You are probably wondering ”why in the h___ is he writing about that now? It’s not ‘til September.” Well I do agree, it’s a ways off, but there is a reason. This column is actually directed to people who always wanted to do a display on that day but didn’t know how to go about it.

I and a handful of guys from my hunting club put on a display in the Brickyard Mall in Chicago for about 4 years or so. It’s not as difficult as you think! First of all, you have to set up an appointment with the manager of the mall or mini mall for whatever location you have in mind. You will have to tell him or her that the display could attract many customers to the area. Explain to him or her what you want to do to make it enjoyable for the people who will be in the area that day. Once you get the permission, it’s time to start working on the project and June is a good time to start so you may slowly get together all that you will need. Have a meeting twice a month to update the progress of things.

First of all you want to see if you can get a taxidermist to join you. Tell him he can display his work and pass out business cards while there. He will probably enjoy the time and at the same time drum up business for himself. If you can’t get one, we started out by guys in our club donating their mounts for the wall. You want to get a row of tables [2’x6’]. The malls usually have them right there and will let you borrow them. Cover the tables with some paper cloths. You can make a self-standing wall out of pegboard on top of the tables where you can hang the trophies and signs. Mix the trophies up between fish, birds and big game.

Then you need a lot of pass out material. There is a lot of free stuff you can get from the DNR. Believe me they have a lot of pamphlets made up to educate the public, from boating to hunting to fishing. The National Shooting Sports Foundation also has pamphlets. You may have to pay for some, but believe me the small cost is worth it! The NRA will send you copies of their magazines, Gun Week newspaper will send you free copies of their paper along with ‘Women and Guns’ booklets.

At one end of the display, set up a TV and a video recorder. Here you can show fishing and hunting videos. Set chairs there and you would be surprised how many people want to get off their feet for a while, so they might as well watch a movie. Eddie Eagle and other educational ones are great to mix in.

Then we used to tell all our members to save the tail feathers from the pheasants they killed during the year. We would randomly pass them out to the kids walking by. The first thing you know other kids are asking them, ”Where did you get the feather?” That brings more people to the display. It’s also a great place to talk to people about joining the NRA and the ISRA. Bring calls with you, but don’t get annoying with them. Every so often let go with a duck, goose, or turkey call and boy do people turn around to see where it came from. Always have a shaker duck call on hand for the little kids to try. They love doing it and you make some real friends. Get the permission of the DNR on the feathers just in case. We had two DNR officers join us for the day [which they will do if you ask -scheduling permitting] and then they were talking about nailing us for having bird parts. Ya-unbelievable!! I hope you give it a stab. Remember if people start on you about guns cause crime, just tell them if that’s true then matches must cause arson. If you do one for the first time, let me know how it went.
 

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