Deerstalking Fair, 23/24 March 2013

jamross65

Well-Known Member
I am currently involved in helping a friend of mine set up a Deerstalking Fair for the above dates. He has been involved in organising similar events in the past and has also attended fairs as a trader.

The event will be held at the Borders Union Agricultural Society Showground, Kelso. This is a fantastic exhibition venue offering a main and an auxiliary hall, both of which are heated as well as providing indoor catering facilities. It is hopefully not too far away so as to encourage friends from south of the border to attend as well!

The event will be similar to other Gamefairs except that all trade stands and exhibitors must in some way be connected to deerstalking. Whether that is a custom rifle builder to a company supplying larder equipment and everything in between. If there is no connection to deerstalking or of interest to stalkers, it wont be there.

The enquiries we have made with some traders and exhibitors suggest they are delighted that an event like this is being planned as they are also fed up going to fairs where all manner of non related stands are present.

We have spoken to some well known (at least well known in Scotland!!) folk (friends of ours) in the stalking world, including Callum Ferguson - Precision Rifle Services, Rudi Van Kets, President of the Flemish Hanoverian Scenthound Society, Colin Scott - Borders Taxidermy and the guys at CIC, who are all offering to provide short presentations throughout the day on various aspects of our sport, including tracking with dogs, preparing a beast for taxidermy, identifying aspects of a potential trophy and rifle related issues.

The CIC will have a trophy room display at the event showing numerous heads from the different species throughout their development, and will be inviting some of their continental counterparts over for the event as well. They will also be offering a head scoring facility throughout the fair which is part of the reason for this early post in the hope that anyone getting beasts this season worth scoring can keep them for the fair next spring, where they will also form part of the exhibition on that day.

The Stalking Directory who have kindly offered their support in this event will have a stand at the fair as well, which will be a great place for the members to meet up and scrounge free teas and coffee (and biscuits Jayb!). This event will no doubt be seen as much as a social event as offering the chance to pick up some good tips and advice, rub shoulders with fellow stalkers and even pick up a bargain!

Without the support of those in the trade and like-minded stalkers the event will not go ahead so please draw this to the attention of anyone you think may be interested.

The cost of entry will be £5 per person which includes free entry in a draw to win a Rivers West Stalking Smock, with children under 12 free! Parking is also free. There will be other prize draws available throughout the weekend. I know it seams cheap but this is the fair's first year and it is hoped this may even draw folk to come for the whole weekend. If it is a success it will become an annual event.

The Deerstalking Fair's website and email address is set up but not live yet. Once they can be accessed I will notify the SD members via this thread. It will be updated regularly on the blog to show exactly who is attending.

In the meantime if any trade members on here want to find out more about the event please drop me a PM.

My PC (broadband) is ridiculously slow just now but I will pop on a couple of relevant links later this evening.


http://www.buas.org/hall/

vlaamse zweethondengroep

http://www.precisionrifles.com/

http://www.bordertaxidermy.co.uk/

http://www.cictrophy.com/

http://www.deerstalkingfair.co.uk/blog/

















 
Last edited:
any thought about a game dealer/butcher doing a demo also maybe a chef doing demo of diffrent ways of cooking? keep the wifes intreasted while us men ogil custom weapons!
 
Brian best of luck you know my thoughts on this and i am in full support of this type of event.The cost seems great and will in my case let me take quite a few members of my family with me grandsons and the likes. The other game fairs have just got more expensive year in and year out even through the economic climates we are enduring.
I will be there.
 
any thought about a game dealer/butcher doing a demo also maybe a chef doing demo of diffrent ways of cooking? keep the wifes intreasted while us men ogil custom weapons!

Hi Adrian

Both already in the pipeline mate. :thumb:

I should have said though, that any ideas like this will be gratefully received so please pass them on. We think we have pretty much exhausted covering all aspects of the sport but you never know.
 
That sounds like a great idea and I think keeping the charges reasonable is the way to go. I suspect that many people are turning against the more expensive shows just because they feel that it is like paying to get into a shop. Clearly all involved know what they are doing and so I'm sure you have a model that allows you to make some profit and invest for future years.

Good luck with it.
 
Hi Brian
Can I suggest possibly something to do with ballistics?
Something for all the home loaders.

Regards

Davie
 
I fancy a bit of that Brian.
Maybe one of the high end optics company's may be interested in the event,
Maybe to sponsor it ???
 
I fancy a bit of that Brian.
Maybe one of the high end optics company's may be interested in the event,
Maybe to sponsor it ???

That approach is still to be made to one of them, but the hope is that Gregor will be down with some of his stock which should about cover that end of things nicely. Maybe some of the Prostalkers on here could assist with encouraging an optics company to attend?????? ;)

Thanks for the suggestions that have been made so far.
 
Come over with some of your mates for the weekend, we are a hospitable bunch here in the Borders and lots of good cheap hotels, B&B's in the area!
 
good thinking stalking only am sure a lot of the people from the site will be there best of luck see u there :D
 
nothing to shoot at that time of year for me so bring it on....................

custom knife makers? leather workers....., stick makers.............all members on here

OK I will stop now.

PS was out tonight everything perfect and never saw even a white erse running away.
 
nothing to shoot at that time of year for me so bring it on....................

custom knife makers? leather workers....., stick makers.............all members on here

OK I will stop now.

PS was out tonight everything perfect and never saw even a white erse running away.
Colin you'll have to move there plenty of white arses in the rest of the Glasgow area except Govanhill .lol
 
I will be there.
With my own rifle stock designs and wood samples. May even bring one of the machines too. Space permitting.
 
What a superb idea, its in the diary already. I've been to the trout and salmon event at the site and it is a lovely little venue
 
Back
Top