Show Reports

Every year I sojourn to the SHOT Show and SCI Convention to see what’s new. Well, at least I attempt to see what’s new. You can’t possibly see it all at either show.

SHOT (Shooting Hunting Outdoor Trade Show; www.shotshow.org/) is the big retail store in the sky. It showcases everything from camo kitchen utensils to doe urine to SWAT team heavy metal to sporting shotguns. It’s like a Gander Mountain or Bass Pro Shop on steroids.

The reason for the show is to give manufacturers a place to display their wares to retailers and wholesalers. This is not a show aimed at you and me, the retail customer. It’s aimed at your local sporting-goods store. The IWA show (www.iwa.info/en) fulfills the same function in Europe, though it is somewhat smaller in size. Everything is smaller than SHOT.

To get in to SHOT, you must either display an appropriately yellow journalist’s badge or be a member of the industry. If you are friends with the owner of your local gun shop, he might be able to sign you up under his aegis.

Next year SHOT is scheduled to be held in Las Vegas January 18 to 21. You can walk miles and miles of sporting-equipment aisles all day, commit gustatory seppuku at various “all you can eat” steam-table emporia, catch a trans-gender stage show in the evening and while away the interim hours smoking, drinking and gambling. Or “gamboling,” as you prefer. Gotta love Vegas. You definitely want to go to one SHOT Show during your lifetime. The second one is your call.

If you crave a gun show where you can actually buy nice stuff, Beinfeld’s International Sporting Arms Show in Las Vegas (www.antiquearmsshow.com/) is usually held immediately before SHOT. This show gets a lot of the good gun dealers displaying their wares, available for you to buy then and there. If there is temptation in Vegas, it’s spread out on these tables. If you have the time, you’ll want to do both SHOT and the Beinfeld show.

The SCI (Safari Club International) Annual Hunter’s Convention  (www.showsci.com) in Reno is considerably smaller than SHOT, but it is more focused. Here the retail customer is king. To get in, all you have to do is prove SCI membership or the aforesaid journalistic stigmata. This past January, for some unknown reason, SHOT and SCI ran against each other. Next year sanity will prevail and SCI will run from January 26 to 29. You can go to both if you are so inclined and durable enough.

SCI celebrates hunting. It used to be mostly about big game, but more recently wingshooting has occupied an important part. SCI is central casting for outfitters. If you can think of a hunting trip anywhere in the world, there is someone there who can arrange it.

And then there are the shotguns. SHOT has the mass-market guns. SCI has the snappy stuff. Purdey, Holland & Holland, Fabbri, Piotti, Hartmann & Weiss and most of the rest are there. And since it’s much less crowded than SHOT, at SCI you actually chat with the men who build the great guns.

Although Reno is small potatoes compared to Las Vegas, the SCI Convention is strictly high end and is well worth the visit. It’s like a trip to a Godiva chocolate shop.

At about the same time (January 28 to 30 next year), across Reno from the SCI show, is the Firearms Engravers & Gunmakers Exhibition (www.acgg.org/events) hosted by the prestigious American Custom Gunmakers Guild and Firearms Engravers Guild of America. It’s a great chance to talk to some of the American artisans who make and engrave fine guns. If you are going to be at SCI, you definitely want to hit the Guild show too. It’s a good twofer.

In the July/August issue of Shooting Sportsman I’ll be giving a rundown of what was new in shotguns at SHOT and SCI. I just thought you’d want to know a little background about the shows.

Ever been to a SHOT or SCI show? What did you think? Feet still hurt? Mine do. Boots off. Beer open.