Hunters boost Missouri Gun and Knife Show attendance

If attendance at the weekend's Missouri Gun and Knife Show meets projections, part of the reason will be a large turnout of outdoor enthusiasts, one of the promoters of the event said.

While the spring version of the semiannual event at the Show Me Center tends to draw more collectors, "the fall show is more for sportsmen," said J.D. King. "People are getting ready for the hunting season."

King, who with Jody and Bill Geiser has been promoting the event at the Show Me Center since 2002, said Saturday afternoon that attendance is running "a little ahead" of March's show so far. The show opened at 4 p.m. Friday.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we go over 8,000," King said.

A Ripley County gun dealer who has been displaying at the show said a lot of his traffic for the fall show comes from parents buying their children their first hunting rifle.

"This time of year the main object is youth-model guns because people are getting ready to take their kids deer hunting," said Jerry Halley, owner of Jerry's, a Doniphan, Mo., outdoor-products store. "Youth models are very hot."

A popular exhibit at the show gave youths an opportunity to get hands on shooting experience.

Jim Beggs, a member of the Cape Area Friends of the NRA, manned the National Rifle Association's youth training range. For $3 youngsters could stand at one end of a 28-foot-long steel cylinder and fire 24 pellets at a target at the other end. The air rifle was powered by a canister of compressed air under the apparatus, and the rifle itself was chained to the interior of the tube, making it impossible to remove the barrel of the gun from the tube.

"It's perfectly safe," Beggs said. "We've had kids that have never fired anything before, some of them 3 and 4 years old." Beggs said some of the youths visiting the training center were going home with their first rifles.

Beggs said the NRA had received about 20 new membership applications so far at the show.

Conrad Klusmeier Sr. of Scott City is an avid shooter who has had to curtail much of his shooting due to doctor's orders.

"I'm not supposed to lift more than five pounds with either arm," said Klusmeier, who admits to being older than 75 and calls himself "a gun nut." Klusmeier was shopping for a lightweight .410-gauge shotgun.

Halley, who said he has been displaying guns at shows for more than 20 years, said the Missouri Gun and Knife Show has grown into one of the premier shows of its kind.

"Because of the facility here, the amount of guns here and the amount of vendors that show up, I told [the promoters] that this has the potential to be one of the best gun shows in the Midwest," Halley said.

The show opens at 8 a.m. today and concludes at 4 p.m.

Pertinent Address:

1333 N. Sprigg St., Cape Girardeau, MO