Soggy Weather Greets Industry Day at the Range

SHOT Show’s annual Industry Day at the Range was greeted by rainy weather for the second consecutive year, but that didn’t keep show attendees from trying out some of this year’s buzz-worthy firearms. The day-long event was steadily dampened at the Boulder City Rifle and Pistol Club.

One of the attendees was Bill Movalson, who pressed his Barbour wax-cotton jacket into service, ignored the raindrops, and strode for the clay-pigeon shooting line to see what a Browning Citori White Lightning 28-gauge over-and-under shotgun and the new Winchester High Velocity Bismuth loads would combine to do on the scattergun range.

After running a box of the new Bismuth loads through the stack-barrel shotgun, Movalson was all smiles and gave a thumbs up approval.

“So I was looking at this 28-gauge as maybe a replacement for a 20-gauge and maybe a little bit lighter shooting,” said Movalson as the rain drops continued to spatter about. “The 20-gauge is pretty nice, but this 28-gauge and the three-inch shell has the same feel but less recoil.”

As someone who chases waterfowl, upland birds and shoots clays with family and friends, Movalson was impressed after powdering more than two dozen clay targets in the damp weather.

"Very nice," he said. "Tight pattern, holds together and also uses the new E-tec (environmental wad technology) wads and knocks down the new environmentally friendly clays."

• SHOT Show: See all the new guns for 2024

If Movalson was at range day to see what was new in shotguns and ammunition, others were there to help spread the word about new products to appear on the SHOT Show’s more than 800,000 square feet of floor space and supporting more than 2,600 exhibitors in attendance.

One of those was Rehan Nana, the PR man with Garmin USA, who was at the 2024 ATA Show only a week ago. While he barely had time to do laundry before striking out to Vegas, he was eager to do so especially since Monday’s day at the range represented Garmin's first visit to the event.

Despite the weather conditions, Nana was pleased. After all, he shrugged his shoulders and opined that most hard-core hunters and anglers are used to a little bit of inclement weather.

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And with business being the order of the day, he was pleased with the electronic giant’s first visit to Industry Day at the Range, despite the raindrops falling on the company’s new Garmin Xero C1 Pro Chronograph.

"We’ve got the new Garmin Xero C1 Pro Chronograph and we feel this thing is going to set the world on fire in the shooting community," he said. "It’s super easy to use, has really incredible battery life, is really intuitive, and is only about the size of a deck of cards. It's really shaken up the chronograph world."

As Nana manned the Garmin booth, showed his company’s new product off and answered questions, he was pleased with the return-on-investment that Garmin was receiving for being at the event. "I’ve really enjoyed it and today has been great," said Nana. "In what I do, I get to see so much media and the reception has really been great as well as from people who know about the C1. They’ve been coming up and telling us how great they think this is going to be."

The day was indeed great, as the sound of countless primers going off on the target and clay ranges went on all day long and seemed to steadily confirm the week that was about to unfold in Sin City. Add in the smiles, the hand’s on experience, and a lot of handshakes and smiles, and it was clear that even if the weather was less than ideal, the 18th Industry Day at the Range was another great success.

Despite rain drops falling on everyone’s heads, the 2024 version of Industry Day at the Range is now in the soggy books and has set the stage for another great SHOT Show this week in Las Vegas.