Mark your calendars for inside-outside outdoor expos

PHOENIX – With the New Year underway, be sure to mark your calendars for Arizona’s largest outdoor expos – one inside and the other outside.

The International Sportsmen’s Exposition (ISE) is Feb. 26-28 at the University of Phoenix Stadium and the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s Outdoor Expo is March 27-28 at the Ben Avery Shooting Facility.

“These two outdoor expositions are truly complimentary to one another,” said Ty Gray, Game and Fish assistant director.

Gray explained that ISE is a superb outdoor expo with exciting exhibitors from around the globe gathered indoors under the huge domed stadium in Glendale.

“The Game and Fish Department is always excited to play an integral role in this excellent outdoor exposition each year,” Gray said.

As in years past, the Game and Fish Department experts will operate the kids fishing pond, teach basic archery skills, and conduct its annual assets sale that includes everything from huge antlers to supple soft rabbit skins.

 “Our Adobe Mountain Wildlife Center will once again have exciting live wildlife on display, and we’ll also have all the venomous reptiles of Arizona live and under glass for folks to safely see up close and personal,” Gray said.

Next in the lineup comes the Game and Fish Outdoor Expo, which is the hands-on event outside where the whole family can experience a wide range of thrilling outdoor activities sprawled across the largest public shooting complex in the nation.

Last year, the Game and Fish Expo drew around 35,000 people to the 1,600-acre Ben Avery Shooting Facility. And it’s free.

Once again this year you can expect to experience everything from off-highway vehicles to shooting a wide assortment of firearms, experiencing archery, viewing live wildlife and learning fishing secrets.