It is easy to sit back and outline all of the causes. Anyone with an I.Q of room temperature can see some of the reasons this is happening. Not so easy to define the cure.
Sure, we can say “hunters need to recruit more young people.” That easy…to say. Not so easy to do. When you explore the myriad of reasons why young people are not becoming hunters or even just outdoors enthusiasts, you begin to see how complex this decline is. You see, it isn't just hunters. It is anglers and all manner of outdoor participants.
Recently, in a small round table discussion, we, the six of us involved, came to the conclusion there is no cure. There is no answer that will stop the leak in the levee that allows each year, the reservoir of hunters to trickle out and not be replaced. The causes are myriad and no single one of them is repairable with a lasting fix.
Now that can be debated. It can be argued and studied. But the straight, hard fact is, hunting is in an unstoppable decline, heading toward one conclusion. The eventual outcome cannot be predicted time-wise. But probably not in the lifetime of many of us on this forum. But I would guess, for sure, in the lifetime of our grandkids and maybe some of our kids. The European system is coming and I see no way to stop it.
Now open for discussion.
I recently saw an article where Ala G&F is having tremendous interest shown by adults, not kids. I think that is an interesting response to recruiting hunters.
The best way I can deal with this challenge is to go on hunts with guys 20, 30 and 40 years younger. They tell me things will be OK!
To Charlie's point, "things will be ok" for awhile. Then it won't be ok when society eventually moves to European socialism and hunting on public land is outlawed like in much of Europe and Australia. By then the number of hunters will be so insignificant as to not make a ripple.
The folks leading the hunter recruitment efforts have finally admitted they've given up on youth recruitment and have turned focus on trying to recruit young adults instead in the hopes that they can then bring their youngsters into the fold.
All bad for hunting...there is no cure to declining hunter numbers. I agree.
And to you doomsayers who think hunting will eventually die- I say think again! Hunting is so much a part of our heritage and culture it will never be allowed to! There will always be a core group of dedicated sportsmen like you and I who will NOT let that happen! ;-)
Take PA for example. We have public land, State Game Lands, that are funded entirely by the Game Commission and license dollars. It's not complicated, they need to sustain the revenue to fund the perpetual care of these lands. Mix in pure demographics, changing culture of private land use, and of course the dreaded evil video games and real cultural factors, and you have a recipe for a budgetary disaster.
Especially interesting is that private vs. public component. Again and again hunters cite access as the #1 barrier. Sure I can get it done on public, but for some it's just not an option, and let's be honest all the state's hunters cannot fit on the public. So essentially what happens, is these private landowners are forcing people to quit the sport, thereby lowering the Game Commission's revenues potentially forcing sale of these public lands. It truly is converging toward the Euro model in that sense. How do you incentivize landowners to turn that trend around?
I remember how we would go throughout the farmland near my uncles making drives for deer. Now all of that land, while still hunted, is posted.
Most young would be hunters can't afford a place of their own and after a while, simply quit.
That observation is the macro. Everyday I work with men in their 20s and they all hunt a lot. They even go to lengths to duck hunt - no small task in VA. But they are country boys.
Recruitment won’t matter when we keep fighting amongst ourselves as more public land is lost and legal hunting opportunities voted away by the greenies.
When young your emotions are much more intense and as we age tend to look a lot backward.
When I was young there wasn't a National Archery in Schools Program (NASP) that had teams in all 50 states competing for the nationals. Trap shooting was something the old folks did , now its the fastest growing High School sport. Many of those kids also hunt. BOW program for women to learn the outdoors. In may areas more public lands have been purchased opened for hunting and fishing. There even has been an increase in archery only, special archery hunts. Bowhunts in public and private inner city areas as well as rural. Some haven't been hunted in 30-50 years.
Most folks can go to a local pawn shop, garage sale and get a great deal on a used bow.
Public land maps are on the internet and numerous phone apps.
GPS and electronic compass points you the way.
Its far, far from over.... Just ask my 14 yr old son he can't wait for opening day. Three turkeys under his belt, missed a few opportunities at deer and still is pumped about it.
That said we need to protect the tradition and fraternal spirit, not let the technology and gadgets overtake us.
There is value in any experience that exercises those ethical restraints collectively called sportsmanship. Our tools for the pursuit of wildlife improve faster than we do, and sportsmanship is a voluntary limitation to the use of these armaments. It is aimed to argument the role of skill and shrink the role of gadgets in the pursuit of wild things.
“Wilderness is the one kind of playground which mankind cannot build to order…. " Aldo Leopold
Quit whining and get yer butt out there while you still can..
We can talk all we want about the culture of hunting, whatever, but it's a largely rural pastime now and the rural population is shrinking. City kids still hunt avidly. They just do it on connected devices, not in the woods.
The pussification of the American male. Awarding varsity sports letters for video gaming is yet another sign of the societal apocalypse.
My article ran just over 1,000 words and I just barely scratched the surface. It could easily have run 3,000 and still not touched all the causes and affects. No one I know of has seen or heard of a single viable solution that would have any long term impact. Listed above are just a small sampling of ideas and comments. In our "discussion", we had a few dozen pages of suggestions, over 300 and most were relatively sensible.
In a second magazine article, I wrote, "Kids and Creeks", it followed the demise of kids growing up fishing. Think abut this. How long has it been since you saw a kid walking down the road with a cane pole and a can of worms, headed for the nearby creek? Here, where it was common almost every day, I haven't seen that in a few years. Why? No trespassing signs is just one reason. Creek banks get posted and houses are perched shoulder to shoulder along them. One farm I have hunted now and then for a few years, just two weeks ago, was sold and cut into one acre lots. A fine creek runs right down one side of it. Across the road from my house, one 113-acre tract-with creek, is quickly becoming a medical plaza, strip mall and 60-houses.
Just examples. How do you fight against or replace that?
also with main stream hunting shows pounding 150" bucks every time they go into the woods it makes it hard for normal folks to feel successful when they do kill something that doesn't measure up to the record books...
I think some state agencies need to get out of bed with the outfitters that are leasing up access. How do you even go about that? I don't know. Realistically I think the neighborly private land access of my grandfather's generation is in the rearview. It sucks, but will never change. I tried the door knocking game and gave up. It's awful. I am a public land hunter for life. I invest a butt ton of time to be successful on public. It is not easy nor should it be. We are heading toward a new equilibrium and will lose some public land, but hopefully enough remains that I can still enjoy myself and pass it on to my son and daughter.
Lets face it hunting has not really changed that much when compared to the other things that kids can do. Heck I am 46 and played pong when I was a kid. Tv didn't have a remote and the phone had a dial. You bought your own car and had to work after school. Now days parents buy kids new cars and pay for everything. Lots of exciting things to do for them other than hunting.
To me its making sure my children understand that there are people out there that want to change the way we live and have lived for generations and there is a serious need to resist that on all fronts not just hunting!!
Just a thought.
Here's some stats: European land mass 10.18 million sqkm. population 741.4 million people for an average of 72.8 people per square km. United States land mass of 9.9834 million sqkm and a population of 325.7 million people for an avg density of 33.1 people per sq km. Canada population 36.29 million in 9.985 million sqkm for an average density of 3.6 people per square km.
So the population density in the US is less than half that of Europe and the pop density in Canada hardly even registers in a meaningful scale in comparison. The reason Europe is at the model they are is because of their lack of space. US and for sure Canada are nowhere even near close to the same issue. From what I've heard on bowsite over the last number of years is there are a number on here that generally view themselves as having lived it, and today isn't what it used to be, whereas there are others who look at the hunting today and say it's in a better state than it has been. Most likely an attitude perception deal, and I would hate to be the type that has to look at photographs of days gone by and simply yarn that if only things could be the way they once were.
Times change, opportunities aren't the same as what they were, make the most of today and remember the glass is half full. We've got a hell of a good living situation if you are living in the US / Canada and have access to bowsite. Enjoy it. Nothing wrong with re-living great memories, but seriously do we need to be reminded that the sky is falling every 3 months and new hunters aren't half as good as the old hunters and trail cameras will ruin everything turn deer hunting into shopping out of a catalogue and crossbows are going to ruin hunting, and now declining hunter numbers ruin hunting - I'll tell you what ruins hunting more than anything - complaining. Ever been hunting with a guy that complains? Man that would be the WORST! I'm done complaining and will step off my soap box now :)
Have a great spring everyone.
19-Jun-18
"If we could just get more award winning writers to write stories about the positives on hunting instead of only dealing with the negatives and the doom and gloom theories, maybe more people would be interested. Just a thought."
BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;-)
If so, make a lil more space in the "Love me some me" room
Funny how those against socialism want socialized hunting. Something for nothing. Access to land that isn't theirs.
We don't live in the world anymore where land is free for anyone to roam, regardless of who owns it. Thank goodness.
If you wanna play, you have to pay. As it should be. I don't care what it is. My parents, avid golfers, don't expect to play courses for free. Do you?
I don't know the answers to hunter recruitment. I struggle with parenting of my 5 year old every day. I hope to at least instill conservative family values in her. She already knows where meat comes from (she'll tell me all the time to go shoot something so we can eat it, most recently with geese in our beanfield). Even if she's not a hunter, if she at least knows the role we play and isn't against it, then I'll count it in the win column.
I wanted to take my 8 year old nephew youth turkey hunting this year. I tried. Believe me, I tried. But he just wasn't ready. I took him shooting on several occasions, and it was clear, it was just too early. We could have gone and I could've held, aimed and fired the shotgun with him on my lap, but that's not fair to him. I grew up with a BB gun attached to my arms and was hell on songbirds. He has access to a BB gun and 160 acres to roam, but no desire to get out and poach tweeties.
Some people just don't have the drive. I have 3 nephews from 8 to 3 years old. I hope to get each of them out hunting as much as I can. I really doubt whether they'll all be avid hunters, but who knows. . . .
The CURE IS YOU! Get out and support "FREE" kids events that are not in it for the $$$. We were taking kids out and teaching them about our amazing hunting heritage well before it was cool to say it on T.V. Walk it don't just talk it on T.V.!!
Yes, I am passionate about this subject and many percieve it as bragging but I just don't care. I know my motivations and results are for someone other than myself!
The world has changed tremendously over the last 50 years, and is continuing to change. No reasonable person would expect one small aspect, like hunting, to maintain it's course amongst all the change.
Rut Nut's Link
Then last month I saw this story on our local Outdoor TV show.
It is a prime example of what is happening in the food industry recently: A story about a father and professional chef that started hunting at the age of 30. Now his kids both hunt. This is what it is all about! (view at 3:20 mark of video for his explanation)
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I grew up hunting in the 1960s and 1970s. I also went to school (rural Ohio) and knew the boys who hunted and those that didn't. The non-hunting boys were the easy majority even back then. Girls who hunted? Forget that altogether as mattering for numbers. It was darned rare to see anyone of the fairer sex toting a gun in the woods. It's not like some people make it out: Everyone didn't hunt and plenty of families in the rural areas were not interested in it. My wife grew up on an extremely rural farm and not one of her uncles, great uncles or her father ever hunted even once during her childhood. She never ate wild game until after we were married. She had no real clue about the entire culture of hunting. We need to be realistic about how many people hunted, as hunters have long been a minority group when compared to those who don't hunt.
By the way, today most of the schools in our region don't have classes on the first day of whitetail firearms season. The reason originally had to do with so many boys missing class to hunt that schools decided to grant a day off for it. There's no way to know how many kids hunt today, but I personally know of many school-age kids who are out chasing deer with their dads. Don't talk about stats or a doomsday scenario for hunting with them. They've got today, and today is what matters. Count me amongst those who have no time or space in my life for the "Here's what's wrong with_________, and this is why __________ is doomed." I just can't abide the negative focus on what we love.
So, residents get protective of tags and that enable F&G to set non-resident quotas low and prices high. That prevents those pesky non-residents from stealing your deer and elk on the cheap. But it doesn't do much more than make the non-resident game a rich man's hobby. It also keeps your little brother who moved to Seattle for work from having an affordable route to get a tag since his 18 or more years living in your state means nada now. Not every non-resident is a damn Texan (apologies to Reublic of Texas, I needed an example).
Sure, a good tag will sell since not many are offered for non-residents. The guy able to pay for a $4000 bison tag is likely going to hire an outfitter or pay for access. Or, if can buy a landowner tag. The eco-system changes very quickly. Eastern WY experienced the change and now most land is tied up for pronghorn hunts by outfitters. Outfitters and landowners start to lobby for special tags for people that can pay for their services and that means non-residents usually. Or landowner tags. Or auction tags. You reap what you sow.
If a young guy from Missouri is priced out of the bull elk tag game today then his kid born in a few years is unlikely to grow up dreaming about hunting out West on public lands. Takes time but with the tag hikes and other restrictions related to wilderness or state land access placed on non-residents then the pool shifts to be the well-to-do and the "once in a lifetime" participants.
I am all for States doing whatever they want. Just be ready to accept the consequences when the developers are able to buy up public lands and private land access is locked up at the non-resident market price since wealthy tag holders pay a premium compared to most residents.
The European model is the consequence. Pay to play. Sort of like the game of polo where need a horse, etc. Joe SixPack will be forced to exit the game.
I'm not reading any doom and gloom posts here, only an acknowledgment of documented facts and concern about what to do. Honesty is not negativity. But I am reading some Pollyannish posts about how "everything will be fine for hunting in the future" when all the factual data says otherwise.
I do agree with Kevin Dill that we should enjoy what we have now because the future will take care of itself. But all those school age kids hunting with their dads aren't buying hunting licenses once they turn 18 and are on their own. That's documented fact from the USFWS and NSSF.
As far as the newfound interest in hunting by the food source conscious urbanite's; it's a fad that will fade like last year's Lulu lemon's.
/May 29, 2016 19,480 acres. Scotch Wildlife Management area in Clarke County will no longer be a part of Alabama’s state WMA system effective 88 days from now. The land, located near Coffeeville, has been available to public hunting since the 1950s. The decision to close off access wasn’t due to anything hunter-related according to the press release. Instead, the closure comes because Scotch Land Management is concerned business and land management practices could be restricted under an increasing list of candidates for the Federal Endangered Species Act. Unfortunately for Alabama hunters, this is the second time in nine months they have lost a large tract of public hunting land. Hunters lost access to the 17,725 acre Frank W. and Rob M. Boykin Wildlife Management Area last August just to the south of the Scotch Wildlife Management Area. /Wolf Creek WMA After more than 50 years of providing hunting memories, DCNR's Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries (WFF) and the private landowners of the Wolf Creek Wildlife Management Area (WMA) have mutually agreed to terminate the lease and remove the land from the state’s WMA program. Wolf Creek WMA in Fayette and Walker counties will no longer be open to public hunting beginning in the fall of 2014. From 1990 to 2012, acreage owned by various families and timber companies was gradually removed from the WMA, decreasing it from 31,000 to 9,055 acres. Personnel and resource limitations, coupled with a decline in public use of the remaining lands during the past several years, are the primary reasons for the decision by WFF. /West Jefferson Public Hunting Area Located in Jefferson County near Oak Grove. 42,678 acres. Big game and small game. All these lands were leased and or sold. No more public access. /The lands that are obtained and used for hunting are regulated to the amount of days per season that it can be hunted. Some say to the point that it isn't worth hunting it.
Hunting Parents that think “my kid is too young” are a great problem as are parents that worry more about their hunting than the future.
A dad that won’t take a kid because he might spoil the hunt is too short sighted to see that “spoiling a hunt” and an afternoon makes for great memories and for kids that will be hunting with dad later and making a lifetime of memories.
If you wait til the kid is old enough to hunt he is already hooked on other friends, social media, and video games.
My daddy changed my diapers in a dove field. I was his retriever.
It was a good model to follow and has served me well.
I have no children but will take any and all of my friends kids shooting and hunting any time they want— provided the parents take them too (unless the parents don’t hunt and ask me to teach their kid)
We may not win the war- but it’s worth fighting battles to keep the tradition alive as long as possible.
