Hunting Still Big Business Despite Decline

By BRETT FRENCH
Of The Gazette Staff

As fluorescent-orange-clad men, women and children motor across the state for the last weeks of big-game hunting, business owners can pause today and give thanks for the boost to their fall bottom line.

Hunting is big business in Montana, the state with the highest participation rate in the country - 19 percent.

"We probably do about the same amount of business in the hunting season as we do in the summer," said Rick Hinand of Ray's Sports and Western Wear, along Highway 12 in Harlowton.

According to a 2006 U.S. Fish and Wildlife survey, hunting brings about $315 million into Montana business coffers and $138 million to Wyoming. Those are dollars spent by 195,000 participants (both resident and nonresident) in Montana, 100,000 in Wyoming.

All of those expenses - everything from gas and licenses to food, beer and lodging - tend to add up. A 2002 survey showed that hunters spent $97 million on equipment in Montana, including $6 million on ammunition and $9.4 million on firearms.

Hunting isn't only big business out West. Nationally, 19 million people 16 and older hunted in 2006, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service, or 5 percent of the population. Those hunters spent an estimated $23 billion.

Montana's big-game rifle season runs for five weeks, ending Sunday.

"The first and last weeks of the season are probably the busiest," Hinand said. "There are more nonresidents the first couple of weeks. Thanksgiving weekend is a big time for residents. It's a big family deal. A lot of them get together to hunt."

Hinand's business covers a variety of services for hunters, everything from sporting goods to gifts, a convenience store, gas station and casino.

Perhaps nowhere is the effect of the hunting season on businesses felt more keenly, though, than at small-town stores, cafes and bars, such as the one in Checkerboard in the Castle Mountains, a town with a steady population of only 12.

For Rick Geordge, owner of the Checkerboard Inn - a bar that rents camping spots and cabins, the hunting season accounts for one-third to one-half of his yearly business, most of which comes from the Roundup and Billings areas.

"It's major," he said.

After the hunting season, there's a noticeable drop in customers.

"It gets so slow around here, we have to back up to stop," Geordge said.

Jim Walker, at Jimbo's Junction City Saloon, downtown Custer, sees a definite boost during hunting season.

"Hunting season is always great for us," he said. "We do an extra 20 percent in sales on Saturday and Sunday and an extra 10 percent during the week." Packaged-liquor sales also increase.

He said many of the hunters are from the Billings area.

And Budweiser is the beer of choice during hunting season. The rest of the year, it's Bud Lite, he said.

Although Geordge doesn't see many out-of-staters at his establishment, Hinand guessed that about 30 percent of the hunters passing through his business are from outside Montana.

"They don't spend more than a resident does in a year," he said. "But they do spend more during the hunting season."

He said Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota are the main states nonresident hunters hale from.

"They come from all over, but those are the big ones," he said.

Although some might expect an out-of-state hunter to get a cool reception on occasion, Minnesota hunter Joe Hoehn said he's never had a bad experience in Montana.

"The people out here have always been very generous, no matter where we stop," he said. "I've never had a cold shoulder. I've always had an open hand."

Maybe Montanans realize out-of-state hunters are a big contributor to the economy. They certainly help keep the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks funded.

According to Ron Aasheim, conservation education administrator for FWP, nonresidents account for almost 70 percent of the agency's license revenue - almost one half of its operating budget.

"Hunting and fishing license revenue is a big deal," he said. "It's big business for us and big business for Montana."

Some business owners, however, blame FWP for not doing more to prevent a drop in hunting participation, and hence fewer customers.

Between 1992 and 2002, resident elk license purchases dropped by almost 20,000 despite gains in elk populations statewide. Nationwide, hunter numbers have declined by 4 percent between 2001 and 2006.

"You see nonresidents come out here and hunt, but it's not the volume that it used to be," said one business owner who asked not to be identified for fear it would affect his business.

He blamed the licenses that are set aside specifically for outfitters as one of the reasons.

"What other industry has one-third of the licenses reserved for them? Nobody guarantees me anyone will walk through my door," he said.

Of Montana's 17,000 big-game combination licenses for nonresidents, 5,500 are set aside for outfitters. The rest, 11,500 licenses, were competed for through drawings by 20,400 hunters in 2006. The outfitter-guaranteed licenses are priced at $1,500 compared to $643 for the general nonresident combination license.

The business owner complained that with the guaranteed licenses, outfitters have been guaranteed enough income to allow them to lease private land, crowding more hunters onto federal and state lands.

"I can't blame the landowners," the businessman said. "It's a cash crop. But hunters get frustrated and quit."

Geordge said Fish, Wildlife and Parks can also affect his business by how it sets up the season - how many cow elk permits versus either-sex permits it issues.

"One of the main changes is so many fewer people hunt now than there was before," Geordge said. "All the private ground is pretty locked up. If it isn't, they make it too tough. You have to walk in and pack out."

The end result, Geordge said, is that his business has dropped off from what it was 20 or even 15 years ago.

Although having hunter purchases fill the cash register is good, the one downside is that it makes it hard for business owners to do their own hunting.

"This is the wrong business to be in if you want to take a lot of time off," said Hinand of Ray's.

Contact Brett French at french@billingsgazette.com or at 657-1387.
Published on Thursday, November 22, 2007.
Last modified on 11/21/2007 at 11:13 pm

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