A lot of nice things on display.I particularly liked a Devin Rowe sculpture.I might consider one in the future.I purchased a two-year subscription to African Hunting Gazette.I bought a boyt vest.

No soft gun case? :-)

The most interesting booth for me was the TROP Hunting Club offering hunting in Poland. They offer great deals on boar hunts - $3470 for a 5 day hunt that includes taking 5 wild boar.

I am looking at a Stone sheep hunt and a hunt in Pakistan.

My wife spotted some tanzanite at DSC. We tried to buy it after the fact but they were sold. We looked again. As she was wondering around thinking about it, I went back and bought them without her knowledge. She went back to buy them and was told they were sold. She had a long face. It will be priceless when I give them to her.

You're a hopeless romantic :-)

It causes less complaining about my trips!

I saw a nice new Winchester Mod.70 African at the Winchester booth.I took it off the rack and gave it I nice bolt cycling/aim test.

quote:

Originally posted by subsailor74:
The most interesting booth for me was the TROP Hunting Club offering hunting in Poland. They offer great deals on boar hunts - $3470 for a 5 day hunt that includes taking 5 wild boar.

+1

Saw some great doubles and custom bolt rifles.

Bought 2 auction hunts.

Met up with a experienced fisherman - he gave me the inside scoop on booking fishing charters and made some intro for me. We will be fishing silver king lodge in Costa Rica in April 2018 - I put a deposit down for it.

Met with Tim Herald and tried to sort out dates for Romania this sept.

Met with Phil Shoemaker about Alaska this summer.

Hung out with Save Safaris and Admiral/subsailor74 - need to work in a plan for this year.

May be in Africa a few times this year.

Citizens in Mandalay Bay is good relatively cheap food.

Went Downtown Vegas with Mike Payne and had a good time. I think we saw Buzz working a side job.

All in all a great show.

Mike

As I was walking from the Luxor to Mandalay on Wednesday morning through the connector I saw some employees of a store called "LUSH" putting up a sign in their window.

It read "Killing Is Not Conservation", I did not like the sign, but I did enjoy giving them a salute of sorts. By the time I came back by after the show closed for the day, the sign had been removed.

The only thing I purchased had actually already been bought. Wayne at AHR had received a M70 in .300RUM I bought from Cabelas. He converted it to .404J and brought it down to SCI for me to take home.

Booked a hunt with Buzz in Zambia for 2018. Leopard, hippo and puku for Vicki, and a croc for me. Got to meet Annette Oelofse. As always, the taxidermy displays were off the charts.
Tim

I probably saw less of the show this year than any in the past. We were very busy so I couldn't walk around much just to look. I did think the mechanical rhino was pretty cool. Gear wise I talked to one guy only and that was Greg Naff/Continental Divide Knives. I don't have much interest in the newest trick gadget but he offers knives that offer a whole new meaning to DIY skinning, caping and gutting game. Check him out www.cdknives.com

I did find the show to be well attended and folks optimistic about the future of our sport. I'm expecting '17 to be a good year for the hunting business. now if Trump can get USFW going in the right direction.................

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by larryshores:
I am looking at a Stone sheep hunt and a hunt in Pakistan.

My wife spotted some tanzanite at DSC. We tried to buy it after the fact but they were sold. We looked again. As she was wondering around thinking about it, I went back and bought them without her knowledge. She went back to buy them and was told they were sold. She had a long face. It will be priceless when I give them to her.

Larry - I hope she does not hang out on AR :-)

I ordered a Rem 700 in 300 Win Mag from the Custom Shop and paid Swarovski to ship them a new 3.5-18 BT scope to mount and zero for me.

Bought a full set of hunting clothes from anew company - ONCA Gear, a Spanish company. Really nice stuff!

Two cases of wine from Schossadler Wines and a really nice sterling silver bracelet with a cape buffalo on it from Montana Silversmiths.

Spent some serious time talking with Erdogan Avci about hunting Bezoar Ibex and Chamois in Turkey. Also talked in depth to Francisco at Hunt Trip Spain and one Italian oufitter..

Semi-committed to a fly fishing trip to Christmas Island - plan to book in the next month for this coming November.. Bones and Giant Trevally!!

The wife attacked the jewelry and purses with a vengance - purses are expensive!!!

Absolutely a great time!!!

Just a Louis Vuitton purse and a happy wife.

quote:

Originally posted by safari-lawyer:
Just a Louis Vuitton purse and a happy wife.

What did that run you??,...one and half or two buffalo trophy fees???

quote:

Originally posted by safari-lawyer:
Just a Louis Vuitton purse and a happy wife.

I know all about it - something about purses... :-)

I put money on Mountain Nyala.

Too bad I have to wait until 2020....

We booked a fishing trip in Panama at Tropic Star.

Also looking at 2017 buffalo hunt and 2018 leopard hunt.

quote:

Originally posted by Texas Blue Devil:

quote:

Originally posted by safari-lawyer:
Just a Louis Vuitton purse and a happy wife.

What did that run you??,...one and half or two buffalo trophy fees???

Whatever the cost, it was far more affordable than my Mtn Nyala hunt in October. I ain't complaining.

I bought a hunt for Ocellated turkey and Curassow in Campeche mexico in April 2018 with Balam Mexico outfitters.

I also booked a hunt with Safari Bongo and outfitter and PH Jacques Lemaux to hunt Bongo and Yellow back duiker in CAR in June 2018. There have been no incidents since last year in that area and hopefully it will stay calm.It is the only place where you can expect to shoot a 31-32 inch Bongo.

Regards
Aziz

Not exactly related to the convention but I did enjoy walking along the boulevard very early one morning and listening to the Allman bros. "Ramblin man" over the street speakers.

quote:

Originally posted by safari-lawyer:

quote:

Originally posted by Texas Blue Devil:

quote:

Originally posted by safari-lawyer:
Just a Louis Vuitton purse and a happy wife.

What did that run you??,...one and half or two buffalo trophy fees???

Whatever the cost, it was far more affordable than my Mtn Nyala hunt in October. I ain't complaining.

Guys like Will and Larry have it figured out. . A couple years ago, I took my lady friend to SCI, to meet some friends but also to expose her to this crazy world of hunting. I needed to know how she really viewed hunting, and what better place to get overwhelmed by it than SCI. Her first shock was when we were sitting in Alan Vincent's booth, as CMS had the booth immediately across from them. They had a video of elephants being shot running over and over again. For someone who'd never been around the hunting culture before, that video was rather shocking. She was a bit taken aback, but quickly got over it. But, the crowning moment was when we walked past the large booth that the jeweler from North Dakota had. She couldn't understand why a jeweler would be at a hunting convention, so we walked up to the fellow and I told her to ask why he was there. He had a one word reply... Bribery! He then went on to explain that when a fellow drops serious money on a hunt, he often has to bribe his lady with a gift for her consent. He said business was brisk.

Like I said, Will and Larry 'get it'.

I didn't like the fact tha SCI and Jagd und Hund were the same weekend. I feel like I got the B team here in Germany.

It is a bit unfair to compare our little Dortmund effort to the giant SCI convention. Stating the obvious, actually a no brainer.

quote:

Originally posted by safari-lawyer:

quote:

Originally posted by Texas Blue Devil:

quote:

Originally posted by safari-lawyer:
Just a Louis Vuitton purse and a happy wife.

What did that run you??,...one and half or two buffalo trophy fees???

Whatever the cost, it was far more affordable than my Mtn Nyala hunt in October. I ain't complaining.

Yeah, I hear you. My wife's purchases don't even remotely compare to my hunting and fishing trips.

quote:

Originally posted by jaegerfrank:
It is a bit unfair to compare our little Dortmund effort to the giant SCI convention. Stating the obvious, actually a no brainer.

In my mind I wasn't comparing it. There is no comparison, they are totally different shows.

SCI is primarily the worlds foremost hunting exhibition.

Dortmund is a European show.

My refernce to the B team was meant, that we got a lot of the hired hands, and not the main event. Many outfitters told me that their boss was at SCI. A lot of the questions I asked were questions they couldn't answer.

I also felt like there were outfitters in Africa who might have skipped Dortmund because of the schedule conflict.

I didn't want to talk to an agent, I wanted to talk to the outfitter. Especially as far as East and West Africa are concerned.