Posted on 02/03/2020 6:45:21 AM PST by Alas Babylon!
snip: But today, that symbiosis is off kilter: Americans’ interest in hunting is on the decline, cutting into funding for conservation, which stems largely from hunting licenses, permits and taxes on firearms, bows and other equipment.
Even as more people are engaging in outdoor activities, hunting license sales have fallen from a peak of about 17 million in the early ’80s to 15 million last year, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service data. The agency’s 2016 survey suggested a steeper decline to 11.5 million Americans who say they hunt, down more than 2 million from five years earlier.
“The downward trends are clear,” said Samantha Pedder of the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports, which works to increase the diversity of hunters.
The resulting financial shortfall is hitting many state wildlife agencies.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Southeastern Colorado and southwestern Colorado are two different worlds when it comes to hunting.
Yes, that is certainly an option but these folks better know where they are going to hunt (I presume public lands?).
My good buddy (retired professor) and his cousins would go to the public land W of Denver and contract with a local to use his horses to pack in. Turns out this guy’s brother was a local outfitter and he got the Division of Wildlife (DOW) involved with hassling them about bringing their own hay in (weed control), etc. When that option became a pain in the rear, they hired a helicopter pilot to drop them in to their camp site.
Either way, it wasn’t easy and it certainly wasn’t cheap.
At 68, hunting keeps me in good physical condition.
When I was 12, my friend would borrow his dad’s shotguns and .22s, and his 16 year-old brother would drive us to the edge of town. We’d set up cans and bottles in front of an earth-berm and start blasting away.
Once a cop showed up. He asked: who owned the guns. We replied - Sammy’s Dad!. His answer: does he know you have them? Our reply: Yes sir!
He then said: OK - be safe, and drove away.
Can’t imagine such a scene today.
Yep, that’s how it was when common sense ruled.
Without going into details, we had a good experience with a county sheriff regarding shooting in Wyoming a few years ago.
The exception doesn’t prove the rule. There’s not that many of them.
Have a good day.
That is my feeling, enjoyed hunting with Dad, but gutting deer (once I shot two in one sitting) that is a bit of work and not needed to feed the family.
Back in the day on Thanksgiving morning us kids, the uncles and cousins would go walk the tracks and bag a few rabbits, quail etc, and give them to the hired help, she was quite happy to take the meat and clean it up for cooking at home.
People stopped Hunting because states allowed liberals, who hate hunters with a white-hot passion, to make the hunting rules.
Used to be there were two licenses, small game and big game.
If you wanted to hunt ducks there was a extra ‘Stamp’ you had to buy.
Big game licenses covered deer and bear and small game covered everything else.
Now you need to carry a lawyer in your back pocket to see if you may break some unknown law that nobody knew about.
There are only certain kinds of guns you may use, but the rules of which depends on where you are at in the state and what time you are there.
There are HUNDREDS of different start/stop times for hunting and it changes depending you exact location. You will need a GPS!
I live in suburbia where discharging a firearm is not allowed (And considering there is almost no direction you could shoot without hitting someone’s house that’s probably a good thing) However, Bambi’s relatives come though on a frequent basis and devour any roses, tomato plants, and some other decorate items that we have. Someone told me that a .22 cal pellet loaded with succinyl choline chloride will do them in. I haven’t tried because I’m not sure how I could get rid of a 140 lb dead animal, and I’m not sure how to get it - dark web I suppose.
Deer hate dogs.
I'm surprised that it's only down 17.6% since the 1980s. While there are many reasons to enjoy hunting, it's more economically efficient for most people to work, earn money and buy food in a store than to hunt to put food on the table.
(And yes, it's a continuous battle with ******* deer to minimize the damage that they do to our gardens.)
“When I was in High School, some of the boys would take a teacher out to the car or pickup to show them a new rifle. “
Similar happened here. When in the Army at a very high security installation in Northern Virginia, I got caught with a 22 rifle in my locker. I was just simply told to get it out of the barracks and put it in my car.
Later on I had a car accident and the investigating cop could have cared less when he saw the gun.
The contrast is look at Virginia today.
Considering my neighborhood is awash with dogs - every contiguous neighbor has at least one, and next door west has 7 schnausers - vile little things - Deer don’t seem to be overly bothered by dogs. On the bright side I have coyotes running around my property a couple of times a week, and they’ll kill and eat the younger animals.
Plenty of accidents here, too.
I drive slowly, esp. at night or early in the morning, to avoid deer.
I remember driving though a Florida state forest at about 3AM - the deer were just standing around on the road like they didn’t care...
My hunt club turned into a “work” club when the work days got to outnumber the days I could hunt. The price escalation wasn’t a real issue but dues weren’t cheap, either.
I used to fish for big fish, as well. Bluefin and Rockfish but it got to where you had to take a lawyer fishing because the regs ran into pages and pages.
I’m about same age. Sometimes I get a lot of crap on FR for being a New Yorker. But my public high school and private college had rifle teams when I was in school.
If you notice the artical is more about the all mighty dollar that the states are loosing from declining hunting license purchases than anything else.Not to for get the economic loss of the purchases of hunting equipment.
The problem is the Rats want to kill the Second Amendment,They want to kill hunting.They need to be careful about what their wishing for.
It might just blow up in their faces.
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