• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Airgun Wire

Airgun News, Guns, Accessories, Industry Happenings, Airsoft, and Competition

  • Features
  • Airguns
  • Industry
  • Accessories
  • Competition
  • In the News
  • Subscribe
You are here: Home / Features / Blurred Lines

Blurred Lines

May 11, 2022 By Tom McHale

What is the airgun market?

Not that long ago, I might have characterized it in two primary segments: precision and recreational airgunners. There are lots of folks who appreciate the precision, mechanical attributes, and performance of high-end air machines. Think PCP or break-action rifles and pistols capable of busting Tic Tacs at 10 meters, or more traditionally, scoring X-ring hits on paper or electronic targets with near monotonous regularity. The recreational crowd might have been more likely to buy CO2, pump, or break action airguns at local sporting goods stores with the intent to use them for backyard fun or small game hunting.

More recently, the airgun market has become more difficult to define. Sure, the precision and recreational segments are going strong, and companies in those spaces continue to innovate. Just look at the movement of PCP technology from four-digit price point airguns to price points accessible through big box stores. While you still get what you pay for, and a $3,000 rifle will handily outperform a $300 PCP, those more accessible products are widening the potential market for serious airgun technology to recreational airgun shooters.

Other “airgun” segments have emerged. While not new by any means, paintball and Airsoft technically fall somewhere in the airgun space if for no other reason than they’re also air-powered. However, to borrow a term from the tech industry, the “use cases” are vastly different. I’ve not yet seen evidence of any appreciable crossover between traditional airgunning and these often team-oriented activities.

A little closer to traditional airgunning, at least when considered as part of the recreational market is the training replica segment. Centerfire shooters have demonstrated some limited interest in air-powered replicas of their traditional firearms. Cheaper to shoot and more accessible for backyard or basement use, companies like Umarex have met that demand with strikingly realistic (in terms of appearance, feel, and manual of arms) CO2-powered guns. Here, we’ve covered air versions of Sig Sauer, Springfield Armory, 1911, Glock and other modern handguns.

Newer on the scene is a hybrid approach, mixing elements of paintball, training, and replicas. We’ve just got our hands on a shiny new Umarex Glock 17 Gen 5. It looks and feels like the real centerfire deal — with one exception. It’s designed to shoot both people and targets — on purpose.

Paintball? Yes. Sorta. Replica airgun? Yes. Sorta. Crossover air product appealing to the general firearms market? I think so. Fun for anyone? Absolutely.

This air pistol operates like a traditional CO2 replica pellet or BB pistol with one big difference. It has a .43-caliber hole in the front end designed to shoot round balls of all sorts. It’ll accept hard rubber balls for target practice or training. It’ll launch exploding powder balls to mark (or prove) impacts on target. It’ll launch paint-filled balls for similar purpose. Like pellet and BB guns, the magazine contains both “ammo” and the standard 12-gram CO2 power source. You can drop it to reload without losing your gas, so for training, it’s quite realistic.

I’m excited about this nifty invention for its market segment crossover potential. Sure, we airgunners have appreciated pellet and BB rifles and pistols based on their own merits, but these products haven’t yet made a grande jete entrance into the vastly larger 90-million-gun-owner space. I’m thinking inventions like this one from Umarex just might appeal to all those centerfire shooters.

Stay tuned. Next week we’ll take an up-close and personal look at this nifty air-paint-handgun.

Related

Filed Under: Airguns, Features Tagged With: Glock, Markers, Market Segments, Paintball, Training, Umarex

Primary Sidebar

Search

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter



Airgun Wire Hunting

Hawke Sport Optics Continues as a Whitetails Unlimited National Sponsor

Umarex Airguns Hosts Hunting Stars at SCI

The High Road with Keith Warren continues to build new business for Pyramyd Air and Air Venturi

More Hunting Articles

Airgun Wire - In the News

MidwayUSA Foundation Grants $1.5M to Youth Shooting Teams

Tread Lightly! Revamps Mascot and Youth Online Education Course

Receive Your Lasting Spot on the Firing Line Through the CMP Paver Project

More News

Topics

AirForce Airguns Airgun Hunting Legion Airguns Air Rifles Air Venturi Benjamin Big Bore Break Barrel Airguns Camp Perry Civilian Marksmanship Program CMP CO2 Competition Crime Crosman Daisy FX Airguns Gamo Hatsan Hatsan USA Hawke Optics Hunting ISSF Jobs JROTC MidwayUSA Foundation Olympics Orion Scoring Systems Paralympics PCP Pellets Pyramyd Air Scholarships Scopes SHOT Show Sig Air Sig Sauer Targets The High Road Training Umarex USA Shooting Velocity Outdoor Whitetails Unlimited World Cup
Airgun Wire Instagram

Find Us on Facebook

Find Us on Facebook

Footer

Categories

  • Accessories
  • Airguns
  • Airsoft
  • Competition
  • Features
  • Hunting
  • In the News
  • Industry
  • Uncategorized

TOPICS

AirForce Airguns Airgun Hunting Legion Airguns Air Rifles Air Venturi Benjamin Big Bore Break Barrel Airguns Camp Perry Civilian Marksmanship Program CMP CO2 Competition Crime Crosman Daisy FX Airguns Gamo Hatsan Hatsan USA Hawke Optics Hunting ISSF Jobs JROTC MidwayUSA Foundation Olympics Orion Scoring Systems Paralympics PCP Pellets Pyramyd Air Scholarships Scopes SHOT Show Sig Air Sig Sauer Targets The High Road Training Umarex USA Shooting Velocity Outdoor Whitetails Unlimited World Cup

Follow Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

Go To

  • Accessories
  • Airguns
  • Competition
  • Features
  • Hunting
  • Industry
  • Contact Us

Resources

  • Subscribe to the Airgun Wire
  • Terms of Service

Copyright © 2023 · The Airgun Wire