How many people have been transitioning their hunting?

[rtkbowhunter]

Actually, this has been on my mind for the last several months. The property I bowhunt, ~1,000 acres, will be transitioning to a land trust and open to the public. The North Face crowd will descend mightily and overwhelm the area like they did with several other properties that are in a land trust. Ended up being closed to the public because of overuse, trash, just in general people not respecting the land OR surrounding land owners.

I have one ~250 acre property I am in contact with the landowner about bowhunting. Public land in SE PA sucks royally. It's almost impossible to get on private property. It's not uncommon to see leases for $2000 a piece to share a 500 acre property with 10 other guys. Thanks but no thanks.

So, years ago prior to picking up a bow, I was into small game, mostly pheasant. Been thinking about picking up a new pup (Britney Spaniel) and focusing on that. Couple that with two weeks or so chasing elk and maybe antelope the end of August... Still can't imagine not being on stand in early November.

 

[gadwallop]

The low barriers to entry to small game and waterfowl, especially in the South, has led to a whole bunch of idiots finding their way into the marsh the last few years. That doesn't mean they're any good at it, most aren't, but the privacy (typically) of getting a pack on your back and not dealing with sky blasters who've never even heard of a choke tube is a lot more alluring these days. This, and a couple cross country moves, drove me to invest in the big game community a lot more (I haven't stolen anyone's tags, I promise).

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

My two older brothers and me cut our teeth on rabbits, squirrels, and pheasants. Whitetails didn't enter the scene until much later in life, and I've only been out West once (so far). So fortunately, I don't need to transition as my bread and butter will always be small game, upland, and whitetails.

 

[405winash]

My two older brothers and me cut our teeth on rabbits, squirrels, and pheasants. Whitetails didn't enter the scene until much later in life, and I've only been out West once (so far). So fortunately, I don't need to transition as my bread and butter will always be small game, upland, and whitetails.

Still enjoy big game hunting but at my age enjoy just shooting as much.

 

[BigAl!]

While I haven't transitioned into smaller game necessarily, I have transitioned to focus more on hunting predators. Cougar, bear, and coyotes. Being a resident of WA state, our predator hunting is fairly good because we can't manage them for crap since there are decisions being made that are out of my control.

 

[roosiebull]

I have always pretty much hunted as much as I possibly can, so haven’t transitioned out of one type of hunting for another, but have certainly changed my strategy for big game hunting…. If we want to stay in the woods, we have to adapt somehow

 

[FLATHEAD]

Think I'm going to do an Early Muzzy WT, followed by a reg Muzzy season WT, maybe a week of reg. rifle during the rut and call it done for big game. Trying to minimize my contact with the masses. I will fill in the gaps with my kayak, hunting Moorhen, waterfowl and fishing.
May do a post deer season predator hunt in Feb/Mar.

 

[roosiebull]

Think I'm going to do an Early Muzzy WT, followed by a reg Muzzy season WT, maybe a week of reg. rifle during the rut and call it done for big game. Trying to minimize my contact with the masses. I will fill in the gaps with my kayak, hunting Moorhen, waterfowl and fishing.
May do a post deer season predator hunt in Feb/Mar.

Muzzy hunting has become interesting to me the past few years, I am plotting on a couple muzzle loader hunts myself.

I wish there were more traditional straight walled pistol hunts too, I would certainly be putting in for some of those hunts, I want to get into hunting with my wheel guns, but it’s going to be a year I have a little time, because I would have to treat the practice like bow season and make sure I get a bunch of shooting in before I am hunting… no fliers at 50yds is kind of the standard I will need to personally meet, and keep my shots inside that, which isn’t a big deal

 

[camping1601]

Think I'm going to do an Early Muzzy WT, followed by a reg Muzzy season WT, maybe a week of reg. rifle during the rut and call it done for big game. Trying to minimize my contact with the masses. I will fill in the gaps with my kayak, hunting Moorhen, waterfowl and fishing.
May do a post deer season predator hunt in Feb/Mar.

I'm right on the edge of the flintlock thing myself. Two things holding me back are the bitter cold weather and usually have more deer than I can use by then.

 

[FLATHEAD]

Been thinking about a .54 or .58 Flintlock myself.

 

[PRC_GUY]

I still go Midwest hunting elk once a year every year.

 

[WildBoose]

I've been hardcore waterfowl for the past 10 years...but its gotten almost as bad as big game. I'm leaning more towards big game out west now.