The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) is an industry-membership group that promotes the shooting sports and provides valuable research and information we can all use to make informed business decisions.

I recently came across their 2013 report “Target Shooting in America: Millions of Shooters, Billions of Dollars.”

Here are the Top 5 highlights:

1. American shooters spent $9.9 billion in 2011, which generated $3.3 billion in taxes.

2. Top state ranked by spending, and by number of target shooters: California

California had 1.7 million target shooters, with Texas right behind at 1.6 million.

3. “The average target shooter spend 22 days in the field or at the range in 2011. Nebraska target shooters spent the most time punching holes in targets with 38 days of participation each. Arizona and Oregon showed the second and third highest annual days of activity with 36 and 35 days per shooter, respectively.

4. Target shooting and hunting generated $110 billion in economic output and supported 866,339 jobs, which was nearly half of the two million jobs created during the economic downturn of 2011.

5. Rifles and Handguns are the most popular shooting choices

Here is a download link to the full report: http://www.nssf.org/PDF/research/TargetShootingInAmericaReport.pdf