To the normal person, winter is a dark, dreary season, but not to us outdoorsmen.
Not only are all the hunting seasons going on around the country, but ice fishing is coming, too. But we’re not going to talk about our outdoor activities today. Strangely enough, we’re going to talk about indoor activities.
January kicks off the show season. Things are a little slow in January, February and March, or at least as slow as they get for us outdoorsmen, so it’s the only time that shows can be slipped in.
There is no way in one short article that I can list all of the shows across the country. Plus, I don’t know them all. But here’s some that I’m excited about.
The Dallas Safari Club Convention and Expo is the first big show of the year, and it is being held from Jan. 4 to 7. If you’re attending, stop by and introduce yourself. I’ll be conducting “Glassing for Big Game” and “Knife Sharpening/Choosing the Proper Knife seminars" on the Jan. 6.
Then from Jan. 11 to 13, the ATA Trade Show will be in Indianapolis. It’s the largest archery show in the country, the Archery equivalent of the SHOT Show. I am signed up to go to it, but I may be held up in Texas duck, crow and varmint hunting.
Then the mother of all shows, The SHOT Show, is Jan. 22 to 26 in Las Vegas. All the outdoor manufacturers, outdoor celebrities, writers and anything related to the outdoors will be attending in full force. It is so massive I don’t even know how to describe it.
People from all over the world attend and nearly every gun, knife, call, camo, outdoor clothing and backpack manufacturer will have a booth there covering more than 630,000 square feet. All the new 2018 products will be rolled out then.
There is literally no way that you could hit every booth. My calendar is filled up from daylight to dark and I’ll have a list of 30 to 50 other companies I’ll try to squeeze in somehow. Writers will be invited to breakfasts, lunches and dinners. I think the companies are smart to put on these events. You have to eat, so if they host a meal they have your undivided attention to give their presentation.
One big attraction is on Monday before the show actually starts. They have Media Day at the Range. You get to shoot all of the new ammo, guns, crossbows and Crosman/Benjamin airguns. How do you not like that? They changed the format a couple years ago. Now the media is by invite only in the morning and the manufacturers/buyers take over in the afternoon. Even though it hurt the media, I think this was a smart move. It allows the people actually buying the product to test it out.
Then on Tuesday the doors open, and there’s panic in the disco! I’m hitting all the booths I can to work deals, meet my sponsors and meet new people. Like I say, I have to hit it hard from daylight to dark. We’re so tired by the end of the day that Katy wants to just grab a Big Mac and go to bed.
Then the next big show is the Safari Club International Convention in Las Vegas from Jan. 31 to Feb. 3. There will be guides from all over the world, and if you’re wanting to book a safari, this is the place to go.
There will also be a lot of higher-end outdoor manufacturers. You can see some unbelievably beautiful guns, hold a $157,000 shotgun and see a lot of handmade knives. You will see unbelievable mounts. Whole scenes are set up.
If you attend, stop by and see me. Ron Spomer and I will be conducting seminars on Friday and Saturday. There will be a full schedule of seminars to choose from and like the DSC, there’ll be more booths and seminars than you’ll be able to attend.
We’re out of room to get into all of the state shows. Then what about the local gun shows? I love hitting them. There’s always something I can’t live without. You’ll find unique items from new guns on down to old knives and traps.
Have a merry Christmas!
Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.
