The number of participants in recreational shooting activities has been on the rise for the past several years. While most folks within the hunting and shooting industry know this, what does this really mean in terms of numbers? In other words, how big of a market are we talking about here?

 

A survey conducted for the National Shooting Sports Foundation by Responsive Management and the resulting report puts things in perspective. (Numbers represent participants 18 and over.)

 

	2009	2009	2012	2012
Shooting Activities	% of Overall U.S. Population	Estimated Total Participants	% of Overall U.S. Population	Estimated Total Participants	% Increase or Decrease in Number of Participants
Any target or sport shooting	15%	34,382,566	17%	40,779,651	19%
Target shooting with a rifle	11%	24,045,795	11%	26,882,425	12%
Target shooting with a handgun	10%	22,169,700	12%	28,209,283	27%
Shooting a modern sporting rifle	4%	8,868,085	5%	11,976,702	35%
Shooting sporting clays	4%	8,399,989	4%	8,789,340	5%
Trap shooting	3%	7,582,479	4%	10,116,684	33%
Skeet shooting	3%	6,979,680	5%	12,090,346	73%

 

Further analysis of the study revealed that of new target shooters (less than five years of experience), only 29% of them hunted in 2012. For established target shooters (more than five years of experience), hunting participation was recorded as 56%.

 

The bottom line: Shooting continues its march toward becoming a mainstream activity; if your customer focus is solely on shooters who hunt, you’re missing out on a huge market segment. 

 

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