2019 SHOT Show – Day 2

The second day of SHOT Show offered something new – Pop-Up Preview. The Pop-Up Preview is a one-day only set of booths that brought nearly 200 new companies to the SHOT Show for the first time. The products ranged from first aid supplies, flexible solar panels, clothing, boots, and food freeze dryer. There was also Bison wool products ranging from boot inserts to hats. Here are some of the companies we spoke with:

• Nex-xos has developed a line of self-heating, home style meals in eleven flavors, with 6 more flavors being developed. Ivis Rubero, of Nex-Xos encouraged us to try a sample of the product of the Omeals which uses 3-5 ounces of any fluid to cook the meals in 3-5 minutes. The sample was Lentils with Beef and it was excellent quality. The full line comes in waterproof, light, and packable packaging for backpacking.

Omeals menu options from Nex-Xos.

• AMP-3 LLC sells a series of first aid kits, bags, and amateur radio products. Their first aid kits run from basic to Outfitter Clinic-in-a-roll. The Outfitter includes a compartment for the following: Trauma, Musculoskeletal, Dressings, Bandages, Medical Tools, Admin, Irrigation, Misc. Wound, Dental Kit, Blister Kit, SAM Splint, Eye Wash, Medication Module 1 & 2, Tape & Wrap, and Personal Protection. Owners Dave and Beth hand pack each order, rather that purchasing pre-packed kits to assure that each kit is assembled correctly.

• Over at BioLite, we spoke with Johnathon Kosakow, North American Sales Manager. BioLite produces a variety of sustainable energy products from camp stoves, solar LED lights, a solar lighting system, and as of last year, a smokeless fire pit. The fire pit burns either wood or charcoal and uses patented airflow technology to heat and burn the materials in the smoke before it is able to leave the pit. BioLite also has a division that works to bring clean burning stoves to Sub-Saharan Africa, where the inhalation of regular wood smoke within the kitchen area has left many children and adults with permanent breathing illnesses. We are going to connect the NYS 4-H Renewable Energy Specialist, Charles Malone with Johnathon.

Flexible and roll-up solar panels on display from SunSoaker

• At Harvestright they were showing off their home freeze dryer model. The home model is the smallest of one of three models, about the size of an apartment washing machine, that the company offers at this time. Long-term storage is one of the benefits of freeze drying – as much as 25 years. According to the company’s flyer, traditional dehydration and canning require high temperatures that the company claims degrades flavor, texture and nutritional content. We sampled some of their freeze dried red raspberries and they were delicious!

• At Tren LLC, we were introduced to NAQWA SWR-Spring, a portable drinking water resource by Vernon Hatch, President of Tren. The NAQWA is a filter that is not based on ceramics or charcoal but instead uses molecular cleaning, accomplished through track membrane technology. The track member consists of a polymer film with 10 microns deep. Each square centimeter of membrane contains hundreds of millions of pores of 0.2-0.4 microns in diameter. This membrane combines two forms of water recovery: (1) purification of bacteria and other contaminants, and (2) physical and informational water restructuring. The whole unit weighs 3 ounces.

• Frostime claims their product, the Blizbox, is a revolution in portable cooling. The Blizbox uses carbon dioxide in canisters mounted as part of a patented cooling device to control, monitor, and maintain refrigeration temperatures for up to 24 hours. If more time is needed, the CO2 canisters can be replaced. The group works with research & development at North Dakota State University.

The BlizBox CO2 cooling unit from Frostime. The tanks are refillable.

The main meeting for the day was with Charles Daly salesman, George Woford. Charles Daly is distributed through Chiappa, whose US location in Dayton, OH. Charles Daly is once again offering the Model 600 Semi-Auto in 12 and 20 gauge, they even have a left-handed compact model in 20. We also looked at the Model 601 Semi-Auto which has an extremely affordable retail price. The Model 301 Pump-Action currently is available only in right-handed 12 gauges.

North American Arms owner, Sandy Chisholm, continues to be a strong supporter of the NYS 4-H Shooting Sports program and works with Dave Baron owner of Baron Technology, Inc. (Baron Engraving) to make sure that one of their small-revolvers is included in our recent Annual Banquet & Auction events. Often times, the firearm is custom engraved by the artisans at Baron.

The day also held some interesting seminars on hunter and shooting sports recruitment. Data from the US Fish & Wildlife Service shows that hunter numbers continue to decline faster than new hunters are recruited. This has spawned the R3 initiative to Recruit, Retain, and Retrain hunters, fisherpersons, and shooting sports participants. Recruitment of youth who are interested continues to the primary effort, but has now expanded to non-traditional populations. Adults who are interested in learning to hunt or shoot but have no one to take them have become a focus audience.

One of the speakers from Quality Deer Management Association (www.qdma.com), Hank Forester, spoke about the Field to Fork program. This program was introduced to New York this year and recruits interested adults through farmers markets where many adults are looking for a more natural alternative to supermarket meat counters. The program has several years of success in Georgia plus seven participants who harvested deer in New York in 2018 and has now been expanded to offering these hunting opportunities to non-hunting employees at companies like Ruger and Sig Sauer.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation has introduced 2019 as +One: Grow the Sport. A challenge to all hunters and shooting enthusiasts to take someone new afield.

+One Challenge Coins introduced by the National Shooting Sports Foundation

John Bowe
Assistant Director
New York State 4-H Shooting Sports

New York State 4-H Shooting Sports at the 2018 SHOT Show

2018 representatives from New York State 4-H Shooting Sports at the SHOT Show include Director Bill Schwerd, Assistant Director John Bowe, Cornell University Campus Liaison Keith Tidball, Education Specialist Kenyon Simpson, Seneca County CCE Educator Moira Tidball and 4-H Teen Ambassadors Victoria Tidball and Charlotte Tidball from Seneca County.

New York State 4-H Shooting Sports representatives to the 2018 SHOT Show: Kenyon Simpson, Bill Schwerd, Dr. Keith Tidball (L to R back row) and John Bowe, Charlotte Tidball, Victoria Tidball and Moira Tidball (L to R front row)

New York State 4-H Shooting Sports Teen Ambassadors Victoria Tidball (L) and Charlotte Tidball (R) from Seneca County with U.S. Olympic Gold Medalist Kim Rhode (C) at the 2018 SHOT Show

(L to R) Seneca County CCE Educator Moira Tidball, 4-H Teen Ambassador Charlotte Tidball, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, 4-H Teen Ambassador Victoria Tidball and Cornell Campus Liaison Dr. Keith Tidball at the Community Service Clean-Up of Bureau of Land Management property in Nevada

The following is an excerpt on Day One at the 2018 SHOT Show written by NYS4-HSS Teen Ambassador Charlotte Tidball:

The first day was very exciting, I will admit waking up in a different time zone can be difficult but we soon gained our energy with a big breakfast. Initially arriving at SHOT Show everything looked kind of intimating. With the noise and people, huge banners and walls of all kinds of firearms imaginable surrounding you, you can be easily overwhelmed. We stayed in groups though and made our way to different organizations to look at firearms and promote 4-H Shooting Sports. Many of the people we met with today we already had connections with but we also met a lot of new people.

Today we focused on shotguns and finding the best ones for our program. My sister and I helped from a youth perspective shouldering various guns and seeing how we liked them. I like the Mossberg youth semi-auto and the Charles Daly compact semi-auto even more. Both have simple actions with no locks underneath for the bolt, and were light weight and comfortable.

Overall it was very interesting seeing the inner workings of the industry meeting new people and making connections, my feet are very sore though!

Our New York contingent put on many miles a day at the 2018 SHOT Show that ran from January 23-26 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

4-H Teen Ambassador Victoria Tidball (R) trying on a new youth model treestand harness and NYS4-HSS Cornell Campus Liaison Dr. Keith Tidball (L) at the Summit Stands booth at the 2018 SHOT Show

The following is an excerpt on Day Two at the 2018 SHOT Show written by NYS4-HSS Teen Ambassador Charlotte Tidball:

Day 2 of SHOT Show was a success. Though my feet are still sore we found a cool booth that has American made cushion socks- Farm to Feet, so maybe tomorrow they won’t! All of theirs products are made from wool from local American farms, they believe in safe factory conditions and environmental impacts. It’s great seeing a company 100% made in the US, even the ink is local. This connects to other aspects of 4-H like livestock programs, knitting/weaving, and entrepreneurship.

In other news, Tori, Mo, and I met Jim Shockey at the Crosman booth today. We talked to him about 4-H Shooting Sports and hunting as a family. He autographed our picture books and enjoyed looking through them. We took pictures with him as well. Afterwards he asked us if it was alright if he posted them and added a link to our website on his official social media pages! That was very exciting and will help promote 4-H.

Tori and I looked at a lot of pistols today. At Crosman we saw many light weight air pistols some of which we use for our programs already. Personally, I really liked the tiny North American Arms pistols and the pretty guns – Great Gatsby style with all the cowboy stuff. Hopefully someday I can get one of my own and maybe even engrave it; we looked at some with Baron engravings that were beautiful.

Later on, we visited Winchester and talked with someone about their lead free bullets and the importance of lead free bullets in health and nutrition. Being a hunter who eats my harvest myself, I don’t want to worry about having lead in my food and the impact it could have on my health. Overall today we made some good connections and the day went by much faster now that we knew how the navigate the huge show and knew roughly where we were headed.

Education Specialist Kenyon Simpson (L) with Wally Gardiner (R) of Bear & Son Cutlery, Inc.

Director Bill Schwerd (L) with George Woford (R) at the Charles Daly of Chiappa Firearms booth

Our 4-H Teen Ambassadors also had the opportunity to meet with representatives from several New York State 4-H Shooting Sports sponsors and donors including Tetra Gun (Event Sponsor of the 2017 NYS4-HSS Banquet & Auction), Utica Cutlery, Vista Outdoor (Savage, Federal Premium Ammunition), Hornady, North American Arms, Baron Technology, Crosman and Camp Chef as well as many other friends of 4-H Shooting Sports:

(L to R) 4-H Teen Ambassadors Victoria Tidball and Charlotte Tidball with Greg Cohen of Tetra Gun and Seneca County CCE Educator Moira Tidball

Jon Zinnel (L) and Ryan Bronson (R) of Vista Outdoor with Seneca County CCE Educator Moira Tidball and 4-H Teen Ambassador Charlotte Tidball

(L to R) Seneca County CCE Educator Moira Tidball with Sandy Chisholm of North American Arms and 4-H Teen Ambassador Charlotte Tidball

Dave Miles (L) with Seneca County CCE Educator Moira Tidball, 4-H Teen Ambassadors Victoria and Charlotte Tidball, Dave Baron (second from R) and Cornell Campus Liaison Dr. Keith Tidball at the Baron Technology booth, SHOT Show 2018

The following is an excerpt on Day Three at the 2018 SHOT Show written by NYS4-HSS Teen Ambassador Charlotte Tidball:

To kick off Day 3, we had a meeting with Hornady where we thanked them for their support and encouraged more of it. Jason Hornady was an outgoing host and his daughter is thinking of attending college in our area.

(L to R) 4-H Teen Ambassadors Victoria Tidball and Charlotte Tidball with Jason Hornady of Hornady Corporation and Seneca County CCE Educator Moira Tidball

Afterwards, we walked around a bit and that’s when we saw the Fausti booth. Tori and I already had really wanted to meet them and look at their guns so we went in and started talking to a guy who showed us some of them. We shouldered a beautiful women’s 4 10 and a 28 gauge – they fit smoothly and were light and easy to shoulder. Not to mention how gorgeous they were. Then the Fausti sisters got out of their meetings and we finally got to meet them! They were so sweet and excited to meet us-two sisters, like them who enjoy shooting. They gave us all sorts of goodies and signed our photo books. At the end they asked us for our information so they could follow us on Instagram and the next day they posted one of the many photos we took with them.

4-H Ambassadors, sisters Charlotte and Victoria Tidball (C), with Fausti sisters Giovanni (L) and Barbara (R) at the Fausti booth

We headed for the Crosman booth next, we talked with Mark DeBoard and made some connections as we waited in line to meet Eva Shockey. She was very nice and liked to see us young girls hunting and shooting starting from a young age. She told us she wished she had started young as well but she didn’t think hunting was for girls so she didn’t start until her 20s. She also signed our book and we took pictures with her, she even took pictures on her own phone.

Later we also visited Utica Cutlery and Faulk’s Game Calls to meet and thank them for their support. Additionally Mo (my mom) and my sister, Tori, made a great connection with Camp Chef and Girls with Guns and we will hopefully be receiving baskets for the banquet and from Girls With Guns we might even get some gear to wear during the auction itself.

(L to R) 4-H Teen Ambassador Charlotte Tidball, Mike Matthews of Utica Cutlery, 4-H Teen Ambassador Victoria Tidball and Seneca County CCE Educator Moira Tidball

We ended the day at Excalibur Crossbows. We looked at two bows that were very well suited for youth usage and one in particular had a built in crank system with a strap that prevents dangerous free spooling. This bow is great for kids, especially, or smaller people who struggle with the draw weight. The crank also makes it possible to de-cock the bow without firing using by reversing the crank. The model also has an adjustable stock so the crossbow fit me, my sister, and my dad alike. The versatility of this bow would be great to have on the range.

All in all it was a great day meeting cool people, looking at all sorts of firearms and making great connections.

The following is an excerpt on Day Four at the 2018 SHOT Show written by NYS4-HSS Teen Ambassador Charlotte Tidball:

SHOT Show Day 4 – Friday morning was the last day in Vegas for SHOT Show; but my family and a colleague, John Bowe, and I didn’t go to SHOT show that day. Everyone said that on the last day we got to do something even better. Thanks to a public service opportunity through the Bureau of Land Management, we were able to meet the United States Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke.

After getting to sleep in for an extra hour, we met up with a caravan a little ways outside of Las Vegas and then drove to a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) public shooting range that needed to be cleaned up. When we got there, I couldn’t even tell it was a range except for the empty shells covering the ground. There was trash everywhere and it was a mess. Later we found out that the people organizing the clean-up had already been to this range and cleaned it up twice and they said this was nothing compared to what it was like.

There were about 50 people from different organizations there and of course, Secretary Zinke was there too. We all got bags and gloves and were set to work. Being used to clean private ranges back east, it was crazy seeing all of the trash that was there. It felt good cleaning up public lands with all of these people and helping to create a safe range to encourage more shooting sports in the area. It was sad to see the range in that condition and hard to think of the kind of people who would leave it like that. In 4-H we like to leave things better than we found them.

During our work, I was interviewed by a SHOT Show camera crew and that was a little scary but cool. After we were done, we were able to meet with Secretary Zinke and get a picture with him which was very exciting.

When we completed the clean-up, we had some time before meeting up with the others, so we made a little excursion to another BLM managed public land. This one was a park or “scenic loop”, called Red Rock Canyon. The rock formations were so pretty and we hiked around and took picture of the rocks and beautiful views. There was also a trail to see petroglyphs in the rock wall and that was so cool to see. It was a great end to a fun week full of doing new things and meeting cool people.

New York State 4-H Shooting Sports Teen Ambassadors Charlotte Tidball (in photo) and Victoria Tidball participated in the Community Service Clean Up of Bureau of Land Management property in Nevada

A few photos from our 18th Annual NYS4-HSS Banquet & Auction Event!

Thank you to everyone who attended and supported our 18th Annual New York State 4-H Shooting Sports Banquet & Auction event on Saturday night – we greatly appreciate all you do!

Here are a few crowd photos from the Live Auction portion of our event…

Special thanks to Talk of the Town Auction House, John and Beverly Stanislowsky and our Auctioneer, Dusty Cleveland.

Auctioning off the 2017 Gun of the Year by North American Arms with Special Engraving by Baron Technology:

It was a full house for the 2017 Banquet & Auction…

More photos will be up on our website in the future, please stay tuned!

2016 Banquet & Auction Event Update!

Be sure to visit our Banquet & Auction pages for photos and listings of several of the over 300 items in our 2016 event. We will continue to add to our photos and listings, as possible, until April 23.

Thanks to the generosity of our many donors, sponsors and friends, we have an incredible selection of items in this years Live Auction, including this great Cub Cadet Mini Tiller provided courtesy of Emerich Sales & Service.

We’ll also have more beautiful jewelry items like this handmade beaded necklace set by Mary Jenney.

If your looking for firearms, we’ll have many in our event by makers such as Henry, Savage, North American Arms, Ruger and Mossburg as well as Crossman Airguns – more than we have room to show on our site. There’s also archery equipment, gear, ammo, safes, hunting, fishing, camping, cooking, outdoor packages and so much more!

For those new to our event and the Fort William Henry Hotel & Conference Center, parking areas are indicated in grey on the map below. Please note, there is no parking directly next to Tower’s Hall. If you require assistance in getting over to our event, please go to the main entrance/lobby area of the Hotel (indicated as “1”) and we will help get you to Tower’s Hall. (Please click on the map for a larger version.)

Questions? Please contact the NYS4-HSS office at 518-885-8995.

To view photos from our past Banquet & Auction Events, please click here.

We look forward to seeing you there!

SHOT Show Day 3

There is sometimes a decline in foot traffic around the SHOT Show exhibit halls on Day 3 though this morning there didn’t seem to be any slowdown in the number of people doing business. It’s pretty amazing considering one of the outdoor writers we met said he’d traveled 10 miles the first day inside the show and had logged five miles before lunch today.

The first two days of the SHOT Show, for us, are spent focusing on current partners and donors. We’re able to drop off materials that demonstrate our successes, visit and thank them for their generous support and donations. On day 3 we get to wander around the show more, look at new items and see new companies.

Colleen Kimble (L) and Logan Kimble-Lee (R) with Sandy Chisholm (C) owner of North American Arms – friend and supporter of 4-H Shooting Sports .

During today’s walk through the show Logan, Colleen and I visited with Starr at Laughing Rabbit, Inc. (LRI), an innovative woman owned company that’s making great inroads in a traditionally male dominated industry. LRI makes Photon lights which are tiny keychain lights which can be seen up to one mile away. These little lights are an excellent little product at an affordable price.

We also visited with the owner of PFI Mold, the maker of Z-blade knives. This small company retooled a product they had developed for the medical industry. The knife is essentially a scalpel blade with an injection molded handle and they developed a locking cap/sheath to allow it to ride in backpacks, coat pockets, and field coats without the risk of cutting the fabric. The blade is surgically sharp and is demonstrated in a company video that shows field dressing, skinning, and caping elk.

We later stopped by the Red Rock Outdoor Gear booth to look at the many backpacks, carry bags, and gear organizers they had. Colleen, who raises Clumber Spaniels, also noticed their dog leashes and collars.

Meanwhile, Kenyon met the owner of Hogue Grips and as they discussed Shooting Sports, the owner recalled how his daughters had grown into great young women due in part to 4-H which can only happen with the assistance of caring parents who make the time for their kids activities. 4-H is everywhere!

Over at Industrial Revolution, Logan, Colleen, and I met Dave Canterbury, a well-known survival expert who used to appear in Discovery Channel’s Dual Survival and is the owner of the Pathfinder School in Ohio. There we looked at the Light My Fire knife, which is produced for Industrial Revolution by Mora of Sweden.

Assistant Director John Bowe with survival expert Dave Canterbury at the Industrial Revolution booth . IR produces the Light My Fire Brand.

Back at the Adventure Medical/Survive Outside Longer booth, the group ordered a number of Urban Survivor backpack kits to use in upcoming fundraisers and with Hunter Education courses. NYS4-HSS may have some extras available if you need an Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN) kit.

Last year, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) opened a SHOT Show store. The sales from that store went very well, even better than their staff had expected, which prompted the opening of a second NSSF store for the 2016 show too. Items there included vests, hoodies, polos, t-shirts, hats, and even shotshell shaped shot glasses and wad cutter shaped thermoses.

Project Childsafe is a program that is now being operated by National Shooting Sports Foundation. The project has given away 37 million FREE locks in last 15 years!

At almost every booth we visited, family was an important part of the success. Even in a time when smaller companies have ties to or are becoming parts very large corporations, there are still strong family ties in the industry. Many of these companies have several generations, or extended family members, engaged in different parts of manufacturing or sales. There is so much comradery at the SHOT Show that in a way, it is like one big family in and of itself. Importantly too, many of these families have connections to 4-H in one way or another.

Richard Baron (L), Colleen Kimble (CL), Logan Kimble-Lee (CR) and Emily Baron (R) at the Baron Technology Booth.

Until Day 4, safe travels!

John Bowe
NYS4-HSS Assistant Director

New York State 4-H Shooting Sports at the 2015 SHOT Show

The SHOT Show kicked off in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 20th with two different faces representing New York State 4-H Shooting Sports for 2015. Dr. Keith Tidball of Cornell University’s Department of Natural Resources is attending the event for the first time and describes the show as “Keith’s Heaven.” Joining Keith is NYS4-HSS Assistant Director, John Bowe, who started opening day as the newest member of the National 4-H Shooting Sports Committee as Northeast Representative and then quickly on to his duties representing New York State at the Show.

The first day of the SHOT Show was a great success for NYS4-HSS with Keith and John spending quality time speaking with many long-term partners including Ryan Bronson from Federal Ammunition and Cathy Hale from Savage Arms – both companies are under the parent company ATK.

(L to R) Keith Tidball, John Bowe, Cathy Hale, Savage Arms and Ryan Bronson, Federal Ammunition

Wally Gardiner, President, Canal Street Cutlery, was proudly wearing his NYS 4-H Shooting Sports pin at his booth and showed Keith and John an exceptional new fixed blade knife they are just releasing.

Wally Garder, Canal Street Cutlery (L) with Keith Tidball (R)

John and Sherry Anthon welcomed our Reps at the GATCO/Timberline booth and shared the exciting news that they now have a Gas Monkey Garage line of knives and a new multi-task sharpener/fire starter. Our Reps also met up with Crosman Corporation’s Shooting Services Manager, Mark DeBoard, who showed them the highly impressive new Bulldog .357 pneumatic high-caliber air gun, powerful enough to take both white-tail deer and feral hogs.

John Bowe (L) holding the Bulldog .357 Airgun with Mark DeBoard (R) at Crosman

Over at the North American Arms booth, President, Sandy Chisholm was both eager and very pleased to hear what 4-H is doing to educate youth about firearms safety. At the Baron Technology booth, the Baron family and staff spoke with Keith and John about their dedicated support to the NYS 4-H Shooting Sports Program. For 2015, Baron Technology will once again be custom engraving a special Limited Edition Firearm especially for NYS4-HSS.

The folks at Columbia River Knife & Tool showed several great new knife offerings and our Reps also enjoyed meeting with knife designer Pat Crawford from Crawford Knives. In another meeting at the J.P. Sauer & Sohn booth, Keith and John discussed potential options the company may be able to offer the NYS4-HSS program.

Keith and John also connected with our colleagues from the National 4-H Shooting Sports program, the National Wild Turkey Federation, the National Muzzeloading Rifle Association, Project Childsafe, and the International Hunter Education Association.

After a long and busy day covering over 6 miles of the SHOT Show floor, and as part of their cultural education, Keith and John partook of traditional Japanese cuisine for dinner – Sashimi and Nagari. It was John’s first experience with Japanese cuisine and he said it was … Delicious!

Shibuya Chef Harvo – preparing Salmon Sashimi