Feb. Fort Worth Gun Show - Feb. 13-14th

[doubleLL]

Appleseed has a booth for the Feburary Fort Worth Gun show on 13th and 14th. The event coordinator is familiar with Appleseed and will place our booth up front and said that Feb. is usually the highest attended show on record. We will need volunteers to help man the booth, if you're interested PM me or reply here. We also need help printing out handouts, if you can't attend but would like to print out a set of handouts and mail to me that would help alleviate some cost.

I have listed the items below that are needed:

GUN RACK- we really need one for the table; any suggestions or if anyone has one please let us know.

We handed out most of our information in Jan. So we need to restock for February.

1.)   Event flyers - Appleseed hand out
2.)   Liberty Rifle Guide
3.)   FAQ/National Schedule
4.)   Appleseed Newspaper
5.)   CMP Garand forms
6.)   Fred's rifleman guide
7.)   Shot analysis sheet
8.)   Business Cards- The business cards were a huge hit; I went through my 200 at the January show on Sunday. I have attached the template.

Targets: If we have enough targets we can hand them out to those who are interested or for those "non" believers.

Rifles for Display- Battle Rifles: we got a larger turn out at our table once we brought out the M1A1. 

[spitstickler]

Put me down to help on Saturday.

Gun Rack: If no one has one to bring I will build one between now and then. It won't be quarter sawn oak, but it will be serviceable. Would you guess that the tables are 4' deep?


   I will bring a couple hundred business cards
9)   I will bring a couple hundred greycoat targets
10) ...and a couple of rifles for at least the time I'm there. I don't have anything particularly interesting, but if someone has a Garand, M1A, Fal, etc I think that would be great to have in the booth.


doubleLL, do you have anyone else is lending a hand?

[doubleLL]

Just a few have confirmed, others are checking their schedules. Thanks for helping out!

[starfox]

We won't have a gun rack, so if you want to build one that would be great.  The tables are typical folding tables, maybe 4' long by
2' wide.

Put me down to help on Saturday.

Gun Rack: If no one has one to bring I will build one between now and then. It won't be quarter sawn oak, but it will be serviceable. Would you guess that the tables are 4' deep?


   I will bring a couple hundred business cards
9)   I will bring a couple hundred greycoat targets
10) ...and a couple of rifles for at least the time I'm there. I don't have anything particularly interesting, but if someone has a Garand, M1A, Fal, etc I think that would be great to have in the booth.


doubleLL, do you have anyone else is lending a hand?

[spitstickler]

Got the cards in today fresh off the press from the Appleseed store. And I'll get to Kinko's sometime between now and then and make some targets.

If it dries out this weekend, I should be able to knock a gun rack together.


looking at the ft worth gun show website, the tables are 8' long.  googling around a little bit, it looks like most 8' tables like this are 30" wide  does that sound about right?

[spitstickler]

Rifle display taken care of today. Just have to put a finish on it and add some protective padding.


..update..

All done and ready to roll. The base is around 20", and it should accommodate most rifles. This gal is a little long to get into it with it sitting on the floor, but should be fine with a little extra room when it's sitting on a table. AR & AK (warsaw length stock) both fit too.

Just need to make a Kinko's run between now and then to duplicate some targets.

[doubleLL]

Spitstickler,
The gun rack looks amazing, I love it. You did a great job! Thank you so much for your help.

[spitstickler]

Went to Kinko's a couple of hours ago so we have a couple hundred targets ready to go.

I'm a little frustrated right now with the online printing company I sent the brochure to. They didn't put my proof up for review until this afternoon. (was supposed to be Friday) I'm worried that may not allow them to get here in time for the gun show. I'm going to call them in the morning and see what's up. I found another online printing place that located in Arlington. Their prices are a little higher, but if I go pick them up and negate the shipping costs it's pretty much a wash.

[spitstickler]

Just got a box of CMP catalogs in the mail today that I'll bring too.

I did end up moving the brochure printing from the original vendor to the place in Arlington. They should be ready for me to pick up on Friday. So things are coming together. This gave me a chance to plug the radio show on the back too, so I've added that.

Another thought I had was maybe making a little sign that we could put on the table that says something to the effect of "Appleseed is actively looking for ranges in DFW and surrounding area" so we could maybe capture a few leads in this regard. What do you think?

I do have a few questions about getting into the show as a vendor, what time we need to be over there to get set up, etc. Please give me a ring when you have a chance.



I also noticed this on another one of the state forums:

    We just "worked out" ideas here in NC for gun show tables. IIRC, here they are, for you guys to use as needed:

     1. Have guns on the table - an LTR (but be sure to stress, they can bring any safe rifle - they don't have to buy equipment to come), and an AR-15, Garand, and M1A - plus any others you want/like.

     2. Have a donation jar - maybe make enough to pay for the table? Warning: to keep our tax status OK, you'll need to report any funds collected - whether donations, sales, etc.

     3. Have a drawing/raffle - with the winner to get a FREE certificate for an AS. Try to have the general PA announcement about the raffle ("There's a raffle at the RWVA Appleseed table" followed by "XYZ is the winner of the raffle at the AS table", etc) - a few public announcements like that can really make your presence known amongst the audience.

          Here's a high-energy variant of that: Have an hourly raffle drawing for an AS T-shirt, and a daily raffle for the free (value: $80) certificate - plenty of PA announcements then. Raffles allow you to collect telephone numbers and email addresses for later followup. Better, if you are of a mind to do this, is a clipboard with a petition on it supporting the Appleseed program...

    4. Have things to sell: RWVA patches, T-shirts (yes, you'll have to gather some 'left-overs' from AS shoots in your state).

    5. Have some Rev War flags strung up behind your table (which is why "wall" tables are best) - and be sure you can name each one and tell them the story behind it.

     6. The "uniform of the day" for our volunteers should at a minimum be hats - orange, red, pink, and/or blue - and red Instructor sweatshirts for the Red Hats will really stand out. Appleseed Ts for the rest (worn over sweatshirts in cold weather) for the rest...

     7. Have some free targets - hand each person a Redcoat target and say "here's a target which answers a question I bet you never asked yourself: how far off am I effective with my rifle?" You could also have "learn today, teach tomorrow" handouts.

     That's a few of the things we discussed this weekend at the NC Instructor's gathering.

I'm particularly interested in the raffle idea. If they read and announce that over the PA system that's lots of free advertising. Does anyone know what would be involved with giving away a FREE certificate to Appleseed? Does anyone have to authorize this? Where do you get the certificate for the raffle?

[doubleLL]

We had a great turn out for the Gun Show. On Saturday Beezer, Starfox, DoubleLL, and Spitstickler all manned the booth. The gun show was packed and having four people there enabled us to hand out lots of targets and Appleseed brochures.  We met a lot of folks and hopefully will see many of them at the Davilla shoots. The Fredericksburg shoot caught the attention of many ladies, and a few older gentlemen. Several vendors came by and knew of Appleseed, one vendor who works the national circuit even took some handouts to set out on his table!!
On Valentine's Day, Steve and his son came out; Beezer, Starfox and DoubleLL were all there. We met a member of the Parker County sportsman's club who was interested in attending an Appleseed and told us to talk to the board about hosting an event with them!! We had heard about this club from many people who stopped by the booth over the weekend. Starfox is going to look into the range. 

Special thanks to Spitstickler for the awesome brochures and gun rack! The brochures put the information in the hands of the people!! 

[spitstickler]

It was a great Sat. I wish I could have been there Sunday as well. Thank you guys for taking the initiative to get a table and all the prep work and organization to make it happen.

Aside from a few cold shoulders, it seemed like most people we talked to were very receptive. This was my first time on the other side of the table at a gun show, and I was really surprised how many husband/wife pairs that were there. ...Quite a few families too. I guess I'd just always had my blinders on, briskly walking the floor looking for whatever I was on the lookout for. It was very interesting coming up with ways to engage people walking by and I think these types of promotions will help us expand the program.

It would be great to get Parker County Sportsman Club as a range. http://www.parkersportsman.com ...close to DFW. We need a partner like this. DoubleLL, Starfox, if there is anything I can do to help in this effort, just let me know.

A few other people we met come to mind as well:

A gentleman down close to you, Scout, in Gatesville? I think. He already has people come out to shoot at his place and he has interest in flint-lock, and black powder rifles as well. He seemed open to the idea of having a shoot at his place.

A service man from Ft. Sill. Very interested in the program. And when hearing from DoubleLL about what happened at Ft. Stewart and soon to happen at WSMR he was all about "getting his guys additional training." Davilla would be close for them, but maybe another opportunity to do something on location. He said he wasn't the guy that could make that happen on their end, but could (and wanted to) put us in touch with someone who could.

A very humble gentleman who not only had a lot of competitive rifle experience, but also volunteered for years as an instructor with his local 4H shooting club. Again, very interested in the program and already expressing interest in helping out as an Instructor. Very nice, squared away fellow, and I hope we see him at an event soon.

432nd Judicial District Court Judge Ruben Gonzalez stopped by to see what we were up to. It may have just been politicking, but he has four boys and seemed honestly interested in bringing them out. We talked for quite a while about the program and he never mentioned his campaign until the end of our conversation and I asked him what he was running for.

Lots of other folks as well. I have no idea who we may have actually reached, but we planted a lot of seeds.

[macjet]

I stopped by Sunday. I'm confirmed for March 20-21 down in Davilla and I've got one other buddy signed up. Working on two others.