On Aug. 8 and 9 at Wiscasset Community Center, Wiscasset Rod & Gun Club will hold an event that club president Ed Goud hopes will become an annual one. The half-century-old club will host its first-ever gun show.

Organizers expect to attract dealers from around Maine to rent tables for buying, selling or trading firearms. About 50 tables are planned, with some dealers taking up multiple tables, club member Jim Beam said.

Beam lives in Edgecomb and has a gun shop on Edgecomb’s McKay Road. He has been contacting fellow gun dealers to let them know about the upcoming show.

Gun shows are about more than the buying, selling and trading, according to Beam.

“It’s a coming together of like-minded people, getting to be with people who like the same thing, just like you’d have at a horse show or a dog show,” Beam said June 21.

The gun show, a fundraiser for the club, was Goud’s idea.

“I thought  it would be a good money-maker, and get more people interested in the club,” he said June 18.

A monthly meeting that night had a bigger turnout than many Wiscasset selectmen’s meetings garner. Among attendees were new members that Goud showed around the grounds of the club’s approximately 30-acre, Gardiner Road property.

Goud explained to the group that the position a red flag is in at the driveway entrance lets people coming onto the property know whether or not shooting is going on.

“It’s a nice range,” one man on the tour said.

“Yeah, it’s come a long way,” Goud said.

Membership is on the upswing; there are currently about 220 members, including many women, who represent a large part of the increase, Goud said.

In addition to maintaining the property, the club gives an annual scholarship to a graduating high school senior and does other community work.

The gun show will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 8 and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 9. Admission is $5 per adult. Children under 12 are free and must be accompanied by an adult. Tables are $40 to rent.

For more on the show, call 207 882-7805.