New Shotguns for 2015
The Remington 3 inch gas-autoloader has already been mentioned, the V3 Field / Sport, and is one of the most interesting releases at least to me.
Weatherby has announced the return of the Orion, this time made in Turkey, so we will see if they have a follow-through on their SA-08 (good) or their PA-08 (not so good). Other models are to be announced at the SHOT Show.
Benelli is synonymous with O/U shotguns . . . not. Anyway, they are releasing the 828U O/U, apparently in competition with the flagship brand, Beretta.
Fabarms and Caesar Guerini are expected to have new product, and at the other end of the spectrum, so is Mossberg . . . who has already announced a brand new, complete line of bolt-action rifles.
Not much is expected from Browning, except a rapid expansion of the well-received 725 Citori line. However, Browning normally comes up with some interesting “SHOT Show Specials” that see late-year availability.
On a bit of a sad note, the new Ruger Red Label isn't going to be available much longer. According to Ruger, " . . . the Red Label has been removed from the web site and will not be present in the 2015 catalog. Our plan is to ramp down the production of the O/U in the first third of the year. Our current backlog is larger than our capacity so we removed it from the marketing material. We are releasing about 250 20ga models this week but have no plans to make more. While we are all pretty upset having to cease production (again), the numbers don’t lie. The current design is just not able to be manufactured for the retail price we need to hit. I’m hoping that in the next few years we can swing back to the product and develop a new o/u shotgun using our current new product development process."
CZ is adding some sixty new offerings for 2015, but it looks like the bulk is either handguns or rifles.
Although in times past, the SHOT Show was the more or less official platform for new product announcements, there have been more and more mid-year and “when its ready” type releases, from Ruger, Savage, Browning and others. 2015 looks to be a good year for new firearms in general, though, and shotguns specifically. There will be much more info when I can talk about it and that means after SHOT 2015. There are new inertia autoloaders coming out, for example, but I've been asked not to comment in any detail until after SHOT.
Copyright 2015 by Randy Wakeman. All Rights Reserved.
