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My 2023 SHOT SHOW Experience

With another year of SHOT Show in the books, I've got a lot to share about what's new in the shotgun world. I'm super excited about some shotgun updates and changes coming to market in 2023. If there are any shotguns from SHOT Show that you'd like to see featured on TFL let me know on the TFL community! Let's go!

My main focus of SHOT Show was to visit as many shotgun manufacturers as possible. As you may have gathered, this show is HUGE. I had to first stop in at the Lockdown booth to see what they had cooking. If you're unfamiliar with Lockdown, check out my recent gun room video to see some of the awesome products they offer like the brand-new Secure Wall Panels. After Lockdown, I somehow ended up at the Savage/Steves booth first.

1. Savage/Stevens

As you may know, last year I reviewed the Renegauge shotgun by savage. and the 555 by Stevens. Stevens had a few new guns in their over/under line such as the 555 Sporting. If you are looking for a low-budget O/U for sporting, this is a new option.

2. Winchester

Winchester has been a big part of my career since the early days. I still shoot the SX4 in my live exhibitions....for now.  I was excited to see what they had going on. The Sx4 now comes in a couple more camo options, such as the hybrid hunter woodland, which looks awesome. A trend I've noticed with new variations is the use of more earth tones and dark greys and blacks. I am liking the dark grey receiver that Winchester and many others have used on some of their guns. Winchester also came out with left-handed versions of the SX4 last year, which I was happy to see for all the left-eye dominant shooters out there.

3. Browning

As I rolled into the Browning booth, I went directly for their brand new Citori composite model. Would you buy a composite O/U if it was a little cheaper than the wood model? As I mentioned, the earth tones (faded camos, tan, brown) have really been prominent in new shotguns. Browning has probably had the biggest push of this new color palette. A good example would be their new "Auric" camo version available in many of their shotgun lines. Besides that, their over/unders were pretty much the same, with the addition of some limited models. 

4. Mossberg

I have grown a really big affinity and respect towards Mossberg this year. I spent a lot of time in this booth. A new update is that they're now offering some of their shotguns already equipped with a an optic cutout. They also added some new variations of the 940 pro, such as the black multi-cam stock with is a black-green camo blend. The 940 Pro field model with a walnut stock is also new.

5. Benelli

I have always been impressed with the way Benelli presents itself at industry events like this. They always have a very unique way of positioning their guns and having interesting touchpoints throughout their booth. Probably the coolest/most unique display they had was an example of two barrels. One had been coated with their BE.S.T treatment, and the other was traditionally blued. The display said that the blued barrel was exposed to salt water for 24 hours and the BE.S.T barrels had sat in salt water for 3 months. The Benelli barrel was basically spotless while the other one was unrecognizable and completely rusted. Very interesting. Some changes across the Benelli line are mostly with the M2, and the Montefeltro. Both guns have upgraded forends, receivers, loading ports, bolts, and stocks. These updates largely mimic the Ethos guns. The M2 will become more of their price point model, whereas the Montefletro will become a little more expensive offering from Benelli.  

6. Franchi

As you'd expect, the Franchi booth was right next to the Benelli booth. I have fallen I love with my Franchi affinity 3. Not a whole lot new from Franchi that I noticed other than some changes to camo/color options.

7. Stoeger

Similar to Franchi, there wasn't much new here either. Although checking out their offerings reminded me that I should probably review their over/under "The Condor" and their 20 gauge "The 3020" Stay tuned and I'll see if I can get my hands on some Stoeger!

8. CZ

Last year one of my most highly requested reviews was for the CZ 1012. I know there's been a lot of buzz around CZ, so I spent a little more time in their booth checking out the new stuff, and what I hadn't seen from them before. I can tell you that the 712 G3 has some changes to the bolt/bolt handle and bolt release. The biggest change to the 712 G3 is the switch to a dual-piston gas system where you switch out the piston depending on the size of your load. I personally would prefer not to have to mess with switching pistons but CZ admitted the 712 had issues with lighter loads not cycling. I can't go into detail about every CZ gun I checked out. I wish I could, but the most valuable thing I got from this booth, is that CZ has a lot of different shotgun options.

9. Retay

Speaking of highly requested guns, I went straight to the Masai Mara in the Retay booth. They have plenty of good-looking offerings for a lot of applications. I liked some of the Gordion variations too. My biggest question here was, "How do you pronounce Masai Mara" I finally learned that its "Moss - Eye - Mar - Ah" While the representative explained this to me, he also demonstrated a cool feature of this gun - the whole trigger group comes out independently with the click of a button without disassembling anything else. Super cool!

10. Dickinson

What I find interesting about Dicksonson is that they make shotguns that appear to be higher-end over/unders for $17,000 but also some really cheap composite semiautos for like $400. I'm not really sure where they sit as far as market placement, but I'd love to get some out to the range and find out!

11. Kahn Arms

Kahn arms is a Turkish company that makes a types of shotguns. They actually had a really nice lineup although I have never seen one in a store.

12. Beretta

I kind of flew through the Beretta booth because I had already reviewed their staple guns like the Ultima, A400, Xtreme Plus, and Silver Pigeon. I spent a little more time looking at their top-end "Dt" competition line. As far as what's new, not much to speak of. All I know is that they had a huge booth filled with great time-tested guns that people love.

13. Tri-Star

I have gotten a lot of requests to make Tri-Star content as well. Every time I have reached out to them, it seems they stay pretty firm on the fact that they do not send out shotguns for content production. I'd like to give them some reviews, but I'm going to need some guns first! Their big edition this year is the G2 PRO lineup which they had nicely illuminated on a big display wall. The upgrades in controls and milled-out loading port seem to be a nice addition to the G2 lineup. I've noticed a lot of manufacturers rounding the bottoms of their loading ports for easier and smoother loading. Maybe they've all been watching my reviews?

14. SKB

SKB has definitely positioned themselves to be the price point go-to manufacturer of competition and trap guns. They've pushed the envelope on the adjustability of their trap models. The 95 ATR has an adjustable rib which you'd normally see from top-end sporting manufacturers. I haven't shot a lot of SKB yet, but I did review the RS300 semi-auto and really liked it!

15. Fausti

I really wish SHOT Shot had more of the high-end shotgun makers but they evidently don't see the need to exhibit I guess.  Fousti was one of the few shotgun brands that was at SHOT and I enjoyed checking them out. Fausti has shotguns that range from $2,500 to $60,000! I'd like to dive deeper into this corner of the double barrel/over-under market. 

16. Rizzini

Rizzini was one of the other manufacturers at Shot Show that I found that make a little nicer guns than your run-of-the-mill over-unders. Their display was significantly smaller than Fausti's. An interesting thing you'll notice getting into these higher-end or more traditional shotguns is that oftentimes, the butt of the stock is left as bare wood rather than sporting a recoil pad. This is just the traditional more of the traditional look but it doesn't always lead to the most comfortable shooting experience. Do you want the looks or the comfort?

That's a wrap on what's new in the shotgun world for 2023! I also hung out at the booths of TFL partners such as Carlsons choke tubes, Promatic, ESS Eye Pro, and Federal. Federal had a super cool display (as they always do) explaining the builds and materials of some of their best shotshells. I am excited about their new paper wad shells, so I don't have plastic all over my backyard! Speaking of Federal, I think my favorite highlight from SHOT SHOW 2023 was a concert that they put on for us featuring Eddie Gibbons from ZZ Top. SHOT was a blast but I'm happy to be home.

Whether our targets in the field or our targets in life, we will only hit what we are focused on, so live the #targetfocusedlife 

Stay Target Focused,

Steve