Best Firearm Trade Shows (That Aren’t SHOT)

For decades SHOT Show was the big gun show all dudes and dudettes clamored to get into. SHOT Show has also famously been exclusive about who can come.

With that said, there is a reason for the exclusiveness. It’s not a gun show where you can buy a rifle and head home.

SHOT Show is an industry event where gun manufacturers, distributors, and companies of all sizes meet to help advertise their products and hopefully seal some deals.

Media gets invited to cover the show and new products and give free press to both the gun companies and the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF).

Not in the industry? Well, the good news is that SHOT isn’t the only operation in town these days.

More shows are being opened to the public where manufacturers can connect with customers directly and give them a hands-on experience with their firearms.

The firearm trade show world is changing, and it’s changing for the better!

NRA Annual Meeting (NRAAM)

Outside of SHOT, the other big show is the NRA Annual Meeting. It is open to NRA members and offers the average person an opportunity similar to SHOT.

The NRA Annual Meeting is massive, and you get a free ticket by being an NRA member.

The location shifts, but it’s often held in gun-friendly states in the Southeast and Midwest. Past shows have been hosted in Georgia, St. Louis, and Nashville. In 2024, the show will be in Dallas, Texas.

I couldn’t list the number of vendors without this taking tons of pages up. It’s huge — not much smaller than SHOT.

You can see guns, gear, knives, and even a variety of educational and entertaining events. This includes prominent speakers you may recognize, like Larry Correira, John Lott Jr., and Gabby Franco.

There are updates for NRA Trainers, political updates, and numerous seminars. Last year over 60,000 people attended and walked the aisles and aisles of displays.

NRAAM attracts some of the big boys, like Sig Sauer, Glock, and Mossberg, to their shows, which gives you the SHOT Show experience without having to deal with Las Vegas.

TriggrCon

One event that sprung up out of nowhere was Triggrcon.

Triggrcon used to be called the Northwest Shooting Sports Expo, but it evolved and grew from a little event into a four-day madhouse and rebranded itself as Triggrcon.

Triggrcon is famously a show for the West Coast, but over the last two years, they have come a good bit east to Wichita, Kansas, to open it up for the rest of the country.

This is another option if you want another SHOT Show for everyone. The event opens its doors to anyone who buys a ticket to attend. There is no minimum age either, so the kiddos can come too.

Ticket prices aren’t bad, with prices varying based on how many days you attend and if you choose to go to the shooting range events or other special events.

Triggrcon plays host to dozens and dozens of vendors and offers you tons of booths to interact and check out the wares of gun manufacturers and importers, as well as optics, lights, and other assorted gear.

The downside is that Triggrcon doesn’t always attract larger manufacturers like Glock or Sig. However, it’s an event that gives you both access to booths to see the goodies and a range day to shoot them.

Of course, not every vendor is represented at range day, but you can try out triggers, suppressors, optics, and more with someone else fronting the ammo!

The Gathering

The Gathering is an event put together by Palmetto State Armory, but it hosts a variety of other companies.

I’ve been a few times now and have seen Sig, Springfield Armory, Rock Island Armory, Beretta, Benelli, Savage, and more. The show is small compared to the big three (SHOT, NRAAM, Triggrcon), but it can take an entire day to get through every booth.

It’s primarily a range day, so bring your eyes and ears. Your tickets get you access to the range to test out the latest from new companies and other people’s ammo to shoot and enjoy.

The gathering also hosts PSA’s newest products, including guns that haven’t even been released. I got hands-on with a prototype JAKL years before it was released.

The show takes a day to get through, but the lines were never long or obnoxious. Even the suppressed M240 brought out by Rugged Suppressors didn’t have too big of a line.

My wife even had a blast, and she’s not a huge gun nerd like me. Shooting machine guns and suppressors for the first time was a real treat for her.

Plus, the food trucks were pretty on point. The smaller crowds give you multiple attempts to try different goodies and a staff that isn’t cranky or stressed. It’s very accommodating to new shooters.

The Gathering is held in South Carolina every year and seems to be growing steadily.

Sig Freedom Days

Sig is huge and has traditionally held its own range day during SHOT week, but all that changed in 2024 as the company announced it was not headed to SHOT…at all.

That kinda makes sense since, in 2022, the company debuted Sig Freedom Days. As the name implies, this is a Sig-led event that allows the general public to check out the latest from them.

In 2023, they hosted the event twice, once in Dallas and once in West Palm Beach.

The first year was mostly open registration for $50-80 a ticket, but Sig has now made this an exclusive event. While registration is open to anyone, there are now only 300 slots available for a steep price of $499 a person.

So what does $500 bucks get you? It gets you unlimited shooting of Sig’s civilian products, 1-hour small group courses led by Sig Academy instructors, demo products from partners such as Mossberg and Xpedition Archery, celebrity presentations, a gourmet catered lunch, and a gift bag.

This event is 18+, and it is very expensive compared to everything else, but the unlimited shooting experience might be worth it alone for some.

Sig plans to continue doing Freedom Days across the country, so it might come to your state sooner rather than later. Just be sure to register early if you are interested.

CANCON

CANCON is an event put on by Recoil magazine, as well as numerous suppressor companies.

As the name implies, it’s all about suppressed shooting.

Every gun on the range is suppressed, and you get to see a huge mix of companies. We have our usual suspects in the silencer world, like SilencerCo and Gemtech, firearms companies like Daniel Defense and Springfield Armory, as well as smaller companies.

CANCON had two events in 2023. One was just outside of Savannah, Georgia, and the other was in Phoenix, Arizona.

Standard Admission is $50 for a single day. VIP tickets are available for $700, which gives you access to the Industry-Only Friday Early Admission and Night Shoot.

The event was well-planned and organized. Since everything was suppressed, you could walk around without hearing protection.

I covered the show in a day and had a great time. Being able to not only shoot new guns but also see how they handle suppressed ones was a pleasant change.

There aren’t many chances you get to see how a suppressor functions and handles before purchasing it.

CANCON was a lot of fun, and I can’t wait for next year. If you want a suppressor, I highly suggest checking it out.

Final Thoughts

I’ve heard some anger in the past at SHOT’s exclusivity, but the good news is more and more events seem to be popping up, both big and small.

These new events open up ranges and companies to their consumers so they can focus on providing a good experience for the end user, and not just gun shop owners or major distributors.

I’m excited to not only see more shows but to see them being more geographically diverse. For me, this means a lot more traveling than my yearly exodus to SHOT Show.

For everyone else, it means more access to the firearms, accessories, and companies you love.

What do you think? Would you plan to attend any of these open shows? Let us know which ones interest you in the comments below! Didn’t catch all the latest from last year’s shows? Check out our roundup article on the Best New Rifles of 2023.