Hunting dates left in the season:
Jan. 6 — end of ringneck pheasant/chukar season
Jan. 8 — end of white-tailed deer muzzleloader season
Jan. 31 — end of ruffed grouse and squirrel season
Feb. 3 — end of white-tailed deer archery season
Until a year ago, Springfield had limited options for hunters looking for supplies for the fall and winter hunting season.
Now two large stores offer a range of items to accommodate hunters, campers and fishers locally.
MC Sports, a sporting goods store in the Upper Valley Mall, expanded its store this winter to include outdoor and hunting supplies. The new section officially opened in November.
“It was just demand from customers,” said Phil Wade, MC Sports store manager. “Ever since we opened 4.5 years ago, customers have been looking for a place they can go for their hunting and fishing needs.”
Right now crossbows have been the stores best selling product in the section, as white-tailed deer bow hunting continues through Feb. 3.
MC Sports expanded four different locations, including Springfield in Ohio, because demand for hunting products is up, Wade said.
Participation in hunting across the country has slowly increased since 2006. According to the 2011 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, overall hunting participation increased 9 percent from 2006 to 2011.
Statewide and locally though, the number of hunting licenses being sold have decreased. In Clark and Champaign combined, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources sold nearly 23,000 licenses in 2011, down from about 27,200 licenses in 2010.
“There’s just a lot of things competing for people’s time than there was before,” said Brett Beatty, ODNR wildlife management supervisor. “Different priorities, different shifts and social pressures shifting away from the traditions of hunting and fishing.”
But Beatty said Ohio is increasingly becoming a destination state for hunting and fishing.
“We’ve seen an influx of people from out of state coming to Ohio to hunt,” he said. “Ohio has been known as a popular place to come and white-tailed deer hunt. It’s changed considerably in the last 10 years and has really become a hunting destination.”
According to ODNR statistics, 2011 was the first time out of state license sales decreased since a major peak in 2007. ODNR sold more than 11,680 licenses in 2011, down from about 13,570 in 2010.
“Ohio is a good hunting state,” said Roger Dixon, vice president of Dunham’s Sporting Goods, which opened in Springfield in November of last year. “It has a lot of game and it appears (Ohio) has generous seasons and may sometimes be even a little longer.”
Dixon said moving into secondary markets such as Springfield that have significant sporting good needs served by only a handful of stores such as Walmart is part of the company’s growth program.
The outdoor and hunting market “has just been on a growth path … We’ve gone after it, so to speak, and we saw that growth as a result,” Dixon said. “We have more to offer, which brings more customers and it just kind of snowballs. And the department has grown significantly over the last five years and Ohio has been a part of that growth.”
State statistics on the economic impact of hunting and fishing have not been updated since 2006. But it’s estimated that each year hunting has an $859 million economic impact in Ohio — including sale of equipment, fuel, lodging and more. Ohio has 1.5 million hunters and anglers, who spend $5.3 million a day with total annual spending estimated at $1.9 billion, according to the 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation.
Hunters affect “more than just sporting goods stores,” Beatty said. “They go to grocery stores, restaurants, gas and lodging facilities.”
Beatty said more rural counties, especially in the eastern part of the state, have seen a lot of this benefit.
“Hunters pay a lot of (eastern counties’) bills,” Beatty said. “They make a good chunk of their living during the hunting season when folks come from out of state. When people go places, they spend money.”
About the Author