Brent Wheat
ORLANDO, Fla. -- This week we have made our annual pilgrimage to the Shooting, Hunting, Outdoors Trades (SHOT) Show, held this year at the Orange County Convention Center.
One good way for new readers to understand the size and scope of this trade show is to appreciate the advice we give to first-time attendees: Walking in the doors is like seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time. The first comment is invariably "Man, this thing is BIG!"
We just completed our first walking tour of the aisles. It has taken three days and should work out to around 14-15 miles on foot according to the pedometer my cohort Ken religiously wears on his belt. The subtitle for the show should be, "Welcome to Orlando. Bring comfortable shoes."
The walking can prove challenging but otherwise this show is a wonderland of new products, old products, new friends, famous faces and everything to do with hunting and shooting.
Our usual SHOT Show columns cover the dumbest product ideas found during the show, on the premise that it is easier to make fun of things than write insightful commentary. However, after many years of that formula, I'm going to make an attempt at writing a real story that follows generally accepted journalism practices. In other words, we'll try to avoid any booger jokes.
We'll see.
Scented string
This product immediately caught our eye. It is the combination of children's aerosol fun string and deer scent. If you don't understand my non-copyright-infringing name for the product, this is the stuff that comes in aerosol cans that children spray over each other and grind into the carpet during birthday parties.
Away Hunting Products designer Fred Abbas came up with the idea of putting deer scents in aerosol string and selling the stuff to deer hunters. Each can contains 300 feet of the black string and comes in several scents such as doe estrus, apple, vanilla/acorn and bacon flavor for bear hunters.
To use, the hunter sprays it high in a bush or shrubbery around your stand where the string serves as a massive scent wick. It lasts about three days before drying up and falling to the ground as biodegradable fluff but the scent is also partially re-activated by dew or rainfall. This new product should be available before next deer season.
We are intrigued by the product and possess a sample to test. Either Mr. Abbas has dreamed up the next great scent delivery system or has given me a fantastic new practical joke technology.
It could be both.
Southpaw revolver
On the shooting front, one big splash has been the Charter Arms Southpaw revolver. The compact handgun is the first such major-manufacturer wheel gun in a long time.
The obvious target market for this gun would be first-time left-handed revolver shooters who had not already instilled right-handed technique. The gun should be available within a few months.
Illumitacks
This product looks somewhat unimpressive in the package but would invariably shine after the sun went down.
The folks at Illumitacks have taken small, bright, pellet-sized LED lights and mated them with a strong magnet on the back. The resulting light is packaged in one of several kits that could prove unbelievably useful to outdoors enthusiasts.
One product is an emergency trailer light kit for those moments, typically about half the trips after dark, when your trailer lights fail.
Another neat product is an emergency boat light kit. When your navigation lights fail, the LEDs will work in place of the normal front red/green marker and rear white light.
Next week we'll continue on our journey through the 2007 SHOT Show. For more much more information, photos and a show floor blog, visit www.wildindiana.com.
ORLANDO, Fla. -- This week we have made our annual pilgrimage to the Shooting, Hunting, Outdoors Trades (SHOT) Show, held this year at the Orange County Convention Center.
One good way for new readers to understand the size and scope of this trade show is to appreciate the advice we give to first-time attendees: Walking in the doors is like seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time. The first comment is invariably "Man, this thing is BIG!"
We just completed our first walking tour of the aisles. It has taken three days and should work out to around 14-15 miles on foot according to the pedometer my cohort Ken religiously wears on his belt. The subtitle for the show should be, "Welcome to Orlando. Bring comfortable shoes."
The walking can prove challenging but otherwise this show is a wonderland of new products, old products, new friends, famous faces and everything to do with hunting and shooting.
Our usual SHOT Show columns cover the dumbest product ideas found during the show, on the premise that it is easier to make fun of things than write insightful commentary. However, after many years of that formula, I'm going to make an attempt at writing a real story that follows generally accepted journalism practices. In other words, we'll try to avoid any booger jokes.
We'll see.
Scented string
This product immediately caught our eye. It is the combination of children's aerosol fun string and deer scent. If you don't understand my non-copyright-infringing name for the product, this is the stuff that comes in aerosol cans that children spray over each other and grind into the carpet during birthday parties.
Away Hunting Products designer Fred Abbas came up with the idea of putting deer scents in aerosol string and selling the stuff to deer hunters. Each can contains 300 feet of the black string and comes in several scents such as doe estrus, apple, vanilla/acorn and bacon flavor for bear hunters.
To use, the hunter sprays it high in a bush or shrubbery around your stand where the string serves as a massive scent wick. It lasts about three days before drying up and falling to the ground as biodegradable fluff but the scent is also partially re-activated by dew or rainfall. This new product should be available before next deer season.
We are intrigued by the product and possess a sample to test. Either Mr. Abbas has dreamed up the next great scent delivery system or has given me a fantastic new practical joke technology.
It could be both.
Southpaw revolver
On the shooting front, one big splash has been the Charter Arms Southpaw revolver. The compact handgun is the first such major-manufacturer wheel gun in a long time.
The obvious target market for this gun would be first-time left-handed revolver shooters who had not already instilled right-handed technique. The gun should be available within a few months.
Illumitacks
This product looks somewhat unimpressive in the package but would invariably shine after the sun went down.
The folks at Illumitacks have taken small, bright, pellet-sized LED lights and mated them with a strong magnet on the back. The resulting light is packaged in one of several kits that could prove unbelievably useful to outdoors enthusiasts.
One product is an emergency trailer light kit for those moments, typically about half the trips after dark, when your trailer lights fail.
Another neat product is an emergency boat light kit. When your navigation lights fail, the LEDs will work in place of the normal front red/green marker and rear white light.
Next week we'll continue on our journey through the 2007 SHOT Show. For more much more information, photos and a show floor blog, visit www.wildindiana.com.