Hunting Supply

The hunting supply store has been a slowly receding part of many communities in America. The heyday of the supply store was in frontier towns, where the economy was whatever the local farmers and ranchers produced, supplemented by what the wagon trains and railroad brought in. The same shop would sell you candles for your house and ammo for your rifle.

Once the gold rush hit and going out west became a get rich quick scheme, the number of hunting supply depots began to dwindle. As communities got bigger, specialized shops could handle the production of different subsets of the stores’ wares for less, and so grocers, household stores, and gun shops started choking out the all-in-one stores in larger communities.

Today, a hunting supply store is more than likely not a store in and of itself at all. Instead, you are more likely to find a hunting section within your local sporting goods store. Retailers like REI shy away from offering hunting gear, but others, such as Cabela’s, have the largest portion of their stores dedicated to hunters.