Sportsmen Show pulls in outdoors men (and women)

Heidi Martinez dropped off a couple of deer heads and crossed her fingers.

The 36-year-old Tampico hunter and all-around outdoorswoman was hoping for high scores, maybe even a prize or shot at a line or two in the “Record Book for Washington’s Big Game Animals.”

Saturday, she brought in two buck mounts from animals she had shot, as well as a seven-point elk shed she found on Chinook Pass. None of them had been judged before. But this weekend, Martinez said, “I had the time to bring them in.”

She’ll have to wait until this afternoon to find out how her mule deer heads and elk antlers fared. Big game heads, horns, antlers and skulls will be officially measured and scored until noon today. Then, prizes — including Best in Show, which comes with a $250 gift certificate to Hammer’s Outdoor World — will be announced.

The Horn and Antler Competition is just one of the many goings-on at the 21st annual Central Washington Sportsmen Show. The three-day event, which began Friday, features more than 120 booths and continues through 5 p.m. today in the Yakima Valley SunDome.

Event parking is free all day today. And organizer Bev Shuyler said that’ll likely be a big draw on the last day of the event, which features all things outdoors — from tents, knives and guns to boats, camouflage clothing and fly-fishing gear.

And so far, “It’s been a good response,” Shuyler said.

About 10,000 outdoor enthusiasts are expected to visit the show throughout the weekend. One of them, Martinez, the Tampico hunter, was hoping to enter some raffles and check out new hunting clothing as well as guns and other hunting equipment. She’s been an avid outdoorswoman her entire life.

“My mom would pack me on her back and go out hunting,” she said as she was finishing up at the Horn and Antler Competition.

Nearby, at the Big Game Northwest table, Tom Schillinger, 53, of Burns, Ore., was selling second editions of the “Record Book for Washington’s Big Game Animals” for $5 a pop. Behind him, 15 animal heads were on display.

One of the mule deer mounts was a near state record-holder, killed in Yakima County in 1936 by Robert D. Ward. With a score of 2631⁄8, it still boasts second place in the non-typical mule deer category.

“That’s a pretty big buck,” Schillinger said. “He’s only three inches off beating the state record.”

At the nearby booth for the Wenas Valley Chapter of Backcountry Horsemen of Washington, Rex McMullin was giving demonstrations on Dutch oven cooking. The outdoorsman has been a member of the active, high-mountain riding group, formed in 2002, for about a year.

Saturday, he was showing folks how to make two-step cornbread as well as breakfast and wild game sausage — “It’s probably elk” — casseroles.

It’s easy, the 43-year-old Pasco man said. The secret: “Not using too much heat.

“You gotta watch your timing, especially if you got stuff baking and you got stuff cooking,” he said. “You don’t want to burn the potatoes.”