BEST OF SHOT SHOW 2024 | SHOTGUNS

We just got back from the largest hunting and shooting tradeshow in the world: SHOT Show. This is where pretty much every major industry manufacturer puts their proudest products on display to show off what they have to offer for the new year. SHOT Show is a whole world of its own, with thousands of booths spread across multiple convention halls. SHOT Show is an industry-only show, but thankfully, media like TFL and are allowed to cover the show and get everyone up to date on what's new. Otherwise, a lot of the professionals attending SHOT Show may represent a retailer, government agency, shooting range, etc. to sign contracts. A lot of SHOT Show is rifle and pistol manufacturers, but since TFL is all about shotguns, clay shooting, and wing shooting, all our time was spent in the shotgun booths. Today we're going to count down what's new in the world of shotguns and share what we are most excited about in 2024. Let us know what you're most excited about! We want to hear about it on the TFL Community!

What's new in the world of shotguns?

Savage/Stevens Firearms Booth

At the savage booth, we learned that their Stevens line of shotguns is getting smaller because they've deemed them quality enough to rename them as Savage shotguns. So what was previously the Stevens 555, is now a Savage 555. We’re curious to get hands-on with some of these "new" Savage shotguns to test them out! Secondly, the Savage Renegauge shotguns have received a price cut! This is a shotgun we reviewed a while back. The MSRP was one of our chief complaints so it's cool to see that price reduction be implemented in 2024! It is now around $1,300 instead of $1,600+.

Browning A5

This next gun on the list seemed to be the buzz all around SHOT Show - The Browning A5 will now be available in 20 gauge! Although it'll only come in a basic walnut with a black receiver, (the Hunter)  we think a lot of people are going to be grabbing for this gun when it hits retailers later this year. Is this a shotgun you'd like to see reviewed? When talking to a Browning rep about this shotgun, he said that this A5 had performed better than any other gun in their set of standard testing as it relates to cycling. We'll have to put that reliability to the test!

Mossberg 940 PRO

The 940 Pro has received a couple of adjustments for 2024 - the most exciting of which is an updated safety switch that's easier to operate. The previous 940 Pro safety allowed your thumb to slip forward on it if you went too quickly. Super excited to switch out my 940’s with this new safety. They’ve also come out with a new 940 Pro Sporting model. This model has a bit of a facelift, and a longer, 30-inch barrel. You'll also see this sporting model with different color options for the anodized bolt handle, and forend cap. The Sporting model is also available in a compact size (Bantam).

Retay

There were only a couple of small changes at Retay this year. One, the Gordion compact now comes with spacers to increase its adjustability significantly and two, some of their turkey models are available in a new camo variation. There was also a Retay shotgun that must have gone under our radar last year that we'd like to get our hands on. New to us is the Retay Antalya. The Antalya is a beautiful shotgun with some higher-grade wood and a nicer receiver than you'd find on Retay's other offerings. They say that the Antalya is meant to be more of a sporting gun but we believe that it could potentially be a very nice upland gun. Looking forward to getting some more rounds through these shotguns.

Dickinson Over/Unders

We didn't anticipate this company to make the list, but Dickinson shotguns have gotten our attention. What we don't understand is that they make the cheapest shotguns on the market with some as low as $150, but also offer some higher-end $10,000 plus over-under shotguns. Hoping to do a deep dive into Dickinson and uncover the mystery of their extraordinary price ranges offered. When we talked to their Turkish reps and inspected these more expensive over/unders, we were led to believe that these may be an ok option as they appeared to be built quite nicely. However, we need to get our hands on one first to make that judgment call as it's kind of hard to believe that the quality could be so much better when the same folks offer a $150 dollar shotgun. 

Rizzini

One of our favorite booths to spend time at was Rizzini. We didn't get the chance to get our hands on their newest stuff, but we were told that there may be some updates coming down the pipe. We did however get the rundown on some of their field options. We've thus far only reviewed their BR110 Sport IPS, but have made arrangements to bring you some reviews of their field options. We can't wait! We've grown quite fond of Rizzini as they make really good stuff, and stand behind their products. They have been a very easy company to communicate with and genuinely see the value of getting their products out for an honest review because they are confident in the quality of their products. 

CZ Shotguns

The CZ 1012 was one of the most highly requested shotguns for review since we started the channel. This year at SHOT Show, they revealed the 1012 G2. We can hardly keep up! It feels like we just shot the original 1012. Speaking of which, we had a pretty good time with the original 1012 and believe it's a decent budget option. However, what we're most interested in from CZ is their break actions—namely the Drake, the Redhead, and the Bob White 28 gauge. 

Tristar Shotguns

Tristar has released a new side by side - called the Pheonix. This is a unique-looking field gun finished in a creamy, light wood coloring. They also had their Cypher line-up on display which we'd like to check out. But most interesting to us is their TT-15 trap lineup which we believe could be an awesome budget-friendly trap solution.

Panzer Arms

There are A TON of Turkish guns on display at SHOT Show. The Turkish company that caught our eye the most was Panzer Arms. All of your big-name players have a large expensive booths on the main floor of SHOT Show. However, the basement at SHOT Show is a completely different world that often holds some hidden gems. Panzer Arms had a lot of creative guns on display including the only lever-action 12 gauge made for quad loading. Not sure what the practical application for this type of shotgun would be, but the innovation has us wanting to try it out just for the heck of it. 

Benelli A.I. technology

Benelli didn't have any new guns to show off this year, but they did have some changes to previous line-ups. First, their Ultralight shotguns have gotten a bit of a facelift to match the ergonomic upgrades that the Montefeltro and M2 received last year. Secondly, they were proudly advertising their new "A.I." (Advanced Impact) technology in their Performance Shop Ethos line-up. They claim that these select guns will have a 42% increase in velocity and a 77% increase in energy at 60 meters. It's kind of hard to believe when you look at the numbers. This seems to be some more marketing lingo that we NEED to put to the test. If what they claim is true, that's a significant milestone for the entire industry. They'll also be offering this A.I. technology in select choke tubes as well. 

Franchi Side-Plate

Nothing new at the Franchi booth! The only update we could find is that the side plate (that we reviewed two years ago) will now be offered in 16, and 28 gauge. We loved the side plate, and absolutely love a good 28 gauge. 

Beretta Shotguns

The A400 XTREME Plus has taken the waterfowl world by storm the last several years. This is no surprise - it's a great gun! Speaking of the EXTREME Plus, there were a couple of new camo options for this shotgun on display. Other than that, they were advertising their Ultraleggero KO break action which is a new offering this year. They claim that the Ultraleggero is the "lightest steel-framed 12 gauge on the market." With light guns, comes more recoil so this year they added their Kick-off recoil reduction system to the Ultraleggero. Also a funny side note, when we looked for the weight of this shotgun on their website, we found that it wasn't listed! Maybe it's so light that it's not even worth mentioning!  

Genesis Shotguns

TFL was never intended to be a tactical channel, nor do we plan to go that direction as the internet is already tainted with so much tactical nonsense. However, Genesis Arms claims that their mag-fed Gen12 12 gauge is the "fastest semi-auto on the planet" -  We kind of thought that we had already proven the 940 Pro to be the fastest, so we are going to have to get our hands on this thing and put it to the test. The rep told us that it is impossible to outrun this gun. I guess we'll have to see!

Fusion Firearms

As we said, there is A LOT of Turkish shotguns at SHOT Show. However, Fusion Firearms has caught our attention for being a bit different. Yes, their guns are made in Turkey, but they operate under another business name known as Fusion Global. Let us explain: A lot of manufacturers will design a shotgun, and receive bids from numerous Turkish manufacturers. Year to year, it usually comes down to who can mass-produce these shotguns for the best price. So the same gun may come from a different factory in Turkey depending on who won the bid for that year, but you, the consumer still see it packaged from the same brand name and company in the United States. How Fusion is different from a lot of other companies is that they employ all the labor in Turkey and work with one factory to manufacture their guns. They also have gunsmiths in the states based in Venice Florida. So if you need a part, or something fixed, all of that is done by Fusion here without having to coordinate with some factory in Turkey. This is one way Fusion says they are different than most Turkish manufacturers. They've also been very open to our suggestions regarding the design of their shotguns.

 That's pretty much it, folks! Shot show is always a good time, and never the same. We ran into a lot of old, and new friends at the show this year. If you'd like to join us for a deeper dive into our Shot show experience, our last three videos pretty much cover everything. We released 2 videos while we were at the show, and one recap video after the fact. Thanks for reading! 

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

Steve Gould