I believe the loss of hunters (and fishermen) is a combination of all the above factors. But a factor I didn't consider is in this rather amazing USFWS demographic study of intiating kids into hunting and fishing. The study includes the reasons for dropping out of hunting/fishing after initiation.
The top reason cited for dropping out is lack of time. Anybody with kids will understand.
http://library.fws.gov/nat_survey2001_recruitment.pdfnote - the above link is rather big PDF file.
Today's endless procession of organized children's activities is very different from when we grew up. How many of your kids leave the house with a baseball mitt on their bicycle hoping to find a pcikup game at the local field, and say "I'll be back before dinner". Darn few.
In this day of organized everything, we need to "organize" the hunting/shooting trips with the same fascist fervor of the Soccer Schedulers.
