https://www.npr.org/2018/03/20...ays-for-conservation

Less than 5 percent of American over the age of 16 hunt. Aggregate number of hunter decline by 2.5 mil to 11.5 over last 27 years.

As hunters get older this will only get worse. Opposite trend for fishing.


Mike

Hunting in the US is still pretty good but it sure seems like it costs all lot more and takes a lot more effort to find a place, draw a tag, or hunt tough over crowded public land. I read all this stuff about declining hunter numbers but can't even draw an antelope tag in Wyoming without points these days. Trying to find a lease or a spot on a lease is more difficult than ever before. If hunter numbers really are declining these are probably contributing factors.

quote:

Opposite trend for fishing

Always wonder how fishing has remained politically correct ?

cause they throw the fish back.


I wish I could tell you that numbers around here were down, well I could tell you deer numbers are waay down.
but hunter numbers are waay up.

most places where numbers are down are the places where each year there is a draw for the hunting tags.
I quit big game hunting altogether when Utah went to a draw system, and know several others that hung it up also.

Do something about it.

I took my 8 year old grandson deer hunting this past season. He cleanly killed a deer. I had a good time, he had his 'Best day ever!'

quote:

Originally posted by JA:
I read all this stuff about declining hunter numbers but can't even draw an antelope tag in Wyoming without points these days.

I agree with that. Wyoming doesn't have points for residents and it is very difficult for residents to draw antelope tags(all buck antelope tags are draw only). And this is in a state that has more antelope than people! This is a big part of the reason I moved...

quote:

Originally posted by Grizzly Adams:

Always wonder how fishing has remained politically correct ?

The antis have tried real hard to make fishing "politically incorrect" but they just can't seem to get the public on board. It is hard to convince someone that fish are sweet and cuddly.

Also, many/most Americans are very removed from the meat they eat so it is much easier for them to embrace a sport like fishing(catch and release) than it is for them to take-up hunting(kill, process, cook, eat)

quote:

Originally posted by youp50:
Do something about it.

I took my 8 year old grandson deer hunting this past season. He cleanly killed a deer. I had a good time, he had his 'Best day ever!'

That is a great point. We are really failing when it comes to recruiting new hunters. I think the lack of "close to home" access and the short seasons have a lot to do with this, along with our generally busy lives.

Who wants to waste their hunting week long season trying to break-in some newbie when they know that it will probably negatively impact their hunt while also introducing another hunter to "their" spot. Truthfully, not many are willing to do this unless it is a close friend or family member.

I have mixed feelings about special "youth seasons" and "youth tags" but I would like to see something similar done for new or novice hunters. Maybe offer some special tags and special seasons for people who have never purchased a hunting license, or something similar?

I have to believe what I read about the numbers, but from my own experience here in Colorado It seems like the numbers are up. What I have really noticed over the last 10-15 years is that the hunting ‘pressure’ on the public lands is way up. When I started out here the weekends could get a bit crowded but by mid- week or late in a season you could have the woods pretty much to yourself. Now if a season is open there will be people hunting 7 days a week, sun-up to sun-down. This stands to reason as our population is only getting larger and the land available is shrinking. Just about all the private land has been leased and is no longer huntable for the average guy. This forces more and more people onto the public lands. I think a lot of the old people are giving up because of the increased crowds and lower success rates. Look at the points it takes to draw a tag in a ‘good’ area, 10-20 years is not unusual, and look at the money land owners can charge for ‘land-owner’ tags (do other states have these?). I own enough land that I could draw one deer, one elk, and one antelope land-owner tag every few years. I could sell one tag for enough to pay my property taxes for that year. We in the west are probably feeling this most because this is where most of the public lands are. Looking at the hunting forums in other parts of the country the most common complaint I see is “too many hunters, not enough game”. If the number of hunters is declining should not the crowds should be diminishing and success rates increasing?
C.G.B.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Lamar:
cause they throw the fish back.


Right in the back of the Boat!!

It is hell to find a place on the road system to hunt in my area. Hunter numbers have doubled in the last 20 yrs seems like.

those numbers might be accurate nation wide in total, but they are inaccurate in what i see hunting the west. There has been a undeniable trend of more and more people hunting public land. It is to the point in Idaho at least that, I have quit. Lots of reasons probably unregulated immigration from California and Texas didn't help. Anyway, I would like to see the number of hunters in Idaho plummet. If there are more people in the woods then there are in town, you got a quality problem.

Much of the east is pay-to-play, with a lot of productive land leased to hunting clubs. I essentially gave up on eastern North Carolina when I lived there, discovered that in Connecticut it's good to know farmers, and went to hunting BLM land in Wyoming and Montana as a nonresident. The best of it comes from putting in more effort than others, going further from roads and such. As I age, I do less of that and spend more time fishing.

The aggregate numbers may be more driven by big hunting population states - pa, Ohio, Michigan, New York losing hunters.

Als read hunting $$ have declined significantly over time.

Mike

For the past 20 years, I have lived in Oklahoma or Texas - states that have very little Public Hunting land. Both states have great hunting, but access is limiting. Leasing is the accepted practice - and the costs have gotten prohibitively high for many. I reached the conclusion years ago that it was almost cheaper to hunt abroad as it is to hunt local - and have acted on it.

My son has a 300 acre deer lease and pays about $4,000 per year. He also pays for feeders and corn and blinds and has an RV that he stays in when he's there.

I found out when I moved to Texas that even to duck hunt, I had to pay a lease fee (no public hunting in the area). That ended up costing me about $800 for the season - and I bagged a total of 14 ducks.

If you can't find a public land hunt, and you can't afford a lease - you fish (or ride bicycles, or quilt, or ...) instead.

I don't know what I'll do in the next few years when my grandsons are finally old enough to go hunting. And that's the problem...

quote:

Originally posted by Lamar:
cause they throw the fish back.

Same thing with certain types of hunting. For instance, I always practice "shoot and release" when hunting prairie dogs. The coyotes and buzzards seem to approve.

In UT we cut hunting opportunity by 50-300% to grow antlers. This in turn makes us wait years for many permits or lifetimes for certain permits. It also means we have assigned a $$$ value to the animals, which in turn makes it easier for the private landowners to sell access. Both of these shut out the average Joe who doesn't stay informed.

I'm no QDMA (or whatever it is) expert for whitetails, but I imagine it can mirror what I see here. Bigger antlers, more $$$, more ego, less access.

Far too many guys leave their kids at home while they go try to shoot their insta-fame buck or bull.

(And Utah's apps have skyrocketed as demand increases here- which is both a negative and positive result of the management)

As others have stated it's lack of access to land and the high cost of access to hunting land. Suburban sprawl has taken away over 90% of the places I used to hunt. I see where deer hunts in the western part of the US are going for $5K or more. Not something the average hunter can afford. I can't blame the landowners for charging high fees if someone is willing to pay. Just plain old capitalism.

quote:

Far too many guys leave their kids at home while they go try to shoot their insta-fame buck or bull.

My grandson at 2 when asked about deer eatem he said's.

Said's the same thing about bear turkeys ect.

Loves playing hunting.

My and son I can not wait to get him out.

My daughter in-law never shot or handled a firearm before coming into the family she is now on her 6th deer.

Well draw a bear tag next year and looking forward to it.

In addressing MC's points, I grew up in Utah eons ago where there was one general deer hunt every October, with over 200K hunters taking 10 days to hunt. We even had a deer hunting holiday from school. There were no points, no special units,no waits, no lotteries, etc, etc, etc. We used to reguarly hunt the West Desert areas quite a bit, including the Vernon area. Now, I see where one group was recently auctioning off 10 chances to hunt the coveted Vernon area. Hell, most people in Utah didn't know about the Vernon area, unless they lived in Eureka, or one of those little towns out on the West side of the State. Most hunters didn't go the West part of Utah to hunt, they went East to the Wasatch Range, Strawberry, Manti-LaSal, Fish Lake, etc. etc. It's been a whole new complicated world for years and money speaks volumes. I have lived in Nevada for nearly 37 years now, and ever since I have been here, Nevada has been a draw state for all big game. It was hard, at first, to get used to, but it's the way it's going to be with Western hunting.

Here in Pa. numbers are indeed down both in hunters and deer. When Pa. was a top deer producing state we did not need youth days to get kids into the sport.
You total up low deer numbers, leased hunting land, poor public hunting land, today's life style, single parent homes, etc. etc. and you have your answer.
Camps in Pa. that had waiting lists to join are boarded up or used as summer get aways. The entire northern tier support structure,i.e. stores, motels, etc. has all but folded.

At one time Wisconsin had up to 800,000 Rifle deer hunters annually. That has gone down to about 650,000 lately.We have lower deer numbers now as the DNR went crazy on selling extra doe permits.We will have a large winter kill here in Northern Wi.,because of heavy snow and extreme cold weather,but the DNR will still issue a lot of extra deer permits.Because of that there will even be less hunters afield in 2019.

Things change all the time
Best times are right now

Right on boarkiller. Get it while you can. I'll be one of those hunters on public land out west this fall hunting elk.

Kids have no access to good hunting areas so it is natural that the younger generation is dissociated. BIg game hunters are greedy! Everyone on this site needs to understand that our sport is dead unless you are willing to share.

When I lived in Logan, there was a little rifle range up Smithfield Dry Canyon. I'd go there a couple of evenings every week to shoot and mess with rifles. In winter there would be most of a hundred mule deer in the fields below the canyon; that was their winter range. It is now a housing development and the deer population is at a low point. Ugh.

quote:

At one time Wisconsin had up to 800,000 Rifle deer hunters annually. That has gone down to about 650,000 lately.We have lower deer numbers now as the DNR went crazy on selling extra doe permits.We will have a large winter kill here in Northern Wi.,because of heavy snow and extreme cold weather,but the DNR will still issue a lot of extra deer permits.Because of that there will even be less hunters afield in 2019.

Sounds just like what the PA Game Commission has done and is still doing. They express concern about the diminishing number of hunters and license sales but still decimate the deer population by issuing way to many doe permits.

I can say for sure that an elk tag priced at $900.00 has kept me from doing that hunt. Some states have too high of a tag price for those of us of modest incomes. I can buy a ready to slaughter beef steer for that and not have outfitter and travel expenses.

I think the youth hunts offered before everyone else can hunt may also be an issue. While not everyone cheats there are going to be people out there killing the big bucks early because they know they can get away with it. These early hunts also send deer into nocturnal mode much sooner.

According to information I was provided in the Hunter Education class I attended this past weekend with my youngest, NM is one of two states in which hunter recruitment is increasing. They attribute this primarily to two things. First, opportunity for training. There is no lower age limit for hunting in NM. If a kid can attend and pass a Hunter Ed course, he or she can go hunting. We also have the Mentored Youth program, which allows a kid of at least 10 years to run through a short online course, get a MY number, and then hunt for up to two years without a Hunter Ed card while with a responsible, licensed adult. It's a great way to let kids get their hunting feet wet without the commitment of Hunter Ed. Also, our state offers an online Hunter Ed course for kids over 10 (or maybe 12, I don't recall). This allows kids to use the technology with which they are familiar to get trained. I personally would prefer a requirement to follow this up with a practical exam, but so far this system seems to work. Second, NM has dramatically increased the number and type of youth hunts in the state. The kids have access to a lot of unique opportunities in this state and the Game Commission appears committed to maintaining that. Of course, all big game hunts are draws, but even if a kid gets skunked, we have what are called Encouragement Hunts for cow elk. If a kid puts in for the draw, but doesn't get a tag, he or she is then eligible for a first-come, first-served "over the counter" cow elk hunt. These are great opportunities for kids to hunt and result in excellent meat for their families.

There's lots of ways we can go wrong, and lots of things we can blame declining hunter numbers on. But there are ways to help. We need to get kids out in the field when they're young, before they get fully distracted by modern conveniences. We need to broaden our reach to kids who don't typically hunt. I was pleased to see that at least half of the kids in the Hunter Ed course I attended were girls. Women are way under-represented in hunting, but that's changing. Urban youth are another target, but potentially harder to reach. I think state conservation agencies could work more closely with youth organizations like 4-H, Boy Scouts, or local groups to identify youth that could benefit from time outdoors.

Aspen Hill Ad., the price will keep going up. It is more cost effective to have half the people at twice the price than twice the people at half the price. I have a son who I can get a license for a lot less. I will go with him. We get to hunt and he gets to pull the trigger.

Oh, I think the "youth hunts are a scam for adults to kill bigger animals" is bogus. I'm not saying it has never happened, but it has zero reasons for the decline in the "Sorry state of American Hunting"

Desert Ram, I'm not a statistician but if one were to look at the general increase NM and the number of people who have moved to NM (retirees) it may be more a hunter shift from other states rather than hunter recruitment. Just a thought.

I take my son hunting and I hope he will enjoy it in the future, but one should really enjoy NOW.

I will take the USA's "Sorry State of Hunting"over any other countries'

quote:

Originally posted by slim buttes:
Desert Ram, I'm not a statistician but if one were to look at the general increase NM and the number of people who have moved to NM (retirees) it may be more a hunter shift from other states rather than hunter recruitment. Just a thought.

I take my son hunting and I hope he will enjoy it in the future, but one should really enjoy NOW.

For sure the total number of hunters is increasing, and applicant numbers for draw hunts is way up, in NM. But the Game and Fish personnel at the Hunter Ed class specifically pointed out that recruitment of young hunters was increasing as well.

And you're right, there's no better time to go hunting than right now. While opportunities are declining and getting more expensive, there is still plenty of fun to be had.

For you westerners, have the wolf populations had any dent on the elk, deer opportunities?

quote:

Originally posted by Aspen Hill Adventures:
For you westerners, have the wolf populations had any dent on the elk, deer opportunities?

Not much yet, but they're working on it. The elk we hunt that live with Mexican gray wolves seem more harassed to me, but maybe I'm reading too much into it. I know this, for the first time since they started the reintroduction in the Gila, I saw multiple wolves out loafing in daylight. Based on sightings and sign, I'd say the population is increasing. It's hard to say what impact that will have on elk and deer.

They coyotes have decreased our deer herds here in the South East.

Take and teach at least 10 kids to hunt .That is the best thing you can do for hunting .I have taken and taught 35 most all of them still hunt and are awesome hunters.

Wolves have made a dent in the elk herds, and fte libs and Idaho fish and game are happy..The best thing I see is the elk are coming out into the desert and the wolves will follow but they will be easy to kill..

Im always amazed when I go to Africa at the amount of game, and game depts. that believe in hunting and game meat as a source of protein..If they can do it why the hell can't we..Take the politicians out of it would be a start.

Like everything else in the USA, money takes precedence over everything else.

Every year, governments work towards getting as much monies out of hunters and fishermen, as they can. In addition, they increase the restrictions and complications of the sport.

Hunting and fishing are getting too expensive for the younger set.

Like anything, it can reach a point where the hassle and expense are just not worth it.

BH63

quote:

Originally posted by Aspen Hill Adventures:
For you westerners, have the wolf populations had any dent on the elk, deer opportunities?

YES!!! Prior to the introduction of Canadian wolves into Yellowstone NP in the mid '90s the official counts of elk in the Northern Yellowstone herd were 19,000+. In the last few years the counts were around 4,000.

We used to go down to Yellowstone in the winter just to watch the Bighorn sheep and Elk. It was common to see thousands of wintering elk between Mammoth and the Lamar Valley. Now in a day's drive in the summer between Gardiner and West Yellowstone you will be very lucky to see a couple dozen Elk.

We also used to enjoy watching a Bighorn sheep herd in the hills near the confluence of Pebble Creek and the Lamar River. Now the Park Service posts that area to exclude humans to protect it as a wolf denning area. I haven't seen a Bighorn sheep there in years.

In the '80s and early '90s I used to drive between Bozeman and West Yellowstone often several days a week for work. It was not uncommon to see up to 6 Moose a day along the Upper Gallatin River and Grayling Creek. In the last 10 years I've seen only one cow moose on that drive.

A few years ago I compared a 1980's Montana Moose regulation with a 2010's regulation. In the hunting units just north of Yellowstone NP, there were over 70 less moose tags available in those units, and many of the units had closed to all moose hunting.

As for Coyotes and Deer, one Montana FWP biologist did almost a career study of the deer in the Bridger mountains north of Bozeman. One of his findings was that in the first 6 months after the mule deer fawns were born, 45% were killed by Coyotes.