I encountered a rather interesting statistic after hunting in Europe a few times in the 1990's. Hunting is alive and well over there, for the most part, but as you can imagine its more highly regulated than in the U.S., both in terms of who can hunt, where they can hunt, and what they can hunt.
I discovered that both Germany and Norway had similar areas to the state of Montana, where I live, but very different populations. Montana hadn't even reached 1 million back then (now it's a little over), Norway was about 5 million, and Germany 80 million. As far as I could determine, however, there were the same approximate number of hunters in each country as in Montana.
The percentage was obviously different. In Germany far less than 1% of people hunted, while in Montana the percentage is very high, about half of adult males and over 10% of females. But the total number was about the same, as it was in Norway.
This may indicate that hunting is a very area-dependent activity. On one level this is obvious, because if there's no place to hunt then people won't hunt. But apparently it may work the other way as well: Hunters only tolerate a certain number of other hunters, partly because if country gets too crowded there's not as much room for the game itself.
Much of Germany reminded me very much of certain parts of the eastern U.S. The hunting was intensely managed, with a lot of high-stand (hochsitz) sitting, often over relatively small openings. In fact, almost every small opening visible from the highways had a hochsitz on the side. Kind of reminded me of once driving through Pennsylvania during deer season and seeing a guy in climbing stand INSIDE a turnpike cloverleaf, where there were a few trees.
There are some places in Germany that are far more wild, and Norway is even more so, but again the number of hunters in Norway is very similar to the number in Germany and Montana.
Hunting land in Germany is obviously in very high demand, and despite the socialistic aspects of much of German government, it's also a very capitalistic nation. As a result, prices for hunting land and leases are very high, the reason most German hunters have much higher than average incomes. This also results in the average German factory-made rifle being higher-priced than ours, but they're also more accurate. Despite the generally good accuracy of many American factory rifles today, the average German factory rifle shoots more like a good American custom rifle--and is priced more like it.
Norway is somewhere between Montana and Germany. There's still some public hunting land, or even private land open to hunters for little or no fee. Hunting rifles aren't as expensive as in Germany, in fact I saw plenty of a cheaper version of Remington 700's in the sporting goods stores I visited. (I hunted with a bunch of different Norwegians, and some even carried slightly altered military rifles, though the .308 Winchester was far more prevalent than the 6.5x55!)
There was also more of a meat-hunting attitude, which is still more common in Montana than avid trophy hunting, despite what you might read on the Campfire (which is a somewhat skewed representation of hunters in general).
Our right to keep and bear arms is actually being reaffirmed in many ways at this moment, despite inroads in some states (which may be struck down with the help of the NRA and other organizations). But inevitably we're losing hunting land, the reason prices are going up for both hunting land and hunting leases. That can't be helped, as long as the U.S. population keeps rising. But I suspect the overall numbers of hunters here are actually stable or rising, despite the percentage of the population which hunts dropping.
One of my hunting mentors grew up in New York City, and when in high school hitch-hiked to the Catskills to hunt deer with his Savage 99 slung over his shoulder. That was only a little over 50 years ago, and would be impossible today. Even back then he couldn't stand the hassle, so moved to Montana, because of the greater hunting freedom it offered. A lot of other people did too, or to Idaho or Colorado, and nowadays a lot of the private land we used to hunt when I was in high school is now leased, either to hunters or outfitters. But a third of the state is still public, and unless somebody figures out how to change that, either by switching ownership or banning hunting, we'll be able to hunt it. But even here hunting is becoming harder and more expensive, though it's nothing compared to Germany or Pennsylvania.
Yes, hunting is going to become more expensive and involved in the future, but as long as we retain the right to bear arms, and some land is available somewhere, we'll still have hunting. It won't be the same as it was now, but then nothing ever is.
