If you ever get a chance to go out to the
annual SHOT Show you gotta make the trek. SHOT stands for Shooting,
Hunting and Outdoor Travel show. It is the show for the shooting
sports industry. Notice I did not say for the hunting/fishing
or outdoors industry. You will not see a fishing rod or bit of
tackle in the building. It is strictly for the shooting sports.
This show I am told can be held in only two places in the U.S.
In Vegas where it is held four out of five years, I believe.
And in Orlando where it was when we exhibited in the show in
2003. They are the only two exhibit buildings big enough to have
the show.
As I mentioned on the publisher page. I was told one of the representatives
from Cabellas put an odometer on and walked the entire show and
determined walking every aisle it was a twelve mile walk. The
show runs from Thursday to Sunday in mid to early February every
year. This year it was February 12-15.
This is the third time I have been at the show. I was told you
would need at least two days to see everything. I walked the
entire show and talked with people in about 120 booths, took
about 1200 pictures in about 9 hours. Yea I was moving.
How did I manage that. First of all you need to understand the
people that attend the SHOT Show. All |
these people are professionals and most
have done the show before. The movement is like a symphony, everyone
is moving very fast and watching out for everyone so there is
a timing so people never crash.
And to the credit of the SHOT Show organizers, things are laid
out well and weeks ahead of time maps and exhibitor lists are
on their website. So when I entered the show I had a map and
names of people I wanted to see. That being said, I started on
one end of the exhibit hall and wheeled cart in tow... nearly
everyone has one... I started my trek.
Last year I was looking for advertisers for Bird Dog & Retriever
News. This year I was working for Guldans.com to find great dog
stuff that is just not available. Since we already stock e-collars
from every major manufacturer my stop at Tri-Tronics and Innotek
could be kept short enough for hellos and whats new. Those were
ten minute stops, the longest stops of the day for me... lunch
was five minutes on the run.
There was two things that I was in search of more then anything
else. First dog breed specific items. To that end I found a place
out of Wisconsin that did wood wall plaques and stained glass
for about 150 dog breeds. You'll see a few examples of the sporting
breeds in this issue and many more in the upcoming months. |
The second and equally important item I was on a trek
for was womens and youth hunting clothes. And I found three great
suppliers. Two of these names I never knew about before the show
this year. And one of them was in a very unexpectant place, the
area for police arms and special forces gear. Great stuff that
exists but you won't find at Cabellas or any of your normal venues...
except perhaps Guldans.com in the future.
The longest time I spent in any one booth was at the Boyt Harness/
Bob Allen Sports booth. I used my new digital camera and shot
about 500 pictures in an hour. They had all the colors of all
their hunting wear on display. So I was snapping about a picture
every five seconds of everything they have. You will see that
online soon. All toll I have about 100 new sources of great stuff.
So what's new in dog stuff
Tritronics had their usual array of new items. They recently
came out with a new bird launching system. They also have come
up with a new line of antennas that are smaller and are out of
the way. The antennas are an inch and a half and gives you 60%
of the long antennae performance. They also have new S generation
of products. The S generation includes:
On/Off Switch on the collar
an improved charging jack
a single common charger
longer battery life
trickle charge
enhanced tone
improved collar light
I wish I could say more but they are releasing more products
in mid April.
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