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Late summer is generally a slow and boring time for the outdoors industry. The ramp-up for the holiday shopping season has not yet begun and shoppers are getting their children outfitted for the just-days-away start of school. While it may be slow, we’ve typically got a full plate as we are continually looking ahead to the challenges the coming months will bring. Nevertheless, it’s never a good time to “blink” or miss a day because you never know just who might show up.

It’s currently hotter than ol’ Lucifer’s musty armpit outside as I write this. Never in my life did I think it would be pertinent to advise folks to begin getting their holiday shopping tasks started at such a warm time of the year, yet here I am. While perusing our website this afternoon, product after product is still out of stock. We are expecting stuff to come in… but some products are in such high demand that they are almost guaranteed to be sold out within days of their arrival. So the purpose of this blog entry is to help you get a sound shopping strategy in place for this year’s crazy holiday shopping season.

This past June JB, our marketing director, and myself headed eastward on I40 to the neighboring state of Tennessee for the 2021 POMA (Professional Outdoor Media Association) annual conference. The whole purpose of this conference is to join manufacturers directly with writers and other content creators face to face for some good old-fashioned networking. It is a busy few days where we learn from each other and can gain crucial trusting relationships with content creators who can help spread the word on our products. Yes, even in this seemingly all-digital world, face-to-face interaction is still the best way to do business.

The joy of shooting is something that anyone can enjoy. Does everyone enjoy it? No, but that’s their own fault. While that is a subject matter all on its own, target shooting is the theme of today’s missive. Target shooting isn’t necessarily about delivering lots of power to a target. The last time I checked, paper is very easy to puncture and the name of the game in target shooting is precision. Now let's not get carried away. I don’t want anyone thinking that I’m some sort of precision marksman. Far from it, actually. But, I do have a number of interests that I seek to improve my performance in as my interest grows in those areas. Whether I am talking about photography, being a father, or shooting, I want to be better today than I was yesterday.

Simplicity reigns supreme. Yep, in this ever more complicated world we live in, simplicity is still a desirable characteristic for products to have. If not a simple device, a simple interface will suffice, but at the end of the day, the simple tool has fewer failure points and will stand to do its job another day. Using the venerable hammer (the tool, not the PCP air rifle) as an example, contractors rarely actually frame out a house with 16 penny nails and 24 oz framing hammers anymore, but when the pneumatic hammer and rolls of nails run out, you can better believe that the tool belt will be filled with regular old nails and a regular old hammer in the carpenter’s hand.

Round BBs are the dominant ammo format for air-powered pistols. While BB pistols, especially licensed replica designs are seemingly sucking up all the air in the room, pellet pistols have always been a popular choice for shooters looking to take care of garden pests or for some friendly backyard or basement target shooting. Can you do this with a CO2-powered BB pistol? Yes and no. Or rather no, and yes. BB pistols are not ideal for taking care of small game. Yes, they can dispatch some small game, but the humane thing to do is use a harder-hitting pellet for that job. Plinking, yes, BBs are good for that, but pellets can deliver a much finer degree of accuracy when it comes to punching out the X on a target.

Smith & Wesson really hit on something when they developed the M&P series semi-automatic handguns. The first time I shot one of these pistols was about 14 years ago when I was still teaching school for a living. One of my colleagues owned a few Smith’s and he brought them over one cool Saturday morning for a little plinking at my house. I had a very popular compact pistol from another manufacturer at the time. We had a great time and worked on closing the group size from the 7-yard line. While I really like the handgun I had at the time, my friend’s S&W M&P 9 left an indelible impression upon me. Smith & Wesson successfully made a serious contender to the then exploding concealed carry handgun market.

For some reason, it crossed my mind that some of my scattered unpreparedness may not just be mine and that maybe you could use some reassurance that there is always someone who is doing a worse job than you at keeping all your air gun stuff together--namely me.

Airgunning has officially turned a new leaf. Pre-Charged Pneumatics are gaining a full head of steam and have become a considerable segment of the airgun market. As such, more and more shooters are picking up PCP rifles as well as the gear needed to run them. When we first introduced the Origin .22 caliber PCP with its Ever-Pressure Tank System, we included a hand pump with it to create an all-in-one product to help entice people who were on the fence with PCPs to take the jump.

One of the most appreciable features of blowback air pistols is how similar they are to the firearms they are based on. In this day and age of manufacturing it is no trick to replicate the looks of something, but to nail down the functions as well-- especially considering the massive power differences between the two platforms is really quite something else.