** An average hunter spends $1,638 every year on the sport.**Teenage girls are the fastest growing market in sport shooting.
** According to research, 72 percent more women are hunting with firearms today than just five years ago. And 50 percent more women are now target shooting.
** Americans hunt 228 million days per year.
** More than 38 million Americans hunt and fish.
** Hunters and anglers support more jobs nationwide than the number of people employed by Wal-Mart.
** Through license sales and excise taxes on equipment, hunters and anglers pay for most fish and wildlife conservation programs.
** Hunters and shooters have paid more than $5 billion in excise taxes since 1939.
** More Americans hunt and shoot than play golf.
** Firearms are involved in less than 1 percent of all accidental fatalities. More Americans are killed in accidents involving vending machines than guns.
** Hunting gear sales are growing faster than all other sporting goods categories.
** Americans annually buy 1.1 billion shotshells.
** Non-resident hunting license, tag, stamp and permit sales have risen 41.2 percent since 1993.
Sources: US Fish and Wildlife Service; 2001 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation; National Shooting Sports Foundation.
Photo by Dick
