Contributors to this thread:
yep, i thought it was one of the better shows last year.
I've got two one day tickets that I would mail someone. I had something come up and can't go. My only request is if it would be someone that would use one to bring a child or new hunter. PM me with your address if interested.
I'll be there all three days. My only hope is that our booth isn't next to Lee and Tiffany's booth!
I'll be there Friday with the family, then headed out of town for the weekend.
Zinger, what booth are you in?
RutNut,
I'm going and will be taking my two sons (3&5). If you still have the tickets I'll take them. I'll send you a PM with my info.
Thanks!
Happy, I don't say what company I work for because I don't want anyone to think that the things I say on here are the companies opinions, they are mine and mine alone.
But before someone suggests it no I do not work for a crossbow company LOL!
Tickets are gone guys, I wish I had more as the response was great and I'd love to have tickets for everyones kids.
Oh man, it would sure be severe punishment to be sentenced to spend a whole weekend looking at Tiffany. Maybe you could even get her to show you her shooting technique.
Lee and Tiffany are in booths 106/107/108.
Man Zinger I was hoping to meet you at the crossbow booth you signed up for. I will be the one wearing plaid, suspenders and a Fed Bear Hat at the shooting range trying to group some ten rings with my recurve! :)
I will go more than likely Friday
I hope to get some shooting lessons from Melissa Bachman.
Jeff, until you have 1000 people standing in line to see her in front of your booth so people can't get to your booth to buy anything. Personally she does nothing for me. The bubble headed blonde image she either is or tries to put on turns me off.
Not saying I would kick her out for eating crackers in bed though!
Am I the only one who does not know who Melissa Bachman Is?
I think she is a member of the tea party and ran for pres before obummer
She's quite the hunter with both bow and gun. She went through quite an uproar a little while back for shooting an African Lion. The anti's were so pissed they got Face Book to delete her page. I sat and talked with her for about a have hour in Harrisburg and she's quite the hunter. Yes she's pretty but she can out hunt the vast majority of men without a problem.
I would like to meet Melissa Bachman I think she is the real deal
Not sure if she's all real if you know what I mean! LOL
Never thought of what a pain it would be to have a booth next to any of the big name outfits especially the ones that have a pretty face present.
"Not sure if she's all real if you know what I mean! LOL"
I actually was told by a very well known person in the industry that implants are pretty common in the women in hunting shows now days. They just write it off as a business expense. I'm not pointing fingers at anyone, nor do I really care. It's just another thing I never thought i'd see as common place in the hunting world. Then again I never thought I'd see "celeb" hunters driving vehicles with Nascar type sponsor decals.
OMG, now you have me wondering if some of the men on hunting shows have implants too.
Something like that could surely share my blind
I too enjoyed talking to Melissa. We talked about her Lion hunt too and the crap she took from the antis. The pic is with my son.
Redclub - At your age you better be behaving yourself!! :^)
Went to Deerfest on Sat. afternoon and saw the All American Treestand booth, was impressed by their climbing sticks. Grabbed a card and looked up website when I got home but I don't get anywhere with it, nor did his email address work. Anyone have any information on this product or owner Bill Gamble? Thanks
I talked extensively to Bill about his prototype all aluminum ladder stand he had in his booth. Just what the doctor ordered in my opinion. 26 lb.. and back packable to boot. Intelligent guy. He is out of Manitowoc. He has it listed at $350.00. A little steep but, very cool.
Boy were the manufactures pushing the crossbows. I shot one and frankly, believe they should be positioned with gun season. Sorry, they are not a bow in the least. And yes, I believe I could reach out to 70 yards in a heartbeat! I put three in the boiler room with minimal effort on the short range. Fun to shoot but, definitely not a tool of archery. They should only be allowed for either gun season or late season December/January.
Only time will tell but, my prediction is, crossbows will either be moved to a weapon option for gun season or get their own season after all others are completed first. They will have a negative impact on buck mortality with more heavy antlered bucks falling to them. Anyone that thinks crossbows are not more deadly accurate than any kind of bow is in complete denial and trying to protect their desire to put in less effort into getting a deer. They are not a bow!
My son just wouldn't let me walk by without getting a photo darn kids!!
Now that is a kid that has his priorities straight. She seemed like a pretty down-to-earth young lady. I think she looked as good in person as on TV. Was I the only one to notice that Lee kind of took a back seat to Tiff? He looked like a fish out of water.
I did notice that Lee would talk to people in line and then they would get pictures with Tiff. No way i was waiting in the line!!
I was there on Sat. The show seemed to be family friendly. I saw lots of families with kids and I think thats great. I also watched some kids having fun shooting 3D. which is awesome.
But the core of the show was one big infomercial for crosbows and the branded marketing gear of the bazillion tv shows in attendance.
it was hard to find much real hunting gear beyond the Crush® Acorn Rage® swamp donkey tshirts and crap.
I was there all 3 days in my booth with The Bow Keeper. Nice crowd, some real fun characters. It was great to hear the success stories from the people that bought them in the past and looking forward to hearing the future stories. Those of you looking for The Glove Nib it should be up on the website and available by the 20th of August.
I will say the "sceneary" walking around was pretty nice but honestly the use of hot women to sell hunting products is getting a little out of control IMHO. Do we really need an 18 year old enhanced blonde trying to sell us a treestand? It's gotten to the point of being insulting to women and I think it threatens to start turning women away from hunting.
Yes Tiffany was the attraction at their booth. Do you think Lee would even have a show if it wasn't for Tiffany? Personally the bleech blonde air head approach they use makes me turn away from them. I'm betting she's a very smart girl and uses the air head character as a marketing thing. Again it's insulting to women IMHO.
I loved the deer drag bar. A guy figured out how to sell a 30" piece of conduit for $29.99! And the booth offering $20 shipping on the feeder that's illegal in Wisconsin.
Lot's of TV show booths, I don't understand the new trend of gothic looking guys hunting and always looking angry. I guess that must be something the younger crowd likes.
I watched one booth with crossbows in it for 3 days and saw a lot of them sold, but I don't think I saw one sell to a guy under about 55, just an observation.
DBark, You don't seem to get advertising very well. To advertise on this page you're supposed to pay for it just like on other pages that you're blatent advertising has been taken off of. It costs money to run these sites and they recoup it by charging people to advertise. You keep trying to steel is. How would you like it if someone kept coming to your booth and steeling your product?
it would scare the crap out of me to work out in that bow shooting area some of them things sounded like they were going to blow up when being shot.
Wow Zinger - your on fire!
Some great points ya made there and observations!
Your absolutely correct - but SEX does sell and always has and always will. We men are idiots (well most of us) and tight fanny and chesty gals send most of us over the top! Just read some of the comments about Tiff!
I have never met Lee, but he impresses me and is often shadowed by his wife. Lee appears to be a great hunter and an all around nice fella! Soft spoken and even keeled in my observations!
Yep, most folks do pay for advertising!
I've met Lee and Tiffany and they have become successful for a reason. Both are great hunters, personalities, and are good looking. Jealously is human nature but who wouldn't want to be in Lees position?
Business must be good when you see their mansion bus! They have an awesome situation and good for them! They are living the dream...
Zinger, quite possibly the best post of the year. A spade is a spade! Good observations and well articulated.
Redclub - At your age you better be behaving yourself!! :^)
Yep, Lots of wishful thinking,I went Sunday and these celeb chicks were quite willing to talk to an Ol'Geezer probably thought He's cute and harmless. I think I bought a shirt and glue for tent fabric. It was pretty easy to negotiate with the lady vendors. Not really much of a show for me though, not interested in TV Hunting
Zebrakiller, I was working one of the booths there, and there was one crossbow, that everytime it went off, I was waiting for parts to start flying...it scared quite a few people every time it went off. There was quite a few kids wanting to shoot bows for the first time, I had one, draw back, the arrow came off the rest and he almost shot me in the ribs...scared the crap out of the kid and luckily it was a 20# recurve that I was able to hold back. The only issue I had with this show, is we had a few guys who were drunk and trying to shoot bows/crossbows and they had issues before trying to shoot.
I'm not jealous in the least of them. I say congradulations to them and the others that are succesfull at doing what they enjoy. But I really wonder how much they enjoy it after a while? While it sounds great to be able to hunt all the time that's not what they do. This time of the year they are at shows like this every weekend. If you've never done a show it sounds fun, and they are for a little while but trust me they get old real fast! How many stories of the big one that got away can you stand before you go crazy? Then there's the sponsor obligations traveling all over the country. They probably put in more hours than most of us do. It's not all about hunting, in fact very little of it is actual hunting.
I've been in the outdoor industry for almost 20 years. People always say how great it would be to be able to work in the hunting or fishing industry. Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining but it's still work, and hard work at that! I remember my first year or two when I had to go to shows, I couldn't wait to go to them. Now it's one of the things I dread the most of my job, and I'm not alone by any means. It's also taken it's toll on my outdoor activities. My boats been in the water 3 times this year because weekends are filled with shows and in-stores. Guess when the sales meetings for most products are? Yep fall so it cuts into hunting time. Last January I was in Vegas for 15 days straight, everyone said how great that must be, For the first 6 days I didn't see the sun or the moon as I never got out of the convention hall and that was attached to my hotel!
I guess it sounds like I'm complaining but that's not really true, just saying what it's like for most people in the industry and I'm sure it's even worse for the celebrities. Like my mom always said; be careful what you wish for.
Redclub - Ol' Geezer? Man you have it going on and the gal's can sense that you rascal! I bet it was easy to negotiate with the lady vendors, I wish I had your good looks! :^)
Good Hunting!
Holy Crap Zinger - I'm really starting to feel bad! Good job.
Yep, Zingers right and he makes several good points!
A job is a job, is a job!
It's like any other job - Starting out lotta "interesting" stuff, but it gets old/tiring after awhile - there are not many that can keep the pace and those that do, we all know the names.
But dont think for a second it does not get to any one of them from time to time. Including Mr. and Mrs. Lakowsky. You can bet the farm that there are days those two would sell the farm for 50 cents just to get away for awhile. It's tough and certainly not for everyone.
It's a business, plain and simple. What they are selling is the Outdoors - which is quite available to each and everyone of us. They take it a step further and create a hunting environment that few of us will ever experience. They kill BIG deer constantly on video. But even so, that IS NOT easy - it's hard work!
People like Will Primos, Toxey Haas, Cuz Strickland, Brenda Valentine and Bill Jordan as well as our friend Stan "give me a second" Potts have all had very sucessfull careers in this industry to name a few.
