[Music]
It's the big one.
IWA.
There are people in the gun trade who spend all year planning for it.
It's where the world's shooting industry comes together.
Not as flash as the Shot Show, not as posh as the CLA Game Fair, it is Cape Canaveral
for European gun, scope and ammunition manufacturers - a launch platform for kit.
Until this year, what IWA has missed is a way to try out that kit.
Happily, Swiss-German ammunition giant RUAG has its world headquarters in a suburb of
Nuremberg, so we go out there to try out some stuff, thanks to a kind invitation from Zeiss
sports optics, RUAG and gunmaker Sauer.
Let's start with what RUAG has on offer - and it ammunition is designed, well, not for bunnyhugging
exactly, but certainly for bunnyhuggers.
So you are very proud of this block, is that right?
Yes, absolutely.
Why?
This shows the performance of our new evolution green bullet.
It has been shot at about 200 metres.
At a distance that most lead free bullets show very, very poor performance.
They are not fragmenting, they are not doing what they are supposed to do any more.
They are not killing.
You have to search the animals for ever and they are running very far.
So this is a roe deer is that right?
Yes, this is a roe deer in there.
RUAG hasn't given up on lead.
Not a bit of it.
Its airgun pellets are still full of the stuff, but with some unusual additions.
We have got a rattley tin and a non rattley tin.
Yes I have here we made on ten metres, we made a test shooting and it was the powerball
was getting through to both tins.
The steel ball on it makes the deep penetration and the high impact on the target.
We have to speak to our hosts from Carl Zeiss too.
It launched its Victory HT range of scopes and binoculars last year, made of glass from
one of its sister companies, Schott Glass, that is simply ahead of its time.
With this scope you cannot miss.
This is our long range shooting scope the 4/2 16 by 50 and it has a power ... adjustment
as well as a target turret.
It is sighted in on 500 metre.
To be be very precise 85 metre and we are using a Sauer 202, together with a new calibre.
It is a 6XC.
It is a very, very accurate bullet that you can use for hunting especially on predators,
but it is also very good for target shooting.
Back at the show itself in a giant, echoey exhibition hall on the other side of Nuremberg
and 2013 is the year of the rifle.
Let's start with one of the big stars, who is in charge of one of the big launches.
Max as far as we can see from the film that is the ideal hunt in New Zealand isn't it.
It was perfect.
Was it really like that?
Actually it was.
Because as you can see as well at the beginning we had good weather and then the bad weather
came in.
We would have loved to have had good weather in all the scenes but actually that was the
whole point.
And there was a hunt an animal was hunted and you got to use a Sauer .101 what was that
like?
For me it was a great pleasure.
When I grew up my Daddy he was a big hunter as well and I learnt from him and he had the
old Sauer.
So for me getting asked by Sauer to bring their rifle out and test it in the field before
it was released here at IWA was a big thing for me and I was proud about it.
And did they really send out a helicopter all the way to New Zealand, a Sauer helicopter.
I put all the stickers on actually.
I bought the stickers.
I had to go to an airport at home and get the measurement of the stickers, I got them
made and I had to go there and put the stickers on.
Actually it was quite difficult, it was freezing and I couldn't put them on and they fell off
again we have some nice footage of that as well.
Here's the Sauer boss to go through the technical details
Now you are the boss of Sauer so I expect you to be nice about the Sauer 101.
What does it do that other rifles don't do.
Well the first thing was its safety, its ergonomics, its accuracy and that you can experience everything.
So for example what you have it is a direct firing pin safety.
You can actually have levers that don't allow you to be very ergonomic fast and silent.
Now what you have here it is just that lever and this is all you do.
You mount the gun and you go that way.
We have a direct lock up inside the barrel with six massive locks so we talk passive
safety, detachable magazine five rounds in standard, four rounds in magnum and a Paddington
padded system.
Which simply means if the gun is in let's say the highlands with a lot of rain and a
lot of stalking around and stuff if it is getting really wet and the stock would bend
a bit it doesn't affect the gun at all.
It will be dead on zero so you can be successful even in the worst conditions.
Before we leave the Sauer stand, Matthius shows us just how confident he is about the
strength and design of this rifle by standing on the magazine.
Don't care too much what material is, make sure you get the best in the rifle that you
can put in there and this is what we do.
Sauer is always up for a laugh and a feature of IWA is its latest crazy idea for a souped
up gun.
Last ear, they gave us Ĺthe Gladiator', with real gladiators.
This year, it's a case of That's not a gun - this is a gun'.
Daniel you have travelled may 1000's of miles and you have got ...
24 hours.
Have you got the rifle you wanted.
I did get the rifle I wanted and exactly how we wanted it.
Timber work is magnificent as is the engraving and actually I really like the 3D effect that
goes through it.
It is absolutely magnificent.
What I really do like though is the crocodile taking the buffalo.
That is really good.
Dominic is this a really useable rifle?
Yes, it is.
It is a full hunting rifle.
It is a calibre .375.
It is a big game calibre.
It is completely for hunting.
Are you going to use it?
Yes, absolutely.
And I am going to use it on a buffalo, not a croc as it is illegal.
Can't shoot them.
Another rifle that's making a big splash is the latest version of the Blaser R8 - the
ĹSuccess Professional' - and it comes with another superb promotional film - well, we're
all for that.
Basically it is a rifle as you have seen, used up in the mountains for hunting.
It has come from the sporting scene thumb hole stocks are not anything new as such.
They have been around for a while but they have not really been introduced into the hunting
as such.
You have many features on the Success stock in the fact that your thumb comes around completely
into the grip, your thumb is inside the stock which allows my finger to be completely around
the trigger unit that means I alleviate problems of flinching which is quite often when shooting
under pressure in the mountains as you see from that video and that was actually an injured
stag.
The guy didn't have much time to take that shot it was over a long distance and having
a Success stock like this just alleviates those faults that could happen.
So Sauer uses a celebrity and a great location for its film, Blaser uses a great location,
and Belgian gun giant Browning's rimfire offer comes with endorsement from a London 2012
Olympic shooting medallist and it is not Pete Wilson.
We have Lionel Cox who shoots a rifle at the latest Olympics.
He won a silver medal and he is now our embassador for the Browning products using and shooting
our products especially the T bolt.
So he is basically shooting the T bolt with all the different cartridges whether it is
the standard velocity, subsonic and so on.
Giving his credit, ability and capacity about Browning accuracy, precision and performance.
IWA is not just for the big guys.
The little companies get a look in too.
Here's a Fieldsports Channel viewer, Erik van der Horst, who has come up with an idea
for a highseat and wants to see what the guntrade thinks
I found on the market many , many portable collapsible highseats that are very big.
I wanted to make something for people with a smaller car.
It is not for a small budget unfortunately, but we are trying to make it cheaper.
The main thing is that we want something that is easy to carry.
This one is quite small, you can put it on your back and you can shoot from a higher
level which also makes it more safe.
Can you buy it in the shops yet?
No, it is completely new.
Actually this is two weeks old.
So this is what is annoying about IWA.
You see this wonderful kit, but nobody can actually buy it yet.
But you hope by the end of IWA
Let me put it this way, I promise if fieldsports people are interested, I will make sure they
can buy it.
And IWA is also for the quirky.
British company Webley & Scott is celebrating its nearly 200-year gunmaking heritage with
a newly-built cannon
This is a scaled down version of a British 12lb field gun.
It has been especially commissioned, but are available for sale for anyone who wants one
with a shotgun licence.
Each one is individually made.
The wheels in particular are made by the Queen's wheelrights and every gun is proofed in Birmingham.
And Webley's distributor, Highland Outdoors, also has something a little more modern.
It's a bit of a romp, this gun show thing, but most of the kit is there for us to try
and for you to buy, as long as it captures your imagination.
Some of it however, just for us to tryů