Hunter recruitment- go ahead lemme have it

[DaveT1963]

I know I should stay away form this topic but cant...… IMO, the decline in overall hunter numbers has more to do with private land being locked up from local kids then any other factor. In our pursuit to keep the best for ourselves we have made a lot of tags and hunting opportunities above the wage scale for a lot of working class families. Sure some states have a lot of public land - others not so much. There was a time when a kid could go explore all over his local turf and the land owners were pretty inviting. IMO - The overall population of "hunters" these days could give a rats behind about recruiting new hunters.... I don't see a shortage of Posted keep out signs that is for sure. As a kid I don't ever recall seeing one. Horn envy has led to hunting becoming a privileged sport in a lot of places.

This is why I like what THP and the HB are doing.....find the public and go hunt....and have fun. Gotta have public land reasonably close for this to be viable for a young hunter IMO. Wisconsin has a good amount of public land in certain areas....needs more in the southern part of the state where the biggest population base is.

agree with THP and Dan. Unfortunately, a lot of states are doing nothing to increase public lands. I think we will see the trend continue unless more private lands open up. People with money (they have options) are not the population we are losing.

[Kraftd]

I know I should stay away form this topic but cant...… IMO, the decline in overall hunter numbers has more to do with private land being locked up from local kids then any other factor. In our pursuit to keep the best for ourselves we have made a lot of tags and hunting opportunities above the wage scale for a lot of working class families. Sure some states have a lot of public land - others not so much. There was a time when a kid could go explore all over his local turf and the land owners were pretty inviting. IMO - The overall population of "hunters" these days could give a rats behind about recruiting new hunters.... I don't see a shortage of Posted keep out signs that is for sure. As a kid I don't ever recall seeing one. Horn envy has led to hunting becoming a privileged sport in a lot of places.

Not sure why you would want to keep those thoughts to yourself! I agree completely, spot on.

[headgear]

I know I should stay away form this topic but cant...… IMO, the decline in overall hunter numbers has more to do with private land being locked up from local kids then any other factor. In our pursuit to keep the best for ourselves we have made a lot of tags and hunting opportunities above the wage scale for a lot of working class families. Sure some states have a lot of public land - others not so much. There was a time when a kid could go explore all over his local turf and the land owners were pretty inviting. IMO - The overall population of "hunters" these days could give a rats behind about recruiting new hunters.... I don't see a shortage of Posted keep out signs that is for sure. As a kid I don't ever recall seeing one. Horn envy has led to hunting becoming a privileged sport in a lot of places.

Completely agree with everything you are saying here but I grew up in an area with unlimited access to public land, all the guys I grew up with hunted and fished and we had a blast. However as everyone got older almost all of them stopped hunting, the ones that still do barely go out. They just walked away from it without any real explanation, they must have better things to do but I don't know what that is and I can't explain it. People are just disconnected from nature and it is a sad reality.

[The_Real_Jmill]

The way our society is structured anymore is the problem in my opinion.

You can literally "escape" into whatever universe you want through electronics and media without having to subject yourself to the elements/hardships.

Rule changes are just going to be band aids and not long term solutions.

[Rich M]

I know I should stay away form this topic but cant...… IMO, the decline in overall hunter numbers has more to do with private land being locked up from local kids then any other factor. In our pursuit to keep the best for ourselves we have made a lot of tags and hunting opportunities above the wage scale for a lot of working class families. Sure some states have a lot of public land - others not so much. There was a time when a kid could go explore all over his local turf and the land owners were pretty inviting. IMO - The overall population of "hunters" these days could give a rats behind about recruiting new hunters.... I don't see a shortage of Posted keep out signs that is for sure. As a kid I don't ever recall seeing one. Horn envy has led to hunting becoming a privileged sport in a lot of places.

Completely agree with everything you are saying here but I grew up in an area with unlimited access to public land, all the guys I grew up with hunted and fished and we had a blast. However as everyone got older almost all of them stopped hunting, the ones that still do barely go out. They just walked away from it without any real explanation, they must have better things to do but I don't know what that is and I can't explain it. People are just disconnected from nature and it is a sad reality.

I'm going through that right now. Hunted and fished 50 weekends and many weekdays every year up until a couple years ago. Always wondered why the middle aged guys would stop going or severely curtail their efforts.

Frankly, it gets to be too much for some folks - they like to but the drive isn't as strong and who wants to be shivering out in the cold when you can snuggle up under the warm covers and not be tired for the whole weekend... Or too flipping hot - this is FL and we're gonna be in the 80s soon. 3rd year in a row that we had sweating temps in early December - prolly more but I tried to hunt the last 3.

It also depends on your job. I have the opportunity to deer hunt this weekend and am not gonna go. In order to go to CO mule deer hunting I worked 3 80-hr weeks back to back just to go on vacation, Drove 62 hours to get there & back + 2-4 hours per day covering ground. Had a good time. Have worked 60+ hr weeks since (can't forget opening weekend of duck season). Last week had to travel to see family (about 14 hours of driving total). Now I can go an drive 10-12 hrs total for 3 hunts and just don't find it to be worth it. Saw something online - it was how many hours folks need to work each week to live "comfortably" and every state was over 40 hours, many over 50 hours, Hawaii was at 90 hours.

Then there is the whole hunting aspect of my future. Just sick and tired of the public land BS around here. (we are up to 21 million people and growing daily - hunting isn't ever gonna get better in FL) I'll do a few travel hunts, play the quota game, and that'll be that. Introducing 2 guys to the sport this month - taking em to shoot deer, then taking stepson & his GF too.


As for hunter retention and generation - there needs to be more opportunity to hunt and more opportunity to shoot stuff. The local NWR has 3 day archery hunts. It is enough to provide opportunity but not enough for most folks to shoot anything - they provide opportunity and increase the numbers of folks using the resource that way.

Less hunting area = less hunters. More development/population = less hunting areas. More leases = less hunting areas. More hunters in smaller areas = more competition and less sportsmanship. More population = more animal sympathy and less hunters as more folks are not born to hunting families. Tough cycle to break. I'm phasing out due to these very issues.

[elk yinzer]

It only alarms me to the extent that it could result in selling off public lands. I don't see that happening wide-scale. I think most of the people alarmed by it work for state agencies or the industry, and see their future earning power at stake. I guess understandable for them to feel that way, but too bad from my perspective.

There are a multitude of factors. Demographics over all, but access is a close second. All the hunters are crammed on public. Most people, even a lot that "can" afford it, don't want to play this ridiculous high $$ game to access private land.

Where I really empathize to that end is the loss of relatively easy hunting. Our rifle season just started, and most of these smaller parcels of public are completely useless. Within the first hour, heck before due to all the scouting pressure, all the deer are pushed off onto the private.

I look forward to getting my kids started, but look, there is no way I am hauling them 2 miles into the mountains to see one deer every other day. I do very well, work very hard, but I'm nuts by most peoples standards, and I get that. I am lucky to still have some family land where we can walk 400 yards out the lane and have a 95% chance of seeing deer...that's where they'll start. WTH do people that don't have access do when starting kids? I don't think it's supposed to be easy, but there has to be a middle ground there. The public overcrowding is a barrier in a lot of places.

[milkweed-militia]

I know I should stay away form this topic but cant...… IMO, the decline in overall hunter numbers has more to do with private land being locked up from local kids then any other factor. In our pursuit to keep the best for ourselves we have made a lot of tags and hunting opportunities above the wage scale for a lot of working class families. Sure some states have a lot of public land - others not so much. There was a time when a kid could go explore all over his local turf and the land owners were pretty inviting. IMO - The overall population of "hunters" these days could give a rats behind about recruiting new hunters.... I don't see a shortage of Posted keep out signs that is for sure. As a kid I don't ever recall seeing one. Horn envy has led to hunting becoming a privileged sport in a lot of places.

This is why I like what THP and the HB are doing.....find the public and go hunt....and have fun. Gotta have public landreasonably close for this to be viable for a young hunter IMO. Wisconsin has a good amount of public land in certain areas....needs more in the southern part of the state where the biggest population base is.

agree with THP and Dan. Unfortunately, a lot of states are doing nothing to increase public lands. I think we will see the trend continue unless more private lands open up. People with money (they have options) are not the population we are losing.

I think this plays a pretty big role in just about anything. I have 11 acres that I live on and a couple of small family properties that are close by. If I cut out the days that I hunt those places and only leave the days that I can get to public areas, my season would be almost non-existent. I love hunting and would still go if that was my only option, but I can see how it would start to get on a man's nerves after a while. Full time jobs with little vacation and a young family can leave a lot of people with very limited time for much else, especially if you don't have properties close by.

Another thing that I see in my area is people getting discouraged by what they see on TV. The young man that got me into hunting hardly ever goes anymore. He's under the mindset that if you aren't paying thousands of dollars to go to an outfitter, you can't get on good deer. And, MOST of the people that I know in my area don't even eat the deer they kill. They'll give the meat away if someone is close by that wants it, but I'm afraid it just goes to waste a lot of the time. When you add the idea that you can't kill the "trophy buck" with the fact that they don't even want the meat, there isn't a lot of reason left for people to want to go.

[1STRANGEWILDERNESS]

Most everywhere I’ve lived there were lots of state or federal land opportunities. In each area I ever lived I knew multiple individuals that would not try public ground. Never had and never will. I can think of multiple people that lost permission for some land and in their mind they were done hunting unless someone else gave them permission elsewhere. I tried getting guys to go to public with me and they refused. They would end up getting access to some really crappy private ground ( because nobody wanted to hunt it) then build box blind or set up a ladder stand and be happy as ever. I’d be like dude, come hunt such a such with me there’s some good bucks running around I’ll even show you a few spots. Nope.

As far as youth coming in. I see a lot of kids so tied up in sports and extracurricular activities they won’t have any free time till Christmas break and the 4 th of July.
I was a bad kid.. I dropped out of football cus I wanted to duck hunt and deer hunt. Then basketball so I could ice fish, then baseball so I could hit the river after school the old man didn’t approve but I was in a split family so he couldn’t whoop my but over it. Just every other weekend

It’s a mental thing.. the drive, the killer instinct.. it’s fading. Maybe Our kids are being brainwashed..

[d_rek]

Most everywhere I’ve lived there were lots of state or federal land opportunities. In each area I ever lived I knew multiple individuals that would not try public ground. Never had and never will. I can think of multiple people that lost permission for some land and in their mind they were done hunting unless someone else gave them permission elsewhere. I tried getting guys to go to public with me and they refused. They would end up getting access to some really crappy private ground ( because nobody wanted to hunt it) then build box blind or set up a ladder stand and be happy as ever. I’d be like dude, come hunt such a such with me there’s some good bucks running around I’ll even show you a few spots. Nope.

Access is definitely an issue for many and for some might be THE issue, but I would agree public land has also been very stigmatized (and rightly so) in some states. I recently offered to a close friend who lost access to a premo farm about 1/2 hr away to take him out to some of my public land spots about the same drive time to where i've gotten on deer. It was a hard pass for him because "he never heard anyone killing deer on public land by us". Instead he chose to hunt his parents 10 acres with a 1.5 acre woodlot and bait it. Such is.

[Lu Rome]

I know I should stay away form this topic but cant...… IMO, the decline in overall hunter numbers has more to do with private land being locked up from local kids then any other factor. In our pursuit to keep the best for ourselves we have made a lot of tags and hunting opportunities above the wage scale for a lot of working class families. Sure some states have a lot of public land - others not so much. There was a time when a kid could go explore all over his local turf and the land owners were pretty inviting. IMO - The overall population of "hunters" these days could give a rats behind about recruiting new hunters.... I don't see a shortage of Posted keep out signs that is for sure. As a kid I don't ever recall seeing one. Horn envy has led to hunting becoming a privileged sport in a lot of places.

Dead on Dave. Access is a huge issue especially in private land states like Nebraska where we have only 2.5% public land. The change in tolerance of trespassing and the change in ownership of land from locals to nonlocal has changed how neighbors interact and who has access.

I should also say that I'm not entirely familiar with what's going on legislatively in Michigan and that what's being done by agencies in the name of recruitment versus what's being done by politicians in the name of recruitment likely have vastly different starting points and background motivations.