Bohemia Village Voice

Outdoorsman Alan with co-director Myles

One of the oldest established shops in Bohemia, the Outdoorsman, contributes its part to bushcraft and survival expert Ray Mear’s wilderness courses. The Outdoorsman sells everything that one might need for any type of outdoor activity, and supplies tools to one of the gamekeepers from whom Ray Mears buys rabbits for his Woodland School of Wilderness Bushcraft.

They supply equipment to the police and the British army, as well as to many bushcraft experts, and send products all over the world. They were able to satisfy an emergency request from the marines in Afghanistan who needed some equipment in a hurry, and the Outdoorsman shipped it directly out to them. Alan Marchant started up the shop thirty years ago, “because I have always been interested in the countryside.” He is the definitive outdoorsman, proficient in all the traditional skills, such as ferreting, and is also a shotgun expert. He is currently writing a book on hunting small game.

As well as stocking an extremely wide range of equipment, Alan and co-director Myles Evans run courses in shooting and invent new shooting-related products.

“For air rifles, rifles and shotguns we beat anyone in the country,” says Alan.

The Outdoorsman has one of England’s biggest websites for everything for the outdoors from a tent-peg to sniper rifles, and also has an auction site on which people can buy and sell their own outdoor products. Myles has been at the Outdoorsman for three years, and is primarily responsible for information technology and new technology such as high-end optics and night vision equipment. He is also an expert with rifles, and gives tuition.

Thanks to the help of new technology such as the internet and stock control management systems, the business is expanding rapidly, and aims to franchise in the not too distant future.