Buckmasters, the renowned outdoors organization that started in Montgomery, is celebrating milestones that include the 30th Buckmasters Expo, founder and CEO Jackie Bushman’s 70th birthday this fall and the organization’s 40th birthday in January.
The 30th Expo at the Montgomery Convention Center attracted massive crowds for its three-day run last weekend. Not only did plenty of Alabamians enjoy the show – archery competition, loads of vendors and even Bulls & Buckmasters, a bull-riding competition in downtown Montgomery – but visitors came from all over the nation and even the world to participate.
The Expo started as the Buckmasters Country Jam, which was held in Atlanta at the Georgia Dome for two years.
“There was a little event called the Olympics that took our place,” Bushman said. “We thought we were a little bigger but they didn’t. So, we came here to Montgomery. Alan Brewer went down to the Convention Center and measured everything from the archery tournament to the vendor space and said, ‘Bush, we can do it.’ We thought we would do one year here and take it back to Atlanta. So, we did it here, and every vendor walked up to Donna Gross (former Buckmasters’ Sponsor Coordinator) and said, ‘Do not take it back to Atlanta. This is the best hospitality we’ve ever had. We sold out of product.’”
Except for a three-year stint in Greensboro, North Carolina, when the Convention Center was being renovated, the Expo has been in Montgomery ever since.
“We got the governor, mayor and City of Montgomery involved so we could let everybody in for a canned good,” Bushman said. “People can bring their whole family. We wanted to make it a family show, and we wanted for people to find their hunting products. We have it the third weekend in August because you can’t compete with dove season, and you can’t compete with football. This is the last show before hunting season starts, so our vendors are selling at discount prices because they don’t want to haul anything back home.”
Bushman said he was impressed by the number of people coming from long distances to join in the celebration of the outdoors and hunting.
“I sat there in the Buckmasters booth for one hour, and I didn’t meet one person from Alabama, not one,” he said. “People were from Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, Georgia and a bunch from Florida. I don’t know what it is about Florida, but they’re all coming from northwest Florida. I had a kid from Norway.
“And now we’ve got the whitewater (Montgomery Whitewater Park) rafting. That’s a wonderful park. There’s only three of those parks in the country. We’re just trying to make it a destination vacation. I’m always trying to figure out how to make it bigger and better.”
Seeing the success of Bulls on the Beaches, Bushman searched for a tie-in for Buckmasters. After a proposal to do an event on the Alabama Gulf Coast fell through, he invited Jerry Byrd of 3R Rodeo to come to Montgomery. After measuring the parking lot space near the Convention Center, he told Bushman he could pull it off, and Bulls & Buckmasters was born in 2022. It has been a huge success.
“When I told the mayor (Steven Reed), I obviously didn’t explain it well,” Bushman said. “He thought we were going to turn the bulls loose like the ‘Running of the Bulls’ like they have in Spain. I said, ‘No, no, no, that’s not what it is.’ We all got a big laugh out of that.”
The parking lot was filled with 53 loads of dirt to accommodate the bull riding event that was held Friday and Saturday nights. The rodeo company erected all the fences and bull chutes, while the city brought in bleachers from the ballparks for the spectators. Bull riders from around the Southeast showed up to participate to gain points to advance to the Professional Bull Riding (PBR) Circuit.
“The east side and west side bleachers held about 1,500 people apiece, and people were standing everywhere,” Bushman said. “I know we had at least 4,000 people there.”
Rodeo cowboy Cody Harris, who helps with the bull-riding events, added, “You couldn’t have fit another person in there. It was packed.”
Bushman admitted that things have changed greatly since Buckmasters was formed in 1986, when print media was the way to reach its audience. Because he wasn’t up to date on all the new ways to reach an audience through social media, he hired a crew to administer that aspect of the business and recruited a team of influencers.
“We still have the magazine for the 40- to 70-year-olds who are used to that format,” he said. “But the 18 to 40s live in a different world. They live on social media, so I hired a great couple, Cody and Aly Hall. Aly is on Tik Tok (Aly of Alabama) with a million followers. We have a lot of social media influencers as part of Buckmasters.
“They’re trying to make me look cool, at my age. I’m learning a lot about this. We’re making this transition because Buckmasters will be 40 in January.”
When I asked Bushman if he thought Buckmasters would be so successful after 40 years, he responded, “Well, the Good Lord has let me be here for these 40 years. I had a fellow tell me the other day that he’d rather be seen than viewed. I believe in that statement. But we’ve had to transition. After covid, there aren’t many printers left, and the cost of materials and labor and postage have gone up. People are now getting their content on their phone or their laptop. Our thought at Buckmasters is that we want to be in every place we can be for people to get their content.
“Whether it’s a magazine or a cable TV show. We want to be there, but also, Samsung is the largest TV manufacturer in the world, and they have their own content. We’re part of that content.”
Bushman said the most important difference in hunting since Buckmasters started is the advent of the trail cameras, which now can send an alert to your phone or laptop when the motion sensor is triggered on the camera.
“Think about it. I’ll bet you wouldn’t have half of the 200-point deer shot if you didn’t have trail cameras,” he said. “They wouldn’t know those existed if they didn’t have trail cameras. I’m all about woodsmanship. I’m old-school. I like the scouting part of it, moving around and looking for food sources and stuff.
“But it doesn’t matter to me as long as you get out and buy a hunting license and enjoy the weapon you choose. What I’ve always told people was to stop arguing amongst yourselves. Whether it’s a compound bow, who cares. Whether it’s an in-line muzzleloader, who cares. Stop all the bickering. Whatever the game and fish agency says is legal, go out and pick your weapon, choose your style of hunting, and go enjoy the sport.”
Bushman is also encouraged by the expansion of the hunting community to include an element that wasn’t very common when Buckmasters started.
“Deer hunting used to be a men’s only thing,” he said. “The ladies have really gotten involved. Finally, somebody asked if they wanted to go. It’s become more of a family deal now with mamas, grandmamas and the little girls. They’ll go, but you’ve got to ask them.
“As I’m seeing the backside of this deal, I’m just hoping the sport will continue to grow. It’s the best education you can give a kid. Take them outdoors. They learn respect, gun discipline, conservation and why we do what we do. It’s a great education.”
Despite reaching that 70 number, Bushman isn’t slowing down, with more hunts booked for this fall than in recent years.
“I still love to hunt,” he said. “I don’t like to travel. Once I get there, I still love to hunt. I’ve always said that as long as the fans want to watch, I’ll keep screwing up. When they say they’ve had enough, I’m going to be like Barney Fife; I’m going into syndication. But I want to get to 40 years on cable TV. That’s my goal.
“The Good Lord has given me a chance to make a living while watching the world wake up at sunrise, and I get to see it put to bed with the sunset.”
David Rainer is an award-winning writer who has covered Alabama’s great outdoors for 25 years. The former outdoors editor at the Mobile Press-Register, he writes for Outdoor Alabama, the website of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
