The place to go for hunting equipment 

Story by Jordan Troutman

Photos provided courtesy

Joe Goade, owner of STS Outdoors Guns & Archery in Cassville, with his son Michael Goade, left, and Ed Carothers, manager, right, is happy to be back in business in Cassville

As hunting season is in full swing, many people are looking for the perfect equipment to get their prize kill.

A Cassville man has recently opened the ideal place to find that equipment.

Joe Goade, owner of STS Outdoors Guns & Archery, is a Bowtech dealer and has merchandise from Diamond and Bear Archery. 

Joe Goade, the owner and operator of STS Outdoors Guns & Archery in Cassville, said on November 15 that he would be open for two months — but this isn't the first business he has had.

Joe Goade has been in this business for 30 years.

"I've had multiple shops in Cassville over the years," he said. "But, I also had a big store in Tennessee."

Joe Goade isn't just a businessman; he is also an inventor.

"I am the patent holder for the STS (Shock Terminator Suppressor) String Stopper which is standard on all bows now," he said. "But, my first invention was in 1991."

In the mid-90s, Joe said he was known as the 'Stabilizer Guy' in the pro circuit.

"A stabilizer is a tube on the front of the bow," he said. "Mine, however, had a hydraulic unit that helped absorb the vibration. Most of the others are just weights."

Joe said the STS String Stopper is a rubber stopper that catches the string's vibration when it is shot.

"It makes the bow smoother, quieter and faster," he said.

Joe Goade was born in Monett, then lived in Cassville, and his family has a long history of business ownership in Cassville.

"My grandpa and grandma Dryer owned the old Dryer Shoe Store on the Cassville Square," he said. "My dad worked for JC Penny and traveled a lot, so growing up, we moved around every six months.

"When I got out of the military, my mom and dad were back in Cassville and owned the old Rapid Roberts."

That was 1991; Joe was married and returned to Cassville, where he opened a Bodyworks Gym shop and started doing archery out of the same space.

"I was here until 1998 when we moved to Tennessee," he said. "In Tennessee, we had two large stores, and the kids were always running around. As they got older, they helped out. People would come in to have arrows built, and I would say, 'Give them to the girls.' Their faces were always in shock because they were like 11 years old, but I would say, 'They have built more arrows than anyone else around.'"

In June 2004, Joe Goade, owner of STS Outdoors Guns & Archery in Cassville, presented Tom Crow and Jackie Caudel with first-place checks for winning the Indiana and Penn shots with his STS String Stopper invention. 

In 2011, Joe Goade moved back to Cassville.

"I moved back to help my dad before he passed," he said. "I opened bullets and bow and ran that until 2019. After that, I moved to Springfield for a bit. I got the building that another Dryer Shoe Store was in for 73 years. In fact, all the shelving and counter in the shop came from the old Dryer Shoe Store."

This year, Joe decided to come back to Cassville after a severe health concern from COVID-19 and some other personal tragedies.

"Cassville has always been home," he said. "My grandparent's house went to my parents, and now me, my brother, and my son lives there.

"I wasn't going to open another shop, but I couldn't stop. When you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life."

Joe said many people have said they are happy he is back and opened a new shop.

"How can I not keep going," he said. "I try to help people shoot better. I take the time to tune and coach. No other shops do that."

Joe said while he does occasionally hunt, he is more into tournament shooting.

"The first time I went hunting, I was probably 20," he said. "I went with a friend of mine, and I killed a nice doe with a bow. I have also hunted with guns, and my kids would go hunting too. My kids also did a lot of the tournaments, but hunting season was always a busy time at the shop, so I didn't get to do that a lot."

Joe Goade, owner of STS Outdoors Guns & Archery in Cassville, has more than 30 years of experience in the business. His Son, Michael, got a 225-pound hog with a 44-pound bow and one arrow in July 1998, on his 13th birthday. 

Right now, STS Outdoors Guns & Archery has everything needed for a bow setup, but Joe sent in the paperwork for guns as well.

"It will take 30 to 90 days for that to be processed," he said. "But currently, I am a Bowtech dealer, Diamond, and one of my new favorites, Bear Archery Legend Series. I can do an entire bow set up for half the normal price with the Legend Series."

In addition, STS Outdoors Guns & Archery can finance anything they sell.

"Once someone is approved, as long as they pay it off in 24 months, they can get no interest and no money down," he said. "My firearm license is a manufacturing license. That means I can custom build just about anything."

To legally purchase a long gun, the buyer must be 18 or 21 years old for a pistol, but there is no age limit for a bow.

"When you buy a bow, I will tune it and set it up for you," he said. "Then you get one year of tuning and work. I feel like if I do that and something minor happens, my customers feel comfortable coming back to me.

"I did all the bow work for Joella Presson, a five-time IBO champion. She was the first woman in history to kill an Asian Buffalo with a bow."

Joe Goade said his daughter, Nichole Goade, took third in the world at the ASA pro-tour, and she was the youngest Bowtech staff shooter at 14 years old.

Joe Goade appeared on Ozarks Tonight in 2019, where he discussed more of the process of coming up with the idea for the STS String Stopper and patenting his inventions.

Joe Goade, owner of STS Outdoors Guns & Archery in Cassville, is a businessman and an inventor. Here, he shows his deer harvest using his deer lure that he also invented called KillerXpress. 

Check Joe Goade's interview on Ozarks Tonight.