There are a lot of kids who don't have dad's to mentor them in hunting and fishing. Its a lot easier for a single mom to get them into team sports. And add to the factor that most schools tend to demonize hunting since you have to use the "evil" gun. It all adds up the decay of the American family, negative press, lose of rural habitat, and electronic devices. The future of hunting is certainly in decline.
too many women are having more than 2 kids, along with horrible levels of illegal immigration, resulting in disastrous overcrowding and loss of places to hunt and shoot. A great many members of this forum are guilty as charged, having too many kids for this poor old Earth to support. When you donate money overseas, u make it worse, because that money SHOULD be offered as a reward for poor women to get sterilized, it's a $200, 2 hour deal these days, merely a needle thing. Then there wouldn't be all this overpopulation, pollution and loss of places to hunt and shoot. Offer a gal in Africa or Asia $2000 to get sterilized and she will adopt kids later, when her business has made her rich, so not only is she not making things worse, she is helping improve things. That's what to spend money on, not saving them from malaria, just so they can starve later, and pollute the Earth even worse than it already is.
From a personal viewpoint, I think the decline in outdoorsmen is because it's SO DERNED EXPENSIVE!!! Example - I have a year-round hunting/fishing/trapping lease only 90 miles from me. The lease costs $1,000 per year, electricity is $300 per year. If I go there for the weekend, the cost of gas, food/drinks, etc easily hits $200. If you factor in the expenses of hunting/trapping, well that easily exceeds another $1,000 per year. In Texas there is very little private land, so unless you have connections, the outdoor life is out of reach. SAD.
From a personal viewpoint, I think the decline in outdoorsmen is because it's SO DERNED EXPENSIVE!!! Example - I have a year-round hunting/fishing/trapping lease only 90 miles from me. The lease costs $1,000 per year, electricity is $300 per year. If I go there for the weekend, the cost of gas, food/drinks, etc easily hits $200. If you factor in the expenses of hunting/trapping, well that easily exceeds another $1,000 per year. In Texas there is very little private land, so unless you have connections, the outdoor life is out of reach. SAD.
This must be the reason why I love being a native Montanan... All that beautiful state owned and BLM land
From a personal viewpoint, I think the decline in outdoorsmen is because it's SO DERNED EXPENSIVE!!! Example - I have a year-round hunting/fishing/trapping lease only 90 miles from me. The lease costs $1,000 per year, electricity is $300 per year. If I go there for the weekend, the cost of gas, food/drinks, etc easily hits $200. If you factor in the expenses of hunting/trapping, well that easily exceeds another $1,000 per year. In Texas there is very little private land, so unless you have connections, the outdoor life is out of reach. SAD.
I'd give up beings outdoors if I had this kind of expenses , as my state rates 48 th in no public hunting ! I have free connections , but would just find something else to do rather than pay for it , as the best things in life are free, if you forget all the taxes , licences , tags , gas , equipment , food, etc. !
I think we are losing people because of money, and people are busy with other stuff.
My boat has a 6 gallon gas can. To go out on the river and use up 1 can of gas it cost on the $20 price range, then add fishing license, gear, bait,,,, and other stuff.
Over the past 20 years hunting leases have gotten so expensive that the average person can not justify getting on a lease. This year I had to pay out $950 to be on a lease. Its almost impossible to get enough deer meat to justify that cost. Add to that the price of gas to drive back and forth to the deer lease, and your talking about a lot of money.
I thought a state as big as Texas would have a lot of public hunting areas. Are there no National forest or State forests or WMA's in your area. We have a bunch of public land in Tennessee and in Ohio which I also hunt.
I thought a state as big as Texas would have a lot of public hunting areas. Are there no National forest or State forests or WMA's in your area. We have a bunch of public land in Tennessee and in Ohio which I also hunt.
We do have a couple of National Forests down by the lower end of the state - you'd be in real danger hunting in those areas, we have no state forests, have one National grasslands, again too many nuts there. There are quite a few WMA's, but hunting on those are, mostly, by drawn permit - and it is not free. This year with the fires and drought, there will be little successful hunting. I drove out to our lease yesterday and all the tanks were dry as a bone.
I thought a state as big as Texas would have a lot of public hunting areas. Are there no National forest or State forests or WMA's in your area.
Yes, we have a lot of public hunting land around here. But,,,, a lot of that land is not very user friendly. Meaning there are not a lot of camping sites near or in the public hunting land.
If you wanted to drive 100 miles to hunt those areas, your going to have to stay in a hotel room.
There is a patch of public hunting land just north of where I live. To use it you have to park your vehicle next to a major road. There are not camping sites where people can camp and then go hunting.
On the Angelina River close to Jasper Texas there are some primitive camping spots that in public hunting land, but the sites are only accessible by boat. With is a good and bad thing. Its a good thing because the areas are not over hunted, its a bad thing if you do not own a boat.
I wish Texas would take more of this public land and make it more user friendly. We need more primitive camping area where people can access the hunting areas.
Wow, I guess we're a little spoiled here in East Tn. we have 600,000 acres of National Forest, you can camp almost anywhere, some places have a good bit of hunting pressure, but if you don't care to hike you can hunt places you will never see a hunter. The herd density is low but there are some very old bucks (and very smart also) so it makes for a challenging hunt. But Tennessee is going the way Texas is, all the good farm country is tied up in leases. I guess I'm fortunate in way, I don't see many deer during the season, but I'm able most of the time to kill a decent buck and a couple of does. With out the public areas, I couldn't afford to hunt one of the big leases.
To many damn part time FL residents here in western North Carolina. Posted signs, gates and there little housing developments. Most people simply wont take the chance anymore. Myself, it gives me great pleasure to know that these people must take time away from there lives to try and tell me where, when or whatever I can do. The way I see it is this mountain land for people like myself not outsiders. If they dont like the way things are simply dont come here. I would advise all of you to do like wise in your own aeras. You might have to deal with a few lawyers, lawmen or even the occasional overweight baby boomer riding a 4 wheeler but in the end simply letting these people know you are still around will justify the means.
Here's what I think !
Kevin
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