Aiming for New Target Shooters from Anglers’ Ranks

The recent Multistate Conservation Grant-funded 2022 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation (National Survey) reported three times more target shooters (47 million) in the U.S. than hunters (15 million 6 years and older), indicating overall greater public interest. In addition, the 2022 National Survey also shows 50% of target shooters also fish compared to only 25% that also hunt (Jerry Leonard, USFWS, personal communications). The percentage for all anglers who are target shooters is 36%; this percentage goes up to 38% if those age <18 are dropped. For the U.S. six-and-over population as a whole, the percent of target shooters is 16%, so an angler is more than twice as likely to be a target shooter than a random U.S. resident. Given the need to increase target shooting participation, the high affinity for target shooting among anglers combined with the fact that states already have contact information and basic relationships with millions of anglers, states’ Recruitment, Retention and Reactivation (R3) programs may have a significant opportunity before them to recruit new target shooters from anglers’ ranks. However, no one has examined if this opportunity is worth pursuing or not. A need exists to determine if this is a significant opportunity, and if so, how states can most effectively pursue and recruit these potential new target shooters. State agencies are ideal to test this potential opportunity to recruit new target shooters because they have access to anglers via license records, the necessary R3 research and application knowledge and are the intended beneficiaries for implementing the findings, if proven worthwhile. Southwick Associates will be contracted to coordinate efforts and conduct quantitative research based on their recent similar efforts, and DJ Case & Associates will be contracted to provide qualitative research and web-design services. Work will begin by first thoroughly examining angler and target shooter data within the 2022 National Survey data set to identify commonalities and concepts to test. Next, we will conduct quantitative and qualitative work to find out more about target shooters who also fish, and how anglers who do not shoot might be encouraged to do so. The summarized results, including marketing recommendations, will then be tested via a pilot campaign in one state per Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies region. The insights from these tests, along with the research results, will then be summarized and distributed to states and Non-governmental Organization partners to use in their own custom marketing efforts. Recommendations will include describing if target shooters can be effectively recruited from anglers’ ranks, how to do so, along with tested imagery and messaging that will enhance recruitment success. This project builds on previous Multistate Conservation Grant investments, specifically by utilizing the 2022 National Survey and further exploring insights under production in 2024 via the Outdoor Stewards of Conservation Foundation’s “Welcome New Shooters” project. The expected outcome, if the pilot campaigns prove successful, will be greater numbers of target shooters.