Free Booze and Food! January 10th, 2026

[mdwest]

We’ve been on the show floor all day. Great turnout so far. Have seen and chatted with several AH’ers. We’re having a great time!

 

[Mark Biggerstaff]

Great Party as always @mdwest you and your wife out did yourselves again!
Really enjoyed seeing and talking with everyone. Can’t wait for another one in 2027!

 

[deewayne2003]

Great Party as always @mdwest you and your wife out did yourselves again!
Really enjoyed seeing and talking with everyone. Can’t wait for another one in 2027!

Agreed, another great party and many thanks to the @mdwest family for opening their home.

My favorite part was the little girl winning the gun belt and .375 ammo slide!

 

[cash_tx]

Great party, indeed; and many thanks to the @mdwest family for hosting! It was great to see so many faces, whether old friends or new.

 

[wesheltonj]

Photos please, or it did not happen.

 

[mdwest]

Great turn out last night! We had 57 people show up. Hopefully everyone got plenty to eat and drink.

Favorite part of the night was the grand prize give away.

For those of you that might not have had a chance to meet Tim (the young guy that won), he recently proposed to Lauren (the young lady that was there either him). They’re getting married in March. They’re now doing their honeymoon at Bos en Dal on safari. Both are avid hunters, but have never hunted outside of the US. They are super excited. I thought it was super cool that a young couple, just getting started, that love hunting together are going to get to experience their first hunt in Africa a couple of weeks after getting married.

Big thanks to all of the AH members that supported the party, helping us get set up this year, providing door prizes, etc.

And big thanks as well to the businesses that supported the party this year. Nicole @ Gracy Travel, Mark @ R&M Firearms, Steve @ MT Maker, Jan @ JS Taxidermy, Rhonda @ Eikon, and obviously Gerrit @ Bos en Dal. Without you guys we couldn’t make this thing happen each you. If you guys need safari related services, please support the folks that support us.

I was swamped all night and didn’t manage to snap a single pic. If anyone else grabbed a few, please post them up.

 

[wesheltonj]

Great turn out last night! We had 57 people show up. Hopefully everyone got plenty to eat and drink.

Favorite part of the night was the grand prize give away.

For those of you that might not have had a chance to meet Tim (the young guy that won), he recently proposed to Lauren (the young lady that was there either him). They’re getting married in March. They’re now doing their honeymoon at Bos en Dal on safari. Both are avid hunters, but have never hunted outside of the US. They are super excited. I thought it was super cool that a young couple, just getting started, that love hunting together are going to get to experience their first hunt in Africa a couple of weeks after getting married. . . .

What an outstanding start to their life together.

 

[Green Chile]

Great hosting as always @mdwest! You and your wife are very gracious and generous to share your home and setup all of this for AH members. I was really glad to see that young couple win the trip. What a great night.

 

[steve white]

Wow, Dave and the Missus knocked it out of the park again!!! Sure enjoyed seeing everyone, though it was pure torture to get just two draws from the drawing for the safari and then win the knife sharpener. That was just too close.
Congrats to the winner--no one could deserve it more!

 

[txtrout75218]

Generous for you to open your home to AH members. All I'm going to say is that I'm going to want to crash the party next year. I was at the show yesterday, but had family commitments last night.

First time for me to attend the TTGH/SCI event here in Dallas. Definitely a different vibe than DSC conventions.

And great for the young couple. That would be a cool honeymoon.

 

[Bos en Dal SAFARIS]

Here is a few pictures the misses took, we all were having to much fun to take pictures.

 

[Bos en Dal SAFARIS]

As always, thank you @mdwest and his family for allowong us to crash their den. His wife went all out again. Also thank you to each and every member that come year after year to catch up.

 

[mdwest]

Thanks for all of the kind words everyone... we truly enjoy hosting this event every year.. its always great to see all of the AH'ers and catch up on whats been going on between parties..

I'd like to ask for some feedback from folks that attended this year and in years past..

We are seriously considering moving the event to a venue next year.. With TTHA growing, and the popularity of the party growing, sooner or later we're going to run out of capacity at the house.. and.. we'd like to even further up our game and put on an even better event.. I dont think we can pull that off at the house..

We've located a potential venue that we really like.. its still a bit of a distance from downtown.. but I think it offers a LOT to party goers..

Its easily big enough to host up to about 150 people I believe.. its very nice, very comfortable, etc.. with much more and much better seating than we can offer at the house.. AND.. its co-located with a nice hotel where we can get substantially discounted rooms for any/all party goers.. so, if youre coming into town from elsewhere, we'd be able to offer rooms that put you right at the party location for Friday night, with rates discounted so much that they would more than offset any uber costs, etc associated with going downtown on Saturday, etc.. and the venue/hotel is about 4 miles closer to downtown to the house.. so I guess in my mind if youre already willing to travel out to the house, while not a whole lot more convienient, it is at least 4 miles more convienient to the convention center..

Does this sound like something you guys would be interested in?

The party would remain "free" to guests with food and drink provided.. we'd continue to have annual door prizes, etc.. (nothing would change other than the location, and I believe the event would grow and become bigger)..

Im just wondering if the appeal is the "warmth" of going to someones home, etc.. or if moving to an actual venue makes a difference.. or if this would attract more people? or would the crowd remain largely the same?

The cost involved would climb a good bit if we did this.. but that is totally a non issue.. we're 100000% prepared to deal with that, and Ive got some ideas about how we could offset much of that (maybe all of it) without AH'ers having to pay a dime..

I just dont want to incur the extra cost, and go through the extra trouble of securing a venue, and planning/dealing with an offsite event (from our home) if thats not something thats attractive to the people that regularly attend, or if it would attract an even larger audience..

 

[Mark Biggerstaff]

Dave,
Sounds like a solid plan to me, will allow more freedom of movement and visiting with people.

 

[Green Chile]

Dave and I discussed this option at the show and I think it has a lot of merit. I was also impressed by your commitment to not only have the event but try to improve it. It's also very different to have it in a meeting room. While that's a little less convenient for the host...it's also a lot less effort in your own home to clean, prep, etc. I'm in favor of it.

 

[pattesonfamily]

We loved attending. Not sure it needs to be moved, that brings different logistical challenges for you two. It didn't even feel close to being too crowded. That said, it's your home so y'all decide what's best for y'all. We are just glad to be able to see everyone.

 

[wesheltonj]

I only see one problem, as work expands to fit the time, so do people expand to fit the space. I'm afraid it would be harder to talk to folks.

 

[mdwest]

Dave and I discussed this option at the show and I think it has a lot of merit. I was also impressed by your commitment to not only have the event but try to improve it. It's also very different to have it in a meeting room. While that's a little less convenient for the host...it's also a lot less effort in your own home to clean, prep, etc. I'm in favor of it.

Something to note… where we are looking at isn’t a banquet room or meeting room… it’s actually a room that was originally designed as a restaurant that has couches, chairs, tables, booths, etc… nice pics on the wall, big TV screens on the wall, a big “wine” room,…etc…

I’m not really interested in a typical banquet hall… I’d like to keep things “warm” and as home feeling as we can… if this particular venue isn’t selected, we’ll definitely look for something similar elsewhere…

 

[mdwest]

I only see one problem, as work expands to fit the time, so do people expand to fit the space. I'm afraid it would be harder to talk to folks.

Definitely a concern…

I’m not really worried about about talking to folks from a “sales” perspective… those that have attended in the past know that not much of that goes on honestly… while it’s certainly a “Bos en Dal” party, the real motivation is just to get to know folks and to let all of the AH crowd get to see and get to know each other.. on a personal level, I really enjoy seeing a bunch of people, many I’ve hunted with previously, or have been friends with for years all in one place at one time, and getting to spend some time together… this year in particular I literally had 16 friends in the house that at different times in the past I’ve either hunted with abroad, or deer hunted with in TX.. it’s fun having those people meeting each other, getting to know each other, etc… two of them this year are now planning a group/family hunts in New Zealand together in 2026..

if the venue gets too large or the crowd is too small for the venue, people will definitely spread out, and things like that become a lot more difficult…

 

[Goopy]

The original concept of a nice warm "get together" in your home was, and is, great and very much appreciated by those attending (I've done the last three), as this "Friends Soiree" gets more and more popular it also becomes bigger to host. A move to a bigger venue would be an idea to seriously consider, as it would greatly reduce the stress on you and the missus in planning, logistics and generally making it fit while running a booth at the show at the same time. I've watched the "Friends Soiree" go from relatively small to big. The ability to mingle was definitely not hampered, but the mental gymnastics you and Mrs@mdwest had to go thru in prep had to be daunting.
You both were splendid hosts and no one could have asked for a better time. Honestly, I look forward as much to the "Friends Soiree" as to the show, maybe a little more...
While we have made very good acquaintances at the show, we have made very good friends at your get together. However you decide to continue, know that The Red Menace and I will do anything possible to help out!
Regards and Bravo Zulu on this years event!