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Owning a firearm purchased at this weekend’s Lloydminster Gun and Outdoor Sportsman Show could be as quick and easy as pulling a trigger.
Organizers from the Lloydminster and District Fish and Game Association have invited the chief firearms officers from Alberta and Saskatchewan to the Servus Sports Centre event on Jan. 20-21.
“They’re going to help speed up the (ownership) transfer process at the gun show,” said event chair Janelle Mysko.
“We also have some MPs from the area to support us firearm owners too.”
Mysko refers to recent federal government legislation that makes it harder for law-abiding citizens to own firearms.
The invited politicians include Battlefords-Lloydminster MP, Rosemarie Falk.
“Falk is showing she supports us law abiders,” said Mysko.
The main attraction for attendees though, will be seeing more than 230 exhibitors including some new ones.
“So we’re excited to see what they bring,” said Mysko.
“We have a motorized wheelchair which is really cool for some of the disabled hunters. They’re going to be doing some demonstrations with that.”
There will also be a few air soft rifle exhibitors on hand in keeping with the rapid growth of the sport and competitions.
“That’s something we don’t usually have a lot of there, so it’s kind of exciting,” said Mysko who notes an air rifle has become trendy lately for several reasons.
“This is something that is very easy to shoot, value-priced and ammunition is very readily available.”
Dwayne Davison, president of the association is hoping for a continuation of cold weather to repeat the huge turnout they had last year.
“That is quite notable over the years too. If it’s nice out, people are doing the outdoors thing like ice fishing or travelling,” said Davison.
He says the cold temperature during the show gives people something to do on the weekend with something for everyone to experience at the show.
“It’s not all about guns. It’s outdoor stuff, camping—any kind of supplies for outdoor things,” Davison explained.
Tickets will also be available at the gun and sportsman show for the association’s Family Wildlife and Awards Banquet, to be held at Lloyd Ex on Jan 27.
“Our two main fundraisers are the gun show and our banquet,” said Davison.
There are annual awards to present for trophy antlers for game such as mule deer, whitetail deer, moose, and elk along with various fish and bear categories, but there’s fewer entries this year all around.
“Our numbers of submissions are definitely down this year. That’s happening throughout the province,” said Davison who cites a couple of possible reasons.
“Maybe we’re not getting the normal size of animals for antlers,” he suggested.
He also believes some hunters and anglers think they are not going to win because of that and do not send it in.
“It’s kind of an assumption,” he explained.
Fish and game memberships will also be available at the show where a lot of people buy them knowing they are based on the calendar year.
Davison is also stoked to lead a group of middle school students from the Lloydminster Public School Division on some Indigenous-focused winter activities at the association’s youth centre from Jan. 24-26.
Planned activities include snowshoeing, bannock making, snow snake games and a hunting and trapping presentation.
“This will be our third time doing that. We actually had it scheduled earlier in January, but we had to cancel it because of the weather,” said Davison.
“I’ve been out to it every year. It’s been very interesting learning about the culture and the storytelling. We also do archery instruction as one of the activities.”
