NOTE: DUE TO NEW POSTING LIMITATIONS I HAD TO SPLIT THIS REVIEW INTO 3 PARTS…LINKS TO PARTS 2 AND 3 ARE AT THE BOTTOM

The three year wait for TACCOM is finally over! This year’s Tactical and Competitive Shooting Sports Show is slated to be just as big, bold, and quite honestly, awesome as the last one! The show covers 100,000 square feet, features close to 100 exhibitors, has tons of seminars, industry personalities, parties…you name it!

I will be covering as much of the show as I can over the next four days, starting with today’s set-up. So let’s get right to it…

I parked in the wrong lot and as I was walking Ian from O’Dell Engineering spotted me and graciously gave me a ride….

To the Hall 2 Entrance.

First stop was to pick up my media pass before going through the magic doors

I headed straight for the TACCOM swag booth in the hopes of snagging a shirt in 3XL but no luck. For those of you XXL and smaller, everything is $10.

My first observation is that to those of you cynics who predicted there wont be a lot of guns, or at least cool guns, at TACCOM, I got news for you…because there were guns arriving by the boatload.

A batch of Cadex arriving

Some of FOC’s booth (so far)

With some gorgeous B&T

And Glocks, yes GLOCKS! Sixty of them available for sale (limit of ONE per customer)

I didn’t check all models but for sure they had G19 and G19x

More beautiful B&T at Wolverine’s booth including GHM9 and APC9K in multiple configurations. For
sure I will be checking these out more closely during the show.

FX-9 in various configurations as well

I’ll be looking at those Schmidt & Bender scopes too

Wolverine’s raffle gun, a Tikka T3x CTR in an AI AT-X chassis with a S&B PMII 5-25×56

Some of North Sylva’s display

Stoeger

Tamgha, including the folding Wolverine shotgun, now available in 5 colours. The new mini version (Wolverine-M) was not on display yet so I will definitely go back to their booth for that one tomorrow.

And to feed your guns, three rows deep of Magpul P-Mag D-50 at FOC

more great gear at FOC (I am obsessed with gas masks lol)

SFRC’s beautiful setup

Great to see the team at Korth Group, showcasing the whole Leupold lineup…and such a nice, friendly crew!

I have lots of tactical lights but have never handled a Klarus so really looking forward to visiting Tactical Innovations Canada when they finish setting up.

Enola Gaye Canada

Great to see old friends arriving, like IPSC Champion Alex Berdat

Tracey Wilson and the CCFR crew

The stage…so far there are 17 seminars listed with more to come

I’ll stop here but hopefully that gives you an idea of what is coming at the show. Keep in mind that set-up day is from 8am this morning till midnight and I was only there for 2-3 hours. My pics are just a small portion of what you will see at the show. Don’t worry, I plan to post hundreds more of them over the weekend lol.

DAY 1

Let’s start the day with a little throwback to 2019…

The calm before the storm at FOC’s booth

In anticipation of the rush for Glocks

And other handguns

And the show is off!!

Big crowds throughout the day

Luckily I had early access to capture the booths.

I was very anxious to see the Pilla booth as I am a bit obsessed with eyewear and Pilla is the top of the game. They are the only manufacturer officially fitted with Zeiss lenses (lenses are actually marked as Zeiss). More importantly, they offer a dazzling array (no pun intended) of lens coatings for every shooting sport scenario including shooting at clays, paper targets, indoors, outdoors, good weather, overcast etc. etc. For whatever your shooting discipline, they have a lens that will give you a visual advantage.

The flagship range features interchangeable lenses

Next are fixed lens

and finally the lifestyle range, which uses the same lens technology except a more fashion oriented styling with frames vs. the wraparound style of the shooting glasses.

I tried the Outlaw first with a red lens designed to make clays pop…wow those are red

I actually preferred the purple lens, which I tried in both progressive and non-progressive formats

Easy interchange, just snap in and out…they also have a version with magnets

The arms are made of carbon fiber and are fully adjustable

The nose piece is removable too in case you want to mount a prescription lens

I also liked the injected series, especially the P91 with lens designed for piloting remote control aircraft or drones

Although I have seen Cadex at SHOT Show and CSAAA, this was their first time exhibiting at a consumer show and they sure brought the heat!

I ran into pro-shooter Jamie who showed me his personal rig

emblazoned with his call sign, Big Wheels

here he is showing it to another customer

How about this .50BMG with 20” barrel

Or a suppressed .338?

Too small? No problem…suppressed .50BMG

The venerable Kraken

COPS

New PRS competition gun

Next to .50BMG, this is the biggest (I believe 416)

Cadex also does custom parts for your shotgun

Next I visited North Sylva to check out the CZ Bren II and new Spuhr Ideal Chassis System

They had the Bren IIs in restricted and non-restricted

I looked at the non-restricted. It was nice but I have to shoot one before making a final call

But wow that Spuhr!

It was actually lighter than I thought it would be…but still solid as a tank

Ok I know you want to see the latest and greatest…so off to Crusader Arms to see the new Templar. I had seen a prototype at Big Bang but now the production version is ready.

Some of you asked to see the internals

He did a better job showcasing it than I could

Crusaders first design, the Sentinel

Black Creek Labs also had a couple of introductions

The shortest non-restricted rifle on the market….a notch in the folding stock blocks the safety so that the gun cannot be fired when folded

And the new SVR2 non-restricted

Considering that I saw them laying the floor last night, the finished state of the Canuck booth was astonishing!

Tactical shotguns in semi and pump, with some lever action too

The new competition over-under (recently released at O’Dell Range Day)

Bergara precision rifles

I try not to post duplicates but for Canuck pro-staffer Morgy, I will make an exception

One of the great experiences at the show was trying out the Mantis training system. The small unit rail mounts to your gun (with no internal modifications) and tracks movement before firing, during trigger pull, and during recoil.

I scored an 81.5 on my first try with their compressed gun (that simulates some recoil)…yeah, I purposely shot badly to test the system, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

I did much better with the dry fire lol

But the system is a lot more complex than that…it can simulate lots of drills like the classic “hostage” or dropped keys.

It also works on any gun (pistol, shotgun, or long-gun)

Although there is a version for AR-15s that also simulates trigger pull.

This is what comes in the kit.

And for holster drills where the mounted unit may not fit, they have a relay you can stick on the end of your magazine…they think of everything!

This was one of the best booths at TACCOM and certainly worth visiting!

After browsing the booths, I attended the first of many seminars, a presentation by True North Tradecraft, experts in disaster preparedness, personal security, covert entry

Next Tracey Wilson spoke about National Range Day

And then there was a meet and greet with CCFR Gunnie Girls

To cap off the evening, there was a party for exhibitors.

RL

LINKS TO ALL PARTS BELOW

TACCOM 2022 – Part 1

TACCOM 2022 – Part 1

TACCOM 2022 – Part 2

TACCOM 2022 – Part 2

TACCOM 2022 – Part 3

TACCOM 2022 – Part 3

It’s great to be back covering a major show like the Toronto Sportsmen’s Show 2022! I have really missed such events over the past 2 years.

TSS is under new management and the show had a slightly different feel, in part due to the mix of exhibitors. I saw lots of familiar exhibitors but a lot of new ones as well…and very welcome ones at that as they turned out to be my favourites!

Normally I start my reviews of TSS by covering all things firearms related but not this year! Knives and gear stole this show.

In the world of hunting and outdoors, PUMA knives out of Germany are legendary!

Not surprisingly, their booth was swarmed all day (I snuck in an early shot)

PUMA’s product line is incredibly expansive and is divided into three categories: First, Hand Made in Germany, which is pretty obvious. Next, PUMA IP, which stands for International Production.  The majority of IP knives are hand-made in Spain but the design, finished production and quality control is performed by PUMA in Solingen, Germany. Finally, PUMA TEC, which are more modern in design and are also produced in carefully selected Asian partner manufacturing facilities.

As a serious collector I was most interested in the Hand Made line so I will start with those, specifically one of the coolest knives I have seen in a long time, the Fishing knife!

This classic design features a fish scale pattern integral frame culminating in a big “ball” at the end.

While the ball can be used to deliver a final blow to your catch, that is not its primary purpose

Rather it serves as a counter weight and, working in conjunction with the notches and markings on the blade, allows you to weigh your fish!!!! Here is a demo of how it works.

The Fishing knife next to the General, my second favourite of the Hand Made lineup. This is about as close to “tactical” as you can expect from PUMA lol.

There is also a shorter version of this knife known as the Sergeant (not shown here) as well as green handle versions such as the Master and Packer

Of course, you cannot talk about Hand Made PUMAs without mentioning the White Hunter. The origin of this knife dates back to 1956 when it was designed as an all-purpose knife for the East African Hunting Association. The knife was designed for both heavy and fine chopping and slicing as well as hammering tent pegs. Since that time, there have been several variations including the functioning mini (with real stag scales!) and a much larger “Waidblatt” version.

Speaking of minis, check out this working folder and flipper!

Ok on to the IP line. My favourite there was definitely the Lanza Saufeder, which can be combined with an oak shaft to form a boar spear!

Beautiful leather sheath

It was great to meet the reps from pumaknives.ca Super friendly people!

Next up, Svord, all the way from New Zealand.

Fortunately they brought two of the Von Tempsky knives to the show, the Forest Ranger Bowie and the Ranger. As their namesakes suggest, both knives were designed by Major Von Tempsky in the mid 1800s and issued to New Zealand Forest Rangers under his command.

The Bowie has an 11” blade

While the Ranger’s is 6.5”

I also really liked the Hunter 7…it felt so great in the hand!

Having international knives at the show is great but keep in mind Canada has some great knifemakers too, such as Skip’s Customs who has been making custom knives for 30 years. I really liked the deer jawbone knife.

There was a blade for everyone at the show

Including visiting Klingons!

Good to start them on blades early

Ok NOW we get to the guns lol.

First stop, my good friends at Stoeger.

Nice setup on this Tikka T3x tactical

Beautiful over-unders we have come to expect from Beretta

As usual, a highlight of the Stoeger booth is the Steiner display, this time featuring a new camo coating.

Sorry I didn’t get the details on that Burris

Next up, Hunt Group with a staggering array of shotguns, mostly box mag fed

Although my favourite was the semi-auto with Shockwave style grip

Lots of guns for sale at Shooter’s Choice booth

Moving on to gear, it was great to meet the crew at Army Issue Surplus, newcomers and a very welcome addition to TSS (I have always said the show needs more “tactical”).

Lots of great surplus gear

Check out these awesome GI mittens

Or if you prefer the arctic version

British police surplus PR24

Classic freedom munitions

vs “Canadian freedom” water jugs

 Another newcomer I was very excited about, True North Tradecraft, experts in disaster preparedness and personal security

a quick demo of some of their escape tools

I picked up a GTFO bracelet

And I really want to take one of their courses

Speaking of courses, great to see my friends from CHIMERA, who just moved to a new location. I took one of their mini-courses on low-light shooting and it was FANTASTIC! (in fact I had a Surefire G2Z Maxvision that I came to love on that course in my bag)

Education seemed to be a theme here, with a few more options. I wish that I could have stayed to watch WSC’s presentation on the stage.

I should say education and advocacy, particularly for our gun rights, such as the CSSA

And CCFR…

…who were raffling off this beautiful custom made table

made by this gentleman

They were also raffling off this Canuck shotgun

Nice to catch up with some CCFR Gunnie Girls

Amanda Lynn Mayhew and the Just Hunt Crew promoting the sport to women

As were Canadian Sportswomen Society

The Canadian Wild Turkey Federation promotes Wild Turkey’s in Canada. The have Chapters Canada wide and are doing a Membership drive at the show with a raffle to win one of five shotguns and a rifle.

There have always been offroad vehicles at TSS but I didn’t really pay much attention to them until this year. The new offerings from Argo and Segway look very interesting.

6 and 8 wheelers from Argo

but their tracked model was the most popular

Meanwhile the Segway Villain has 185 HP in its highest trim!

But the biggest surprise vehicle-wise was the SHERP..i was NOT expecting to see that at the show!

I have also ignored fishing boats at previous TSS shows but I couldn’t ignore these boats!

It wouldn’t be a TSS without some taxidermy and animal skins

Finally, outdoor clothing.

Including high end hunting gear from Harkila

Polar Piece

Military themed tshirts

Widowmaker supply

Stix and Stones

Yeti coolers showcasing their new Offshore Blue and Bimini Pink

Oh no, bouncy castles! Please don’t invoke the Emergencies Act!

So what was my overall assessment? Well, as someone who goes to A LOT of tradeshows, I often walk away happy and satisfied if I find ONE cool thing…and from that perspective, this show delivered as I found SEVERAL cool things! Just a quick recap of some of them:

• PUMA Fishing knife (and the rest of the lineup really)
• Svord Tempsky knives
• Skip’s custom deer jawbone knife
• True North Tradecraft gear
• Army Issue surplus gear
• Steiner camo binoculars
• Yeti Bimini Pink lineup
• and the SHERP!

A fantastic show!

RL

A few pics from the CCFR after party (sorry the lighting was terrible)

Being a huge John Wick fan, what better way to celebrate my 50th birthday than with this incredible TTI John Wick 2 cake! This is one of the coolest things I have gotten in a while and I must say Velvet Lane Cakes did an amazing job and were great to work with (more on this later).

The level of realism and detail is astonishing…it looks just like the real thing!

In more detail…

close-up of the business end…note the “fiber optic” front sight!

Taran Tactical logo and Taran’s signature

A fitting birthday message

Ready for action

A 50 gun salute

Unlike the TTI, this one is chambered in chocolate chip

Once again,, amazing job by Velvet Lane! I was worried that they would not want to do a “gun themed” cake or have a birthday message that, ahem, follows the movie quote but they were totally cool with everything. Very responsive and great attitude! I think I might commission a John Wick 3 cake for Christmas!

RL

Finally got an All Skill No Luck Cali Combat Hoodie, aka “drug rug” (named after California surfer culture) in 3XL…I have wanted one of these for a long time! These are released in limited numbers and 3XL is especially hard to get. Although these are offered in 5-6 colours, they only drop one colour at a time and I was very happy to score a diamond green (I also want the black and white). They weren’t kidding about the length though, wow those are some long sleeves!

Great kit! The Velcro panel behind the front hand-warmer pockets can fit a few extra AR15 mags and the chest pocket is handy too. There are also pockets on each arm with lots of Velcro for patches.

The material is very thick and robust and definitely feels high quality…and it’s Made in the USA!

I LOVE the look of it…Operator AF

Even when a bit more casual

Again you can see the length of the 3XL against a Canada Goose Constable jacket. BTW, I went outside like this in -9 Celsius and didn’t feel cold at all.

A little shout out to Fred Mastro

I like it a lot and will definitely get more kit from All Skill No Luck!!

RL