Missouri hunting market grows amid national decline

Business has been so brisk at Powder Horn Gun & Sporting Goods that owner Lee Brandkamp has been unable to take a day off since the middle of August.

Whether it’s helping customers buy a new rifle, pick out a new scope or tune their bows, Brandkamp has been so busy getting other hunters ready for their hunts that he had to cancel his annual hunting trip to Colorado.

Brandkamp opened Powder Horn in 1983 and last May moved to his new location on Paris Road. The last six weeks, he said, have been “ferocious.”

“Two months ago, (bow hunters) broke their bow out of the closet and realized, ‘Oh, I need a new sight,’ or ‘I need to get this serviced,'” he said. “By mid-July, as far as bow hunters are concerned, the season’s started.”

The deer hunting season for archers opened Monday, and the fall firearms season is approaching, so it’s only going to get busier at Powder Horn and other sporting goods stores in Missouri.

While the number of hunters nationally has declined, the number in Missouri has been increasing

Missouri had the fifth most in-state hunters in the nation, over 600,000 in 2006, according to the National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife Recreation conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That’s roughly 10 percent of the state’s population and 100,000 more hunters than there were in 2001.

Sporting goods retailers, taxidermists and meat processors are some of the beneficiaries of hunting’s popularity.

Missouri was also ranked fifth nationally in hunting expenditures in 2006. Hunters are expected to spend more than $1 billion in Missouri this year. The commercial activity supports about 24,000 jobs and results in over $2 billion in economic impact on the state, said David Thorne, Missouri Department of Conservation Public Involvement coordinator.

While Missouri draws around $250 million in business from hunters outside the state, the majority is from hunters within the state.

“Folks in Missouri just tend to be more outdoorsy than other folks,” Thorne said.

Central Missouri has especially strong hunting. Callaway County reported the highest deer harvest in the state last year, and Howard County harvested more deer than the number of firearm hunters.

One of the reasons Missouri’s hunting industry is so strong is that it is ranked highest in the nation in hunter replacement. For every 100 hunters that die or retire, another 116 are added, making it one of seven states that are gaining hunters each year. The country, as a whole, only adds 69 new hunters for every 100 it loses.

“We lead the nation in hunter recruitment,” said Dave Murphy, director of the Missouri Conservation Federation, a private group that helped create the Missouri Department of Conservation in 1935. “The real key factor is the youth seasons here in Missouri.”

Powderhorn employee Shane Burr, 21, killed his first deer when he was eight, but his dad had been bringing him along since he was three. He also took advantage of the youth hunts as soon the state began them seven years ago. Now he hunts almost every morning during the season.

“I’ve hunted my whole life,” Burr said. “My dad used to pull me up into his tree stand with a rope because I couldn’t         climb it.”

But even with Missouri’s high recruitment number, Thorne of the Conservation Department said that the imminent retirement of the baby boomer generation could significantly hurt hunting numbers.

“We, as a department, are very concerned about the number of permits,” he said. “As (baby boomers) tend to stop buying permits, one prediction is that the number will fall off in the next few years.”

The potential drop in Missouri hunters is also a major concern for Murphy. That’s why he thinks youth recruitment is so important right now, both for hunting’s economic impact and its cultural impact on the state.

“There’s thousands of jobs here in Missouri that have grown into this industry, and (less hunters) could potentially have a very broad economic impact,” he said. “We’re trying to do our part so we don’t lose this teaching moment with all these experienced hunters.”

The shopping season for hunters hits a fever pitch during the week and a half of rifle season in November. That time period last year, the line for permits, or deer tags, at Columbia’s Bass Pro Shops stretched across the entire floor of the store. With so many hunters coming in at the same time, crowded around the same area, looking for the same merchandise, the firearm season can get a little hectic at any sporting             goods store.

“Fisherman will come in January preparing for the May bass season,” Bass Pro Shops store manager David Smith said. “Hunters will come in the day before the season starts, saying, ‘Oh, I forgot my tags.'”

Smith said they usually need to increase staff hours by 30 percent when the archery season opens, and by 50 percent for rifle season.

“We’re not the biggest market because we go up against St. Louis and Kansas City,” Smith said. “But we definitely hold our own in the hunting business.”

Shoppers from all 50 states and at least 15 countries have patronized the store, he said. They get shoppers all along the U.S. 63 corridor north into Iowa, to Lake of the Ozarks in the south, to Hermann in the east and Sedalia in the west.

Gary Harbert, who lives in Hannibal, was buying new accessories for his bow at Bass Pro the week before archery season began. He comes to Columbia regularly because he has a son attending the University of Missouri and habitually makes a stop at Bass Pro. “This makes it easy and convenient,” he said. “I never miss when I’m here.”

Even with the abundance of hunters in the state, it doesn’t mean they always bring back a kill. Some businesses are still licking the wounds from last year’s deer harvest, which was lower than usual due to warm weather, and that makes deer less active during the day.

“Last year was the worst season we’ve had in years,” said William Crane, owner of Crane’s Meat Processing in Ashland, which specializes in wild game.

He’s getting ready for the rush in November by buying everything he needs now and plans to hire three or four extra workers for the firearm season. “It’ll be a little better, better than last year,” Crane said.

Even so, he’s still a little skeptical about the weather conditions. “If it stays warm, there’s nothing we can do. We’re weather dependant.”

Danny Wolfe, owner of Wolfe’s Deer processing in Centralia, is slightly more optimistic. He’s counting on cooler weather and expects this year’s harvest to far exceed the 772 deer he butchered last year. High gas prices could cause people to hunt closer to home and boost sales, he added.

“Last year it wasn’t so good because it was so hot,” he said. “Weather plays a pretty big factor. But we’re busy (and) we’ll stay busy, because there are plenty of deer out there.”

While the number of deer he mounted in the 2007 season was slightly less than the year before, Curt Shahan of Woodland Wonders Taxidermy said it was still within the normal range of 140 to 180 deer mounting orders he gets a year. He has to hire extra help during the deer hunting season, which accounts for 65 to 75 percent of his annual business. Mounting one deer takes 14 to 16 hours, he said.

“That’s the bread and butter of Midwest taxidermists is the deer season,” he said.

To boost business earlier in the year, Brandkamp added an archery practice range at his new location.

“You have people who get ready all year, and then you have seasonal hunters,” he said. “Right now, we’re seeing everyone.”

By the Numbers:

Missouri’s Hunting Market
Hunters in 2006: 600,000
Hunters in 2001: 489,000
Hunting expenditures in 2006: $1.03 billion (fifth  in nation)
Hunting expenditures in 2001: $560 million
Revenue from out-of-state hunters: $251 million (fourth in the nation)
Jobs provided through hunting: 24,505 (fourth in nation)

Regional Hunting Market
Firearm hunters in Boone and adjacent counties in 2007: 26,428
Deer harvest in Boone and adjacent counties in 2007: 24,692