TOM ENGLE at his Hunters Warehouse outdoor supply store in downtown Bellefonte in March. Engle is celebrating his 40th year in business this month.
By CONNER GOETZ
Special to the Gazette
BELLEFONTE — Generations of hunters, fishers and outdoor enthusiasts have enjoyed the natural wonders of Centre County, and many have benefited from the wisdom and experience of Tom Engle, whose Hunters Warehouse stores have been a pillar of the community for almost 40 years.
Although he is originally from the Downingtown area, where he opened his first outdoor supply store, Engle moved to the region after he was discharged from the Marine Corps and met his wife, who was raised in Centre County.
Engle has owned several sporting goods stores in State College and Milesburg since the 1980s, but now focuses his attention on his online store and remaining location on West High Street in downtown Bellefonte, where he has been since 2006.
“I just had a lot of interest in guns from a young man on,” Engle said during an interview with The Centre County Gazette in March. “I also had a tool store at the time, and I decided that guns were more interesting than tools.”
Engle’s passion for firearms has driven his business ever since, and he now “specializes in vintage guns, antique guns and military guns,” in addition to fly fishing and outdoor equipment.
According to Engle, the oldest weapon currently in his inventory is from the mid-18th century.
And while his store carries a multitude of firearm brands, spanning different nations, eras and calibers, Engle said his main interest is domestic and foreign military guns produced after 1800.
“I love military firearms, all military (equipment) we love,” Engle said. “We have a lot of WW II guns, obviously, but I like all guns.”
This approach entices one of Engle’s key customer demographics — firearm collectors, who appreciate his willingness to stock rare and hard-to-find models.
“They’ll come to my store and say ‘wow, this looks like a museum,’ only now they can buy them,” Engle said.
Andrew Yurcho, a retired partner at Jones Day Law Firm and firearm collector, first met Engle a little over 10 years ago.
“I caught one of his ads, since I was looking for a particular firearm years ago,” Yurcho said, “so I called him and went into the shop, and after that we became very good friends.”
Yurcho, who splits his time between his homes in State College and Fountain Valley, California, makes a point to stop by the shop to “hang out” with Engle whenever he’s in town.
“I’m also kind of a collector, so if I see something I like I’ll buy it, or Tom will find it for me,” Yurcho said, “and over the years I’ve helped him with minor legal stuff, and we’ve become very good friends.”
Engle carries this amicable nature through all of his dealings with customers and has said he enjoys the personal component of customer service.
“Customer service is everything, so any used gun I sell, I will fix that gun for free if it’s in my knowledge to fix,” Engle said.
“I really enjoy helping new hunters to the area,” Engle said. “We get a lot of new hunters from Penn State, the white-collar workers. … I pretty much go out of my way to find them new places to hunt … to fish and walk around in nature.”
(Conner Goetz is a former Penn State student intern of The Centre County Gazette.)
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