Richard H. Vance started Vance’s in 1938 as a general store. He passed his love of hunting and shooting on to his son Richard M. Vance. Together they changed their grocery store that was selling firearms, archery, and police equipment as a sideline business to a full-time Sporting Goods store in January of 1978

Rich’s wife Lana and sons Todd and Doug have worked in the family business for many years and have played a major role in the steady growth. Todd runs our retail operations and Doug spearheads our Law Enforcement Division.

In 2002 Vance’s merged their business with Buckeye Outdoors. We are proud that we have evolved into four large and very successful operations: Vance’s Shooters Supplies, Vance’s Law Enforcement, Buckeye Outdoors, and Buckeye Outdoors Marine. Our four DBA divisions are part of Vance Outdoors Inc., our new Ohio incorporated company name.

Richard H. Vance loved his customers and loved to converse with them. He taught his family that our customers were our real Bosses. We were schooled in the many ways to make and keep our customers happy. Our mission has always been and will always be to make sure that our customers have a great shopping experience at Vance’s.

We are fortunate to have a wonderful group of longtime employees. Some of them have been with Vance’s for more than 30 years. Our entire staff would like to thank all of our many customers in Columbus and around Ohio for shopping at Vance’s and making this our 68th year at the same location.

Buckeye Outdoors was founded in February 1997 by Maurice & Sharon Potvin, with one goal in mind. To offer their customers the lowest price along with great customer service. With this being the goal still today and the merge of Vance’s Shooters Supplies and Buckeye in 2002 has helped to continue its growth into one of the largest outdoors retail stores in the country. Please come and visit us and experience the great outdoors at Buckeye Outdoors.