doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Not hunting anymore you say?

We here on this BBS tend to focus more on bird/fowl hunting because that's what double guns were made to do. In Alabama, there are more deer and turkey hunters than ever. When I was in high school in the early 80s, most of the deer hunters were just us country boys, and even few of them were dedicated enough to become successful turkey hunters. Nowadays, it seems like the woods are full of city folks hunting both deer and turkeys. I used to have lots of places to hunt turkeys on land leased by deer clubs (even though I wasn't a member) because no one in the club hunted turkeys. That is not the case anymore. Mossy Oak and Browning logos are seen on the rear window of nearly every pickup truck and SUV around here. I think companies like those have marketed their products so successfully that a lot of the kids want to become hunters just so they can legitimately say they use the product, which justifies them placing the fashionable sticker on the back windshield! I cringe at the thought of being in the woods with folks like that, but I do recognize that they will vote on my side of the issue when it comes up, and am thankful for that.

I hope the good doctor from Kentucky can lighten up a little. You know.......reading Lowell Glenthorne is like doing the Ozark version of Sodoku. If you ever solve the puzzle and figure out the riddle, a great, warm feeling of total satisfaction will wash over you as a reward.

For three generations we have had liberals, anti-hunters and anti -gun people slowly educating our kids that guns are evil and hunting is no longer needed and cruel. It is a wonder that any kids these days want to hunt. For 40 years, going on 50 years the schools have been slowly working to educate our kids that hunting and shooting are throwbacks to days before civilazation came to the US. Frontiersmen and settlers hunted for food. We hunt to be rednecks and to be cruel to animals is the constant message.

Then you add the urban sprawl and many places which use to be easy to hunt have been built up. Like many here I can show you many places which use to hold a covey of quail which now have a house built up on it. Whole farms are now hundreds of houses. Or large scale farming and large scale chicken raising take entire farms out of game production. One farm, across from my fathers farm, now has 18 or 19 chicken houses on it and they raise just under 750,000 at a time. That is one farm which use to have three coveys of quail which can never be hunted again.

On top of that people are afraid of letting you hunt for fear that you will get hurt and sue them. Peopel are sue crazy. You have to feel for people who have freinds who have hunted on their farms for years and are told that they can not any longer because the farm owner is afraid that if the hunter gets hurt or hurts someone else that they will get sued.

I have boys I grew up with, who have hunted on my land for 30 years and I tell them to go ahead but I do not give them written permision. My lawyer says that way I might have a leg to stand on if I get sued since they did not have written permsion like the Game laws require. Several have been stoped, but the Gmae wardens know me and have accepted either my word on the phone or the hunters word that they had permission. Failing that I will give them written permision for any court that wants it, to get them off.

There was a case a few years ago where one hunter was walking in the woods, tripped over a fallen wire fenece and shot his buddy in the leg. The land owner got sued and lost because he did not warn them of the fence. The fact the he did not know about the long ago abandoned fence was no defense. I have land that I have walked a hundred times and am sure has many things, hazards maybe, that I have never spotted.

Many farmers lease their lands to deer hunters to get someone else to manage and monitor the hunting. It is far easier to say sorry you can not go hunting because those deer hunters have it all tied up than say no to a long time friend. Most of us are not real good at saying no. Makes us feel like we are not being nice. But if you have 90% of you retirement tied up in land and do not want to take a chance you just have to say no. I do not blame the farmer.

The AP story from last week did note that several Game departments are getting a financial squeeze because they are funded from ever decreasing hunting lisc. sales. truth is most states are more worried aobut decreased incoming money than the loss of hunters, habitat or loss of hunting in general. Maybe it is time for the tree huggers to have to buy a tree hugging lisc..

In Kalifornia there are three issues that I think are contributing to the decline:
1. The general anti-gun attitude and the difficulty and hassle of buying anything gun-related. Yes, you can still get just about anyuthing you really need, but the gun shops and general sporting goods stores that carry what we need are becoming scarce. There is a 10-day wait for long guns, and you are required to buy a gun lock or prove that you own a gun safe. FFL transfer fees generally run $85 to $125 in the L.A. area. etc., etc., etc.....
2. Rampant development of previously huntable land. The Coachella Valley was/is prime habitat for doves, quail, cottontails, but is now virtually all housing developments and golf courses, with even open desert being annexed by various cities. My favorite close (50 miles) dove/cottontail spot in Chino was annexed by the City of Chino four years ago, but with no signs or public notice. A group I know was dove hunting there and the police SWAT team showed up with full auto weapons and body armor, and had the hunters face down in the dirt while they sorted things out. Not pleasant.
3. Corporate farming has taken over the family operations in the southern half of the state, and that means all the brush (spelled "habitat") gets cleared and all the trees get cut to maximize crop yields, and then they post the ag areas "no hunting." So now we go to Arizona. That adds a couple hundred miles and a couple hundred dollars to each weekend excursion, and that adds up over the course of a season.

Lots of good details of the reasons for decline. But I think everyone of them are directly attributable to one thing; TOO MANY PEOPLE! That causes a lot of things to occur, including huge increases in urban and suburban population. These urban and suburban people then are influenced by those things many of your have mentioned in addition to the loss of hunting grounds.

I'm sorry to say, I see no realistic solution on the horizon to stem the decline of hunting in much of the US.

bOb thats called laughing so hard you wet yer pants.

...and here, KYJon says he doesn't read me!
Well ol'boy - seems you've found a space in my twaddle to bare your soul.
You owe me!

One of the main problems in Wisconsin is the lack of places to hunt. Nature Conservecy was mentioned earlier as having a dollar amount to bid and being outbid. I was a supporter of them for years, but alas no more. Here they Have bought acres of land with Stewardship (tax) funds and closed them to hunting or want to charge you a fee for a permit to hunt, and this is on lands they bought with my tax dollars. State has to be more active in obtaining and maintaining public lands for hunting.

Popplecop:

You've raised my eyebrows regarding the Nature Conservancy. I'm going to check and see if they restrict hunting on their properties in Alabama, with the exception of a tract purchased to protect an endangered species.

Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

The USFWS collects a lot of data from the states and from surveys. One of the things they attempt to do, is place a dollar amount on hunting and fishing. They issue these reports every 5 years.

Here are some links:

2001 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation State overview
http://library.fws.gov/Pubs/State_overview01.pdf

PRELIMINARY STATE DATA FROM 2006 NATIONAL SURVEY OF FISHING, HUNTING AND WILDLIFE-ASSOCIATED RECREATION SURVEY AVAILABLE
http://www.fws.gov/mountain-prairie/pressrel/WO27.htm

2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation State overview
http://library.fws.gov/nat_survey2006_state.pdf

These reports are your tax dollars at work.

Pete