If parking is an indicator of success, then the 17^th Annual Buckmasters Expo was a huge success.  Buckmasters was founded in 1985 by Jackie Bushman and the first Expo held in 1993.  This year, at the Montgomery Convention Center in Montgomery, Alabama, the Expo featured 200 vendors, 300 booths, the Top Bow Indoor World Championship, deer scoring, guest speakers, and so many products to boggle and inspire the mind. 

The doors opened Friday at 3:00pm with a flurry of guests and the clink of canned goods.  Admission to the Buckmasters Expo is one canned good per person and close to 30,000 visitors dropped their food items in large white carts as they entered the door.  Buckmasters donates the canned items to the Salvation Army, who pick up the truck-loads of food from the convention center and distribute through their extensive network.  Out of curiosity, I weighed a few cans of food in my own pantry; a can averages close to one pound.  Imagine 30,000+ pounds of food rolling down the highway.  Another benefit of the entry fee is the extra $10 to $15 in each person’s pocket to spend on the show room floor. 

Observant guests may have seen guys like Fred Eichier, Travis “T-Bone” Turner, Bill Jordan, Dave Watson, Willie Robertson, Jackie Bushman, and Robert Housholder.   Tracy Lawrence and Confederate Railroad held a concert on Saturday and Bucky and Drop Tine made appearances throughout the weekend in the Young Bucks room.  Outside the convention center, Dock Dogs put the four legged friends to the test in the Big Air Wave Competition while the Stihl Ironjack Timber Team put on a thrilling show.  Men, women, boys and girls; every one of them had a smile.  I even saw wives and girlfriends having a good time.

Throughout the weekend, Buckmasters hosted the BADF Top Bow Indoor World Championship.  Round one started with 48 shooters on Friday morning.  By the end of Friday, 24 shooters packed up and 24 shooters prepared for another day of competition.  Saturday opened with round three and hyped up through the morning.  Lunch brought a short reprieve for the shooters before the qualifying rounds kicked off.  All through the day, two archers, shooting New Breed Archery bows, remained in the cadre of top shooters.  Saturday ended with only five archers left to shoot on Sunday.  Sunday was a wild, raucous ride for archers and fans alike, the top five archers put on a show none will likely forget.  At the end of the day, when the targets were holey and worn, one man stood.  Tom Boatwright took the final round with a perfect score of 215.  Tom and his New Breed bow earned a $25,000 check and the title of Top Bow Indoor World Champion.

Along with 180outdoors, Talkhunting.com staff and members had the pleasure of manning a booth to share the Talkhunting adventure.  Also present were Talkhunting.com sponsors, the Whitetail Institute of America, Straight Creek Calls, Hunter Safety Systems, New Breed Archery, NuFletch Archery, and SECO outdoors.  I had a wonderful time talking with all of our sponsors and putting my hands on their respective products.  It was quickly obvious that these companies provide the best products in the industry.

I was able to study some new products that are available for this hunting season as well as visit with companies providing services.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Muddy Outdoors displayed a climbing stick design that promised to be compact and easily transportable.  Measuring 20 inches in length, each stick supports two levels of collapsible steps.  The steps fold into alignment with the stick for easy storage and transportation and drop into horizontal positions for climbing.  Each climbing stick also comes equipped with a rope, cam attachment system.  A rope, attached to the stick on one end, can be wrapped around a tree and pulled through the two, toothed cams. 

The cams will then grasp the rope and lock it into position.  A quick knot will then insure there will be no slipping.  Another convenient aspect of these climbing sticks is their ability to snap together making them easy to carry through the woods.  A four pack MSRPs for $149.99.  For more details on this and other products, visit www.gomuddy.com.

I visited with Tim and Tracey Miller, owners and operators of Straight Shooter Game Fencing, sharing with them the joys of Talkhunting.com and learning from them the ins and outs of durable fencing for wildlife and game uses.  Based out of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, Tim has consulted for and installed fencing for close to 15 years.  The majority of his customers wish to use the high fencing for attaining personal management goals on private properties.  Often, hunters just want to protect the young bucks from neighboring lands where the management program may be less stringent.  The Straight Shooter Game Fencing fence is an eight foot, aluminum cast fence with one strand of barbed wire along the top.  Tim uses class three galvanized fence.  The life expectancy of a fence like this is 50-100 years.  Miller is willing to travel anywhere in the country to assist a client and install fencing.  He offers a lifetime warranty for workmanship.  I asked Miller what he felt the readers should know about fencing and fence instillation.  “Get it right the first time.  Do the dirt work right and prevent erosion issues.”  You can find out more about Straight Shooter Game Fencing in the Buckmasters magazine add or by visiting www.ssgamefence.com.                     

There are two new Summit tree stands released for sale this year, the Dagger and the Switchblade.  Based off the Razor, the Dagger is an open-front climbing stand designed to fold up for convenient storage or for when being carried.  This climbing seat comes with all the characteristics a hunter is used to in Summit stands; comfortable padded seat, durable frame and easy to use locking cable.  Similarly, the Switchblade is based on the familiar Viper stand.  What makes these two stands so special is their ability to fold flat.  Each stand still retains a weight capacity of its counterpart and held up to the rudimentary shakedown I was able to give it at the Summit booth.  The capability to fold these stands gives each a luster of convenience, a temptation difficult to fight off with archery season so close around the corner.  www.summitstands.com

The 17^th Buckmasters Expo brought Talkhunting.com members together from all over the USA for the express purpose of sharing Talkhunting.com and Talkhunting Magazine with hunters and outdoors men and women.  We worked and played beside one another and we met new friends in hopes of building the Talkhunting family.  While the Buckmasters show may have been a success for Jackie Bushman and Buckmasters; it was definitely a success for Talkhunting.com.

By Brent Sawyer

TalkHunting Pro Staffer, Brent "Cobrican" Sawyer, was born into a sporting family.  His first couple years of life were spent on the banks of Lake Arthur and around his grandfather's farm in Jennings, La.  Even when his family moved to the city, they visited the farm often.  Brent's parents and Pawpaw spent as many hours as they could find taking him outside to learn how to care for and survive on the land around him.  They camped and hiked.  They gardened.  Brent joined the Boy Scouts as a Bobcat and continued to be involved through his High School days.  There, he learned many new skills to help him belong out of doors.  Brent and his cousins would often sleep out under the stars with only a blanket.  

At the age of 8 he was given his first BB gun.  At 10 he was allowed to hunt with a shotgun.  The family had a lease where they hunted, predominantly, Speckle-belly geese with the occasional snow or duck.  They also hunted doves and rabbits.  Brent learned how to call specks well enough to hunt on his own in only a short time.  About the time Brent went to college, his grandfather dropped the hunting lease.  Fortunately, North Louisiana offers some great opportunities for hunting on public lands.  He spent many hours duck hunting as well as hunting small game.  In 2000 Brent was invited to his first deer hunt.  Since then he has been fully involved in the deer hunting experience.  He also loves to fish.  Lately he has made more opportunities to fish salt water than freshwater but he enjoys both.

Brent Graduated with a degree in Forest Technology and has used his degree as a basis for hunting and recreation properties management.  He joined Talkhunting.com in 2008 and has attended gatherings in Louisiana and Alabama.  He also works for Breathe Safe Environmental Services as a third party monitor for lead and asbestos abatement.  He loves his job but hopes to be able to one day move exclusively to property management and consulting.