Sika show 2022

I had a wander around on Saturday. I enjoyed the show. It was busy and crowded, I expected that. Some suppliers had set out their stalls very poorly and caused traffic jams. Hunting and Fishing team was basically the worse stand although there was a mishmash of Spika, Tatonka, Leupold and others in there which I assume were all the same company, but it was a mess best avoided.
I picked up a few small bits and pieces that I wanted but didn't want to pay shipping for. Also tried out some nice gear.
Ended up making a bigger purchase online today from Delta with their discount code after testing their gear which I liked a lot, and the reps talked to you which is something to mention compared to the Leica and Swarovski stalls.
There were some great deals on some things but not rifles, ammo, or reloading equipment which is unsurprising and exactly what I expected as there simply isn't stock in the country to do so.

Had a great chat with Dean Maisey on all his testing on noise levels and suppressors, he's doing some awesome research. Also had a good chat with my local Arms officer at the police stall, he's a good bugger, as were the others that ended up crowded around as we were talking about interesting old rifles and how they might be secured during travel (all agreeing just keep it outta sight and you've made "practicable effort"), nabbed a few chamber flags outta their bucket for free which was neat for them to have.

Not much interesting going on in the world of rifles to be honest, variations of titanium and carbon parts but wasn't enamoured with any companies execution.

Only thing I could complain about was the food selection, was all generic junk food basically. Would have been nice to have some wild meat selections like a nice venison burger or something.

I think it was a good sika show, with an impressive number of heads and a good number of people turning up.

I was there as a visitor yesterday and a volunteer with nzda this morning doing the car park under the rain .I was glad to have a hot meal at lunchtime under cover.
I caught up with so many people that I had not seen for quite a while, including Le Maca49 and le Rushy ;-)
A lot of the stands were offering higher end stuff that was out of my league ( things with carbon, titanium and electronic and lot of zeros behind the left digit) but it was good to see the effort that some companies went to to introduce some new products ( wingman with his mini chassis stock and his beautiful delisle, a young kiwi guy with his ultra light weight bipods and ice picks…etc).

The Ruahine port lady was there with a good number of new flavoured beverages. ( I got two bottles ( a grumpy goose and a thar) on Saturday , but when I was back home I got told I got the wrong ones on Saturday night , so I had to get a frisky fallow and a wapiti one today!)

I can understand the frustration for some for having to drive further to get to Hamilton and not necessarily finding a stand they were expecting to see or having a good deal on some items.

But I think we are very lucky that the gentlemen who took over the sika show where able to keep the concept going , specially after two years of covid.
They could have gone broke and we could have had nothing at all this year. And instead we not only had a show but also some great organisations ( nzda, sika foundation… etc ) that keep fighting for our passion of the outdoor.

Finally home after a couple of nights in the Tron, My mate Dazza decided to come up with me to see the show ( he had never been before ) so we headed up on Friday arvo, dropped off a rifle on the way & then rocked into Greendogs pad for Friday night & then the three of us headed to the show mid morning Saturday.

First impressions - great facility, plenty of parking & people in hi viz waving their arms in all different directions

There were plenty of punters, was a very good turn out & we got through the turn styles very quickly ( far better than the old days ) was the normal bottle neck as ya enter but we pushed our way through, losing the crew & then running into each other again over the first couple of hours, I think the boys got sick of waiting for me to talk to people but was good to catch up with vendors & a few forum members etc, didn't see many Jaffas I know, are they not allowed out until Sunday ?

Good to see the ACT party bus there, saw David go get a foot long & then when we went to see the team he still had some of it on his shirt hahaha, we wandered around for about four hours, some areas were very claustrophobic ( especially when ya only 5" tall ) while other isles were quite wide, the food was a good mix of trucks n caravans but pity there were only a few gazebos & most of it wasn't under cover ( would of been great today in the pissing down rain ) lots of optics ( including Dave from Swaro, always good to catch up with him, he was a big supporter of the Toby shoot / auction over the years ) sorry for ditching ya Phil243, I needed to get in while he was free lol , there were a heap of small time clothing companies & a mix of odd ball stuff that is always good. Did seem that the outdoor "roof tents n ARB" type stuff took up alot of space, while great visually it seemed to dominate one whole corner of the arena.

Good bits - plenty of optics, nice space, those who complain about the heat - lets to back to the sardine can of up Spa Rd, holy fuk that was a hot smelly cunt !
Nice toilets, open space with plenty of parking ( as you would expect being Mystery Creek ) & seemed well run

Off bits - there were plenty of the "old regulars" of the past missing, but then this is what it is, the days of going to the GunWorks or Steve Wholesale stands etc & buying four boxes of Amaxes for $65 each are long gone, why would they even bother turning up when there's nothing to sell. Hopefully this will sort itself in the next year or two. The lay out was not ideal, sort what it is, even though it's an enormous building does not mean it's a great idea to fill it with utes n shit, put some of those outside ( it's a show not a BassPro ) Open the floor space up for those who could benefit

Summing up - Some of the layout was lacking abit, but this is basically a "new generation" of the show, the venue is in my opinion is best for the future of the event, we need to change & evolve with the times, whether you like it or not please support it, as a note of interest - all the Australian SSAA expo's are fucked with the batflu wank tards etc


Best part of the day - walking back to the truck, we came across Lynda & Jools Topp & their machine of a mum @ 92 years young, they had decided to bring her for an outting to the Sika show, fuk me how good. Go girls , just hope I'm that spritely in me nineties hahahahaha

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Originally Posted by Daithi

Does anyone know the name of the stand outside, sold bbqs, the one that did them in shape of boars, etc?

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They were well done
Attachment 209206
Didn't get the name tho

To be honest i didn't go outside just thought it was food tents and shit:( this what i mean about a site map.

Concur with the positive comments above, and with refinements for the future.

Who knows, maybe the Tahr Show or similar may resurface for the S.I. people.,

Touched and looked at the new switch barrel Sako….the price….hmmm, I’ll stay with my R8.

B

Always room for improvement but for new owners having their first crack at the show in a huge new venue, I think they did a great job. I can only see it getting better from here on out.

Matt and I were running the MTN Gear stand, there's a list of things we hope to do better next year. No doubt Sika Show has a list of things they can improve on next year too!

Yes, @Friwi that De Lisle was something else, I can't get it out of my head, I've always wanted one. One day.

Good first show for me, caught up with wingman and Ian from Delta. Plenty of heads and nice gear on show. Was a little tight in places but not the end of the world. If supply from overseas gets back on top of things and labour fucks off I can only see it getting better.

Yep. Couldnt go but I heard 8000 visitors on Sat. Pretty good support and great for NZ entreprenuers. Good stuff :)

Mixed bag I think:

Pro's
- seemed like really good numbers for attendance
- looked like some good heads entered
- good facilities, parking, bathrooms, food etc onsite
- likely reached a wider audience than if it was in Taupo
- met a couple of hunters etc that i follow online and had a yarn which was cool.
- got to handle a couple of items i wanted to look at before buying that aren't often in shops here.

Con's
- the exhibitor list was very misleading ie you could take 6-10 listed exhibitors and combine as one stall in most instances.
- Some listed exhibitors I couldn't see evidence of at all.
- For a hunting show the amount of firearms, bows, ammo and reloading stuff was pretty light.
- some of the stalls were very compacted and hard to access anything.
- didn't seem to be a lot of great deals on things i was looking at - in some cases stuff was more expensive, I thought I would walk out with a scope and bino's - the ones I looked at "show price" was more expensive than if i ordered online from NZ...
- I think there were a lot of brands, retailers, organisations that should've been there absent.

Suggestions:
- move vehicles outside to free up more space
- site map - if there was one we didnt get one
- perhaps consider changing it to "NZ Hunting and Shooting show" and get more exhibitors onboard - I realise this may rub some the wrong way but united we are stronger, bring in the target shooters, pistol shooters, archers, and other hunters.
- Instead of Hunting and Fishing having small alcoves for 6 - 10 brands within their pop up store get those brands to have their own stands with the distributors / reps onsite - this would reduce the traffic jam, make products more accessible and improve the experience
- All major brands should surely be represented. Vortex? Hunters Element? Hardy Rifles? Hornady?

Cool stuff:
- Glacier Rifles were awesome to handle - would love one, just not in my budget.
- Backlanz look good, another cool NZ product.

Brought:
- 2 Yeti coffee cups
- Dog n Gun Coffee
- Tatonka womans pack - first time being able to try one on for the the wife.

I bought some huntfast hydration sachets,those of you that were there on Saturday will know why!!!

Was Bill Nikl there this year? He makes great knife?

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Originally Posted by 10-Ring

Was Bill Nikl there this year? He makes great knife?

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Yep,he was there,nice blades alright ,him and his mate there would have had a combined age of around 170

Only photo I got was this one - check that head out hahahaha fym, some from the old days of FnH forum etc will recognise this deviant

Attachment 209245



Fuk one thing I forgot to mention last night, while there weren't really many decent % off deals, we were walking past one stand & some dude picked up a $70 rechargeable spotlight, says "shit this be good for the boat" & the response from his misses - Put that back, you ain't buying anything !! holy fuk the poor cunt, we felt so sorry for him & then guilty we didn't go save the poor bugger, God Bless being single hahahahahahahahaha

Sunday was ok as far as an space to move around went

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Originally Posted by Philipo

Only photo I got was this one - check that head out hahahaha fym, some from the old days of FnH forum etc will recognise this deviant

Attachment 209245



Fuk one thing I forgot to mention last night, while there weren't really many decent % off deals, we were walking past one stand & some dude picked up a $70 rechargeable spotlight, says "shit this be good for the boat" & the response from his misses - Put that back, you ain't buying anything !! holy fuk the poor cunt, we felt so sorry for him & then guilty we didn't go save the poor bugger, God Bless being single hahahahahahahahaha

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Noted for future ref...leave wife and kids (dob alert) at home :thumbsup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Philipo

....we were walking past one stand & some dude picked up a $70 rechargeable spotlight, says "shit this be good for the boat" & the response from his misses - Put that back, you ain't buying anything !!

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The guy probably didn't even have a boat...
So once he had bought the spotlight, his next sentence was going to be "well now I have to buy a boat for the spotlight!"
:P:D

Forgot to mention the Wapiti Foundation.

It was a real treat to finally speak to Roy Sloan and the team that do such amazing work.

I have emailed them some pictures of father’s mid 50’s ballot trip. Hopefully with their extensive knowledge they’ll be able to tell me which block and perhaps more.

B

I enjoyed it... Although I am not sure if I will make the trip up from Wanganui again...Its a hell of a haul. I didn't get to look at any of the outside stuff at all due to it pissing down with rain. Some of the stalls seemed a bit cramped though...and I don't know why considering the amount of space they had, Like the Stoney creek venue, not that I would ever buy any of their gear, but that was very cramped and crowded, and for no reason. I think they could have really opened up the aisles.

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Originally Posted by scotty

They were well done
Attachment 209206
Didn't get the name tho

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Roe Engineering from Hamilton

Few photos of heads can be seen here:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto...65952343599856

There was a heck of a lot more there though, pretty cool display.

I was lucky enough to win biggest Sika:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?sto...00034650234353

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Daithi

Does anyone know the name of the stand outside, sold bbqs, the one that did them in shape of boars, etc?

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Roe Engineering Hamilton

Was my first visit, went down Saturday as mentioned lots of people and I thought a reasonable mix of stands. What I was pleased to see was the wide range of people attending; families and wives in particular were there in good numbers which I thought was encouraging. Yes there will be learnings but looking forward to next year and hopefully some ammo being available.