For the past few years I’ve made the drive up from Hampton Roads to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to attend the Great American Outdoor Show. In the past I’ve only ever made a cursory reference to what the show is and occasionally made offhand comments about the “chaos of GAOS.” But I must assure you, those comments were made out of admiration. The show is massive and lasts for a full nine days! It’s amazing what they make happen.

This year I want to show a bit of what’s available.

If you’re an outdoorsman, particularly in the northeastern US, you need to attend GAOS at least once. As you’ll see, there’s something for everyone.

GAOS is a regional institution. While the two weekends enjoy high attendance, you’ll see crowds during the middle of the week, and these aren’t just singleton visitors. Entire families make the trek to the show and spend the whole day exploring the various halls.

In fact, the show goes for so long, many exhibitors use shifts of more than one group dividing the schedule up. With GAOS coming so close on the heels of SHOT Show, it’s amazing to see all hands on deck from companies that just did it a few weeks ago. The dedication to the customer is amazing.

Speaking of which, this is a customer driven show and not an industry only show like SHOT Show or closed to NRA members like the NRA Annual Meeting. Although none of the firearms companies sell direct to the customers, like a gun show, there are hundreds of vendors who sell a variety of products and services.

You can meet hundreds of outfitters and guide services offering a wide variety of experiences, like this gator hunt.

You can even meet with an Army recruiter.

There are tents, campers, and log homes on display.

There’s boating…

And fishing…

If offroad adventures are your game, there are vehicles and accessories galore.

If you are there for firearms, you’ll have access to some of the latest and greatest.

Air guns?

3D Action Archery?

You want camouflage? They’ve got it too.

What kind of an NRA event would it be without the Wall of Guns?

There are also multiple places to eat in the expo center and a wide variety of foods available. Lines can be long during peak meal times.

There’s just no way around it, with so many attendees, parking can be frustrating. It may take awhile to park and then you may have to wait for a shuttle bus. Which means, mind the weather. Although it’s warm and dry once you get inside, you may be standing outside for a wait of up to 15-20 minutes, depending on shuttle bus lines.

Even if you can’t make it this year, go next year. It’s a great time.

Learn more, and buy tickets at www.greatamericanoutdoorshow.org.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2019 at 16:00 and is filed under GAOS, NRA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.