’s CO2 Trophy pistol – the ThreeSixFive – with their Air-Ram high pressure pump below (shown boxed)
On the subject of PCPs, here’s Impact Airguns’ Chris Whistler who allowed us a glimpse of a prototype ‘supergun’. Seen below in the white and as yet unnamed, it’s based on the GSX range of PCPs that the Cambridgeshire manufacturer is going great guns with – and that 600cc bottle’s being deployed for good reason. This rifle comes in .30 calibre and is capable of pushing out around 25 shots at a whopping 85ft/lb! Initial tests have also shown the rifle to be superbly accurate at 100 yards – making it a development we really want to keep our eye on in the future.
Impact Airguns’ Chris Whistler with a prototype .30 calibre GSX model variant that’s capable of 85ft/lb!
And here’s a couple of other things we kept an eye on… No, not Hollie Betts-Causebrook – though who could blame us? – but that rather stylish Anschutz jacket she’s wearing; it’s been especially developed for Field Target shooters, you see.
Lovely Hollie Betts-Causebrook with a couple of equally lovely new developments from Anschutz and Kahles
Prize your eyes away from the sexy Anschutz 9003 Premium PCP she’s holding to look at the scope… because you’ll then see a rather innovative new range-finding system that Austrian scopemaker, Kahles has unveiled. This one’s still a prototype, but you can find out more in our report in the April 2015 edition of the UK’s number one airgun magazine, on sale in UK newsagents from 26th February, and available to download in digital format from here.
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Well-known airgun authority Nigel Allen is the editor of Britain's award-winning shooting magazine, Airgun Shooter (available worldwide). Email: nigel.allen@futurenet.com
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