I went this morning, got up at 4am couldn't sleep and got in my jeep and started driving. It took me almost 3 and half hours to get there. Traffic was fine.

My wife asked me if we could do something as a family on Sunday. She asked me what I thought the roads and traffic would be like when the baby woke up at 4 am, so I figured what the hell I'll get up to Dortmond and save family day for the family.

I noticed on arrival that the venue was not quite what I had imagined (I really thought it was in the middle of town). It is handy from the highway (and when I got there there was tons of parking) (didn't look like it at 1300 when I was leaving).

I parked about 30 minutes before they opened and was one of the first people parking. For the first hour and half it was damn near empty. I got burned out at 1300 and headed home.

My take aways as a first time visitor.

1. The lay out is confusing as hell, and it is hard to navigate between buildings if you have never been there. I probably walked around the revier section 3 times before I figured out how to get out of there.

2. Blaser blows away everyone else on displays, but everyone I talked to in the booth was product stupid. That and they had several public health safety violations where they were running electrical cords through public walking areas.

3. The dogs are cute for about 30 seconds, until you step on someone's foot or tail. I wouldn't bring my dog. I saw over 500 dogs and 1 ferret, and about 10 falcons.

4. The outfitters are pretty friendly, they all kind of acted like they wanted to be at SCI and it was stupid to have both shows at the same time. By Saturday morning, most of them were pretty tired of being there. Most said they had not sold much, only a couple were booked for prime dates.

5. I didn't realize that chamois hunts booked years out. I found two I think, we'll see how it goes. No one could commit. The booking agents claimed they had plenty, but none of the actual outfitters had any. So?????

6. The hunting trucks section were really neat. I want a Mercedes Benz G-Wagon like the ones there. The military type, wow. Really neat. Not sure how that works, but they were amazing. I didn't find this area until I was about caput dealing with people. When we do Salzburg as a family I am going to look at this section first.

7. There is an obscene amount of hunting clothing. An entire bulding of it the size of Walmart. I didn't spend any time there, I wanted to talk to the outfitters before it got crazy. Then when it did get crazy I ran for cover. The clothing and dog areas were the most packed.

8. The hunting knick-knack junk market is also huge. We don't collect things, because we move internationally every 3 or 4 years. I did when I was in the military and almost everything eventually gets destroyed. So we don't buy paintings, sculptures and art. It was impressive though.

9. I probably ate 10 or 15 different kind of smoked meat snack sticks. I couldn't have easily spend all day just buying and eating those.

10. I came in through the back of the show and am not sure I hit every building. I didn't buy a ticket to the fishing show, but I wanted to go until about 3 hours worth of standing on concrete.

11. Not as many fair fraulines "booth babes" as US type trade show. One of the hunting magazines had them. Was funny to see the German take on that.

12. A lot of Russian, Canadian, Australian and Namibia guys. Not many South Africans (maybe 5), no East or West African outfits to speak of, maybe one guy from Mozambique and one or two from Zimbabwe. Of course tons of European outfitters and booking agents, but almost entirely Eastern Europe, Spain and Russia. I talked to all three Austrian gents, and the one Swede I saw.


Side notes:


I have been to other shows, but never with the intent of making a connection for a future hunt. Previously, i was more interested in guns, or I just wanted to go to the show.

I met alot of outfitters, and I have to do some research over the next few weeks. I am plannning on hunting Sweden for Capercaillie in December of those dates work for me at work, and I am going to book in Austria for this fall for roe or chamois or both. Meeting the outfitter is worth it, I left one of the Namibian outfitter so charmed by that family I know we will find a way to hunt together. If not this year then I'll book for April or March of next year.

It is worth it to meet people face to face. I don't think I realized how much I liked that. I also met alot of outfitters from Namibia and South Africa I wouldn't have anything to do with, just got bad vibes from the beginning. So it was good too.

Highpoints!

If you would have sent me to this show 10 years ago, I'd have personally fondled every rifle in there. Honestly while all the gun companies had neat displays and Blaser/Mauser's booth was out of this world, the best part was talking with other hunters. The only thing that topped that was cheap and really good food. I ate 3 or 4 sausages with brochen and they were 2 or 3 euro each. I spent less than #$15 and I drank 3 bottles of water and ate all that food. We have guys talking about $100 worth of food and water at DSC or SCI. For a middle class hunter, that can cut into the hunting. Hell I only had 80 Euro in the whole trip, including fuel, tickets, parking and food.

I don't think you can compare it with a show in America. I have been to Safari Club in Reno, the Wild Sheep Show, several regional Sportsmen's Shows, a hunting/gun show in Cordoba, Spain, and alot of big camping shows worldwide. It is about the same size as the sheep show, maybe slightly smaller on firearm and outfitter representation. One of the biggest outdoor/camping shows I have ever been to was in Australia in Canberra. The revier end of this show was equal of anything I had seen in a camping/off road type show.

Lowpoints!

The dogs were over wealming, I think it was also overwealming for the dogs. The first two hours were fine, but when it got to be a zoo, and you had to make sure you weren't stepping on a wienerdog's face it got rough. I passed by a couple of men that were probably 6'6, and I kept thinking how the hell have you not killed 10 dogs by now? I am 5'11 and pretty concious of where I put my feet. It was tough toward the end.

The other sad thing is that because of the crowd, there is no way I would have brought my children. Maybe a weekday would have been fine, but I saw very few young children and I think that was why.

I am not really a wuss, but I thought security was minimal. Maybe far too minimal? Maybe there were 300 plain clothes Police, and I didn't know it.

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We go every year! Sunday is the day to go ... no trucks on the Autobahn so traffic is easier getting to Dortmund plus there are always last day deals on offer. Last year I picked up a rifle case 25% off as it was a closing day 'Messe-Angebot".

Fri and Sat usually pretty busy.

Let me know what you decide. Great to meet up.

Cheers

Charlie

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Thursday is a good day!
Sunday can be extremely terrible when there are football matches, blocked highways and so on!

Next year when we don't have 3 sick kids at home, it will be a little easier to plan and I think I'll go up Wednesday after work and come home Thursday about 1500.

That way I have more time and don't have to face the 3 hour drive twice in one day.

Building 6 was pretty boring for me, I was following the Shot show and seen most of the new firearms and optics. So I didn't spend much time in there.