Conference vmsnet::hunting$note:hunting

    
    
    The Center of New Hampshire
    
    700 Elm Street, Manchester,N.H.
    
    Directions & Information::(603) 625-1000
    
    Thursday 4:00pm to 10:00pm
    Friday  12:00pm to 10:00pm
    Saturday 9:00am to  9:00pm
    Sunday  10:00am to  6:00pm
    
    January 28 - 29 - 30 - 31, 1993
    
    the largest sportman show in NEW Hampshire.
    
    
    Pappy
    
    

    
    The hours for Thursday 4 p.m. - 10 p.m., Friday 12 noon - 10 p.m.
    
    
    The quickest directions to the Holiday Inn (Center of N.H.) are take
    route 93N to 293. Follow 293 and bear right over the Merrimack river
    bridge. Take exit 5 which is Granite Street, at the end of the ramp
    take a right. Follow to the top of the hill (about 3 lights) which
    brings you to Elm Street, and the Holiday Inn is on the left which
    is the corner of both streets. The parking situation should be
    interesting.
    
    
                                                    Good Luck,
    
                                                       Guy
    
    

Well I ended up going to the show on Saturday afternoon for a couple of
hours.

Not sure what I expected, but it was smaller than I expected. Never been
to the place before.

They had free seminars, outfitters from Maine, Ontario, New Brunswick, New 
York, Colorado and Montana, plus a gun shop or two, fishing equipment, 
paint ball range, taxidermists, New Hampshire Wildlife Organization, 
Some Turkey federation and food.

The seminars that I recall seeing on the schedule were deer calling, 
taxidermy, fishing and birds in Alaska and alot more, they seemed to
go every other hour all day long. I didn't get to see any since I brought the
family and the patience of a 2 year old and 8 month old wouldn't allow it.

My two year old had a blast. They had lots of mounted birds, deer, elk, 
fish, caribou and some other stuff. Every thing with antlers is a deer
to him, not bad for a two year old. His favorite was a 6x6 bull elk, all
he could say was BIG deer Daddy! The outfitter laughed.

The people seemed to be honest as well. I asked a couple about success rates
and actually got a straight answer of "not very good" from some. One from 
Maine who said they don't get alot, but what they get are big. This year
they had 2 deer over 300 lbs taken!  I also found that "not very good"
is relative. A caribou outfitter said this year was really slow, the success
rate was only about 80% as opposed to close to 100%. They allow 2 per hunter. 

I didn't get a chance to talk to many indepth. I did find that the western
folks were more willing to just sit back and talk to ya, even when you weren't
going there. The Maine folks in particular seemed to blow you off if they
figured you weren't booking a hunt. I flat out told one from Montana that
I couldn't manage a hunt anytime soon. She didn't mind, she kept pulling
out pictures of deer/elk for my son to look at, he loved it. this was also
the place with the 6x6 elk that he loved, she took him over the counter and
let him pet it. He loved it.  When he decided he'd had enough, he ran off
so I had to go chasing him (my wife was off with the 8 month old talking to
fishing outfitters). When I left she shoved the brochures in my hand
and said if I ever won a jackpot, give them a call. I looked at the 
prices when I got home, several of the hunts are not bad, not cheap, but
not totally disgusting either. Future vacation coming up???? :-). They 
seemed to take the opinion that anyone there is a potential customer.

I can enter names/places/prices if anyone is interested.

--Bob

    

Hey Guy,

Did you and the rest of the Pappalardo clan go to see the Klucky films??
How were they, how'd you make out on the raffles... As I recall you guys 
win sonething at every one you've been to.   I got the flyer in the mail 
saturday afternoon, advertising for the saturday evening show at Salem 
High... was bummed that I didn't have a little more notice, would have 
liked to go!  

Fra

    
    Hey Fra,
    
            Long time no see. I wasn't able to make the films on saturday
    in Salem due to me attending the Albany,N.Y. gun show. Al Manuel and
    myself went to Manchester,N.H. last night to see the show. From talking
    with the "clan" they didn't win anything THIS TIME, but both Al and 
    myself won last night. Al got a $25 certificate for a GOOD local
    taxerdermist and I won a bottle of DEET bug spray and 6 Turkey targets
    for patterning a shotgun. The show was great, due to the fact there was
    some problems brought to the attention of the attendees. It seems the 
    copy that they used to make/develope the films for the show "somehow"
    screwed them up. George was not sure if it was a mistake or sabotage
    by someone who is an anti-hunter. So they changed the program a little
    and it was extended about 20 minutes longer which was fine by everyone.
    As far as the mailing list goes it seems they had trouble this year
    with it and all of "clan" never received their flyers. I did buy his
    two latest releases for 1992 and another one is due out 4/93. Well
    plan on joining us next year.
    
    
                                                           Guy
      

 I went to the show on saturday. I thought the entrance price was rather steep 
at $6 a head. Quite a number of outfitters, most of which made me wish I were
independently wealthy with lots of free time on my hands.

 I also caught two of the free seminars. The first one was on bamboo fly rod
building, and it turned out to be very interesting. I think I could stand to
have one of those puppies, and they're made only a few miles away in
Windham, NH. These guys were true craftsmen.

 The next seminar was on gun dogs. The guy (whose name I can't recall) was
in his early 70's and looked like Samuel Clemens. He was funny to listen to,
informative and knowledgeable. He gave a demonstration with his dog Duck Soup
that had to be seen to be believed. Sit, stay, come is the name of the game,
and you've gotta start the dogs VERY young. I'll tell you, if I ever get a
dog I'm going to buy his book(s) and use his system. What an incredible
display.

 The Doctah

    
    I attended the Sportsman Show with my brother Friday (1/29) night
    and was totally disgusted. The promoters were plugging this as the
    biggest outdoors show in New Hampshire. I wish the opportunity came
    to find someone at the show to voice my issues. I wasn't able to 
    attend any seminars due to timing (just missed or not interested).
    Hopefully the people in charge got a message of disgust. I've attended
    many other shows in the area and this rated the lowest (IMHO).
    
                                                          Guy

RE: .6 (Doctah)

Doc, the dog author is Richard Wolters.  I used his book Water Dog back in
1969 to train a Lab.  When I got my Brittany a couple of years ago, I 
searched long and hard for his original book Gun Dog (about pointers/setters).  
It helped me a lot.

He has about 8 different books (Game Dog, Family Dog, Kids Dog, etc), the 
latest of which (title unknown) is a history of the Lab.

I was at the show on Friday night and he looked pretty pooped out sitting
in the booth.

Also, Did anyone go to the seminar on birds/etc in N.B.?  This was
with Shawn Collicot from Dorrington Hill Outfitters.  If so, you may
have seen me miss an easy Woodcock over my dog Sparky.

     When I first started running NAHRA trials with Skeet, I was at a
    trial outside of Burlington having a particulary BAD day with the mutt.
    Skeet was only about 8 months old and had just blown the last test and
    missed qualifying.  I was depressed and demoralized.  This stranger came up
    to my wife and I and offered us a drink.  He started talking about his dog
    Tar and how when he first started running trials the dog would often 
    screw up, he said he even thought about giving up on the dog.  He said
    to stick it out, that I had a good dog, and to have patience.  Only
    after he left did we realize it was Richard Wolters.  Tar is featured
    in his earlier books and is _good_.  Two years later I saw him again in
    NY at a trial and he actually remembered Skeet.  He basically said "I
    told you so!!!!"   He was right.       
    
    Jeff 

 Wolters new dog, Duck Soup, is even better (he says.) He managed to blind 
retrieve at 20 weeks.