Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Herds Without Hunters

No doubt!!
At 60 years of old age I am so very happy that we bought more land than we could afford 35 years back!
Very pleased that the sarge was all in with me on that!

There is no cheap land any more

This place I hunt in central Texas is going up for sale at 23,000 an acre. Nothing but juniper and rocks.

I thought I spent some dough at $2600 a acre😵😵😵😵holy schit

$2600? Schidt, you'd have people cutting mama's throat to get a deal like that around here 🤣

Not quite as high as Hanco's neighborhood, but $15k an acre is pretty commonplace. Maybe 10 for flood prone stuff.

$5k per acre is robbery

I sold the parcel this stand sits on last winter[14 acres] for $13.5ac
just pretty SWVA mountain land.
But I was able to retain the hunting rights until such time as any development starts.

The plot I'd been hunting on the past several years sold for about $14/per back in June. He could have gotten more for it, but he was wanting to cash it out quick to buy some other property.

Piece I grew up hunting is selling currently for $6,500/ac

Ten years ago it would have been $1,500/ac

It has gone nuts... stuff around here was $1000-2000 an acre 15-20 years ago. It had been creeping up, but the last 10 it really took off like a rocket.

Here's a 2021 chart of the number of licensed hunters in each state and the % of total population. While VA is below 3%, the top 5 average run from 16 to 23%. The top 5 states are all in a continuous block from Idaho to the Dakotas. The people in the northern Rockies and Great Plains clearly like to hunt.
LINK

10Glocks,

Here is my take on your survey--I too am a data guy and I totally agree with your assessment but do have a few points to ponder.

1) Technology--The current generations are tied to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. and are not outdoors types. This versus the decrease in rural upbringings is spot on.

2) Access--This was brought up many times and I do think it has a bearing on things. I have been up and down the east coast and Midwest (can't speak for out west) and every state I have been in (except Texas) has plenty of WMA land to hunt. Whether it is close or worth hunting is another debate for another time though. I remember when I was a teenager in the 70's, everyone knew everyone nearby and it was nothing for us to hunt and cross several property lines. Not so today!

3 )Poaching--I think this has always been here and always will be. Statistically it won't skew the results as its always been and always will be present

4) Metrics--I agree with you in using the amount of hunting licenses sold as a way of defining how many "hunters" there are as I see no other way to do so. I do wonder how many folks, especially the older ones, still buy a license in the hopes of going afield but never do so. Also, alluding to what Rockcuck was talking about would be what percentage of those "hunters" represent the total population of the state, How many are non-residents or landowners, and success rates. I know tallying these data points would be a monumental task but I bet iot would shed some serious light on the matter.

I do applaud you undertaking this and I do feel you are correct in you basic assertion--hunter numbers are dwindling. GOOD JOB!

Just my 2 cents

The radio this morning said that the Baby Boomer generation is aging out of hunting and the kids today are just not that into it. I'm hunting the National Forest in northern Wisconsin and after last years record snow fall, most of us up here will be only getting exercise. Darn little sign anywhere, so it will likely be a woods without herds or hunters. Back in the '60's our deer camp had 12 guys. I started my own camp and it went to 4. I switched to hunting out of the wife's cottage and it went to 3, then 2 and now I'm doing the solo thing. The big deer are south, so who can blame guys for going there if they can hunt the private farm country. My step kid gets at least one trophy buck every year x-bow or gun and his wife is pissed about their taxidermy bills. His man cave looks like Cabela"s trophy room.

I think there is a huge difference between way back then and today. Way back then the reason to hunt was primarly food. Today is all about sport. I don't see how anyone can afford to lay out the money many do to hunt deer! When I hunted elk I hunted cows. Lot easier to get a cow than a bull and they both pack a lot of meat in the freezer. Missing out on a bull put's nothing in the freezer! Hunting bulls is sport hunting and all hunting is heading that way rapidly!

Quite a few hunters in my area but things are changing. During china flu hysteria, a bunch of idiots from far away states bought up the land and almost doubled property taxes.

Now there is 300 acres across the road from me owned by some guy that moved here from California. There are more cameras than Fort Knox, another 480 acres that ajoins it was bought by 2 out of state doctors, locked up tighter than a nun's cunny. Locales us to ride a bunch of it in the summer, keep trails cleared etc and hunt some in the fall. No more of that.

I’m near Charlottesville. There are a number of older men who punch paper and shoot trap, skeet, etc. Out of 35, maybe a third hunt. Access is not the issue. The hunting population is older. Kids today play video games and care less about hunting.
My own grandkids show no desire to hunt. They like to shoot when the weather permits. Get cold in the woods, hell no.

I'm also tired of point restrictions, special seasons, earn a buck programs etc etc. If you want to shoot a spike, shoot a spike. Deer season should either be open or closed. Do you want to hunt with a bow during open season, have at it.

The way so many hunt these days would have probably turned me off as a kid too. Getting cellphone texts from your game cameras, sitting in a blind over a pile of corn, never walker more than from your atv to your tree house.

I think it may have been for meat or disguised as being for meat back in the 50’s and 60’s. But back then there weren’t any deer in many parts of the country, my local area included. So guys like my Grandad and his friends loaded up and went to Colorado or New Mexico, or Wyoming to deer hunt. That was purely for adventure and sport because even back then it didn’t make financial sense to do it for meat. Sport hunting has been around a long long time, that’s why there’s been lodges and hunting guides for over 100 years now.
Any time you have to travel much distance and take time off work you aren’t making financial sense if you’re doing it “for the meat”.

Muz ldr season opened yesterday here I’ve heard “1” distant shot all weekend

Glocks, like you guys in VA, herein WV we’re blessed to have lots of public land, and ours is pretty well distributed. The patch I hunt is only 1400 acres, split into two closely-located sections, and only 20 minutes away. Again like you, I don’t see many other hunters, though we ran into two Friday while pulling my deer out, both headed to “my” spot. Within an hour or two drive, there’s vast chunks of open hunting land, though some is pretty rugged. As a gimpy old geezer, I’m content with the one nearby, and have it pretty well figured out. There’s a fair crowd during the early part of the regular firearms deer season, but the later ML and primitive season don’t get much traffic.

Private land access here is tough to get, and often comes with a bunch of strings, so I don’t bother trying anymore. Much easier to just jump in the truck and toodle off to the WMA. I just want time in the woods, and some meat. I almost always manage to scratch one or two down, nine beginning in 2018, seven with the arrow-gun, and maybe half a dozen before that starting in 2012, about all we can eat, and all I care to deal with. Lots of squirrels, though I seldom hunt them, predators, and some turkeys. Waterfowl are on the river, but I don’t do that.

My son lives near Richmond, belongs to a club West of there, and just got exclusive access on a nice chunk of private only minutes from his home. He has to deal with the dog hunters on adjacent leases while on the club property, but it’s not too bad for the most part. He ML’d a decent buck yesterday on the club, and didn’t mention the dogs.

Always wanted my own hunting land, but now I realize it would be more work for Grandpa than he wants nowadays.