Every year at the ATA and SHOT trade shows we see the latest and greatest from the hunting, shooting and outdoor industries. We’re lucky, attending these shows is part of our job, and we know many of you would like to be able to get into ATA and SHOT to see the latest innovations that will be on store shelves later this year.
Since the shows are closed to the public, we wanted to show you some of the things we noticed while walking the show floor that turned our heads.
Flambeau Formula Bow Case
Find a bow case that fits your bow is rarely as easy as you’d like it to be. Worse yet, is when you change your bow, and the case that worked before no longer does. Luckily, Flambeau introduced a bow case that is sure to be the perfect fit for your application. The new Formula Bow Case uses a foamless bow restraint system that allows your bow to be secure, but critical items like your sight, cables, cams, and strings to free-float.
The adjustable sleds can accommodate a wide range of bow sizes, virtually any on the market. How does it lock down? Two Nite Ize Mega Gear ties lock the bow in place quickly and securely, even if you leave your quiver attached. Airline compliant, with an automatic pressure release valve, it’s hard to think of something that Flambeau missed on this case.
Morrell Kinetic 1.0
While vertical bows seem to have found their sweet spot with the speed they can achieve, crossbows continue to be in a string-driven arms race to deliver faster bows, hitting harder than ever. That’s great for hunting, but you still need to practice with a crossbow and the latest developments have proven hard on targets. Where do you turn if you’re shooting one of the latest crossbows at the highest speeds? You will want to look at the new Kinetic 1.0 from Morrell. How fast can your bow be? They don’t publish a limit. Morrell is so sure that the Kinetic 1.0 can handle whatever you shoot at it, they don’t even put an upper limit on the arrow speed. It’s a must have target for those lightning-fast crossbow shooters among us.
Smith’s Rescue 2-Blade Folding Knife
Can you ever have enough knives? There’s always one more place you’d like to be able to stash one, for that just-in-case situation. If you’re smart, you keep just such a pack in every vehicle you drive, and Smith’s has the perfect addition to that bag. The Rescue Knife features two blades that offer incredible versatility.
The primary blade is more than half serrated and has a blunt tip on the curved blade. The secondary blade is a 5-in-1 design with a hook-shaped webbing or cord cutter, hex wrench, hand saw, bottle opener, and a blunt tip that can be used as a screwdriver. The G10 handle material ensures a secure grip in virtually any condition and has a tether-ready lanyard hole. The rear of the handle also has a glass-breaking tip built in.
Antler King un-BEET-able Attractant
Deer love sweets, and the new un-BEET-able attractant from Antler King puts the power of sweet sugar beets to use for you. The aroma of beets is a strong and powerful attractant, but it isn’t just a sweet treat, it also delivers quick energy and is loaded with fat and protein. Use it by itself, or with corn or soybeans to pull deer from long distance and keep them once they get there.
Ariat Socks
Quality socks are as important to foot comfort as the shoes or boots that go on over top of them. Recently, Ariat has introduced a full line of performance boot and work socks to go along with their line of work, western, and hiking footwear. Discomfort and likelihood of blisters are drastically reduced by the seamless toe and reinforced impact zones. Comfort is also improved by the mesh ventilation that helps keep fresh air circulating around the foot. Performance fabrics ensure a snug, secure fit, without feeling like the sock is digging into your skin.
Mantis Blackbeard
Mantis has become a very popular training aid for shooters of all types. The X10 Elite system can evaluate and improve shooting form on pistols, rifles, shotguns, and even bows. The new Blackbeard Auto=Resetting Trigger System from Mantis takes training to the next level. By simply replacing the bolt carrier group in your AR rifle, and inserting the red magazine, you can shoot up to 10 shots per second, with your trigger. No change to feel or pull. Nothing needing added to your rifle. It allows for exact training simulation, with the ability to see where your shots are going.
Pairing the Blackbeard with the Mantis Laser Academy means you can turn virtually any room in your house into an advanced laser training room, get your trigger time, and save thousands of dollars on ammunition.
Real Avid Master Gun Vice
Working on your own guns is a lot easier when you have the equipment to do it. The Master Gun Vice from Real Avid is EXACTLY that kind of equipment. This isn’t a vice that you can use for guns, this vice has been designed from the ground up to use with guns. Reversible steel jaw plates, leveling knobs, articulating ball and socket joint, it has it all.
More important than having it all, is that it has all these for the right reasons. Getting your gun in position and keeping it there securely, no matter what you are doing has never been easier. The legacy of brilliant, straightforward, intuitive gun maintenance tools from Real Avid continues.
Athlon Midas CF Tripods
A good tripod can be hard to find, but more important than that, it can make or break a hunt. Too often the marriage of a tripod being rock-solid, but light enough to pack into the backcountry has resulted in a price tag that made you seriously question the investment. No longer with the new Midas CF tripods from Athlon. Available in four leg diameters, the new Midas CF tripods come with a carrying case, molle-style leg wraps, a tripod hammock, carrying sling with shoulder pad, and optional spiked feet.
The ball head works with arca-swiss style rails as well, and can support 33 to 88 pounds, depending on the model you choose. Best of all, the price is about half what you would have expected from the a comparable tripod on the market just a few years ago.
Bergara Cure Barrel
You don’t have to shoot at long distances or be a range junky to know the impact that an overheated barrel can have on rifle accuracy. The new MgLite and Divide rifles from Bergara have a new barrel system that does as much to mitigate that as possible. The new Cure carbon fiber wrapped barrel use multiple layers of stainless steel, thermo-conductive resin, and carbon to quickly dissipate heat from the barrel. This patent-pending Cold Bore Technology improves shot repeatability and accuracy. Legitimate innovation gets tougher and tougher to find, but this new barrel technology from Bergara is sure to turn some heads.
Sightmark Wraith 4H Monocular
The popularity of night vision optics for predator and hog hunting continues to increase, but for many, the price of those optics keep them on their wishlist instead of their load out. With the new Sightmark Wraith 4K Monocular, that old logic just doesn’t hold up. With a sub-$700 retail price, the 300-yard night vision monocular is a steal.
Able to be mounted on a rifle or a helmet, the Wraith 4K monocular is wildly versatile. Factor in the 1-8x digital zoom, recording capabilities, and the auto-adjusting integrated IR light, and you’ll be wondering how you ever survived without one.
SPYPOINT FLEX
We turned a few heads of our own when we introduced the new SPYPOINT FLEX at ATA. If somehow you missed the launch, here’s the rundown. The new FLEX will take 33MP photos and record video in 1080p with audio. Videos as well as photos are going to be transmitted to the app. Transmission is simpler and more reliable than ever as well, thanks to the new antenna, as well as the all new true dual-SIM configuration. No more selecting carrier model. The FLEX arrives with two SIM cards preactivated and installed.
The camera will select the more reliable signal and use that card. If for some reason that network becomes unstable, the camera will automatically check for a more reliable network on the other card. Multi-carrier auto-connectivity. It sounds complicated, but in the end it just means a lot of peace of mind for you. Oh, did we mention that firmware updates will be able to be done over-the-air as well? What about the built-in test and format buttons? The FLEX is loaded with new features and we’ve only scratched the surface here. This list is far from complete.
We spent two weeks at the shows between ATA and SHOT, and still didn’t get around to see everything there was to see. As much as we would love to be able to see all of you at the shows, we wanted to be able to bring a sneak peak of some of what we were able to see to you, so you could start working on your 2022 gear list a little bit early.
