It’s March, time for American gun manufacturers to descend on Nuremberg, Germany for the annual IWA Show, the European version of the SHOT Show.. Here in this quaint, Medieval town over 30,000 show visitors troop through the well-organized Messe convention center to see what’s new in the shooting and hunting industry.

Nearly 1,200 exhibitors display everything from traditional German hunting garb to the latest in high-tech Olympic target rifles. American manufacturers comprise about 20 to 25 percent of the exhibitors, according to my rough count. Official tabulation by the IWA organizers state that international exhibitors comprise 76 percent of the total.

The SHOT Show itself was here to solicit new exhibitors and promote the American trade show. Steve Sanetti, executive director of the National Shooting Sports Foundation said that he would welcome more international exhibitors to the SHOT Show.

The mood here is distinctly European. For instance, at the SHOT Show my press badge reads CAMERON Hopkins while here it’s a more formal atmosphere so my badge states Cameron HOPKINS. Exhibitors greet you by title, not by your first-name. Germany is the largest hunting and shooting market in Europe with a rich tradition. Hunters come to the four-day show (Thursday through Monday) on the weekend, many of them bringing well-trained hunting dogs and wearing loden green jackets with stag horn buttons.

Beer flows freely in many of the exhibitor’s booths. The IWA organizers crowned Eva I as the show’s Beer Queen. The atmosphere is festive while at the same time refined. My favorite part of the show is the cluster of exhibitors from the village of Ferlach, Austria, home of the top custom gunmakers on the Continent. The foremost of these, Peter Hofer, handcrafts ornately engraved double rifles for Saudi princes and European royalty. A Hofer gun costs six and even seven figures.

It’s also interesting to see the contrast in German gun companies in America and here on their home turf. In the U.S., Blaser and Sauer are marginal players, having trouble selling their expensive, straight-pull rifles to American hunters. Over here, however, Blaser is the dominant brand. Their exhibit is vast, taking up a massive area of Hall 1. A life-size Lord Derby eland and American bison are among the attractions in their booth.

By contrast, America’s top hunting rifle brands like Remington and Ruger barely nibble a few sales out of the German hunting market. The reason is simple—hunting in Europe is a sport for the well-heeled whose tastes run to more refined rifles. Similarly, Zeiss, Swarovski and Schmidt & Bender riflescopes with integral “rail mounts” are far more popular than brands with “ring mounts.”

But we enjoy a far bigger market in America. According to Klaus Gotzen of the German hunting, firearms and ammunition trade association, the value of hunting and sporting guns and accessories should total 255 million Euro in 2010. Chris Dolnack of NSSF told the Insider that American hunters and shooters spend about $4 billion a year, some 16 times more than the Germans. Nonetheless, there’s a wonderful charm to German hunting.