The 2025 Toronto Sportsmen’s Show seemed bigger than ever! There were many first-time exhibitors who you might normally expect at a more tactical show like TACCOM but with that show cancelled for this year, it is not surprising that they opted to be at TSS.
The crowd seemed bigger as well! The show was packed on Friday and I heard there were even more people on Thursday! I can only imagine the Saturday crowd. You wont really see these crowds in my review, as my regular followers know, I get in before the show opens to take a lot of my pics and I tend to crop people out as I don’t like having them in my pics lol. In any case, take my word for it, the show was PACKED!
As an example of what I mentioned in my intro, I discovered Armorum at TACCOM and it was great to see them at TSS for the first time, especially since they now carry even more brands.
Notch hats with built in slots for your eyepro and Axil earpro
Kore Essentials ratchet belts. My favourite is the Executive Protection inner/outer belt system now available as a “hybrid” where the front portion of the outer belt is in leather while the rear portion is in nylon. Pretty neat!
Oooooo night vision camo, my favourite pattern
NUTSOF helmet and bag scrims in their Northerner maple leaf camo
Maxtacs a top-tier outdoor and tactical apparel & equipment for military, outdoor, & law enforcement.
During my show prep, I watched a lot of videos about their Combat Pants and all of its great features like the 16 pockets, knee pads with adjustable inserts, and of course their famous zippered vents, etc. I ended up getting a pair so watch for a more detailed review in the future!
It was great to get an in-person walk-through by their rep as this gives you a sense of the people behind the brand. I would much rather support a brand backed by great people and Maxtacs fits that description!
Yannick from Armorum with Cynthia and Andrew from Maxtacs. Thanks again!
Funny my Maxtacs pants came in a SHOT Show 2024 edition bag that matched Tom’s British Army Issue camo jacket lol
Great to see my good friend Simon from “The Redacted Group” of companies, which includes S&J Hardware (shotgun/firearm mods), Aratech Research (body armor), and Rugged Textiles. So happy to hear you have expanded with manufacturing in Texas!
Great armour from Aratech
Love this doormat lol
Simon with S&J’s MCS
Closeup of the folding grip on the forened
Simon demonstrating the holster
Compared to the original MCS holster from Bladetech.
More great modified shotguns by S&J
Staffer and CCFR Gunnie Girl Amanda
With her personal shotgun
Simon with scubagreg
And now for one of my favourite regulars at TSS, Puma knives! They had their biggest selection yet of knives and gear with brands such as Puma, Svörd, Otter, Mercator, Uberleben, Joker and much more
First some booth pics
And now for some closeups. The General sold before I arrived so I couldn’t do a full comparison but here is the stag-handled Prince vs. the green handled Master.
I wanted to say that rebranding the General to El General would have made it perfect for Tony Montana lol I guess El Master will do lol.
If the Master is not green enough for you, how about the Puma IP Geartester with glow in the dark scales!
I wanted to have another look at my favourite Puma knife, the Automesser
The Nimrod was originally produced from 1981 to 1989. This re-release is limited to 255 pieces.
The new Puma Para skeleton neck knife designed by Tony Lennartz
Shown with my Strider DB for comparison.
Joker knives from Spain, the Chamois and Bowie
My favourite from Otter was this limited edition box set including their Anchor knife with bone scales, leather sheath, Belgian whetstone, and a small flask of Ballistol oil.
I recently discovered German-made Bison axes at the Outdoor Adventure Show and it was great to see them again at TSS. A fellow forumite asked about their pickaroon/hookraroon so I wanted to get a pic. The full size one sold by the time I arrived but I did manage to snag a pic of the mini.
Continuing with some OAS alumni, Axcadmy was one of my favourite booths of that show. They allow budding Blacksmiths to take courses for railroad spike knives, hatchets, and two-hander axes among others, examples of which are shown here.
I also covered Mastiff Gears booth in detail at OAS, particularly the WJQ-308 Chinese Military Shovel they had on display.
While I didn’t end up buying that shovel, I stopped off at S&R Knives, which is sadly closing down after 30 years in business, and picked up a Cold Steel Spetsnaz Shovel.
And now for one of my favourite parts of TSS, fur! Great to see Fur the North back at TSS
I especially liked their sealskin mitts, a perfect match to my sealskin boots! Sealskin is my favourite fur as it is warm, water/snowproof and everything just shakes off of it. I have worn my boots in the biggest snowstorms.
I also really liked the beaver handwarmers
Some of you may remember the Mountain Man hat and skunk mitts I tried on at Silver Cedar Studio’s booth last year…glad to see those again along with many other colourful pieces!
love the racoon hat
beautiful red fox
my favourite hat of the day…very Jamiroquai or Dagestani UFC Fighter lol
Morgy liked the pink one
The Ontario Fur Managers Federation is all about educating the public about fur.
We spent quite a bit of time discussing traps and how they are used in humane ways
I even got to try one!
Demo of a snare
Taxidermy is usually one of the most popular parts of my TSS reviews. I didn’t take a lot of pics this time though, just some of the ones you don’t see often.
We saw what red fox looks like as a hat, here it is in a more natural form lol
Don’t think I have ever seen a taxidermy swan
O’Dell Engineering offers a ton of options for hunting and sport shooting through their Canuck line of shotguns and Bergara bolt-action rifles.
Their Wrangler lever-action is my favourite.
My pic does not do justice to the beautiful colour of the wood furniture.
Great to see Sterling Arms International at the show even though they have been hit hard by all the OICs. The R9 MK1 9mm PCC they had at TACCOM was a pre-production model, this one is closer to the finished product.
Antler Firearms are entirely made in Quebec from design to manufacturing. They focus on being lightweight and very precise while being highly configurable with multiple options of stock type and colour, barrel (carbon fiber or steel), and action.
The base and recoil lug are integrated into the Action to help increase precision of the mechanism by reducing vibration. They are available in titanium (foreground) or stainless steel.
Williams Arms, well reputed firearms retailer expanding their fishing offerings
There were lots of options for bowhunters too. Excalibur
I love the look and feel of the MAG AIR, the lightest in class recurve crossbow that still packs a punch at 305 FPS.
Nice Badlands camo on the RevX
Bowtech
I was hoping to see the 25th Anniversary Honor. A portion of the proceeds from this bow get donated to Folds of Honor. As expected, it is long sold out but Bowtech did have the Virtue upon which it is based.
While Excalibur makes exclusively recurve crossbows, Tenpoint is renown for its reverse-draw compound design that results in the fastest crossbow on the market.
The TRX 515 Aero with, as the name suggests, an astonishing 515 FPS
Hoyt RX-9 with a cam system that allows 1/4″ draw length adjustments and “in-line system” for mounting accessories
I was hoping to see a crossbow with Garmin XERO rangefinding scope mounted. No such luck but Bear Elite Outfitters had one with a Burris Oracle.
Perhaps they used it to take down this bear.
There are actually a lot of outfitters at TSS and I usually don’t cover them but this time I ran into an exceptional one! In all the way from South Africa, Koranna Mountain Safaris specializes in plains game hunting safaris and has packages for lions, zebra, giraffe, and many types of horned game.
The pictures shown here feature mostly Canadian hunters
Morgy was helping out at NeXgen Young Anglers, another notable outfitter. NeXgen is a fishing derby that encourage kids 4-14, to get outdoors and enjoy a fun day of fishing with the members of Bass masters in the community. The program caters to less fortunate kids from registered organizations.
Great to see Tracey Wilson, scubagreg and team CCFR, fighting for our firearms rights.
Beautiful game calls from Recall Designs
Gotta admit that Decoy Daddy is a great name
Nature Tracks Scented Shoe Covers are designed for effective scent control. They are made from silicone rubber in a patent pending process. They are waterproof and are available in three options: Vanilla and Anise to attract big game such as bear, moose, and deer, or Unscented for a neutral approach. They are engineered to mask human odors and keep you dry in any terrain.
Always great to see Army Issue Surplus! I haven’t been to their store in a while so I think it is time for another visit!
Ok now this is more my speed! Omek International with an awesome display of body armour.
I especially liked the car door display, one of my favourites of the show. Wish I took more pictures of it.
Fundy Tactical for your 5.11 needs.
Patch Panel, your best source for patches (yes, I got one)
Nice to see Dirty Leather again. As I mentioned in my OAS review, they are strong supporters of the CCFR so we should show them some support too!
The Bear Essentials Outdoors Company with their famous hand-made line saws.
Canada Fire Blanket, a rapid deployment fire extinguishing blanket
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Quick Wick, claimed to be the world’s best firestarter
Fenix lights
Afraid Knot the only Canadian manufacturer specializing in vehicle recovery gear
Speaking of vehicles, they had one in every size at the show
Must say I did quite well at the show
In addition to all the booths that I covered in photos, there were many others that I enjoyed like Radioworld, Knotty Beaver Calls, MAB Impex, Blades4You, Wrought Iron Art Unlimited, Safe and Sound Hearing, Vortex, and many others I am forgetting.
Thank you again to TSS for the Media Pass and early access, it really helps with the review.
RL
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