SHOW AND TELL!

THE AA CREW DO LOVE A GOOD SHOW AND WE TAKE PRIDE IN THE FACT THAT WE TRAVEL A LONG WAY TO SEARCH OUT THE VERY BEST AIRSOFT STORIES! SOMETIMES THINGS ARE THANKFULLY A LITTLE CLOSER TO HOME, AND ALTHOUGH IT’S NOT A SHOW KNOWN FOR AIRSOFT (YET!) THE ANNUAL BRITISH SHOOTING SHOW STILL HAS GOODIES APLENTY AS BOYCIE NOW REPORTS…

As you know we cover most of the major shooting shows and after myself, L’il Stu, Steve and Dan covered Shot Show 24 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Bill and Jase went and covered the European “Shot Show” known as IWA over in Nuremburg, Germany. The UK string of shows kicked off with The British Shooting Show, held in the Birmingham National Exhibition Centre (NEC).

As the show website tells me, “The British Shooting Show provides a conducive platform for individuals to delve into the shooting sport within a safe and relaxed environment. Attendees have the opportunity to engage with professionals, gaining valuable insights into the sport and safety practices before making wellinformed decisions about their (firearm) purchases.

The show caters to everyone, from beginners who have never encountered a firearm to seasoned professionals looking to stay updated on the latest safety measures and information.”

And the show continues to thrive, especially after the pandemic, continually improving and evolving. So, if you’re seeking the latest innovations or searching for new contacts to expand your network, the British Shooting Show provides everything essential for supporting the growth the shooting industry, both domestically and internationally.

Following on from the behemoth which is Shot Show, Las Vegas, this time I decided to take a trip with my colleague from work, Gary. The NEC, as you can imagine, is substantially smaller than Shot Show where the scale is simply mind-boggling. To give an idea of the scale, I estimate that the hall which held the whole of the British Shooting Show would fit into one hall in the Venetian Center, approximately 4-5 times. There are two halls that size in one building in Vegas, then all the side halls, plus the Ceasars Center (*US spelling).

Saying that, it still took the best part of the day to walk round, meet up with Industry contacts and play hunt the airsoft stands. Also unlike Shot Show where purchasing from stands is strictly verboten, but you can place orders, at the British Shooting Show you can buy things direct from the manufacturers and distributors stands!

Airsoft Related

In my day job at the range I talk with a lot of the people who had stands at the BSS, so that kept me really quite busy for most of the day. As I was also attending for Airsoft Action, I was looking forward to seeing some of the bigger airsoft retailers on site…. sadly, the airsoft representation was almost non-existent, except for Scott Allan and his Land Warrior team who were on the Umarex stand.

Scott and I tend to meet up at the BSS and we had our usual post Shot Show catch up and discussion of a lot of Umarex products, and also on Scott and Anna’s recent trip to Patagonia where despite rolling his ankle at the beginning of the run, Scott persevered and completed the challenge!

We’ve also discussed some plans for the future regarding some things with Airsoft Action, one being the really exciting <>. Yep there it is again, so for those you’ll all have to wait and see.

The only stand which could be considered truly airsoft (although they are now involved on the training sphere too) was Trent and his “Flash, Bang, Smoke” or FBS stand. I’ve known Trent for a number of years and before he started Flash, Bang, Smoke, he was fondly know in the trade as “The Man in the Red Van” and visited many stores and sites around the country plying his airsoft trade. Since FBS started Trent has certainly been busy as the product portfolio has grown a lot since the early days!

From the usual Mk5’s we see on the sites, to Pyrotechnic Mortar simulators, through to multi-bang grenade simulators and smoke grenades, during our chat, Trent told me that there is a lot more to come from FBS in the future as well. One big piece of news that Trent told me was his new role with B2B for Specna Arms in addition to his work with FBS.

There is a lot more to come from Trent and his team, so I’m eagerly awaiting news on some upcoming projects. It was great to catch up with Trent and before I departed his stand, I bought some patches that my Swanson Media Group family had admired on my grab bag that I used whilst at Shot Show. These will be winging their way to the US shortly, along with my usual “care package” contents of UK biscuits and sweets.

KEEPING IT “REAL”

There were a good number of the major distributors of firearms, airguns, ammunition and accessories present, from Viking Arms, Edgar Brothers, Highland Outdoors, Sportsman Gun Centre, Umarex, Air Arms and Hawke. For some airsofters there will be some good news coming about availability of certain “real steel” products that they will want to replicate the real rifle set ups that are seen around the world.

I stopped by the Viking Arms stand to see Emily, Andy and Tom. Viking Arms import, amongst a large portfolio of brands, the Ruger 10-22; this of course is the real steel model that the ASG Special Teams

Carbine is based on, and there’ll be a lot more to talk about with that when the new HERA ARMS-chassied Hybrid Series H-22 STC model arrives! Also I discussed a number of sights and cleaning products that could well be used in the airsoft world. I’m not going to mention them as I’ll gradually be covering them in Airsoft Action over the coming months.

Moving on to Edgar Brothers, I met up with Sam, Will and Dustin (from Schmeisser) and got an insight into a number of products that are coming up, which are <> as I am under NDA. Edgars import the Magpul, Aimpoint and Firefield products and I’ve seen a number of these out on the airsoft sites. Edgar Brothers don’t sell to the public, only trade/military/police so if you want specific products then as soon as I get my hands on them I’ll be able to tell you where you can lighten your wallet when you purchase them. I must say I am really liking the Aimpoint ACRO which I am currently putting through its paces in real steel competitions.

As the day drew to a close, Gary and I started revisiting stands where we had made purchases to collect our goods. I have to admit there were a number of purchases of “adult beverages” which were on Show special offers. We also collected some gun slips, grips, sights and competition accessories that had been bought. Then, laden down like the proverbial pack horse, that really was about it and we headed back to the car purchases some six hours after we had arrived.

To round up, it was great to meet up with friends in both the airsoft and real steel industries, but it would be really good if some of the major retailers in airsoft could be in attendance to spread the good word about airsoft and its use in training. The show is solid again now after the “plague years”, and its future looks bright indeed, and as airsoft is now finally accepted via the training and practical shooting/action air communities as a fully-fledged part of shooting sports I have high hopes that we’ll see more of it at the show in the future!

Many thanks to Viking Arms for kindly allowing me to use some of their images in this report. For more information please do check out https://shootingshow. co.uk/ and The British Shooting Show will be held again 14-16 February 2025 in Halls 6-9 of the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) Birmingham. AA

SHOW IS SOLID AGAIN NOW AFTER THE “PLAGUE YEARS”, AND ITS FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT INDEED, AND AS AIRSOFT IS NOW FINALLY ACCEPTED VIA THE TRAINING AND PRACTICAL SHOOTING/ACTION AIR COMMUNITIES AS A FULLY-FLEDGED PART OF SHOOTING SPORTS I HAVE HIGH HOPES THAT WE’LL SEE MORE OF IT AT THE SHOW IN THE FUTURE!”

WE’RE ALWAYS DELIGHTED WHEN WE GET AN INVITE TO ATTEND SOMETHING A LITTLE BIT SPECIAL, AND IT WAS A REAL PLEASURE TO HAVE MEMBERS OF THE AA LEGION ATTEND THE NOVRITSCH LAUNCH EVENT

HOSTED AT PATROL BASE’S NEW STORE IN THE UK; THE DYNAMIC DUO OF BOYCIE AND LI’L STU TOOK UP

THE CHALLENGE TO FIND OUT WHAT IT WAS ALL ABOUT… AND NOW BOYCIE TELLS ALL!

Players all over the world will know the name “Novritsch” and whether you’re a fan or not you can’t help but admire what this guy has achieved in our community over the realistically short time that he’s been entertaining us with his online antics, and then created products that have delighted many players worldwide; all these products are of course now available from eu.novritsch.com, and if you’re lucky enough to visit, from his flagship store in Vienna!

But if you’re not lucky enough to head on out to Austria to do your weekly airsoft shop, then also of course if you’re a player in the UK (and indeed further afield these days!) then you’ll not be a stranger to Patrol Base (www.patrolbase.co.uk) who in the space of a few short years have really established themselves firmly within the premium airsoft retail space. Established in its current form in 2009 (but they’ve been around much longer!) Patrol Base has grown and expanded into all areas of airsoft, with a huge range of quality products and services, to cater for all airsofters, and they have their Retail and Online Store Patrol Base, as well as two regular airsoft sites, Halo Mill, and Halo Mill: Proving Grounds.

They say that... “Our aim is no different online today, as it was 30 years ago when our original store first opened, we want to engage with like-minded customers who enjoy the kit we sell just as much as we do! Providing you, the customer with the best possible price for quality brands; with a more than box-shifting ethos, our staff are product-trained where possible and are recruited based on personability and enthusiasm for our brands and product range. In short, we want to be as reliable as the kit we supply.”

With many new and well-established brands and products on offer, Patrol Base have taken the step to work directly with Novritsch and his team to bring ALL those lovely airsoft goodies to the UK player community! Earlier this month L’il Stu and I headed over to Huddersfield to attend the Novritsch Launch Event being hosted at Patrol Base’s new store; Bill had spent some “quality time with Patrol Base marketing man Pete over in Taiwan at the G&G event, and it appears that they’ve become quite chummy as a personal invite was extended to AA to come along and see what the crack was!

Bill sadly was unable to attend due to prior commitments so we took up the invite on AA’s behalf, arriving half an hour before the advertised opening time of 0930 and there was already a sizeable queue forming. With the weather conditions on the day we both decided to remain in the car and head over to the queue just before the official opening time.

Once we were through the door, we were greeted by a chap who made me feel small (I’m 6’ 4”!!) who handed us a Novritsch patch and ticket to the free draw for a rifle, which would be drawn at 1300. On the back wall of the entrance were a number of rifles painted up by Chris Hobbs; he really does some fantastic work and well worth commissioning to paint your RIF if you want something truly unique.

Full Recce

Moving up the stairs to the main room, you walk into a large room with high ceiling with RIFs on the wall and on stands down the centre of the room. Also around the room were display cabinets with products from our good friend “Uncle” Clarence Lai, Vortex, Vorsk, Nuprol, Abbey, along with stands featuring holsters, gloves and magazines/speedloaders. Above the floor level there are two raised areas. One, at the end of the room houses the test range, and the other at the opposite end of the room is the Novritsch area which houses a large number of products from the Novritsch portfolio. It took almost an hour before the queue going upstairs was at a point where L’il Stu and

I could get up to grab a word with Chris (Novritsch) himself!

There are a number of RIFs in the Novritsch range from the “sniper” rifles, AEG and pistol categories. The RIFs all feel good and both L’il Stu and I were pleasantly surprised that they all come pre “upgraded” and especially with the price point; this makes them serious contenders for both the new players and experienced players. I really liked the

SSP5 4.3 which is Chris’ take on the Hi Capa type of “Double Stack” 1911 type pistol. There is also a split slide SSP5 which also caught our eye. Whilst personally not my thing, there is the SSR9 DSG which runs ARP9 type mags and boasts an impressive ROF of 36 rounds per second!

Further round the floor there were mannequins in the camo “ghillie” suits that look a lot more practical than the burlap self-made suits, although the burlap suits are “more real world”. In addition there were a number of plate carriers and pouches which all look to work well to provide the player with an all-round Novritsch set up.

Nevada Dreaming

L’il Stu then spotted the Glock wall and this set us both off reminiscing of our time at Shot Show when we got to handle and fire the real steel ones.

“AT THE OPPOSITE END OF THE ROOM IS THE NOVRITSCH AREA WHICH HOUSES A LARGE NUMBER OF PRODUCTS FROM THE NOVRITSCH PORTFOLIO. IT TOOK ALMOST AN HOUR BEFORE THE QUEUE GOING UPSTAIRS WAS AT A POINT WHERE L’IL STU AND I COULD GET UP TO GRAB A WORD WITH CHRIS (NOVRITSCH) HIMSELF!”

Above the Glocks was the Cybergun P90 and Stu went straight for it and had a “daft grin” on his face. I knew immediately that he was thinking of the time on range with the 5.7mm live version. We had hoped to get a chat with Chris but due to him being pulled all over to sign products, some of which were not even from his range, we got a couple of minutes and a photo… however, he did say that he’d be more than willing to do a fuller interview for AA and I’ll most certainly be following up on that at a later date for feature in a future issue!

It was a good to see the new Patrol Base unit; it reminded me a bit of the Evike Outpost that L’il Stu, Dan and I saw last year in Las Vegas, whilst we were at Shot Show. All in all it was a thoroughly good day that had a huge amount of people visit the Patrol Base store and I expect we were not the only ones to enjoy it! The only thing I would have suggested that may have helped is due to the numbers of people there and the weather, somewhere to get refreshments, like a van or something would have just made it even better.

Due to our own commitments sadly we weren’t able to stick around for the “field Day” on site at Halo Mill, but from what we heard it proved to be thoroughly enjoyable for all.

Both Li’l Stu and I are 100% certain that the Novritsch range of “guns n’ gear” will help cement Patrol Base as a place where you’ll find the best of everything airsoft, and we look forward to returning again to their new store as it is obviously a great place to be for any airsofter, although perhaps on a quieter day! I’m also looking forward to speaking directly with Chris a little more about his personal “odyssey in airsoft”, and of course I’ll report back on this as promised.

Thanks to both Chris (Novritsch) and to the team at Patrol Base for a REALLY enjoyable day, and we WILL be back! AA