On with the show

A week from today marks the official start of spring. Well, sort of.

The Mat-Su Outdoorsman Show opens at noon, March 21 at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center in Wasilla and runs through Sunday afternoon. Tony Russ owns and promotes this show through his Chinook Shows business, and has been doing so for several years now.

This is the first outdoors show of the 2014 season and has more than 140 venders lined up to demonstrate, explain or sell goods and services catering to the outdoor lifestyle. Hunting and fishing guides will offer bookings or charters at what will probably be the best pricing for the year. Visitor bureaus from all over the state will have information about scenic areas and outdoor activities in their respective locales to help you plan your excursions.

I understand that a Harley-Davidson motorcycle will be available for those brave enough to try a test ride, weather permitting of course. There will be boats, ATVs, trailers and probably a couple of RVs on site for inspection and probable sale. Lots of fishing and hunting gear will be available along with Fish and Game’s laser shooting setup so you can test your skills under the watchful eye of dozens of interested onlookers.

I enjoy visiting this show because of all the nice folks I’ve met there over the years and seeing all the new gadgets designed to make my outdoor experience that much more enjoyable. I like visiting at the Fish and Game booth to ask questions and pick up new information and regulation booklets, if available, concerning activities in our area. Probably the No. 1 reason I go, though, is to attend many of the various seminars being presented. I always learn something from each seminar, even if it’s about a topic I’m very familiar with.

On that note, I‘ll shamelessly throw in a little self-promotion here. I will be presenting a seminar about the king salmon sport fishing restrictions we will be dealing with this 2014 season in the Valley. During the second part of the seminar, I’ll present some of the changes the Board of Fisheries made that affect us in the Northern District. One of those changes involves new outboard requirements for fishing on the Little Susitna River. If you haven’t already heard about that one, you might want to stop by the show and catch the seminar.

The following weekend, the Great Alaskan Sportsman Show will be happening in Anchorage at the Sullivan Arena. This show runs from March 27 through March 30. While this is a larger show space and vender-wise than our local show, it basically operates the same way with hunting fishing, camping, boating and other outdoors-oriented venders selling products and services for often the best pricing of the year.

The Anchorage show has a much more extensive seminar schedule and just like our local show, I enjoy attending the various seminars there. The biggest problem I usually have during the Anchorage show is hearing the seminar presentation. Some of the presenters have good sound equipment and some don’t. For us “seniors,” that can make for difficulty hearing the discussion. Our local show seminars are held in individual rooms where hearing or viewing a presentation is not a problem.

On a final note, I recently had a friend contact me about buying a firearm he saw advertised by a dealer on the Internet. He wanted to make sure things were legal and he was wondering if it was a “good deal?” I have a federal firearms license (FFL) and get questions regularly about how a firearms transfer works. In this case, everything was legal and the firearm price was a good deal.

To familiarize himself with the particular firearm, my friend attended the recent Lions Club gun show. He found an identical used firearm and was able to handle the gun to decide if it would work for him. The short version was he ended up buying the advertized, new-in-the-box firearm for less than what the used gun was priced for at the gun show.

I am always amazed that folks who buy a firearm at retail pricing seem to think the gun is worth that same price or more when they want to sell it used. Just like a new car, once it’s off the dealer lot, it’s used and doesn’t usually command the same dollar value as new.

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by emailing sports@frontiersman.com.