The Future of Hunting and the Shooting Sports: ResearchBased Recruitment and Retention Strategies

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The Future of Hunting and the Shooting Sports
Research-Based Recruitment and Retention
Strategies
Shooting Sports Summit Mark Damian Duda Frank
Briganti Tuesday, June 24, 2008 Produced under a
grant for the United States Fish and Wildlife
Service, Division of Federal Aid, Federal Aid in
Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Grant
Agreement CT-M-6-0
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Charting the course for the industrys future.
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Focus of Fish and Wildlife Management
Fish and Wildlife Populations
Fish and Wildlife Professionals
Fish and Wildlife Habitats
Human Populations
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650,000 5.4 million
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40,000 1 million
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rarely seen 5.5 million
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Focus of Fish and Wildlife Management
Fish and Wildlife Populations
Fish and Wildlife Professionals
Fish and Wildlife Habitats
Human Populations
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Methodology

• Literature Review
• Focus Groups
• Surveys
• General Population
• Active Hunters
• Ex-Hunters
• Active Shooters
• Ex-Shooters
• Focus Groups

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• n 5,040 general population (includes hunters
  and shooters)
• n 1,053 hunters and shooters

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Alabama Youth Dove Hunt
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First Shots
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• 261 pages
• 196 action items
• Focus on Problem Solution
• Action items range from
• What to understand changing demographics and
  time issues
• How to communicate legal, regulated hunting
  safe and controlled
• How to conduct R R programs non-lethal
  firearms at first (training wheels)
• What not to do single-parent households
• No silver bullet, but lots of shot

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Participation in Hunting and the Shooting Sports
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Hunting Participation
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• Between 14 million and 18 million U.S. residents
  participate in hunting in any given year.

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Active hunters are more likely than are inactive
hunters to have the following characteristics
social support

• Currently has family members who hunt.
• Has fished in the past 5 years.
• Has camped in the past 5 years.
• Has friends who hunt.
• Is between 18 and 34 years old.
• Has gone boating in the past 5 years.
• Has been invited to go hunting with a friend.
• Has gone hiking in the past 5 years.
• Rates access for hunting in state of residence as
  excellent or good.
• Has viewed wildlife in the past 5 years.
• Is male.
• Was first taken hunting by his or her father.
• Lives in a small city or town or a rural area.
• Grew up in a household with firearms.
• Was younger than the median age when first went
  hunting.

younger
initiated by father
initiated at a young age
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Inactive hunters are more likely than are active
hunters to have the following characteristics
no social support

• Does not currently have family members who hunt.
• Does not have friends who hunt.
• Has not been invited to go hunting with a friend.
• Is 35 years old or older.
• Is female.
• Was not first taken hunting by his or her father.
• Lives in a large city/urban area or a suburban
  area.
• Did not grow up in a household with firearms.
• Rates access for hunting in state of residence as
  fair or poor.
• Started hunting when older than the median
  initiation age of hunters.

older
not initiated by father
urban
initiated at an older age
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Trends in Hunting Participation
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• Urbanization
• Aging Society
• Fewer Whites
• Less Access
• Less Opportunity

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Urbanization

• Loss of land
• Loss of rural people
• Dilution of the hunting and shooting culture
• Less free time and more time to travel
• More structured time

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Hunting and shooting are often unstructured
activities that exist in a structured 21st
Century.

• Action Item 48. Make efforts to get hunters and
  shooters to schedule their activities. People
  make time for scheduled activities. A campaign
  to put it on the calendar should be considered,
  targeted at active hunters and shooters.

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Where Did the Hunters Go?
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• Action Item 34. Do not spend limited agency
  resources targeting single-parent households for
  recruitment and retention efforts.

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• Trends in hunting participation need to be put
  into context of trends regarding participation in
  outdoor recreation as a whole. Research suggests
  declining trends in most outdoor recreation.
  (Pergams and Zaradic, 2008)

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Shooting Participation
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• Almost 19 million U.S. residents participate in
  shooting sports in any given year, excluding
  hunting, bowhunting, and archery.

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Trends in Shooting Participation
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Hunting Initiation
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Hunting Motivations
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Dissatisfactions Among Active Hunters
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Reasons for Hunting Desertion
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Trends in Reasons Hunters Quit
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Shooting Initiation
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Shooting Retention
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Shooting Mentorship
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Mentorship

• Action Item 24. When encouraging mentoring, use
  the term, experience, such as sharing the
  experience, because that word resonates well as
  a motivation for mentors.
• Action Item 27. In a corollary to Step Outside,
  support efforts to prompt children to ask adults
  to take them hunting or shooting

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Dissatisfactions Among Active Shooters
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Reasons Non-Shooters Dont Shoot
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Crossover Participation Between Hunting and
Shooting
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Crossover of Hunting and Shooting

• Action Item 100. Realize that recruiting
  shooters from the ranks of hunters will be easier
  than recruiting hunters from the ranks of
  shooters.
• Action Item 101. Move quickly in recruiting
  crossover participation, as data show that this
  crossover, when successful, typically occurs
  within 3 years of first participation in the
  other activity.

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Target Markets
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Identified Hunting Markets
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Identified Shooting Markets
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• Action Item 62. Target young adults, especially
  males, who are outdoor enthusiasts with hunting
  and shooting recruitment efforts and promote
  hunting and shooting as part of an overall
  outdoor lifestyle.

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• Action Item 64. Do not assume that all inactive
  hunters and inactive shooters are low hanging
  fruit.
• those who went only once or twice
• aging hunters and shooters
• those with similar demographics to active hunters
  and shooters

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Hunting and Shooting Recruitment and Retention
Programs
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Awareness of Recruitment and Retention Programs
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Participation in Recruitment and Retention
Programs
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Interest in Programs and Opportunities Among
Shooters
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• Follows the natural path of recruitment and
  retention
• Experiential
• Annual event
• Community event (enforces the hunting culture)
• Occurs in the open
• Starts with small game
• Can observe without participating

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Communicating to the Public About Hunting and
Shooting
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Public Opinion on Hunting
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Hunting versus legal hunting or regulated
hunting.
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Public Opinion on the Shooting Sports
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Communicating to the Public About Hunting and
Shooting

• Action Item 168. Clearly communicate to hunters
  and shooters that their future is in their own
  hands regarding the image of these sports.

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General Action Items for Agencies and
Organizations
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• Action Item 171. Develop a national strategic
  plan for hunting and shooting recruitment and
  retention.
• Action Item 172. Encourage states to develop
  their own strategic plans that fall under the
  national strategic plan. If funding becomes
  available, a strategic plan based on the national
  goals and national strategic plan could be a
  prerequisite to receive funding.
• Action Item 84. Fully evaluate the strengths
  and weaknesses of the Recreational Boating and
  Fishing Foundation.

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• Action Item 175. Consider developing an annual
  National Hunting and Sport Shooting Recruitment
  and Retention Conference.
• Action Item 176. Consider developing a National
  Conservation Training Center course for hunting
  and shooting professionals to teach them the
  human dimensions aspects of hunting and the
  shooting sports.

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• Action Item 179. Support classes that teach
  students about hunting, such as the course on
  hunting at West Virginia University.
• Action Item 180. Note that insufficient funds
  or resources can doom agency and organization
  efforts.
• Action Item 181. Assign full-time personnel, or
  even a unit within an agency, to recruitment and
  retention, as part-time attention is simply not
  enough.

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A Final Action Item

• Action Item 196. Put these actions into place
  as soon as possible. While proper planning is
  essential, plans cannot be left in the planning
  stage without follow-through.

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