The annual meeting of the National Rifle Association provides a format for the hunting and shooting industry to showcase their products to the general public. Thousands of products are displayed every year. You may want to make a reservation for the Atlanta event in 2017. Here are three products that caught my eye.

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Nikon’s new 30mm Scope: Larger diameter scopes utilize larger internal lenses for a wider field of view. Built from aircraft aluminum, a larger tube makes for greater strength and allows for wider windage and elevation travel. Plus, you’ll quickly admit that the larger silhouette looks really cool.

The Monarch 7 offers a glass-etched BDC reticle and illuminated Advanced Reticle with a dot, the perfect shooting system to focus your attention on an exact spot. The 30mm tube offers an impressive 5x zoom range with up to four inches of non-critical eye relief, particularly important for magnum caliber rifles. The large ocular lens delivers excellent resolution and optimal light transmission. Magnification options include 2.5-10×50, 4-16×50, and 3-12×56.

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Bear & Son Knives: All Bear & Son knives are made in their Jacksonville, Alabama plant, where they do all their own tooling, pressing, heat treating, grinding, hafting, finishing, and assembly. “We make high-quality knives and we make them all right here in the USA,” said owner Ken Griffey. “And when we say Made in America, we mean everything. We’re a family company and we are dedicated to keeping it exactly that way.”

Bear and Son are the only knife company that can use the Remington name and the Griffeys (a husband-and-wife team) were very proud of their huge display, in particular the SD82 Stag Delrin, a 6 5/8-inch skinner made from high carbon stainless steel with an overall blade length of 2 ¾ inches and a weight of just 2.4 ounces.

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Traditions Vortek Strikefire LDR: For 2016, Traditions is coating the Vortek Strikefire with a nitride coating, both inside the barrel and out. This finish provided better protection against corrosion and pitting and even enhances accuracy. Other innovations of this unique rifle include a hammerless operation, one less set of moving parts to worry about, a two-stage trigger set at two pounds, a 30-inch lightweight Chromoly tapered and fluted barrel, an aluminum alloy frame that keeps the rifle under seven pounds and a speed load system that allows for easier and more consistent bullet loading.

I’ve hunted with the Vortek and found that it’s a very accurate rifle with effective range easily to 200 yards. With the new nitride coating, it will be even more weather resistant, important for a rifle that’s often used in late season, when conditions are unfriendly to muzzleloading rifles.

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