Young hunters are declining.
West Virginia
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Talked to the owner of the lil store near my hunting area in Pendleton county. He was telling me that young hunters and fisherman are declining. I am wondering what is causing that. Kind of sad but in 10-15 years there may not be many hunters,
They are probably not interested in killing spikes and 4 points
Hunters are definitely on the decrease. But a different Buck management scheme would insulate WV from that. Ha! I just had too since there is so many here that imply the decrease in hunting revenue in this state is not in direct correlation with that country wide trend.
Life style is the biggest contributor to that.
It takes patience, effort, desire, practice. Not really trending words in society today.
You are right MP. They expect action and lots of it. They want trophy bucks like they see on TV. I'll bet most of them have never hunted squirrels.
Good point JW. They want instant gratification. I feel bad for them. I'm glad I still love to hunt. Still get out of bed to hunt deer. Any deer. I remember when killing a deer was a big thing back in the 60's and 70's. I remember my dad cleaning his guns with Hoppes before going hunting . I can not smell that to this day without thinking about getting ready to go to deer camp.
You are missing the point Mountaineer. If we had bigger bucks the kids would want to hunt. Like MP said they don't want spikes and 4 points.,I'm glad more for me, ??
Well,doing the same old things are not working so maybe change stuff to try and improve hunting and draw more intrest . The problems are not going to be fixed on this site for sure. I think I will take a break for a while from here
I'm not missing the point. Hardly. I'm pointing out how ridiculous it is. If country wide hunter numbers weren't on the same decline, I'd agree with the idea. But they are, have been, and will continue to do so since the average life no longer sees a need for it to survive or recreate. Young hunter numbers are down here because population is declining in this state. That's been going on for a while too.
These are the two factors why young hunter recruitment is down in this state. Besides, kids that do hunt could care less if they kill a "trophy" buck by score standards. And, this state offers a lot of opportunity to young hunters.
It does offer a lot of opportunity for young hunters but the can't get their nose out of their phones and video games.,
To think young people are not hunting or fishing because they cannot kill or catch a trophy is so wrong of a conclusion on the problem as anything I have ever heard. So I guess they are going to stop playing baseball because they won’t be the next Cy Young award winner or homerun king? Guess they will stop playing football because they won’t lead the NFL in rushing or sacks? Guess we won’t have any kids trying to be a Olympic gold medalist. ROFL that is too funny to even think about!
We have talked about this before - things are so different growing up now then when we grew up. JR - you and I could still play sports and then go hunting on a Saturday back in our day. Now they have a practice on Saturdays. Here in a few weeks when swimming starts my daughter will have swim practice or a meet for 6 days a week. That will go along with 4 hours of gymnastics practice 3 Days a week! Now let’s talk about school - she is in all honors or gifted classes - which means not only does she have tons of Homework but it is required that she has to participate in math field day and guess what there are practice days with that as well. Also she is required to have a social studies and science fair project - it is not their choice to do it - again it is required. Now school clubs such as the student council, key club, pep club or chess club - meet after school now not during school! Very limited time for kids now to participate in other things - especially hunting! Fishing they can participate some but did you know that now they have a 3 week practice schedule during the Summer for sports in high school? Then let’s not forget about year long conditioning programs for all sports now. Now throw that in with parents work schedules and run to this practice or this club meeting and things get very difficult. It is easy to sit here and say oh these lazy kids and their darn cell phones - just remember our parents and grandparents said the same to us and that is where the stories of walking to school in 4 feet of snow and uphill both ways came from! LOL it is fun to converse on some of these post. Oh almost forgot - look at your junior leagues and little leagues and look at their schedules - I mean even at a young age we are putting our kids through so much - the fun is completely taken out of sports at a young age anymore - it is why kids are not playing sports as well.
You are right. People don't hunt anymore. People our age are hunting less and our kids are not hunting as a result so you know the grandkids are not hunting. I went to Montana and hunted whitetails on the Milk River a couple years ago and a guy from Fla brought his 15 year old son to hunt. By day 3 the did stayed in the cabin texting his gf and playing video games. his dad hunted but the boy did not. He would not get up to go out hunting in some of the best whitetail areas in the world. Unreal.
You are right. People don't hunt anymore. People our age are hunting less and our kids are not hunting as a result so you know the grandkids are not hunting. I went to Montana and hunted whitetails on the Milk River a couple years ago and a guy from Fla brought his 15 year old son to hunt. By day 3 the did stayed in the cabin texting his gf and playing video games. his dad hunted but the boy did not. He would not get up to go out hunting in some of the best whitetail areas in the world. Unreal.
I get what you are saying JayD. I participated in sports as well. We praticed at 6 am on Saturdays. After that I went hunting. That was in high school. When I played college ball I did not have the time either. Except Thanksgiving week. Same for dental school. I rarely got to bowhunt except Thanksgiving week or Christmas holidays. But the seed was already planted. And you hit the nail on the head. Our kids are too buys with sports. Not many of them will play pro's or even go to college to play. I think we start them too young and burn them out on it. I can see why your girls have no time to hunt. I am tired just reading about all they do. If at some point we don't get them into in and get them action they more than likely won't get into it when their schedules slow down. As soon as I got out of school it was on. I hunted and hunt all the time. And yea I do remember my parents talking about walking to school in the snow. Now they call school off if it calls for snow. I have actually seen them call school off here in Jefferson count y before the snow starts. It is a different time we live in for sure and I don't like it. I think we all need to slow down and relax some. That is why Americans are on pills and are fat and depressed. I work to live not live to work. I think we all need to slow down and realize have the stuff we are working for we don't need. And as much as we have heard it before we can't take it with us. So lets get out and hunt.
Well said Sportoutfitter and Babysaph.
I agree with you about not liking it - I loved the period of time I grew up in as a kid. Could you imagine having 2 a day practice for midget league football? Or starting practice for football in July and it goes thru till November! Just insane!
Thankfully we live where we do and we can walk out the front door and go hunting if not it would be hard to get my daughters out and go hunting or fishing or kayaking!
Fyi, youth license sales have not decreased near as much as adult license sales.
And if I had to guess, I'd wager wv to be one of the very few states making less in license sales than they did 29 years ago.
Id say that hunting is down everywhere. People may buy a license but they don't hunt as much as they used to. But I hunt. More spikes for me. LOL
Young ones today want that instant gratification.....no patience... They would rather sit and play video games... On another note, why not let youth hunters take bucks or does in the youth season? I know that may take 1 of the 1-2 immature bucks guys on here like to take...but there's plenty of those to go around....LOL....We want to give you this chance son, but only at killing a doe....Come on....
I agree. If it's brown it's down.