Springtime is a lovely and volatile time of the year. Lovely in that the North American continent is awakening from its winter slumber. The color green dominates every outdoor space, but along with the warming temperatures and grass growing comes rain. In certain parts of the country it is not just rain, but rather thunderstorms replete with high winds, hail, and tornadoes.
It just so happens that this year’s NRA Meetings and Exposition was held smack in the middle of the booming thunderstorm season, timewise, and smack in the middle of storm country, geographically. That is to say, it is a roll of the dice attempting to fly to this show. In what has become an annual tradition, getting all of our staff to the show was an exceptional challenge.
Initially, four of the seven of us woke up to a cancelled flight notification. This led to a frenzy of re-booking and one hasty Uber ride to the next nearest airport. Once there, we four were divided into two groups, one pair on the original airline and the other pair booked on another airline. Everything seemed to be falling into place right until the moment a line of storms encompassing the DFW airport delayed one flight.
After waiting around for an hour or so, things went back to normal for a brief moment only to shut right back down for another hour. It was here that things began to go really wrong for me. The delays affected some flights in Dallas to a degree, but not enough for me to catch my connecting flight to Atlanta. 3 of the 4 of us made it to ATL on the same day. I had to park myself in one of the lovely hotels on John Carpenter BLVD just outside of DFW.
So your illustrious bearded Sasquatch finally arrived at the big event about two hours before the close of the first day. At least my bag was there and I had no other big issues once I got back through security at DFW. It could have been worse.
Last year we picked up a few Laser Ammo units and target receivers for our booth and it was a huge success. Well, why stop a good thing? For 2025 we did it again and added a few more target receivers to the mix so everyone didn’t have to shoot looking up at the ceiling. Our booth location was across the aisle from one of our key license partners, GLOCK. As a result, we decided to show our friends at GLOCK some love with a prominent GLOCK display.
This drew considerable attention from people who passed by and saw the GLOCK brand being represented on both sides of the aisle.
Last year we introduced the Komplete NCR rifle system at the show in Dallas. At some point between then and now, a gentleman in South Florida was intrigued by the Komplete, to wit, he has killed well over 2,000 iguanas with his Komplete. Let that sink in; over 2,000 iguanas.
Both Marketing Manager Scott Faldon and I had a conversation with this gentleman and were blown away by his story and pictures. South Florida might not be where I want to live, but I sure want to visit, if only to get after gobs of iguanas!
Throughout the day Saturday we talked with many attendees about our various airguns. As usual, we met the folks who had no idea of where airguns are in the 2020’s. Most of the time, it was our hunting video loop that left people shaking their heads in amazement. “Airguns can do that?”
Sunday at the NRA show is typically a slow starting day. Many attendees opt to stay home for family time and church, but in the afternoon the crowd picks up somewhat. Once again our Laser Ammo partnership and GLOCK license drew the lion’s share of attention. The triggers on our GLOCK airsoft were pulled thousands and thousands of times that day, and thousands more on Friday and Saturday.
All in all, we had a good time at the show and did our best to bring the world of airgunning to more and more people. We were able to see some old industry friends and make some new ones as well. Heck, we even got some ideas tossed to us for free (and that’s a subject for a blog that you will never see! HA).
Mark Davis, avid outdoorsman, family man, and outdoors writer is the eCommerce Marketing Manager for Umarex USA.