Just read both of the AZ tag posts and just had to climb on the soapbox. Please excuse.

The real problem hear is not the AZ Fish and Game Department or anyother organization.

The US and all countries are unfortunately losing hunters at a frightening rate of speed.

As hunter numbers decline state game departments start allocating more tags to out of state hunters to whom they charge more money in order to make up for poor sales of tags to locals. They also allocate more tags to "lower odds of success" archery hunters. Fish and Game is just doing what any businessman does in a declining marketplace. Charge more to the fewer hunters left in order to maintain income stream.

SO Quit your bitchin and introduce a kid to hunting today! Rather than indulge yourself with an African Hunt. Spend the money to take your kid and his or her best friend on a duck hunt in Arkansas or pheasant hunting to North Dakota or West Texas Deer Hunting or.........
just take three kids squirrel hunting on your own back forty!

The Sermon is over now!

Hugh

Yup, we should all take the kids out. And not just kids, anybody that shows an interest. It is an investment in the future.

As far as more out of state tags availible, AZ's going the other way. Since the big lawsuit with the outfitters, where it was decided that each state can make the choice in how many non-resident tags will be made availibe. AZ has decided that that number will be 10% across the board. This is to keep outfitters from hogging tags with their big bucks. This is good for the residents, it improves our odds of drawing.

Nothing against non-residents,,,,,,I swear.

I agree with you hugh. I am 25, and I hunt and shoot with a passion. I have noticed that there are fewer hunters in my age range. I have an extremely hard time finding people my age to hunt with. Most all of the guys I hunt and shoot with are twice my age. I am also a range officer at our gun club, and I hardly ever see people my age or younger shooting. I am in grave concern of our hunting heritage in years to come.

Below is an essay submitted by a 14 year old boy to the Oklahoma Wildlife Department. The author won an antelope hunt for 2 in New Mexico.

Hunting – Sharing the Heritage
By John Robb


When I think of hunting, I always wonder why I shake so hard just as I sight in a deer. Why does my body shake when I watch the turkeys come close even though I am not thinking of taking one? When I finally see the coyote, why do I shake so hard before I squeeze the trigger? I’m not scared, so why am I shaking? It’s because I love hunting, I love scouting and it is hard to imagine someone as lucky a I am that I can get so close to a flock of turkeys and know where I will bag one next Spring. I will be forever thankful and grateful to people in my life who have shared the heritage of hunting.
I heard a group of boys at my school talking about hunting so I walked over to them. “I kill a deer every opening weekend and I don’t care how big it is. I just have to kill oneâ€, was what I heard one of them say. I thought that these boys are not really learning how to hunt but are just learning how to kill. I have learned that there is a difference.
The first thing I did before writing this essay was to look up the word “heritage.†Heritage is another word for legacy, custom and tradition. My name is John Robb. I am 14 years old and I am learning from the best the tradition and the custom of hunting. I am one of the many boys who shot the first deer at “The Land.†The Land is owned by Mr. and Mrs. Dale Rich who are the 2005 Landowners of the Year. This is my story of the heritage that Mr. and Mrs. Rich are sharing with me and others.
There are rules. We all must take and pass the Hunter’s Safety Course before we can hunt. We all have work days when it’s not hunting season where we learn to help prepare the land to increase and improve the carrying capacity. At first, we don’t hunt deer, we hunt squirrels. We scout and learn about the land. We set deer stands and we wait until Mr. Rich knows that we are ready. The agreement that we have with the Riches, is that what we learn, we will pass down to the next generation. We each have a hunting partner. My partner is Harvey. In the early morning waiting for deer, Harvey teaches me about hunting and about life. Harvey is passing down the tradition of hunting to me – the right way. Harvey doesn’t hunt when I do, but stays every minute with me so that I can learn all he can teach me. These people give up their hunting time so that I can learn and pass it down to someone else when I am older. We are taught more about safety than what is taught to get our card. We learn about the habits of animals. We learn conservation. We learn that there is much more to hunting that the kill.
After listening to the group of boys at school, I realized that I may be the luckiest person in the world. The lessons that I am learning at “The Land†aren’t all about hunting. I am learning about the traditions of my ancestors. I am learning about life.
I hope that I never stop shaking when I see animals in the wild. I hope that someday I will have a son who shakes the whole tree just like I do now. I will teach him everything that I have learned at “The Land.†I will be proud that I have a legacy to leave with the next generation all because Mr. and Mrs. Rich chose to pass along and share the heritage of hunting with me.
The End