After several years of walking the SHOT Show floor and finding mostly cosmetic upgrades, expanded caliber offerings, new camo patterns on guns but not a ton of really new introductions, I was surprised to find several truly new guns at SHOT 2024. You’ll hear about more of them (like Browning’s X-Bolt 2) later, but here are a handful of the ones that really stood out as unique. Three different companies are branching out into territory they have never been in or haven’t been in for decades.

Taurus Expedition

This bolt-action hunting rifle is Taurus USA’s first foray into the bolt-action rifle market, and they made some smart decisions when venturing into this new territory. For one thing, they’ve built it around the legendary Remington 700 action, which makes it incredibly simple to swap in aftermarket stocks and triggers (not that you’ll need to). The trigger is user-adjustable, and the 18-inch hammer-forged, threaded barrel has a unique look — Taurus has left the “hammer marks” instead of smoothing them off as most manufacturers do, so you essentially see the rifling on the outside of the barrel. It has a similar look to fluting.

The Expedition also takes AICS mags (ships with a five-round), and the synthetic stock is flat, not rounded, on the sides and the bottom to help the rifle sit nicely on a bag, a hunting pack or on sticks. Two M-Lok slots and a Spartan Precision attachment point on the bottom offer multiple ways to attach a bipod or other accessory.

Right now, it’s available in .308, but other calibers are planned for the near future. MSRP is $985.

Smith & Wesson Model 1854

Smith & Wesson patented its first lever-action rifle, the Volcanic, in the year 1854, but over the years the levers fell to the wayside as S&W became known for handguns and semi-auto rifles. For 2024, S&W is going back to their roots by introducing the Model 1854 lever-action rifle in .44 magnum. With a synthetic stock, oversized loop, Picatinny rail, stainless steel receiver and barrel and a threaded barrel, it’s certainly a modern version of a classic lever-action. The magazine tube is removable, so you can unload the rifle without working the action over and over. An XS Sights ghost ring in the rear and a gold bead in the front make sighting simple, and the forearm has M-Lok slots for adding accessories. MSRP is $1,279.

A limited-edition model with a walnut stock is also available, but they’re only making 1,854 of them, so you might have to search for one of those (and hurry).

Beretta BRX1

Beretta, too, is stepping into new territory with the first-ever bolt-action rifle under the Beretta brand name — the BRX1. But that’s not what makes this gun unique. First, it’s a straight-pull, which is a definite trend we’re seeing more of in the States. But second, this gun has interchangeable barrels so you can shoot different calibers out of the same platform — right now, that’s .308, 6.5 Creedmoor and .300 Win Mag. Beretta tells me .30-06 and .243 are coming soon, and .223 and 7mm Rem Mag after that. But even THAT is not this rifle’s most unique feature. In less than 30 seconds, you can — without any tools — swap the bolt and the ejection from one side to the other, turning a right-handed gun into a left-handed gun in no time flat. Are you a right-handed parent with a left-handed kid? No problem. Change the configuration and the caliber and this rifle can do just about anything you’ll ask of it.

It's got an adjustable trigger, a synthetic stock with adjustable length-of-pull spacers, a threaded barrel, a three-position safety located on the tang, and a five-round box magazine (even in magnum calibers). Beretta is also making an adapter that’ll turn that mag into a 10-rounder. The whole thing weighs about 7.25 pounds, and MSRP (with one barrel) is $1,499. A carbon-fiber-barreled .300 Win Mag version is also available for an MSRP or $1,899.

Hammerli Force B-1

Hammerli, a sister company of Walther, is offering another straight-pull rifle called the Force B-1 (pictured above), with a toggle-system straight-pull action that is amazingly smooth and fast to operate and feels unique if you’ve never tried anything like it. Like the Beretta, this gun also features swappable barrels that turn this into a multiple-caliber firearm. It’s a rimfire, so you’re looking at .22LR and .22 WMR right now. The adjustable stock offers toolless customization, and M-Lok attachments on the forearm allow for easy accessory mounting. The barrel is threaded, as is expected of pretty much all rifles these days, and the gun uses the ubiquitous 10/22 rotary magazines and 10/22 trigger groups, if you feel the need to swap. This gun is built to be equally suitable for hunting and for target shooting/competition, with an MSRP of $649.