COEUR d'ALENE - Larry and Pam Osborn have been collecting for three decades.

Antiques, rifle cartridges, Marlin Firearms, you name it.

The couple participated in the Northwest Collector Cartridge Show, which took place at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds this weekend.

At the close of the show Sunday, Larry held up an antique 1940s plate depicting a duck hunter with his dog.

"People collect stuff like this because if they're a shotgun shooter or have a dog or something, they might buy the plate to put on the wall because of the dog or the shotgun," he said.

Larry and Pam are partial to Marlin Firearms, a brand that dates back to the mid 1800s. Larry said his favorite collection piece is an 1881 Marlin rifle, a family heirloom that he purchased from a seller in Oregon.

They procure their treasures from garage sales, antique shows, gun and cartridge shows, but the shows aren't completely about the material things.

"I have fun every I go to a cartridge show," he said. "Any time you can be with your friends is the best." He and Pam agreed that the people are a big part of why they attend.

"The people are so nice," Pam said. "This is almost more of a chatfest than anything else. Sometimes you only see people once a year or twice a year."

But a collection show is not a collection show without the things to collect. The cartridge show featured items to buy, sell and trade, such as boxed shells, individual rounds, military equipment, shotgun shells and historical pieces dating back to the mid-1800s. Event chairman Gary Roedl, who has been leading the shows for seven years, said he was impressed with the displays.

"This gentleman had a wonderful display of .22 boxes," Roedl said. He said he also saw impressive displays of Ideal powder measures and Sharps cartridges.

"Some of the oldest stuff that was here was probably from the 1840s," he said. "From that time on, there was a number of different types of ignition for cartridges, what makes them go 'bang.'"

He said collectors strive to find cartridge boxes with the original shells, but the ultimate goal is to obtain sealed, unopened boxes.

"There's a collecting interest, I think, in most individuals, whether its quilts, knitting needles, thimbles, cartridges, guns, diamonds," he said. "This does answer that need to satisfy that collecting interest."

The Northwest Collector Cartridge Show plans to return to Coeur d'Alene next fall.