Outdoor Underground Presents...

FLORA, MS — Turkey hunters uttered a collective “What the hell?” this month upon the announcement from Primos® Hunting Calls that founder and president, Will Primos, has cut off his trademark beard.

“I’m shocked,” said Preston Dalls, 34, a turkey hunter from Jackson and loyal Primos customer. “I haven’t felt this confused—maybe even a little betrayed—since I saw Bill Jordan celebrate killing a big buck by doing the Cabbage Patch dance in his treestand on ESPN.”

Hunters like Lee are definitely talking. But whether or not that’s a good thing remains to be seen.

By joining the ranks of the clean-shaven Primos appears 20 years younger. He looks trim and healthy. Many industry insiders are saying that he finally looks like the smart and savvy businessman he’s always been. But when the average hunter (male, age 46) is an overweight, Skoal sucking, blue-collar stiff, it also means that now Primos now looks like everything his clientele is not. Marketing experts also agree that hunters, as a consumer group, notoriously abhor change.

“From a marketing standpoint, it presents a real gamble,” says Bob Steddum VP of Marketing for WildernessPros, a Raleigh, North Carolina, firm specializing in niche marketing and advertising for the outdoor marketplace. Take away that beard, according to another industry expert, and a lot of that “good-old-fashion-hardworking-down-home-pickup-driving-country-boy shtick” goes away with it.