Jamestown man makes hunting board games

Roll a five, get three shots at a rooster, roll a two, harvest the rooster pheasant and the game is one-tenth completed. But watch out for setbacks like rolled ankles, game wardens or forgotten shells and other hunters going for the same birds.

Welcome to the world of Pheasant Fever, one of three board games created by Paul Lunde of Jamestown. The game, along with Duck Fever and Buck Fever, can be found at 175 retailers across the country, including several Cabela’s and Scheels stores. In Jamestown the games can be found at Gun & Reel and Simply Home.

The games sell for $29.99.

Last year the games were available in 125 stores; 124 bought them again and the other went out of business. Lunde wants to add 50 retailers each year.

“In my eyes now it’s become a viable product,” he said.

His ultimate goal is getting 1 percent of the 20 million hunters in the U.S. to buy one of his games.

Lunde said he credits his success partly to the economic downturn, because people tend to buy more board games in a bad economy, and that the game has a wide appeal.

The game is an ideal gift for hard to shop for hunters or children who might not be old enough to hunt, he said. Buck Fever is also becoming a favorite at some Wisconsin deer camps where players make rule modifications.

Lunde, a hunter himself, created the games based on his experience in the field. From Conservation Reserve Program fields to shelter belts, players maneuver the areas taking cards and harvesting game by rolling the right dice combination.

The setbacks, or lose a turn squares, in the games are things that happen to hunters in the field including Lunde. So from forgetting a compass or binoculars or lunch it’s all really happened before.

For Buck Fever, Lunde’s first game, he calculated the probability of killing a deer with different types of weapons and adjusted the game cards and dice combination difficulties to show it.

“I can’t get too serious about it, it’s just a game,” Lunde said.

The idea for a hunting board game came to Lunde when he was teaching a family friend who loved the outdoors how to read with a word association game.

A few days later, Lunde created a rough draft of the game board on poster board and some cards and shopped the idea to three board game design companies, one agreed to make the game for a reasonable price because it is made in China.

When the games arrive from China, Lunde inspects each one before sending it out to a retailer. He donates any games that have the slightest dent in the board or box to charity programs, like Toys for Tots and Big Dog Country’s Needy Kids Christmas Party.

What started as a crude drawing on a poster board has turned into three successful games that can be found throughout the country.

So far Lunde’s retirement is all fun and games.

For more information, visit www.huntingfever games.com

Sun reporter Ben Rodgers can be reached at 701-952-8455

or by e-mail at brodgers@jamestownsun.com

Tags: local business, outdoors, business, games, lunde, hunting