Trad Gang

When i watch the outdoor channel they always say our numbers are going down, they ain't hunting where i am. Seems every block of woods has someone in it these days whether or not they have permission. Recently went to Colorado elk hunting and seen more people than elk, the only think bugling was attached to a hunters lips. Just wondering if yall feel the same or have the same situation.

Here in Michigan, with so many guys out of work, I can see the woods being just like last year, FULL.   I did notice though, that the closer you get to more populated areas, the more the hunters want to be close to home.  I might have to drive 1-2 hours to get away from it, but it is well worth it.

i see less and less hunters every year for the last 10 or so years around here, not sure what it is. VERY FEW youths in this area hit the woods which is sad.

I know what u mean Preston...its gonna be even worse now with all the crossguns in the woods!!

Yes I think the number of hunters is down. But the availible acreage to hunt is way-way down, and that is why you think the way you do. Hap

Now days it's a "right now" type of society. With miss management of our game and fewer places to hunt kids don't want to put the time in to become a hunter, let alone a successful one. If they go out and no game is seen ...back to the mall or video games. A few young folks are lucky to have parents that have taken the time to show them the right way, many are on this site. But in the long run hunters numbers will keep going down and trust me the "anti's" are watching and waiting to put an end to what you and I love so much.

Anyone who goes during the Any Legal Weapon hunt around here can tell there isn't no shortage of hunters...  

Thier are certainly way more bowhunters than thier were 20-30 years ago.Not sure about total hunter numbers though in regard to hunting licenses bought for all species.Small game,waterfowl etc.I think those hunter numbers may be on the decline?

I hunt public land mostly though and thiers no shortage of bowhunters where I have been hunting the last 25 years.Thats been in different states as well.Ill,IN, and MI.

They swarm like bees in some places I have hunted.Not alot of solitude or peace really in those situations.Its borderline too competitive at times.

The numbers are going down because the younger generation does  not want to hunt. They think it is boring to sit in the woods all day long. Kids have a lot more to do than we did and want to be entertained.

Posted property is a real problem, everyone wants to plant food plots and shoot giant bucks. Large farms are leased by a few and that leaves a lot of hunters with nowhere to hunt.  After a couple of years many just give up because it isn't worth it.

Lots of loss of land to hunt and a lot of slobs that call themselves hunters leads to a less than fun environment. Frank

I'm still trying to figure why you have all those hunters down your butt.  :)

Anywhoo... According to the USFWS 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation (http://wsfrprograms.fws.gov/Subpages/NationalSurvey/2006_Survey.htm) hunting is a dying sport in the US.

Here's some data lowlights I pulled from it a while back. (http://sticknstring.webs.com/photos/2009-Pictures/Hunter%20Decrease%20Ages%2016-17.jpg)

I can't say that there is fewer hunters where I'm at. If yall have fewer hunters where you are then I'm jelous!  I know I shouldn't feel that way... I think it's a combination of everything.  evryone wants to hunt but few want to put the "time in the woods" to leard how to truly hunt. i.e. feeders, trail camras, 500+ yard rifle shots, 200 yrd muzzle loader, 60 yrd wheel shots... when will there be a limit.

According to the Survey, SC went from 300,000 hunters in 1996 to 208,000 in 2006, a 31% loss.

http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/fhw06-sc.pdf

I don't know all the figures, but I do know for a fact that if they go down Preston's butt, they'll go down for good. DB

"I don't know all the figures, but I do know for a fact that if they go down Preston's butt, they'll go down for good. DB"

     :laughing:      :laughing:      :laughing:

   Good one Batman!

Massachusetts has huntable land declining and hunters on the rise.  Makes for a very tough situation.  Trouble always starts with an overpopulation of ANYTHING.  We have to keep our heads out there and be friendly to each other. It's tough to accept that hunting is not as solitary as it once was, but it is..was it is.

Guess the title is a misleading, haven't seen any hunters around my butt. If they were close to it i bet they would stink. Don,you and Bernie seen first hand what i'm talking about last year up here there was a bunch of booms that weekend. It gets frustrating letting young bucks walk just to see them in the back of someones truck.

I agree with John, numbers are way down. As Hap said there is less land available due to posting and leasing so the spots that are available seem to be getting high numbers. A neighboring farm from the one I hunt has gone from 13 bowhunters to 8 in the last 5 or 6 years. License sales don't lie! I know there are outlaws out there that don't buy a license but not a ton of them. Shawn

Around here anywhere you go there are posted signs and trucks all over the side of the road. The numbers may be declining but i can't tell it around here. Land is getting to the point that you can't afford to lease it people are wanting 20-25 dollars an acre and i don't know about yall but i can't swing that. My family owns 100 acres but we are surrounded by hunters that cap anything that moves. There are plenty of deer but not many live to be 3 years old.

seems to me in my co. of ky. a lot less hunters and alot less land to hunt

I would like to know about bowhunting numbers and trends in that specific arena of hunting.

It may have peaked and leveled off a few years back maybe and may be on the decline possibly?maybe not?

But currant bowhunters compared to when I started bowhunting 25 years ago.I would bet the number of bowhunters has dramatically increased!!!

It would be interesting to see data on that from  bowhunting license/tag sales.See what the curve looks like over the last 30 years or so

I find more bowhunters in the woods and also it has become harder to get the coveted privae land spots for deer hunting of any kind in my neck of the woods.  I hunt geese also and have yet to be turned down, but with these waterfowling programs on TV on the rise that may get harder to come by too.  
TV Advertizing=exposure and people
land base dropping drastically=crowds

The other side is the "big woods" I hunt in the Alleghany National Forest area sees less people than it once did.

I went out to do a little scouting and did not see one deer.  I saw a humming bird and an elk.  There are not too many people in Northwest Iowa elk hunting these days.  But come this weekend with the overlap of youth season and archery opener it will be a war zone.  I will not get into everything that I have seen with the youth season thing, but dads need to show the kids how to be both safe and legal.  The barrage of shots that were taken last year an hour plus after sun down did not impress me at all.  Nothing is worse than having an overzealous father getting his kids to shoot at a deer way after legal shooting hours.  I maybe should have bought that farm last year and declared it a longbow only zone.  It is way too crowded around here.

They raised the squirrel limit from 6 to 10 because of lack of hunters here.The only time I see many hunters is during gun season.I never run into a bowhunter during bow season unless its someone with me.

There is no question that hunting numbers are going down overall.

In my area, it seems that more and more private land is posted. Either no hunting is allowed at all or hunting permission is very restricted. A recent trend is that the land is leased to just a few hunters.  This confines the bulk of the hunters to public lands and private lands where hunting is still allowed.

Studies have shown that if you get 1/4 mile or more away from the nearest road or trail that can be accessed by vehicles, you will start to lose most of the other hunters. They say many hunters don't like to stray too far from their vehicle for fear of getting lost or not being able to walk very far or simply not wanting to walk. One of these researchers suggested that you take your topo map and shade in a 1/4 mile buffer zone along each side of all such roads. The unshaded areas left between the roads would be considered sanctuary areas for deer when pressured by hunters. Your strategy would be to hike back into the thick cover very early and be waiting there when the other hunters move the deer toward you.

This strategy doesn't seem to apply to most of my hunting areas, which are mostly small woodlots, well broken up by county roads, farm roads and pastures you can easily drive through. It should work in large forested areas though.

In my neck of the woods I ran into more bowhunters this year than I ever have. In canyons that I have bowhunted since I was knee high to a grasshopper in which I had to myself and a couple of other guys it was a joke this year so for my part of the woods bowhunter numbers are not down. Cant speak for other areas but around here no shortage of hunters.

QuoteOriginally posted by Clint B.:
In my area, it seems that more and more private land is posted. Either no hunting is allowed at all or hunting permission is very restricted. A recent trend is that the land is leased to just a few hunters.  This confines the bulk of the hunters to public lands and private lands where hunting is still allowed.

Studies have shown that if you get 1/4 mile or more away from the nearest road or trail that can be accessed by vehicles, you will start to lose most of the other hunters. They say many hunters don't like to stray too far from their vehicle for fear of getting lost or not being able to walk very far or simply not wanting to walk. One of these researchers suggested that you take your topo map and shade in a 1/4 mile buffer zone along each side of all such roads. The unshaded areas left between the roads would be considered sanctuary areas for deer when pressured by hunters. Your strategy would be to hike back into the thick cover very early and be waiting there when the other hunters move the deer toward you.

This strategy doesn't seem to apply to most of my hunting areas, which are mostly small woodlots, well broken up by county roads, farm roads and pastures you can easily drive through. It should work in large forested areas though.

This was my first personal strategy for deer hunting. I hunt big woods / swamps. My buddy and I took a map of a NWR and ruled out anything within a mile of where a car could go, and 1/4 mile from where any boat could go under power. That focused us on a small area in the center of a 20,000 acre refuge which we accessed by boat and a whole lot of walking, and over the years that followed we killed a lot of deer out of that area.

We found other areas close to navigable water that people overlooked as well, but we had success right from the start by ruling out 80% of the NWR with our one mile rule.

25 year old new hunter here from a non hunting family. Shot a bow as a kid and now feel like it's time to learn and experience some ancient knowledge. I have been going out into my woods and have been within shooting distance of a buck and a doe but im not eager to take a shot yet. Right now im more concerned with learning and teaching myself to be a proficient outdoorsman. If this culture I have grown up in and the current state of our country has taught me anything it's to slow down and learn all it takes to care for myself and family and among many new things to learn and try on  top is  the ability to procure my own food.

Hunting public land in North Dakota I have never seen another hunter outside of our group. But then we have more deer than people in our State. Gosh, I dind't realize we have that many people, lol.