All roads led to Harrogate last weekend as the Northern Shooting Show 2018 took place. Now on its fourth year, according to its organizers the NSS is a celebration of shooting sports, aiming to be a “one stop shop” in which every facet of shooting is represented. This involves the big manufacturers as well as the smaller retail shops. Thus, from hunting to shooting sports, anything that is considered legal in the UK is represented at the show. That includes Airsoft as well.

It was a long drive for us from London, as there were road closures along the M1 and upon reaching Harrogate, it was a long queue of vehicles to the Yorkshire Event Centre. That was almost four hours for us to reach the event, having left my place at 0630H and arriving at around 1115H.

It was our first time to visit the Yorkshire Event Centre as well as attend the Northern Shooting Show. It is an expansive place as it is the largest single space events place in the North of England giving events organizers options to have indoor or outdoor events. In the case of the Northern Shooting Show 2018, the place was maximised as there were ndoor and outdoor displays and just bit beyond the exhibition areas were the sound of gunfire as there were shooting events too.

For me and Master Chief, our focus was on the Airsoft “Experience” at the Northern Shooting Show where Airsoft had its own indoor and outdoor spaces to allow anyone to try their hands on airsoft as well as try some airsoft shooting disciplines such as 3-Gun and practical shooting. Before the airsoft exhibitors were in the open but for this year, a massive tent has been set up for them.

At the Airsoft “Experience” area, the first exhibitor that caught our attention was Nuprol as there were just at the entrance. Trent Halligan was there to greet us and we had some small talk about the stuff they had on display such as their new Raven Pistols and also the G&G products as they are officially carry them now in the UK. On the other side was Herman Monk manning the RedWolf Airsoft UK/RWA where the RWA Lee Enfield No. 4 airsoft rifle and the new Avatar Airsoft Grenade. The space where RedWolf was located was shared with Fubar Bundy. Based in Leeds, it is a big retailer in the North of England, and they were a big presence at the Northern Shooting Show with different types of airsoft brands on display.

Opposite RWA is the Landwarrior Airsoft display with their EZ Distribution which handles the distribution of different products in the tactical and airsoft markets such as Umarex and Krytac. On the other side are the booths of ASG where Paul Wignell and Ben Webb were busy entertaining questions from airsoft players as well as curious visitors encountering airsoft for the first time.

Also present was the Gunfire and Specna Arms UK partner, more known as Gear Custom Paint that is based on Stockton-on-Tees. Master Chief had a good discussion with Stuart talking about the various Specna Arms AEGs. On display at their booth were Armored Claw Gear and custom airsoft guns.

The Special Forces Charity, Pilgrim Bandits, who use their training and experience to help and inspire injured personnel to live life to the full were there as well.

Outside are the airsoft shooting areas for visitors to experience more airsoft shooting. Most of the grounds are taken for the 3-Gun Shooting and Action Air that have been setup by Halo Mill led by Mark Farrar, Elite Shooting of Mike Cripps and the Northern Practical Pistol Club. Calibre Shooting setup a CQB area for those who want a taste of airsoft combat.

Here is the full list of airsoft and airsoft-related exhibitors who were either at the Airsoft "Experience" area or in other exhibition halls: Ammo Drop, Airsoft Action, Elite Shooting, RedWolf, Fubar Bundy, First & Only, Viper Tactical, ASG, Halo Mill, Landwarrior Airsoft, GI Sportz, MR Military, Nuprol, Military Patrol, Cannae, UKPSA & Tippman sports. Airsoft Media partner is Airsoft Action Magazine with Nigel Streeter. Other airsoft media present are Airsoft & Milsim News Blog with Aryan Alipour and Private Military Contractor International Magazine (PMCI) with Bill Pryce-Thomas.

We went around checking the other exhibition halls whilst we looked for a place to have our “Mealsim” which is our food session when attending an event. Sport shooting, shotguns, airguns, gamekeeping, hunting gear, optics, inert rounds, off-road vehicles, and more were on display. For those looking for a bargain or “exhibition prices” can really grab some good deals.

Time flew fast that by the time we realised, it was already 1630H and we planned on driving back to London around 1600H. We said our goodbyes to the exhibitors at the Airsoft “Experience”.  On our way back the clouds opened up and it rained on the A1 all the way to the M25 as we drove back home.

More photos of the Northern Shooting Show at the Popular Airsoft Facebook Page.