Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Its official, hunting is dying..

Stumbled across the Wyoming game depts YouTube channel, based off of their application numbers its obvious the hunting show preachers are right....won't be any more hunters in a couple of years.......

Dammmmmmmn.......................... we're a dying breed darn near extinct..........................

Applications dropping off and I still didn't pull a deer or speed goat tag this year. How does that work?

When the baby boomer generation ages out, there will be abundant hunt club opportunities in our area. Right now, many of these clubs are hard to get into. That will all change in the next five years or so. Very sad, really. Pennsylvania is experiencing a drastic change in hunting culture. Young folks just want cell phones and video games, This is why I am a Friends of NRA Committee member, I’m trying to put as many kids behind a trigger as possible. Get em outside for God’s sake!!!!!!!

Maybe on the east coast hunters are waning, but not true out west. It's a zoo out here during an OTC season. So much so, I won't do an over the counter hunt anymore except archery.

Same here! I can't draw a tag lately to save my life!

Hunting/fishing is absolutely booming. Folks is waking up. About time.

In the west numbers have been increasing and no sign of slowing down. I personally have little to no interest in hunting East of the Mississippi so it’s not a surprising trend to me.

Maybe if the prices were lower and tags easier to get there would be more hunters. Edk

WY department of fish and game SLASHED the number of tags for lopes and other game based on outfitters lobbying them.
I had a friend who I took elk hunting that was trying to get us tags in WY, we tried for 3 years and gave up.

SCREW THEM ... They caused their own problem, and I hope the outfitters pay for in the end.

ID has resident cow elk tags going begging. There are literally several thousand still available. Non-resident are sold out.

There's your ^ ^ ^ ^ puzzle piece.
Same thing here with whitetail does.
Everybody wants something to post
online on their farcebook page.
JFG a while back I looked at one of the
places close to where we used to get to
cull hunt 25- 30 years ago for free. A
"meat deer " will cost you about $1500.00
to start.

Granddad was born in 1911 and hunted small game all his life. Dad and Uncle hunted small game some. Uncle hunted Colorado elk once back in the 1950s. He owned a hunting camp in Alaska for a couple years, don't know how much hunting he did there. The next time one of them went big game hunting was when Granddad was in his 90's and took two deer.

None of my brothers or Uncle's kids hunt. I moved to Colorado in 1981 and ahve hunted big game every year since 1982 with one exception. Two of my daughters hunt big game and the other likes to go along for the fun. All three of my SILs hunt big game and i'm hoping all six of my grandkids will. Time will tell.

These cow elk tags cost $30, $16 for us seniors.

You couldn't be more wrong. Licenses for antelope were reduced because of winterkill, they don't give licenses for animals that don't exist.
Outfitters influence on licenses and seasons is waning as residents are speaking up about license allocations for ourselves.
Some areas take many PP to draw, curious what area you applied for ? Check the drawing odds before you apply and you'll know what to expect.
No shortage of folks drawing tags and applying, WG&F does a great job of managing our wildlife.

One less entitled NR not coming to Wyoming to hunt, yeah !

My group applied for 6 doe antelope tags this year and drew 5 of the six.

In ID, WY, and MT, the fish & game depts had the extra burden of wolf management dumped on them with no federal money to finance it. The liberals never dreamed, though, that wolves would ever become game animals. They made some mistakes and it got by them. They learned, though, and we'll never see a grizzly season in the lower 48.

That's good. That's all they should cost a senior.
It's sad that people don't want to take a cow
when the fish and game people are trying to
promote it. That's like the people here on leases
that are asked to shoot spikes and does but won't
because " it'll ruin their hunting "
The ranch people used to let people like me come
in and take care of that chore, but they don't do
that anymore, not without a big handful of cash.

The NR attitudes sure get annoying dont they.

Hmm... This is not what the guy who was trying to hook me up with a lope hunt told me...
He had hunted that place in WY with his family for a decade and they always drew taxes as NR’s ... so they were pretty upset about the change and not drawing tags 3 years in a row.

- this is the first I have heard of a “HUGE” winter kill causing it, I did however read others complaining about slashed tag amounts, And outfitters lobbying being a source of the issue.

Coyote_Hunter - the guy’s I’m talking about, were the one’s we hooked up the youngster on the Elk hunt in Colorado, he was trying to return the favor.

wytex - Entitled folks tend to pay outfitters - I’m more of a DIY guy, so don’t presume too much, too fast.

Spotshooter, just get the facts . Outfitters have lost some of their influence on WG&F.
I'm a DIY hunter as well.
Winter kill was very rough in some areas, outfitters do not set season quotas or have that much influence unless they can show concrete numbers to back their "facts".
Application numbers have gone through the roof last few years, pronghorn is a very good starter hunt for folks coming out west first time, tell your friends to look at you and other NR for the pain in drawing tags. Residents are also picking up more pronghorn tags for the meat.
The only areas that folks are paying outfitters for pronghorn hunts are the areas with little to no public access. When residents start getting the tags we are allotted in our 1st draw it takes away form the tags available for the NR draw, left over tags after our draw are swept into the NR draw which expands the quota for NR.
Forums just like this are driving the application increase and if we get a significant winter kill, it greatly affects tag quotas. As does poor fawn recruitment .

Take the time to listen sometime to the season setting meetings around the state, you'll get the facts on tag quotas and have a leg up on which areas may have decreased in tags. The meeting are in April usually and online.

I would take my info from a resident, not a NR with sour grapes.

I guess I have spent a couple hundred thousand on hunting as a NR over the last 50 years between tags and hunts Col, Id ,Wyo, NM, Tx , WA, Mt and Alaska some thruout Canada too. I won't give any of them a fu@$ing cent anymore! Residents cried to raise fees and cut tags for NR then ran the prices of hunts thru the roof for what was left. A lot of mom and pop shops suffered because of those foolish demands.
Today I watch underfunded game depts. try to survive on those resident fees and just laugh!!!!!

It seems to me that there are a lot of checklist hunters now days. So few people actually HAVE to hunt that our numbers are getting smaller. When I was a kid, we HAD to hunt to make ends meet. No deer or elk meant VERY little meat all winter.

Spotshooter -

I understand the frustration. When it comes to WY antelope, we're DIY doe, public land/Walk-In Area hunters except when we can get permission for private. (If the landowners want trespass fees, we pass - but we give them $50 for each doe we take.) Before applying fir our WY tags we study the draw results from previous years, just as we do for our Colorado tags. Our success rate in the WY antelope draw this year was 71%. Last year it was 100%. (In my previous post I stated we drew 5 of 6. That was incorrect, as Daughter #1 informed me she had applied for two and got one. We got 5 of 7. My error.)

Can't say what is going on with buck tags in WY as we don't apply for them. Here in Colorado we bombed as a group trying to get vow tags on a Ranching For Wildlife ranch that had leftover tags last year. The applications for that hunt were way up and they were gone in the first draw. Still, we have 7 cow elk tags for 4 hunters, all from the second draw (100% success) and subsequent leftovers (of which there were thousands). Four of those tags are for 3rd Rifle, three are for 4th Rifle. Colorado still has unlimited bull tags for those that want antlers.

That was my first thought too. Haven't drawn in WY in years.

Maybe next year.

Got me wondering how the actual number of licenses and applications is trending here in AZ. There sure seems to be a LOT of hunters.

App numbers were up not down. And as I stated when more residents put in for antelope it takes those Leftover Tags out of the NR draw. Days of NR welfare are over in Wyoming with your draw coming after seasons and quotas are set.

Funny, our WG&F is doing just fine, looking forward to NR quotas going down to 10% and hoping the increase in tags gets me another chance at a moose.

https://www.wyomingnewsnow.tv/2020/07/21/more-residents-applying-for-hunting-licenses-in-2020/

Let me answer from the other side of the Big Muddy.

My sons love to hunt. We live in Ohio, but do all our hunting in Kentucky, because that's were we found cheap land. We hunt turkey and whitetail. We are willing to pay the nonres fees, but few of their friends feel they can afford it. There is a huge feeling of "why bother?" among their generation.

We have an elk draw every year, but I stopped applying, because non-res chances of winning were about zilch. There is an at-large tag for out-of-zone elk, but it costs nearly $400 to hunt elk on your own land.

Going out West? I've given up on elk. I tried a business trip to Denver once and found out altitude and me don't mix. I'm probably too old and fat as well. The biggest drawbacks as we see it? Unavailability of tags, their cost, and the low chance of success-- compared to what we can do at home.

I would NOT go that FAR.

I'm NOT talking about Wyo, Co, Montana, or Id.

I've been "reading" the last few years that the number of YOUNG hunters IS decreasing.

I can't prove or disprove. IF it's true, I'm not surprised. The TECH age or Inet age is here. There are more 'net' games,
and social media venues than I can count. I'm disappointed in the affect those have on the younger generations.
They (generally) are not experiencing the outdoors, nature, beauty, and hunting.

That leads to more of the ANTI thingS.

I'm NOT opposed to Conservation but AM opposed to PRESERVATION. There IS a diff and many don't get it.

Jerry

Michigans DNR is changing the regs all the time , hard to keep track of them! I know 7 hunters that have quit since the batting ban, 5 were from Ohio, cant bring the deer back hole any more! the other 2 are older, and said its just not worth it anymore! there selling a lot of doe tags this year, I should say trying to sell them. People are afraid that the state will shut down again, by hunting season! I think the bitch will close it again!

[ They learned, though, and we'll never see a grizzly season in the lower 48.[/quote]


and here i thought it was open all year round. SSS

No extra tags in Idaho. Non residents everywhere and it’s just archery season. Usually try to buy a leftover whitetail tag. Fish and Game sold every tag they had.

I’d be happy to pay more for a resident license and tag if it meant thinning of the non resident herd.

Anyone that thinks hunting is "dying" has never been on public land in the west on opening day of elk season.

No drop off around here..

Apparently folks didn't watch the video, or know I was being sarcastic.

Hunting is far from dead, the application numbers show it, as does the numbers of people out in the field.

But the Hunting preachers will tell you different...

As an easterner, I believe Wolf Hunting would be a challenge & also a reward if it was made more possible.

We have wolf hunting now in Wyoming and some areas they are predators, no license needed to hunt them.

Handy, most of these folks probably don't know how to click the link.

It amazes me how the residents hate non residents but if they want to go after something not in their state it’s ok. Most people would love to hunt elk or moose but can not afford it. I went to Wyoming once elk hunting. The wilderness areas that we all own was off limits without a guide. They claimed it was unsafe but a damn earth muffin with just ten years runners could go anywhere he wanted. Pisses me off. Edk

Depends on where you are, probably.

I have never seen a moose hunter at my remote cabin,15 miles up a tributary from the major river until this year. In that 15 miles there were maybe a dozen camps this year over the space of 3 weeks, and we had 7 boats come booming by the cabin. Coming out, 5 days before season's end, there were another half dozen "hunt from boats" that we passed on the lower 3 miles, which amused me.

We have been running that river for over 40 years, and from the boat, in all that time, I have seen exactly 4 moose up on the 20' high banks, from the boat.. Almost rammed a cow and twins once time (posted about before), and 2 years ago, jumped a nice bull laying on a gravel bar next to the river on a hot June or July day. We tried for him in season and he was coming in until Honey Half Lab "warned" us with a soft yip.

Wife saw a bull one other time, as I was watching the river, driving... We did see a cow with twins in the oxbow behind our cabin this trip, but they were well off the river itself. Scouted several old oxbows/sloughs this trip- will maybe hunt them sans dogs next year.

True, we had high water on a normally more shallow/narrow problematic river. I had to cut 2 trees out on the way up, and one on lower water 3 weeks later between mouth and cabin. It gets worse above my cabin.

2 years back, we went exploring upriver as there had been some big burns up there 10-15 years ago, making I supposed then for good moose habitat. We were blocked by a big log jam in a bluff gorge several miles upriver - which I posted about...

Apparently eyes in the sky also noticed my supposition as true...

The log jam is apparently still there, because all those bozos came booming back down river an hour or two later. :}

Just wish they wouldn't wake gallons of water into my boat as they go by on full throttle. I'm 72, but if I was at least 10 years younger, I'd find a way around that jam (I have it figured, I think, sans TNT, but would need a little more investigation and some doing /equipment...).....those other fuggers are apparently too lazy/dumb. Or too smart.... And I'm not about to open it up for a bunch of other people with their $20-40,000 boats anyway.

Wife was hot to shoot a moose herself, and wants some moose meat- we have been several years without any. With 2 caribou, 30 salmon, and some halibut in the freezer, I wasn't all that enthusiastic, but went through the motions for her anyway . "Hunting" with two dogs who warn of "things out there!" (twice!) doesn't bode well for success, but we did have a cow (I think) come noisily across the river 30 yards from the tent in the dead of night after I'd called before dark. No antler sounds anyway, and that bank brush is thick there! Still, it's amazing how 60" bulls can come thru thick brush, never making a sound!

Given the above, I didn't have all that much fire in the belly. I had to catch myself several times to keep from slipping into the mode...... A moose is a lot of work, and we already had plenty groceries for just the two of us. We would have had to buy another freezer.

Top shelf left is halibut, right is caribou polish sausage freshly made from '19 kills.
2nd down is salmon fillets
third down, left box is freshly smoked '19 salmon, more polish sausage as above, right box and blue and white door packages are freshly made caribou ('19) breakfast sausage.
Left milk crate is '20 caribou roasts and stew, right one is steaks and stew from two cows we killed this year

Bottom shelf is ground '20 caribou.

We be livin' alright off the hunt.

Thats a good Idea useing the Milk crates, in the upright freezer!

Our youth is hunting's future in Pennsylvania. When most of us baby boomers started hunting we cut our teeth on rabbits and ringnecks here in Pa. It was fun and exciting, we got to shoot at game often. There was plenty of land to hunt on not far from home so you could make it out for a hunt after school and on Saturdays. Nowadays most private land is posted no trespassing, which pushes hunters on to overcrowded State Game Lands that for many is a considerable distance to travel with very little small game to hunt. Kids want to shoot the gun, it's what keeps their interest, they don't want to sit quietly and still for hours waiting for a turkey or a deer which is what Pa. hunting has evolved into. I don't know the answer but if video games and cell phones continue to be more exciting to our kids than hunting the sport is doomed.

Wisconsin has been seeing a decline of about 2% per yr. for deer hunting for about 15 yrs.. This yr. may be different however. Since the Covid hoax , many are out in their boats fishing and skiing, canoeing and kayaking. The fishing pole racks were half empty this summer. As far as I am concerned there are still an awful lot of deer hunters on public land in southern WIs. but in northern Wisconsin, the woods are almost completely empty of deer hunters. There are very few deer in NW Wisconsin anymore and we go , , well, just to go.

I have got lots of tags for 900 miles from here.

I am told that the fire damage will change how we hunt this year.

Every year we hear that hunter numbers are dwindling Nationally and as far as I’m concerned it’s complete BS. When I lived in Texas the cost to get on a deer lease was going up and up every year and finding an open spot was tough. I move to Colorado and the armies of non-residents that descend on this place from all corners of the country for all the unlimited OTC hunts Colorado offers is mind boggling. Many of the folks Ive met here that are residents either don’t hunt anymore or do nothing but complain about the pressure and or lack of animals. Some travel to Wyoming or Idaho to hunt elk because elk hunting is so bad here. Either way there is no less hunters in the woods. I do believe that the non-resident invasions brow beat residents desire to hunt though, I see that very clearly. The non-residents show up here with all the Kuiu and Sitka gear a guy can buy ready to battle big bulls only to drive a 1000 miles home empty handed and a couple thousand dollars less wealthy. But the next year a whole new batch will be back to do their once in a lifetime crap shoot called OTC elk hunting in Colorado. Too damn many people and not enough animals, only goal is for the state to make as much money as possible irregardless of how bad the experience is for the outdoorsman, but as long as they have that green tag in the pocket they think they’ve got a chance!

Regarding ND, SD, and MT to a lessor extent. The loss of CRP acres has had some serious detriments upon game populations. The habitat that is left then concentrates hunters. Whether or not you consider things "crowded" or not depends greatly upon your frame of reference. It will be an interesting year in ND as we've sold LOTS more waterfowl licenses this year since folks can't get into Canada. Some who live here and/or have hunted hear for decades will be fuming mad at the "crowds". Some who've never been here might think they've stumbled into the uncrowded happy-hunting-grounds. ND has no limit on NR waterfowl licenses. SD limits ND waterfowl licenses to 3500 via lottery in the spring.

As a DIY hunter, I want game populations and tag allocations managed for resident opportunity 1st, whether it's my home state or not. IMO, when resident hunter opportunity is maximized, DIY NR-hunters benefit as well. When Game and Fish dept's and state legislatures manage game populations and tags for guides/outfitters they G/O's and their clients are the only beneficiaries. Game populations often don't thrive in a G/O driven environment as often too few are taken and disease or tough weather puts a bigger hurt than it would with a larger harvest.

When I was a teenager hunring in Colorado with my dad, you really felt like you were in a remote and magnificent land once you left the city limits of whatever little town was nearby the area you were hunting...Now, the government has sold off most of the prime farm and ranch lands at the foot of the mountains, cut off access to prime fishing spota on the rivers by selling off the land. Everywhere you look around every corner in the highway there is some California Commie's McMansion like cabin blocking what used to be a magnificent view of the mountains. Private land everywhere with no access around what used to be awesome hunting spots at the lower elevations...It's sad what happened to that state..

.You have to go back into some really rugged country just to get away from all the peoole, and that, in my opinion, is why hunting is dieing off for the younger generations these days at least in some of the Western states. I don't really feel comfortable taking my young early teen son into the kind of country you have to go back in to to find game animals and get away from the hoards of hunters if it's just me and my son...If another adult was with us I would consider it, but it's hard to find good reliable hunting partners these days; especially those willing to be out the expense to travel to another state when it takes forever to get drawn in your home state.... Not like in my dad's day when there was always 4 to 6 men in his hunting group and everyone was looking out for each other....I worry I would put my son's life in jeopardy at his age if something accidental were to happen to me in the way far back country....

Common knowledge here in PA in the 80s we had like 1.2 million hunters, now we're at around 750K I believe give or take a little. Rare to see any kids hunting. No small game hunters on public land after the first day where there are stocked pheasants. Few public land deer hunters after the first 2 days. Where a lot of my family hunted years ago, now nobody, I'm usually out there alone. Hunting will always be but I would not be supprised to see PA down around 500K hunters, or less, within the next 10-20 years as the current generation dies off.

Beginning in 2000 there was a significant drought in Northern Colorado and Southern Wyoming, followed by a couple moderately harsh winters. Those two factors hammered the pronghorn populations. Colorado reduced available tags a huge amount. Prior to 2000 in Colorado’s GMU 3 for example, it was taking 3-4 PP to draw a pronghorn buck tag, by 2010 it required 15 PP’s or more. Since then the number of tags have been increased, currently requiring somewhere around 7-8 PP’s.

And the number and size of mature bucks in Northwestern Colorado are nothing like it was in the decades prior to 2000, in part because their have been more drought years than not since 2000.
In the 80’s and 90’s I killed two 15-16” bucks in GMU’s 2 and 3, and since the mid 70’s didn’t kill any bucks less than 14”. It’s not like that today.........

Coronavirus seems to have encouraged a lot of people to pick up hunting, fishing, and hiking. I hope this is a permanent boost to outdoorsmanship, but I think it would be best if we could better encourage this.

As far I can tell, there are a few major obstacles that that prevent Millennials and Generation Z from picking up hunting.

The first is that hunting has a high initial monetary cost. A cheap hunting shotgun like the Mossberg 500 runs around 300-500 dollars in normal times, let alone during this pandemic. Add in blinds, binoculars, ammunition, and licensing fees...the cost can easily eclipse the disposable income of a young professional or college student.

The second is that younger people disproportionately live in urban environments and hunting is largely seen as a rural affair. There are a surprisingly large number of suburban and urban hunting opportunities, but it takes a lot of research or connections to dig up leads. Rural hunting is possible but difficult; public transportation only goes so far and it's expensive to possess a car in the city.

The third is that the stereotypical hunting culture is shockingly different from the stereotypical youth culture. The tip of the iceberg is that younger generations are disproportionately comprised of minority ethnicities and cultures relative to older generations. Add in the generational political divide on top of the usual generational social struggle...well, let's just say that the result isn't very pretty.

Surprisingly hunting license sales were markedly up this year in NY. Maybe all the new gun owners want to go out and "Catch a dee-ah."

Pressed the wrong button and I think I made too many edits to ethically continue. I'll write a bit more down here.

The good news is that a lot of younger people are interested in conservation and sustainable consumption. Hunting is basically as ethical as meat "production" gets and serves as an important ecological tool for state conservation agencies. At least one person in my hunting group is opposed to eating meat out of a factory farm, but has no objections to eating animals that live "complete" lives in nature. Another interested person likes that the food they produce would be guaranteed to be halal; they don't have to worry about the practices of a third-party butcher.

I believe that lowering barriers for new adult hunters*, stressing the benefits of conservation and sustainability, and deemphasizing politics might be the best way to expand the hunting population. The generation that follows most of us will certainly be a bit different in terms of culture and practices, but it's the best way to make sure that our lands and nature persist past us as well.

*On a tangent; the "no semi-auto" rule PA has for big game is extremely annoying; most newer gun owners own semi-autos.

Less hunters = more game.

More game = more predators.

More predators = more hunters.

There are many factors. And I think lazy and computer are lower on the list than
many claim.

Sports are so much bigger now. A lot of the kids that would have hunted play games.
Any sport you can mention is now a year round endeavor. Along with pay lessons.
That all takes time.

Land availability, and true rural living.
As a kid, there were few places we couldn't hunt. And those owners were prices.
Now, there are few places open. So many more kids lived rural where they
could walk out the door, load the gun and be hunting.

This has been an impediment to me.
Spoiled by my past, a quick hunt is a pita.
Requiring either a drive to public, or a longer drive to
friendly private land. No more walk out the door and have an hours hunt,
in an hour.

Then there is our herd reduction coupled with stand hunting replacing
moving tactics. The result is not seeing deer. I get bored. No deer to see.
Not hearing anybody else shoot. I hear a tiny fraction of the shooting we
used to hear. Back then, it was bucks only, 1 tag. Now it's dang near any
deer, and 2,3,4,5 tags. But few shots.

I wonder why kids would rather sit inside.
There isn't much spark to light the fire.

None of this is an insurmountable mountain.
But it's all impediments to getting people hunting.

Schools and teachers/ coaches these days are not conducive to promoting kids hunting. They could care less if a kid put in for points for years to get drawn for a good unit for a good experience. They will still get bad grades for the time they missed even if they do make up work for the assignments they missed. The coaches will still punish them harshly at practice for missing days...That has been my experience with my son...

Schools are even harder these days as well, and they move through the material so fast that a kid can get way behind in classes just missing a week in school to go on a hunting trip.. It's a lot of stress on the kids and as a parent, it makes you wonder if it is worth it to take them out of school to hunt even though they love the experience. Schools where we live get paid by the Government based on attendance/ number of students in class each day so they frown on kids missing school for any reason and send out nasty gram type threatening letters to the parents if they miss so many days...I can see why parents opt out of getting their kids into hunting and try to push the kids toward getting into the school related sports...