Question: Which sports tradition in Missouri and Kansas will attract more than one-half million people this weekend?</p><p>Here&rsquo;s a clue. You can forget about football or any of the other &ldquo;ball&rdquo; sports.</p><p>Answer: Try hunting &mdash; namely, opening weekend of the Missouri deer season and the Kansas pheasant season.</p><p>In the world of outdoors sports, these are the marquee events. The big show.</p><p>No weekend creates a more high-grade fever than this one for area hunters.</p><p>Take a look:</p><p>&bull;The Missouri woods will be crowded this weekend. The state, which has a reputation as one of the nation&rsquo;s best deer-hunting states, will be filled with 475,000 hunters this weekend when the gun season opens.</p><p>&bull;A crowd of non-residents will travel to Kansas this weekend for the pheasant opener. Of the 120,000 hunters who chase the colorful gamebird in the Sunflower State, 40,000 to 50,000 of them are non-residents.</p><p>&bull;Tradition is served in both states as hunters get together for annual trips. Small towns such as Norton, Kan., bustle with activity, economies boom, and motel rooms are booked far in advance.</p><p>&bull;In Missouri, deer hunting is big business. Federal surveys show that hunters spend almost $700 million annually on deer-hunting trips and equipment.</p><p>&bull;In Kansas, the pheasant opener often spells boom times rivaled only by Christmas. Federal surveys show that small-game hunters, of which pheasant hunters make up the majority, spend an average of $600 per person annually in the state.</p><p>&bull;In Missouri, deer hunting supports 11,824 jobs, according to surveys.</p><p>Get the idea? This is more than just idle recreation. This is big stuff.</p><p>&ldquo;For some people, opening day of deer season is as big as Thanksgiving,&rdquo; said Lonnie Hansen, the deer biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an incredible tradition.</p><p>&ldquo;There are friends and family who only get together one weekend out of the year &mdash; for the deer opener. Some of the high schools down in the Ozarks will even close for a couple of days during first week of the deer season.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s just part of our culture in Missouri.&rdquo;</p><p>&bull; &bull; &bull;</p><p>Hansen is part of that culture.</p><p>Not only does he manage Missouri&rsquo;s deer herd, he participates in the hunt. He is one of many who have a long-standing tradition when it comes to opening day.</p><p>&ldquo;We bought a cabin near Kirksville and I&rsquo;ve been getting together with friends and family for almost 15 years,&rdquo; Hansen said. My son, who is 26 now, shot his first deer on that land when he was 11.</p><p>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s been coming back ever since. And my daughter, who had never been deer hunting before, has been going with us for the past two years.</p><p>&ldquo;She&rsquo;s already excited about this year&rsquo;s opener. She can&rsquo;t wait to get back to our deer camp.&rdquo;</p><p>But the Hansen family isn&rsquo;t alone. Many others in the state share that excitement.</p><p>Towns such as Kirksville become hubs of activity once the deer season opens.</p><p>The northeast-Missouri community with a population of 17,300 is hopping during opening weekend. All of the 294 motel rooms are full, as are the eight campgrounds in the area.</p><p>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a noticeable change on opening weekend of deer season,&rdquo; said Debi Boughton, tourism director for Kirksville. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a lot more traffic, there are longer lines at grocery stores, the restaurants are full and there&rsquo;s just are a lot more people.</p><p>&ldquo;The churches and local charities have hunters&rsquo; breakfasts and soup lunches and dinners, and there&rsquo;s a lot of excitement.