One purpose of the SHOT Show is to allow manufactures to show off their new products. This is true when the press and buyers head to the range on the day before the show begins.

This allows those who want to physically test the products to put the firearms and ammunition in hand. A buyer who is allowed to shoot the products displayed will be more able to evaluate the item for the people they represent.

The same goes for the press. We want to evaluate items and let our readers know what to expect if they purchase and use new items.

Take for example .22 ammo. This is the smaller caliber rifles and pistols most of us started shooting as youth. My first firearm, received as a Christmas gift, was an over-and-under, rifle and shotgun, received when I was 12 years old. The bottom barrel was a .410 shotgun and the top barrel was a .22 rifle.

This firearm has allowed me to take many pheasants, quail, ducks (when lead was allowed for waterfowl), plus, the .22 rifle has dropped many rabbits. This .410 has even taken a wild turkey.

The .22 is known as a firearm used for instruction to help beginning shooters learn how to shoot. It is also used for hunting small game and eliminating varmints, meaning troublesome wild animals.

There was a time when my buddies, in our early teens, would take our .22 firearms to a local dump and shoot rats as they appeared. Thankfully we don’t have these types of dumps today, as we have developed more responsible ways of disposing of trash than we had 60 years ago.

Here is a part of a press release from CCI Ammunition, under the Vista Outdoor umbrella, about their .22 products.

“CCI is pleased to announce a total of 14 individual products in more than 12 product lines during the 2020 SHOT Show. CCI’s rimfire products available in this series includes Clean-22’s exclusive polymer bullet, with a coating which greatly reduces copper and lead fouling in the barrel, without leaving a residue.

“A Clean-22 Segmented Hollow Point 22 WMR 46-grain bullet, which splits into three equal-size pieces on impact. Its polymer coating allows this separation at much lower velocities and longer distances.”

These new products have specific reasons for their production. Most of us enjoy shooting .22 ammo, because it is relatively inexpensive. This has been the appeal from the invention of the round.

A family of shooters could head to the range and shoot a few hundred rounds without spending too much money.

Tomorrow: More SHOT Show discoveries.