NATCHEZ — With most of the Miss-Lou feeling the pinch of a recession economy, families are cutting down on extra expenditures like dinners out and shopping trips.

But one favorite pastime for area residents is still thriving.

“We’ve had three terrific hunting seasons, and this one is starting out to be just as good as the rest.”

That’s according to Vernon Smith, a salesperson at Sports Center on Sgt. Prentiss Drive, who said sales in hunting gear this year could even be better than last year.

“I haven’t pulled the report to see where I stand as far as numbers, but I know I heard the boss say the other day he was tickled to death with our numbers.”

That’s good news for store owners, hunters and the state.

Federal wildlife officials’ 2006 survey indicated a $558 million hunting industry, mostly from deer hunting. With a 7 percent state tax, that gives Mississippi’s general fund nearly $40 million annually, pure profit for a state that puts back no money from the general fund into wildlife and fishery programs.

Part of the reason hunters are still buying equipment is because it’s an expense they’ve already accounted for.

By the time hunting season rolls around at the end of they year, hunters are ready.

“Most of my hunters, they save up and have a little stash,” said Homer Hewitt, owner of Hewitt Archery in Ferriday, who added that his store has set records every month so far this year.

“They take a vacation this time of year, and their hunting is their vacation. My vacation is my hunting time, and I spend my money that way.”

But store owners weren’t always so optimistic, and neither were consumers.

Earlier this year, when gas prices hovered at $4 a gallon, there were fears that this would be a slow hunting season.

Hunters not only have to drive to their camps, but they have to fill up ATVs and off-road vehicles as well.

Hewitt said the biggest lull at his store was when the gas prices were rising. His sales picked back up when prices stabilized, although they were still high.

“I was afraid I wasn’t going to sell the number of guns I needed to sell to make (my manager) happy and to keep my job,” Smith, a hunter himself, said. “I was concerned because it sure slowed me down from doing a lot.

“On my days off I wouldn’t even leave the house. It took too much money for me to come to town.”

High gas prices, combined with Hurricane Gustav — which hit Sept. 1, just as people were preparing for October’s bow season — could have been costly for Hewitt.

“That hit at an extremely bad time,” Hewitt said. “Our peak season, which is like December for Christmas, is September. That’s the month before dear season opens.”

But Hewitt said sales picked right back up in October and more than made up for a lacking September.

And now that gas prices have dropped to nearly $1.50 a gallon — the national average is at its lowest since January 2005 — hunters are getting back in the groove.

Marcus White, of Natchez, who was in Sports Center Thursday looking for some ammunition for this weekend, said he hunts two to three times a week if possible.

He said he was worried in June and July that he would have to cut back.

“Filling up a truck and an ATV, going out into the woods looking for a couple deer, it was on the inconvenient side,” White said. “But now that our gas prices have dropped, we can spend a little extra time roaming a little freer in the woods.”

Lance Ball, Southern Region Administer for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks District 1 Office, said applications for hunting licenses at his office “are right on cue with previous years.”

“The gas prices going back down has really helped and enabled people to get out,” Ball said. “Some hunters have to drive a good ways, and we were kind of leery that when gas was $4 a gallon, that would have an impact.”

Smith said, for the most part, the slowdown in the rest of the economy has not affected the purchase of hunting gear either.

Customers are still buying clothing, accessories and even new guns if they want them.

He waited on at least 15 customers between 1 and 2 p.m. Thursday.

“If they want it they’re going to get it,” he said. “Most of these old boys plan for this time of year. They know what they’re going to spend. They know if they’re going to buy a new gun or not or if they’re going to buy new clothes.”

Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Deer Project Coordinator Chad Dacus said hunting may even save families money.

“It’s a way for them to get meat and a way to get food relatively inexpensively, especially if someone processes and cuts up their own meat,” he said. “We may see an increase in some of the people who have not hunted as much (beginning to hunt) because they realize they can have meat that can save them money.”

White said while he is reusing gear from last season, the food is one reason he hunts so often.

“I’d rather go out there and kill it myself than go in and buy maybe a $7-$8 pack of meat and get maybe four patties.”