The Great American Outdoor Show | Sports
In our area of the nation, it’s unusual for a public event to be so noteworthy it draws national and international attention.
Naturally, it requires a huge convention center, thousands of vendors and throngs of interested participants. Cities such as Dallas, Atlanta and a few others have such centers but they’re thousands of miles away. However, The Great American Outdoor Show held at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex and Expo Center in Harrisburg not only fits the bill, it’s the largest outdoor show in the world, drawing vendors from around the globe. Even better, Harrisburg is less than a five-hour drive from the Olean area.
The Expo Center’s composed of nine very huge halls which can accommodate over 1,100 exhibitors and their wares. Covering 650,000 square feet of hall space, the complex’s sheer size is daunting. To help alleviate confusion, hallways have maps located on the walls at intervals showing where you are and directions to other locations. For an individual to cover all the exhibits and see the sights in any detail simply can’t be accomplished in a single day.
With such a temptation so close at hand, Jim Zirkle, Alan Lingenfelter and I couldn’t resist and Tuesday we met and drove down to the show. The route is not complicated. We took 219 South through Ridgway to 153 South to Route 80 East. We then jigged over to 322 past Bellefonte and then to Harrisburg and to the convention center. Within sight of the huge and sprawling Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center we sat in traffic for 30-40 minutes just to crawl a mile to the parking lot. Finally, we climbed out of the car and onto a shuttle which quickly whisked us to the show.
There was a sprawling hall dedicated to archery, another for fishing tackle, one for boats, a RV hall, a huge firearm center, the most ammunition I’ve seen in years and a host of other associated outdoor activities. Various other vendors offer food, drinks, ice cream, sweets, the list goes on and on. Our particular interests lay in the outfitter hall, one of the largest. Here, outfitters from around the world come to offer their services, detailing their hunts, the animals, birds and waterfowl or type of fishing they specialize in. Some focus on one or two species of game, others are much more diverse. Argentinian outfitters, for example, offer hunts for huge numbers of doves, ducks and geese while also offering hunting opportunities for red stag.
A large number of African Outfitters were in attendance with many impressive mounts of oryx, kudu, sable, wildebeest, warthog, Rees buck, lion, leopard, cape buffalo and even an elephant. In fact, the number of mounted animals from North America and around the world is simply astonishing. You could spend hours just admiring them alone.
JIM, AL and I were looking primarily for whitetail hunts, though we also checked up on a couple moose outfitters just in case. Our first stop was our old friends The Whitetail Trophy Hunt in Missouri. The owners were there and we checked reservations for the upcoming years and caught up on the newest gossip, of course. We’ve been on a waiting list for an Oklahoma hunt for some years now and have ever so slowly climbed up to 14th on the waiting list. Gee, progress is glacial, but patience may win in the end.
Today, the show wasn’t overcrowded. I’d recommend attending Tuesday or Wednesday, and it only took a 10-minute wait in line to purchase a cheese steak sandwich and lemonade. I was starving. We’d already walked well over two miles before noon.
AS I mentioned in passing earlier, I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of ammunition I saw for sale. Supplies have been very limited for some years now and to see cases of .22 ammunition (10,000 rounds) for sale, tall stacks of 9mm ammo, .22 Hornet, .243, 300 Winchester Magnum and other hard to acquire calibers was surprising. Prices have risen, unfortunately, but the ammo was there in quantity.
Ruger, Mossberg and other firearms manufacturers had their newest models on display along with every accessory imaginable. In fact, there were so many interesting things to look at it all became a bit overwhelming. There were also an awesome number of optics available for rifles, shotguns, pistols and muzzleloaders.
The newest quads were also on display, they’re becoming quite sophisticated and fancier every year. Ford and Dodge had their newest trucks on display.
By the time we reached the fishing exhibits we were footsore and weary. Most disappointing, as the isles were filled with every shape and model of spinner bit, crank bait, jerk bait, jigs, chatter baits, top waters, buzz baits, plastics in every shape, color and size imaginable. It looked like a candy shop full of goodies, but my feet were killing me and I reluctantly walked past only glimpsing what treasures were available.
It was 10 p.m. before I finally unlocked the front door of my home. Wow, a 17-hour day. If you’ve never attended the show, you can still catch it tomorrow. Sundays are great days to pick up some fantastic bargains as the vendors would rather sell many of their products than pack it all up again.
The show’s awesome, put it on your calendar, you won’t be disappointed.