Numbers were down slightly at this year's annual Stettler Gun Show, a fact organizer Bruce Tauber attributes to the nice weather outside.
“Anyone with a combine was in it,” he said.
The show, which ran on Saturday, Sept. 12 and Sunday, Sept. 13 at the Stettler Agriplex, brought in people looking to buy, trade, and sell their firearms, firearms accessories, firearms memorabilia, and other hunting-related items.
On display were modern rifles and shot guns, ammunition, antiques, scopes, cases, knives and more, Tauber said.
“We use newspaper ads, other gun shows, word of mouth, the gun community and gun newspapers to advertise our shows,” Tauber explained.
It was one of those word-of-mouth moments that brought Garry Schmidt, from Lafleche, Sask., to show his wares at the event.
Schmidt collects antique guns, weapons, and war memorabilia, and had on display a selection of flint-lock rifles and hand-guns from the United States' civil war, helmets from the World Wars, knives and gunpowder horns, rapiers, and an old RCMP buffalo hide jacket.
“I've been at it (collecting) for 45 years now,” Schmidt said.
It was easily apparent that Schmidt loved each of the items on display on his tables, telling a bit about each's history, sharing their stories.
The hats and helmets he had on his table came from different wars; one was from a captured Nazi soldier during the Africa campaign.
“Soldiers didn't like these hats,” Schmidt said, gesturing at the German desert hat. “They didn't provide any protection at all.”