A total of 175 vendors. Close to 2,000 people through the doors. And just about anything and everything hunting- and shooting-related under the sun available for purchase.
All in all, as successful a weekend as the SSWA could have hoped for.
“Everyone who is walking in was like ‘holy [blank], look at this, look at this’,” show co-ordinator Allen Dyck said with a laugh. “The thing is, there’s a little bit of everything, it’s not all guns. It’s maybe 90 per cent guns and then 10 per cent of other stuff, something for the ladies, anything you can dream of when it comes to this kind of stuff. I think that’s one of the reasons so many people come out.”
The event kicked off on Saturday at the Moose Jaw Exhibition Convention Centre, drawing around 1,200 people on the opening day. Patrons were treated to tables filled with everything from standard .22 rifles to four-barrel shotguns, knives and bow-hunting gear, tons of ammunition and reloading supplies. Throw in some tables of trinkets and wildlife-related items and even a few skins for purchase, there was plenty to check out for the hunting enthusiast.
“It’s unreal,” Dyck said of the support. “This year in Yorkton the turnout was really good, and even today [Sunday] we’re over 400, so it’s turned out to be a pretty popular event. And people are starting to look for the show now, guys are advertising that they’re going to be here. We keep seeing more people coming all the time.”
The gun show has grown steadily over the years, originally taking up the SSWA hall in Wakamow Valley before running out of space due to the maximum of 55 tables. Their most recent sojourns north have seen 130 tables two years ago, 170 last year and the aforementioned 175 this year.
“We could probably get another 20 tables or so in here,” Dyck said. “It’s a year-to-year thing, so we’ll see what happens next year… There’s still a lot of interest, I think everyone has had a good show this year. We have a lot of firearms going out, we had a lot of them coming in, and it’s worked out really well for everyone.”
