To the area archers (or archer wannabes) who have not yet discovered Black Creek Sports—what are you waiting for? This family-owned, Liberty-based business offers a well-stocked archery pro shop, and the proprietors—Kurtis Martin along with his two eldest sons, Tyler and Konnor—are there to provide sales, maintenance, repairs, and tuning of all types of bows and crossbows.

The store, at 8020 Route 414, about a mile west of Route 15, evolved from a nearly twenty-year-old business the Martins already operated.

“We moved here in 2006 and established Black Creek Enterprises,” Kurtis explains. “That’s more of a construction company. We sell some outdoor storage sheds, that type of thing. And then we established Black Creek Sports as a division of Black Creek Enterprises initially to sell and distribute 360 hunting blinds.”

From the earliest days of Black Creek Enterprises, their service included seeds, advice, and labor for feed plot management. The deer blinds and feed plot management supplies attracted hunters to the business, and Black Creek Sports was created three years ago. The plan was to create a generalized hunting and fishing retail establishment, but customer requests quickly identified their niche.

“We had a little bit of everything, and we still do, but it became obvious pretty quick that archery’s the main interest around here,” Kurtis says. “And there was a need.”

While the number of firearm hunting licenses has been steady over the past few years, the sale of archery licenses continues to grow. In addition to hunting, other areas in archery have seen new popularity. According to a 2020 study by the Archery Trade Association, 4 percent of Americans over thirteen years old participated in bow hunting, 7 percent were active in recreational archery, and 2 percent pursued competitive archery.

“The archery pro shop started about three years ago,” Tyler notes. “We just got Matthews and Hoyt earlier this year.” Bear is another line of bows they carry, as well as Ravin and Ten Point crossbows. They sell recurve bows, compound bows, crossbows, plus the full range of archery accessories.

The Martins are particularly proud of the pro shop. Konnor and Tyler have both been trained in archery maintenance, repair, and adjustment, and Konnor has earned the title of certified bow technician from the Archery Trade Association. In addition to string replacement and sight installations, Black Creek Sports cuts and fletches arrows. With a twenty-yard indoor range sporting paper and 3D targets, they can work closely with customers to maximize the fit and sighting of equipment.

Kurtis is clearly a proud father when discussing the importance of and attention to customer service.

“There was a guy who called in yesterday morning,” Kurtis relates. “He’s leaving Tuesday morning on a hunting trip. I can’t remember where he’s going. He’s coming in in about half an hour when we open at nine o’clock. He had his crossbow and it badly needs new strings. He had it at another archery shop, and they weren’t getting it done. And so, he’s calling around—does anybody have strings for this thing? We were able to get some the same day. That was yesterday. He’s coming in this morning. We’re getting him fixed up so he can go on a hunting trip on Tuesday. He is thrilled. He will be a customer for life.”

While Konnor leads the archery efforts, Tyler focuses instead on characterizing and improving private game lands. Black Creek Sports has the seed, equipment, and expertise to improve the health of deer herds through the creation of game feed plots. With their no-till planting drills, Tyler can sow a game plot without the dust and erosion associated with plow-based approaches.

In another effort to better inform landowners of their deer resources, Black Creek Sports has invested in a drone with thermal imaging, and Tyler has received his drone pilot license. He flies the drone over woods behind the shop. Even though it was flying at 300-400 feet to avoid spooking or harassing wildlife, the heat signals of eight to ten deer were visible real-time.

Then, using the drone’s zoom camera, Tyler was able to distinguish between bucks and does. This type of herd characterization flight can be completed over many acres quickly, providing the landowner or hunting camp with data on herd composition and their favored habitat.

Tyler would like to see the Pennsylvania Game Commission legalize the use of drones to locate lost deer. Each year in the Keystone State, thousands of deer are shot but not recovered. A drone with thermal imaging could quickly cover a search area and identify the dead or wounded deer, allowing its timely recovery. In Ohio, where drone recovery is legal, success rates exceed ninety percent. The drone can also be used to find stray pets or lost/injured people.

Black Creek Sports also sells e-bikes for the back country. They handle the Rambo and Fission brands, and see these bikes as allowing people to hunt away from the road despite health or age. Folks who might formerly have relied on noisy, smelly ATVs to access the far blinds can now use an e-bike with a range of forty to fifty miles.

The store sponsors a big buck contest (this is the third year), and sells ammunition and fishing supplies. Kurtis is pleased to state the obvious—“We’re really quite busy.”

Find out more at blackcreeksports.com, or reach the store by phone at (570) 324-6503. Better yet, drop by between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.