Steve Knight, Outdoor Writer

If you can get past the drive to Dallas’ Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center and $15 parking, the thousand-plus booths and displays at this week’s Dallas Safari Club convention is certainly worth the effort.

For the first-timer, just the variety and magnitude of the trophy mounts on display today through Sunday are worth the $20 price of admission.

The Dallas Safari Club convention is easily the biggest outdoor showcase in Texas. Once considered only a haunt for high rollers headed to the African continent, the show has been discovered by a lot of hunting Texans just wanting to window shop, or maybe get ideas on booking hunts everywhere from within the state to the most exotic locations in world.

It is also a great opportunity for kids to learn about what animals live where in the world, as well as build an interest in outdoor activities. Youth 11 and under are admitted free and there are family package specials as well.

This year’s DSC show is expected to attract more than 50,000 visitors. It isn’t just about booking hunts either. Last year’s show raised more than $2.4 million for wildlife conservation and for youth education. With a bigger show than in 2015, the organization is expecting to break that record this year.

There are a number of ways to attack a show this big, and for first-timers just looking around the best plan of attack is usually to just wander aimlessly up and down the aisles. There are plenty of things to look at whether it is the mounted trophies at almost every booth, the rifles, the hunting clothing, deer blinds, gun safes or home furnishings. There are also plenty of hunting gadgets you need or didn’t know you needed, including some you have probably never seen before.

The show always attracts some of the largest rifle, bullet and scope manufactures in the world. It also attracts a number of boutique gun builders. Both are excellent sources for hunters to learn about the capabilities of their rifle, or for guidance toward their next purchase.

For those who have a dream of going to Africa to hunt plains game or the Big Five, Argentina for dove or ducks, New Zealand for stag, Scotland for a driven bird hunt or Colorado for elk of mule deer, it is a good chance to meet several outfitters in one day and learn exactly how much a trip might really cost and what is the timeframe for setting one up.

The key is always to shop and compare, take time to do your homework and talk to other hunters who have already been. Get a list of references of hunters from the outfitter and talk to several of them.

It has been said that international outfitters, especially from Africa, book more hunts at the Dallas Safari Club show than anywhere else. This makes the show the perfect place to sign up with an outfitter and make sure you understand what is expected of you and what you can expect from them.

It can also be a buyers’ market for those who can travel on short notice as outfitters look to fill last minute cancellations for the upcoming season.

On Friday and Saturday there will be a series of free seminars. Topics range from tips for booking African trips, elephants, introduction to and advanced reloading, worldwide archery hunting, wildlife food plots and Ivan Carter talking about efforts to stop poaching in Africa. The first set of seminars begins at 11 a.m. with the last round starting at 3:30 p.m.

Also on display during the show will be the Bill Jones Historic Rifle Collection, a collection of historic hunting rifles from around the world.

The DSC convention will be open to the public from 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m. today through Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. The Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center is located at 650 South Griffin Street.

– Have a comment or opinion on this story? Contact outdoor writer Steve Knight by email at outdoor@tylerpaper.com. Follow Steve Knight on Facebook at Texas All Outdoors and on Twitter @txalloutdoors.