The future of deer hunting podcast

[JoeRE]

This is not a happy podcast but if you care at all about the future of hunting, please listen:

https://whitetailwatch.podbean.com/e/23-the-death-of-deer-hunting-part-1-wscott-vance-and-chris-willingham/

Aaron Warbritton does a great job discussing the challenges, and the trends that are happening right now with hunting.

What I really liked was that the conversation was still constructive, even though the future is bleak, and there are some good ideas about how everyone can make a difference.

[jman22]

Have to give that listen. I'm guessing recruitment is a major point of the podcast? I'm in my mid 30s and even when I was in high school, there were only 4 or 5 of us out of 120 or so that hunted or were even remotely interested in the outdoors, farming, etc... I'm guessing it's less than that now.

[Divergent]

I see it a lot. I have 4 kids from my wife's previous marriage and their father wasn't into the outdoors. I find it very difficult to get the kids in the woods. I've made a little progress, but their attention span is far less than mine was at the same age. If our wifi is down for five minutes you would think their life no longer has meaning.

There minds are so used to this fast paced environment. When you strip away all of their daily distractions, they seem to lose interest so quickly. Just 30 minutes into a scouting session and they're bored out of their minds.

With that being said, I'm see more people becoming interested in a minimalistic lifestyle. I have already told my wife that in a few years when our oldest two kids graduate, we are selling our nice big house with a huge house payment and we are going to move to a simple little cabin in the woods and get away from all of these distractions and try to slow things down again. This is my only hope for some change.

[Jonny]

Have to give that listen. I'm guessing recruitment is a major point of the podcast? I'm in my mid 30s and even when I was in high school, there were only 4 or 5 of us out of 120 or so that hunted or were even remotely interested in the outdoors, farming, etc... I'm guessing it's less than that now.

I'm 21 and maybe can count on one hand the number of people who deer hunt. None of them do it for the right reasons. Just the cool thing to do I guess

[JoeRE]

Yea give the podcast a listen guys. A lot of the information we know already but they throw around some ideas and opinions for fixing it that were new to me, and pretty interesting.

Good job Aaron.

[stash59]

Thanx for bringing this to our attention Joe. Because I'm so involved with my health issues I had no idea it was this bad. My buddies kids and grandkids in Montana all hunt. So do plenty of other kids. Out there. Guess a place like Montana is the exception. People I'm somewhat close to here also have kids and grandkids that hunt.

Very interesting and startling facts about license sales and federal funds for state wildlife agencies.

[Aaron1987]

Yea give the podcast a listen guys. A lot of the information we know already but they throw around some ideas and opinions for fixing it that were new to me, and pretty interesting.

Good job Aaron.

Thanks Joe!

[Brickhouse]

I'm in college and have a lot of buddies that hunt. I could name dozens and dozens of people I went to school with that hunt. I do live in one of the most highly pressured states tho. But still encouraging. One thing I do see a lot is just how attached we are becoming to technology, phones being the big one. Pretty eye opening and disgusting honestly to be sitting in class and look around and see that nearly everyone in class is on their phones while the teacher is going over a lesson. Just crazy to me. I know it didn't used to be like that.

[MikePerry]

I'm doing my best getting my 7 & 9 year boys involved in the outdoors, we live in the country and have 20 acres for them to roam, they have BB guns and recurve bows they can shoot whenever they want and little gas 4 wheelers, I take them scouting with me and checking cameras but it seems all they ever want to do is play video games on their tablet and they don't like that I limit them to doing that, all the kids on the bus have tablets phones and video games at home and it seems they are allowed to play them all day, my kids don't understand why I limit them to less than a 1/2 hour playing with a device. I guess today parents let the kids play the games so they don't have to be bothered parenting. I can see why the future of hunting is in jeopardy.

Thanks for sharing

[carmmond]

If there are no future hunters why is it so darn hard to get private land to hunt.... just don't see it in my area.

[Boogieman1]

I'm curious if guided and high fence hunt numbers are down? I'm willing to bet not.. In Texas hunter recruitment wouldn't do any good, if I went out tomorrow and got 10 youths fired up about hunting, now what? Where are they suppose to hunt? The only thing I can see ever working is people with deep pockets to get fed up paying ridiculous prices to lease which would in turn open up more ground to the working class. That won't ever happen! I don't see fishing to be a problem, when all that is needed is to buy a license and go to the lake. Fish respond a lot better to pressure than deer. Packing public lands with people is just gonna lead to a bad experience and a one time license sell in my opinion.

[Brickhouse]

I'm curious if guided and high fence hunt numbers are down? I'm willing to bet not.. In Texas hunter recruitment wouldn't do any good, if I went out tomorrow and got 10 youths fired up about hunting, now what? Where are they suppose to hunt? The only thing I can see ever working is people with deep pockets to get fed up paying ridiculous prices to lease which would in turn open up more ground to the working class. That won't ever happen! I don't see fishing to be a problem, when all that is needed is to buy a license and go to the lake. Fish respond a lot better to pressure than deer. Packing public lands with people is just gonna lead to a bad experience and a one time license sell in my opinion.

Brings up a great point that they touched on in the podcast. Not only do we need to get more youth involved, but also a place for them to go and have a positive outdoor experience. It makes sense with what they said about angler recruitment being up. It's much easier to go out to public waters and catch fish and keep attention than to go out to public land and see deer, much less harvest one. I agree that private land is a big piece of the puzzle. The youth need to have a place to go that they can have a positive experience (see deer, not have to worry about lots of other hunters). This podcast and thread have definitely got my wheels turning. I'm fortunate enough to have grown up in a family that hunts and fishes, and I'm the third generation at my family's sporting goods store that my grandpa started 50 some years ago. I see quite often kids that come in wanting to get a bow to shoot but have no interest in hunting because they lose attention, get bored, being in the cold takes them out of their comfort zone, etc. I think like Aaron said in the podcast that kids now are growing up with a million options and activities that they just don't have the interest in being outdoors enjoying everything that goes on around them and paying attention to the fine details. Interested to see how this thread and situation play out.

[JoeRE]

If there are no future hunters why is it so darn hard to get private land to hunt.... just don't see it in my area.

Listen to the podcast man. That is talked about too.

Land that used to be shared by many through all the deer seasons is now tied up by 1 hunter or maybe 2 or 3 all year long. That and more and more owners just don't allow hunting period.

I respect a person's right to do that, but in return I would hope they think about what they are doing and be a voice when we need it to advocate for public lands and such.

[JoeRE]

I agree with the statement in the podcast that it is going to get a lot worse before we have a chance of making it better. Look at us hunters, we are still arguing amongst ourselves and pointing fingers at each other. Most of us are apathetic and just don't care. The real question is will we come to our senses before its too late, I don't know.

Strangely this podcast gave me hope because it was straight talk about what is wrong, and what might be done to make things better. We need more of that.

I am a numbers guy and the math doesn't lie in the next 20 years there are going to be HUGE changes as most hunters retire. We all get frustrated sometimes by decisions made by state wildlife agencies but just wait until hunter dollars are not a major part of their budgets. Money and votes are what makes things happen and we won't have either.

My guess is the north american model of wildlife management will crumble and responsibilities for managing wildlife will be pushed to the landowner. No one else can fund it. JUST LIKE EUROPE hunting will be something done by a tiny number of wealthy and those that they employ to manage game that is it.

[mainebowhunter]

I agree with the statement in the podcast that it is going to get a lot worse before we have a chance of making it better. Look at us hunters, we are still arguing amongst ourselves and pointing fingers at each other. Most of us are apathetic and just don't care. The real question is will we come to our senses before its too late, I don't know.

Strangely this podcast gave me hope because it was straight talk about what is wrong, and what might be done to make things better. We need more of that.

I am a numbers guy and the math doesn't lie in the next 20 years there are going to be HUGE changes as most hunters retire. We all get frustrated sometimes by decisions made by state wildlife agencies but just wait until hunter dollars are not a major part of their budgets. Money and votes are what makes things happen and we won't have either.

My guess is the north american model of wildlife management will crumble and responsibilities for managing wildlife will be pushed to the landowner. No one else can fund it. JUST LIKE EUROPE hunting will be something done by a tiny number of wealthy and those that they employ to manage game that is it.

Its going to require less selfishness on all of our parts. Taking time off to help other young hunters, requires less selfishness on my part. Typically we will fight for things that benefit us. We will rally HARD for crossbows IF I am a crossbow hunter. BUT if I am a traditional guy, it means I am going to have to share more of my season. Crossbows were allowed in KS. More people applied, I happened to be one who did not get drawn.

But in the end, we need as many people involved as possible.