NRA Says We Must Stop the Decline of Hunting

[jimbob86]

November 2017 American Rifleman, President's column:


http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nra/.../index.php#/16



The article entails what groups have enlisted to help save hunting .... big money groups .... impressive, right?

That won't save hunting. It's a numbers game: The only thing that will keep hunting going is new hunters, preferably young ones.... and Big Money is, in my opinion and experience, is what is killing the hunting tradition..... as I opined in this thread https://thefiringline.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=472409, 1/2 a dozen years ago now.........

Money is killing the hunting heritage in my state.

Some cube dweller from suburbia pays a couple grand for a hunt, another grand for gas, food and lodging to drive out for opening weekend of deer season and shoot a deer that is not afraid of people....... and then pays somebody else to package his meat, which he than gives away to a food pantry...... all so he can say he's a "hunter". He could not find a deer on his own if he had to, and is not interested in learning how..... and processing his own meat is too much work, and he does not eat the stuff anyhow....

Once upon a time, I hunted that ground ...... It's posted because it's leased by a big guide operation now.....
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..... it's a numbers game, and with the cost of permits going through the roof, access to places to hunt vanishing , and the ever present marketing selling (very successfully, I think) the idea that if you don't have the latest and greatest boomstick, ATV, 4X4 truck to tow the trailer for the ATV, the right camo pattern on your scentlock suit and a plethora of other paraphanalia, you might as well stay home ...... at the point it costs hundreds of dollars to hunt locally, fewer people will do that..... far fewer still will make the effort to take their kids, or their nieces and nephews ..... without recruiting and training new hunters, in a generation, it will come down to a few old guys paying for canned hunts behind high fences ...... an easy target for the Antis.....

[jmr40]

There is some truth to what you say. But the fact is that young adults simply don't care about hunting in anywhere near the same numbers as previous generations. They don't care to drive a car, they aren't interested in playing sports, or many other things important to my generation.

The expense may be part of it but not all. I hunt a lot more than most here in GA and do all of it on public land in the north GA mountains for free. I hunted a management area last week with access to 100,000 acres in the most remote, rugged section of GA. I've hunted this place at least 1 day every year since 1977. Back in the 70's and 80's there would be 4000+ hunters in there. Over a typical 5 day hunt now you'll have 200-300 that sign in and hunt. And most of those guys are like me in their 50's-70's.

The younger guys won't hunt there. I've taken some younger hunters 1/3 my age and they can't cover the rugged terrain on foot. If they can't put out a feeder and ride their ATV to the base of an elevated stand and shoot something each day they aren't interested. They are shocked to learn that ATV's aren't allowed and that you might actually kill something 2-4 miles from a road and have to carry it out by hand.

Hunting is declining and I don't see any short term way to stop it. Things go in cycles and in another generation or so there may well be a resurgence in popularity. But the good news is that shooting is growing in popularity. Lots more guys interested in going to ranges and becoming proficient at shooting. The market for new rifles and shotguns is geared toward that crowd. I think that the day will come when some of those guys will get tired of shooting paper and want to use their shooting skills for hunting.

[zipspyder]

This also isn't the age of baby boomers anymore. We simply don't have the numbers of kids we used to and there are so many activities to choose from now. Also game consoles suck the souls out of a great many of our kids.

[peterg7]

Why does hunting have to be an "industry" ? I hunt my own land and the deer that reside there, don't buy license and ODNR has done nothing to manage or improve, I did by timbering out my woodlots.


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[ZeroJunk]

Hunting is not a necessity and has not been in decades. It is enjoyment, entertainment, maybe some subtle instinct, and has been .
So, when I was a kid you could watch Sea Hunt, Gun Smoke, Andy Griffith re runs in the afternoon, or you could go hunting.
Now, there are distractions and entertainment beyond what our wildest imagination could have ever been 50 years ago.

[jimbob86]

Hunting is not a necessity

Necessity? ... I suppose we could have survived on mac and cheese and peanut butter and jelly ......

.... When my 5 kids were small ( all through the 2000's) , deer hunting provided the vast majority of red meat in our house .... it's still in the majority, but we do make more money now with fewer mouths to feed year round ....

3 of the 5 will have tags to fill this year, though Eldest will not get back from the Naval Academy until nearly the end of the season .... worked out for her a couple of years ago- had 1/2 a day to hunt and tagged out in an hour afield ......

A friend of mine on the local VFD is going hunting for the first time this year ..... he'd never shot a gun five years ago. One of his kids wanted to go hunting after hearing my youngest tell hunting tales at school .... so he did the Hunter Safety course with his kids ..... he's got the bug, now: owns several guns, takes his kids shooting.....

I think this is how you "save hunting": Make new hunters.

[brian33x51]

Out west here it seems the states view hunting now as a way to levy a tourist type tax instead of what it needs to be: animal population control. Tags have most certainly skyrocketed in price.

[Ruga Booga]

Originally Posted by zipspyder

This also isn't the age of baby boomers anymore. We simply don't have the numbers of kids we used to and there are so many activities to choose from now. Also game consoles suck the souls out of a great many of our kids.

I would love to hunt whitetail but I think deer meat kind of tastes like ������. If I hunt it's going to be hogs, though I would probably have to travel south across state line. I used to hunt on my grandfather's land when I was a kid, mainly squirrel, rabbit and turkey. Unfortunately when he died the land was sold. Went to see the farmhouse 20 years later only to find a field of crops. It was very sad, I spent much of my childhood trekking through those 80 acres.

[jimbob86]

Out west here it seems the states view hunting now as a way to levy a tourist type tax instead of what it needs to be: animal population control. Tags have most certainly skyrocketed in price.

Our Game and Parks Commision seems to be concentrated upon growing their revenue streams and budget ..... building water parks and RV campgrounds and the like .....

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Demographically, economic success is focusing on larger urban centers and folks are moving there. Sheer distance suggests that hunting would decrease because of that.

Shotgun sales have been flat for years while handguns and AR rifles (not a typical hunting gun) is increasing.

TX - you need private land, etc. The standard style is to feed a deer for a long period and wait till it shows up at season. Surprise. I don't think that is attractive to new folks not in the existing hunting paradigm. Hogs may be different but again, population area changes aren't conducive.

[doofus47]

Jmr40:

But the fact is that young adults simply don't care about hunting in anywhere near the same numbers as previous generations.

There's been some local interest by Front Range hipsters to 'get their own grub" recently but the larger demographic and cultural trends are away from hunting and shooting (and effort in general).

B/c of this, the battle for public land (I know, not the topic of the OP exactly ,but I"ll bring that back around) isn't going to be won or lost in the Western states, but in the kitchens of Eastern Suburbia where most people won't care that they have access to wild areas. I would love to think that that type of citizen could be inspired to support public lands as a conservation ideal, but I fear that that sort of disengaged activism (slacktivism) will become preservationism and hunting will be banned on public lands.

[jimbob86]

There's been some local interest by Front Range hipsters to 'get their own grub" recently but the larger demographic and cultural trends are away from hunting and shooting (and effort in general).

I've seen the "locally grown/gathered" thing shift in some hipsters in my extended own extended family- originally strident vegan, anti-hunting types ( incedentally living on the Front Range, btw)- now OK with hunting, if only as an alternative to "corporate factory farming".... I'll have to disagree on your "trends away from...... shooting" ..... we sell ammo annually at a faster rate than the Industry-Ordnance Department manufactured it in WWII ..... and it took 40+ years to use up, give away as aid to allies, or sell to the public as surplus.... to use up that stockpile of 47 billion rounds ..... the latest figure I could find was ~12 billion rounds are sold annually in America....

.... but I will concur on the dearth of effort made in general by this generation .....

[ZeroJunk]

Necessity? ... I suppose we could have survived on mac and cheese and peanut butter and jelly ......

Yes, you could have.

There are other things that people can do with their time that did not exist thirty, forty, or fifty years ago, and they are in competition.

Sitting on one's butt posting on internet forums is a good example.

[reynolds357]

I started my kids early. Deer hunting at 3 and shooting the deer themselves (no help from me) at 6.

[Rembrandt]

Introductory hunting for first timers is not cheap. Taking one of my granddaughters whitetail bow hunting for the first time.....Bow=$500, License=$35, Boots and clothing=$250, gas/food/etc=$100, close to $900 to get started. (5 more grandkids that may want to do this also)

[shootniron]

Enjoyed reading this thread...but my 23yr old son and I are going hunting in the morning...will be doing our part.

Goodnight...

[jimbob86]

Introductory hunting for first timers is not cheap. Taking one of my granddaughters whitetail bow hunting for the first time.....Bow=$500, License=$35, Boots and clothing=$250, gas/food/etc=$100, close to $900 to get started. (5 more grandkids that may want to do this also)

I'm fairly certain I've spent far more on kids boots and raingear than anything else.....

[Pathfinder45]

People can spend whatever they want on their equipment. But the cost of licenses and tags keeps going up and that's the part that should be as close to free as practical, because that's where freedom is in peril. If the price keeps going up, then hunting and fishing can become a privileged pastime reserved for those that have more money than the masses can afford. They have even made some feel-good slogans to excuse these financial infringements on freedom. Hunting used to be how poor people could afford some meat. And then there is the time. I buy a license and deer tag every year hoping that this year, I'm gonna make more time for it. But financial pressures are strong at this time of year for me and I have to respond to them. I would like to hunt; I intend to. I owe it to myself, yet I'm lucky to get two days to go. So I see that many things that were once free or very cheap so that anyone could afford, have increasingly become monetized for those that make more money than the average person. Not everyone can make a six-figure income; I never have. Maybe next year.....

[Rob228]

Does this mean Boddington will stop doing $50,000 hunts where he only takes the pelt and donate that money toward licensing fees for the masses?

[jimbob86]

Enjoyed reading this thread...but my 23yr old son and I are going hunting in the morning...will be doing our part.

Goodnight...

Does your son have children?

[jimbob86]

Does this mean Boddington will stop doing $50,000 hunts where he only takes the pelt and donate that money toward licensing fees for the masses?

Expensive Safaris have been around forever, I think ...... what's changed is now , such things are televised, blogged, shared on social media, etc. to a much greater extent....... and the Hunting TV industry has exploded.....

In the past, writers like Ruark, Leopold, Hemingway, O'Connor, Cooper..... sold books and magazine articles which inspired people to go and have their own adventures ....... to watch or read what passes for Hunting shows or magazines these days..... they seem to me to be nothing more than info-mercials/ads that are slick enough to be entertaining ....

[buck460XVR]

At one time, no one in the lower 48 would pay to hunt, other than to buy a license and equipment. That was something you did when you went to Africa. Nowadays, in many states and areas, it has become the norm, and is steadily increasing. Used to be a way to feed your family and was cheap entertainment. Nowadays in order to hunt in many locals, you better have deep pockets and expect to shoot something domesticated or semi-domesticated, that has been trained to come to the bait pile. Read the hunting forums, folks talking about getting ready for hunting are talking buying bait, filling feeders and putting up trail cams. Nobody goes out looking for sign anymore, much less know how to red it if they did. Sad as it is, it is the future of hunting, and like many other hobbies, at some point will come down to only those that can afford it.

[reynolds357]

I bought my kids lifetime hunting licenses when they were born.I knew the state would price them out one day. Licenses keep going up because government is inefficient. Got to take money from us to pay the rabbit sheriff to aggravate us. I break no game laws but have had several hunts ruined by the rabbit sheriff checking my license.

[disseminator]

The massive growth of Metro Areas has not helped either. Many areas that are now full of thousands and thousands of cookie cutter houses were once good and easily accessible hunting areas.

When I was young and didn't have a lot of money that mattered.

And the already mentioned issues with the current generation doesn't help either.

But I do think it will come around. I've hunted all my life and even I'm getting more enthusiastic every year. I got my buddy to go for his first time when he turned 40. Now his wife and daughter join us on the second weekend any so far his wife is out hunting him.

That's what we need to do, and it's funner with friends anyways.

Good Luck to you all this season.

[thallub]

The biggest threat to public land hunting is in the west. Access to millions of acres of public owned land is blocked by private land owners.

Yep, the NRA supports politicians who would sell off public land.