The Fergusons, the Fradys, and I spent a productive and exciting weekend in Atlanta, GA at the Archery Trade Association (ATA) show. This was my first time to attend the ATA show and I found it to be refreshingly different from the other hunting trade shows I have been a part of.

This show is like a giant candy store for archers and bow hunters. Hundreds of manufacturers attend the show to display their latest and greatest products and/or improvements to their existing wares and services.

Our purpose for attending was to discuss our upcoming DVD release “Bowhunting North America’s Outdoor Adventures” with our current sponsors as well introduce it to potential new sponsors. The DVD is scheduled to be released this coming August.

We are proud to announce that in addition to our list of great current sponsors, we were extremely fortunate to add several excellent new sponsors, including:

The common thread I found among each and every vendor at the show was a desire to actually help us. They didn't act like they were there just to sell a product, but to also help us accomplish our own goals. We met with some very influential people in the industry and they all treated us like their own family. It was a refreshing experience.

We also had a chance to meet a super fellow - David Blanton of Realtree. This guy is a class act!

Another wonderful person at Realtree who was extremely helpful to us was Lynn Pankey! Just a wonderful wonderful lady and avid turkey hunter. We hope to get her down to Texas this spring to smoke a few birds.

Here a few pictures of some of our other sponsors displays.

There were others but we just didn't have the time to get by to see them all.

It was a great trip and I'm already looking forward to the next one, which is scheduled for Jan 18-20, 2007 in Nashville, TN.

John Shelley 

BHNA Pro Staff