Knotty pine boards cover almost every vertical surface. Most of the pine comes from the mountains of Tennessee and Virginia. Much of it was sawed on site.

Mounted on the walls are the trophies, heads of boars and bucks.

There is a table for checkers just inside the front door, not far from a stuffed tom turkey.

If you are hungry, the food is around the corner. Grab your meal and sit down, there's usually a hunting show on the television.

If you are hankerin' for anything outdoors, it is at your fingertips, or within a few feet.

The only problem is sometimes you can't find your cohorts amid the camouflage which runs from knotty pine wall to knotty pine wall, turning the rooms into a miniforest.

The atmosphere is by design. Owner Darren Nichols wants the Nichols Store to be known as more than a gun store. He wants the store to have a homey feeling. He wants it to be an experience, a destination, an attraction.

"We have something for everyone. We just have to determine their need," he said.

The store at 1980 Mount Holly Road celebrates a yearlong, $350,000 renovation today with a "re-grand opening" and ribbon cutting at 4:30 p.m. The celebration continues through June 18 with giveaways and other promotions totaling $10,000, Darren said.

The Nichols Store first earned its reputation as a family-run grocery and gas station when the passing road was barely two lanes wide. Today, that road, S.C. 901, has been widened to four lanes as part of York County's "Pennies for Progress."

Darren's parents, Tommy and June, operated the store. Darren, the youngest child, started working there when he was 6, oiling the floor each night, learning to cut chicken and pumping gas. No self service then. Among the customers was NASCAR great Dale Earnhardt, who stopped there on his hunting trips.

"My father gave me too much of a work ethic," Darren said.

The son purchased the business from his father in 1989. To keep things open he lived in a trailer behind the store. Darren transitioned the business to sporting goods, adding firearms in 1996. He started with 13 guns. Today's inventory is more than 2,000. The Nichols Store soon became the epicenter of the region's hunting and fishing community.

A 1990 fire, just before deer hunting season, destroyed everything. Darren accepted the loss of inventory. The fire also consumed the physical mementos which represented his childhood. He said he almost decided to get out of the business.

But the fire, he says, was a blessing in disguise. It forced him to look at things differently. He started to think, big, then bigger and then biggest. Other stores might have more space than the Nichols Store's 20,000 square feet, but most will be hard pressed to exceed its inventory, or the knowledge of its staff.

"The employees love what they do. That's what drives them," Darren said of his staff of about 25.

Darren estimates there are 16,000 "widgets" in and outside his store, from inexpensive hunting toys for tots to a portable cabin made of barn wood and rusty tin with a fireplace and entertainment system with a price tag of $100,000 plus.

"It's hard to sell from an empty wagon," he said. "Our wagon is overloaded."

The wagon is not likely to be empty anytime soon. An essential part of Darren's business strategy is to have inventory that people can touch, smell, and in some cases, hear.

The number of safes is evidence of his commitment to his philosophy. These are massive units, looking like each was taken from the prop room for a western movie. Some have digital locks, others have the old-fashioned tumblers. Each has a wheel to spin to open it.

Most businesses would have one, two, maybe three on display. One half of Darren's warehouse is full of safes. The other half is packed with four-wheel drive, electric hunting carts.

"We have diversified as much as we could and that has helped us over the years," he said.

There has been one disadvantage, however.

Growing up, Darren spent his free time hunting and fishing. It didn't matter if he was on a farm pond, a lake, or holed up in the woods. "If I was outdoors, I was happy," he said.

Now, "I have to hunt for the time to go."