Hunter recruitment challenge; how are we going to confront this?

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OH nontypical
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Re: Hunter recruitment challenge; how are we going to confront this?

Unread postby OH nontypical » Fri Jan 26, 2018 2:37 pm

I think you should be commended and I hope you are successful. I have found that deer hunting moves way too slow for most kids these days. Small game may be a better way to go.

My Father was not a bid deer hunter but he did take me rabbit hunting in my teens. From there I went on to archery hunt. I had a group of friends that hunted together.

I have one son and he is a freshmen in college. He has shot several deer including 2 trophy bucks. He’s hooked and we will shoot and scout together this Summer when he’s home.

I am confident he will carry on the hunting tradition so at least I have succeeded in that.

One important note is that I never forced him to hunt and I encouraged him to play sports and do other activities. I think too much of any activity when a kid is still figuring out what they like can be a death nail.


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Re: Hunter recruitment challenge; how are we going to confront this?

Unread postby Rutnstrut » Fri Jan 26, 2018 3:14 pm

There's this big "push" to recruit more hunters. Yet deer herds are shrinking fast and access to quality land faster. You have to replenish the account before you can write more checks. In other words, more users aren't going to help a thing. If there is quality land to hunt and plenty of game to hunt, the recruitment will happen.
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Re: Hunter recruitment challenge; how are we going to confront this?

Unread postby Rob loper » Fri Jan 26, 2018 3:25 pm

Rutnstrut wrote:There's this big "push" to recruit more hunters. Yet deer herds are shrinking fast and access to quality land faster. You have to replenish the account before you can write more checks. In other words, more users aren't going to help a thing. If there is quality land to hunt and plenty of game to hunt, the recruitment will happen.



I agree. The anti hunters and liberals are buying up millio s of acres all the time and forbidding hunts or putting ungodly just ridiculous hunting regs on the land. We need to stop and educate new people to hunt and obtain new land to hunt weather federal or state. Gotta put up the fight
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Re: Hunter recruitment challenge; how are we going to confront this?

Unread postby Dewey » Fri Jan 26, 2018 3:47 pm

Rutnstrut wrote:There's this big "push" to recruit more hunters. Yet deer herds are shrinking fast and access to quality land faster. You have to replenish the account before you can write more checks. In other words, more users aren't going to help a thing. If there is quality land to hunt and plenty of game to hunt, the recruitment will happen.

I completely agree. The hunter numbers are dropping off at a faster rate than we can replace them because guys are just sick of seeing no deer and stopped buying licenses. Pretty obvious hunter numbers and deer population was at an all time high in 2000/2001 and then CWD happened. The slaughter that happened statewide after that caused the herd to steadily drop ever since along with hunter numbers. :think:
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Re: Hunter recruitment challenge; how are we going to confront this?

Unread postby Kraftd » Fri Jan 26, 2018 4:12 pm

My opinion is in most states and regions it is far less about overall deer numbers and more about access to land. I think Joe has said it before, but tome that is the biggest problem facing our community at the moment. There are still plenty of deer in most places, just that less and less people have access to them. I know there are regions where this isn't true, such as the northern third of WI at the moment, but by and large I believe it to be true from my observations. Not sure how we change this.

The fact of the matter is, the guys like us who get a sick sense of satisfaction from humping two miles into a swamp are not the norm. Without quality accessible land, we're fighting a bit of an uphill battle I fear.

All the same, this thread has been pretty humbling and inspiring. Good start to the off-season posting gents :clap: I've just made it my goal to get my kids in the woods more next fall, and get at least one non-hunter out hunting.
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Re: Hunter recruitment challenge; how are we going to confront this?

Unread postby Kraftd » Fri Jan 26, 2018 4:16 pm

Lopedog699 wrote:
Rutnstrut wrote:There's this big "push" to recruit more hunters. Yet deer herds are shrinking fast and access to quality land faster. You have to replenish the account before you can write more checks. In other words, more users aren't going to help a thing. If there is quality land to hunt and plenty of game to hunt, the recruitment will happen.



I agree. The anti hunters and liberals are buying up millio s of acres all the time and forbidding hunts or putting ungodly just ridiculous hunting regs on the land. We need to stop and educate new people to hunt and obtain new land to hunt weather federal or state. Gotta put up the fight


I'm pretty apolitical, don't tend to lean one way or the other and try very hard to weigh individual issues, not overall mindset. Got any examples of antis and liberals buying up millions of acres? Curious more than anything. From what I have seen, the far right are the ones putting our public lands on the chopping block of late. This is one of the primary issues that makes me unable to align myself as a "conservative".
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Re: Hunter recruitment challenge; how are we going to confront this?

Unread postby Lastcast#1 » Fri Jan 26, 2018 4:47 pm

Good thread. I have a 22 year old young man I have just introduced to bowhunting. Hes already a hardcore fisherman and you can see the light in his eyes when he enters the woods. Going to try an help him with acquiring some gear, sticks, saddle etc and he will be scouting with me as well. He will also be turkey hunting in the spring.

Hunter recruitment. Yeah thats a big issue. Around here the talk always seems to be about create this special season, allow this weapon, allow all weapons, aprs, no aprs etc etc. My problem with this train of thought is I doubt creating special seasons, or allowing this or that weapon increases hunter recruitment. It does highlight the " killing" part of hunting. I dont know. It seems like it may only extend or create more opportunity for those that already hunt.

Whether its a kid or an adult, if they are able to develop a true love of the woods and water, then you have the foundation to begin the process of hunter recruitmemt.

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Re: Hunter recruitment challenge; how are we going to confront this?

Unread postby Rich M » Sat Jan 27, 2018 1:21 am

PK_ wrote:
Lopedog699 wrote:
PK_ wrote:Personally I am going to start a deer camp tradition. I am not certain where/when yet but it is something I will take the lead in getting people together each year to do. I have several friends/family who have shown interest or dabbled in hunting. Going to make sure they are all invited with plenty of notice. Got a couple good friends who just passed their hunters safety. Going to try to make sure it is lots of fun whether we get deer or not.



Great idea if you Invite abd include the right people i would love to do this too but alot of guys i know are heavy drinkers and it would end up being a drunk fest of idîots.
Im not a drinker and am not against it but mixing drinking and weapons to me is a bad combo its like shotgun week in new jersey opening mornin half the gun club members are still drunk doing deer drives all day then go back to club drink themselves to sleep get up and do it all over again its called idiot week
Once again im just not into crowds and most likely never will be. And i dont trust guys i onow what would happen most of them would try to move in on my spots i bust my but for lol. No thanks
Great idea though with the right people


Great point. The core group would be family, none of which drink. The couple good friends I was talking about don’t drink much, definitely not enough to be an issue. So if a random new guy wants to drink a bit in the evenings that is fine, but the tone will be set that getting sloppy in the evenings isn’t part of the plan.

But on the other hand it won’t be about everyone having to be die hard on the stand dark to dark or anything like that.


This is how I was raised - an uncle had a camp in VT and a diff uncle had a camp in ME. We later bought some land in VT and semi-joined a locals hunting camp there. There'd be 5-15 guys of all ages, the oldest ones would cook and play cards, youngest would scamper around and do dishes. The other guys tended to hunt hard - lots of drives and lots of walking - it was not stand hunting. Great memories. One camp got sold due to competition between brothers, the ME camp fell to just my uncle and his family because he didn't want any young guys changing the fun the older guys were having. The last VT one is still alive and well, just not getting nearly as many deer as they did back in the 80s and 90s.

It is nice to see the tradition passed down and folks taking the time to share the passion.

I'll also throw this out - I've been in all 3 camps - no-one ever taught me how to hunt properly. It was all about going out and walking around until you blundered into something and hopefully got a shot and hit it. We had very low deer numbers, no hunting on Sundays. But that's what we expected, and made the most of what we had - I wouldn't trade those memories for anything cause they were all about camaraderie with generous and happy folks for a week or two each year - lot's of laughing. The rifle season is still only like 16 days.
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Re: Hunter recruitment challenge; how are we going to confront this?

Unread postby dan » Sat Jan 27, 2018 5:30 am

Kraftd wrote:
Lopedog699 wrote:
Rutnstrut wrote:There's this big "push" to recruit more hunters. Yet deer herds are shrinking fast and access to quality land faster. You have to replenish the account before you can write more checks. In other words, more users aren't going to help a thing. If there is quality land to hunt and plenty of game to hunt, the recruitment will happen.



I agree. The anti hunters and liberals are buying up millio s of acres all the time and forbidding hunts or putting ungodly just ridiculous hunting regs on the land. We need to stop and educate new people to hunt and obtain new land to hunt weather federal or state. Gotta put up the fight


I'm pretty apolitical, don't tend to lean one way or the other and try very hard to weigh individual issues, not overall mindset. Got any examples of antis and liberals buying up millions of acres? Curious more than anything. From what I have seen, the far right are the ones putting our public lands on the chopping block of late. This is one of the primary issues that makes me unable to align myself as a "conservative".

There is a difference from conservative and Republican... Having Conservative views don't mean your aliened with Republicans. I consider myself Conservative, but as far as party lines there are good and bad on both sides. Just have to weigh which ones are more matching your views. Both sides are allowing new development in rural areas at an alarming rate.

I don't think Lib's or anti-hunters buy up all the land, if anything hunters buying up land and locking everyone else out is more common, especially with the deer farm craze... Use to be you let your friends and neighbors hunt your land, now-a-days so called hunters won't even allow you to track your deer onto there land.

Im all for getting more kids / people into hunting. Just hard to do. I mentor some kids every year, but it gets hard time wise.
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Re: Hunter recruitment challenge; how are we going to confront this?

Unread postby magicman54494 » Sat Jan 27, 2018 5:42 am

Rutnstrut wrote:There's this big "push" to recruit more hunters. Yet deer herds are shrinking fast and access to quality land faster. You have to replenish the account before you can write more checks. In other words, more users aren't going to help a thing. If there is quality land to hunt and plenty of game to hunt, the recruitment will happen.


I agree. This is also why I like antler restrictions. After just a few years there would be huntable numbers of quality deer AND there would be more young bucks running around to keep the young hunters excited. I wouldn't be opposed to allowing first time hunters to kill ANY deer. That would give them a chance to get excited about the sport.
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Re: Hunter recruitment challenge; how are we going to confront this?

Unread postby Swampbuck » Sat Jan 27, 2018 7:27 am

Rutnstrut wrote:There's this big "push" to recruit more hunters. Yet deer herds are shrinking fast and access to quality land faster. You have to replenish the account before you can write more checks. In other words, more users aren't going to help a thing. If there is quality land to hunt and plenty of game to hunt, the recruitment will happen.


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Re: Hunter recruitment challenge; how are we going to confront this?

Unread postby Tim H » Sat Jan 27, 2018 8:30 am

Dewey wrote:
Rutnstrut wrote:There's this big "push" to recruit more hunters. Yet deer herds are shrinking fast and access to quality land faster. You have to replenish the account before you can write more checks. In other words, more users aren't going to help a thing. If there is quality land to hunt and plenty of game to hunt, the recruitment will happen.

I completely agree. The hunter numbers are dropping off at a faster rate than we can replace them because guys are just sick of seeing no deer and stopped buying licenses. Pretty obvious hunter numbers and deer population was at an all time high in 2000/2001 and then CWD happened. The slaughter that happened statewide after that caused the herd to steadily drop ever since along with hunter numbers. :think:


Definitely agree with this! I think deer numbers are bouncing back but at a much slower pace than people would prefer. It's a result of the slaughter when they were giving out unlimited doe tags for 2 dollars a piece. With the lack of deer numbers, banning of baiting/feeding in some counties, the inability to regulate wolf populations, and uninterested youth, it's not surprising that we are losing hunters every year.
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Re: Hunter recruitment challenge; how are we going to confront this?

Unread postby goldtip5575 » Sun Jan 28, 2018 12:54 pm

Rutnstrut wrote:There's this big "push" to recruit more hunters. Yet deer herds are shrinking fast and access to quality land faster. You have to replenish the account before you can write more checks. In other words, more users aren't going to help a thing. If there is quality land to hunt and plenty of game to hunt, the recruitment will happen.

Agreed. A lot quality private that was left for hunting access was destroyed by the DNRs high handed policy of unlimited does tags and EAB. When they came out and used terms like eradicate the deer population, you may own the land you don't own the deer, and if there is no deer on your property go hunt somewhere else what kind of reaction did they expect from property owners. No chance of getting any private to be opened for hunting when the DNR has that kind of attitude towards deer .
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Re: Hunter recruitment challenge; how are we going to confront this?

Unread postby Rob loper » Sun Jan 28, 2018 1:51 pm

I noticed out here (wisconsin) alot of pieces of woods are being cut down and come to find out that it is being cut for pheasant and bird habitat. Well cutting pieces of woods for bird habitat is not gonna help recruit new deer hunters.
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Re: Hunter recruitment challenge; how are we going to confront this?

Unread postby Boogieman1 » Sun Jan 28, 2018 2:20 pm

Here's my hunter recruitment challange! Get 4 new people who have no ambition of hunting, get them out somewhere that they have a legit shot to kill something, that doesn't cost thousands in leasing fees or outfitter cost. And oh ya, doesn't impose on your own hunting! This is the prob I have with limited woods and access. Should I bring in some to the sport to only force me out, or make a personal good situation bad with added pressure? I don't know and don't wanna sound awfully greedy but they are my real concerns and dilemmas
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