Do you guys think that having more or less hunters would be better for Western hunting in the long run?
Better.
Assemblymember Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) introduced Assembly Bill 711 (AB 711) in March 2013, which phased out the use of lead ammunition for hunting in California. He framed his bill, which he didn't write himself, as a legal mechanism to "save the children" from "toxic poison."
The "toxic poison" Rendon sought to save children from is "gun culture."
Many in positions of leadership in organized tyranny believe that they would be just a generation or two away from a gun-free Utopia if they can attack the shooting sport culture hard enough to shrink it.
Rendon knew that dove hunting is the largest portal for new participant entry into sport hunting in California, and has been for over three decades now. The idea behind the non-toxic ammo ban was to price children and youth out of gun culture and when a case of 28 gauge Kent Bismuth that might get dad, mom, and two kids through a weekend of dove hunting costs $289.99 + tax, and farm kids in the San Joaquin Valley with little else to do can't shoot rabbits from grape vineyards with .22 LR, anymore, those of you who answered "Worse" to that question will get the reduced hunter participation that you wish for.
We are all feeling the pressure of tags getting harder to get while also feeling like hunting is being looked at less favorably by the public officials
Tags aren't harder to get because we've got more hunters chasing mule deer in mule deer country.
The number of deer hunters in California peaked in 1980. The number of deer hunters in Utah peaked in 1989, The number of deer hunters in Colorado has been in decline since 1983. Peak participation was two decades previously in 1963 when the state's largest deer harvest of 147,000 animals was recorded. The number of deer hunters in New Mexico peaked around 1965. Montana bucked the trend of the other states mentioned, with the number of deer hunters peaking in 2008.
In all of the states I listed except Montana, there are SIGNIFICANTLY LESS deer hunters in the wilds than there were when I got my first deer tag as an 11 year old kid in 1976.
In California, where the number of deer hunters has been in decline since 1980, the number of upland game bird hunters had been more or less constant until the non-toxic ammo mandate came in to full force and effect in 2019.
Tags are harder to get because we have fewer mule deer in mule deer country. New Mexico's mule deer population peak was in 1963 and the number of deer in The Land Enchantment today is 1/3 of what it was at its peak.
What are yall's thoughts on new hunters and the impact that they have?
"Out west," I hunt on public land administered by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. It belongs to new hunters and non-consumptive recreation enthusiasts as much as it belongs to me. The game I kill belongs to the people of the state I kill it in collectively. The animals I kill and the ground I kill them on doesn't belong to me and I don't go through life acting like they do.
I've had plenty of experiences where me and my dog sat on a high-ground position and watched other hunters and dogs catch the skunk while surrounded by quail or chukar, waited for them to pack up and leave, and then proceeded to limit out or come damn close to doing so on that same patch of ground others caught the skunk on.
Other hunters aren't something I see as a threat to my fun because most of them aren't.
As egotistical as this sounds, most hunters are shooters who, by happenstance and chance, sometimes luck out and get to use live animals for targets. They have no idea why mule deer are where they are then they're there; they don't know enough about the habits and biology of deer to be much of a threat. Upland game bird hunters are perhaps even more ignorant. Many, instead of using their brains to put themselves and their dogs where birds are, expect the dog to do all of high-order thinking for them. "I've got a dog. Why in the hell do I need to know how quail use their habitat?"
I don't see new hunters as anything but political allies. My ego is too massive to view them, or granola-munching hikers and rock climbers, or dirt bike or atv riders, or Jeepers, or any other person doing their outdoors recreation thing, as a threat to my fun.
I'm so egotistical that I'll whip out the USGS Butler Peak, CA topo map and show you where to find quail on it.
Yeah. I'm "That Guy." Proud of it, too.
A group of friends I met through the Long Beach Casting Club wanted to get in to quail hunting and were planning their first quail season when i met them. They knew my Uncle Bob, who was a member, and had told them about the hunting around our family's 20 acre hunting camp. Yes, we have a cabin there. Yes, we have running water, electricity from a generator, propane appliances from an RV, Yes, we have a kennel for bird dogs. Yes, we're surrounded by quail. Yes, you can get into mountain, valley, and Gamble's there. Yes, it is as awesome as my uncle made it sound. I'll give you directions to the front gate and as many of you as might want to are welcome to come up on opening day.
Not one of them had ever seen the ground on the Butler Peak, CA USGS map, let alone hunted it. Me "giving up my spots" was no problem when THEY benefited from it.
Some of them would get very pissed off when we'd be in a shop selling hunting or camping gear and someone we never met would come up and say, "I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but over-hear you guys talking about quail hunting. I've got the license, the dog, but I have no idea where to go around here," and I'd respond with "follow me out to my Jeep right now, and I'll fix that problem for you." And, many times, after showing them spots, I'd also show them where my 20 acre hunting camp was, and invite them to join us or me there the following weekend. If they were dads taking kids out hunting, their odds of an invite were high.
When my friends would get pissed off at me for doing that, I'd politely point out that they didn't have a problem when I extended the same invitation to them, and I'd not so politely point out that it was my f******* cabin on my f******* 20 acres and as long as that was true, I'd invite whoever the hell I wanted to to make use of it, and pass out keys to the gate and the cabin to whoever I damned well pleased, too. I'd also point out that the Forest Service land my property bordered on two sides and the BLM land it bordered on one side belonged to them, too, as much as us. And, one of the benefits of inviting them into our "party" was coordination; knowing where everyone was going to be, and when.
None of this generosity on my part ever stopped me from shooting limits of quail on my "home turf" and that wasn't the only area I hunted quail at. I know what quail habitat looks like. I know how to find birds on it. I can figure out fairly quickly where the birds will be and why. I didn't come out of the womb able to do that and I didn't come out of the womb knowing where to do it. I was fortunate to come out of the womb into a family who knew that stuff and could teach it to me if I wanted to learn it.
Many aren't so blessed.
Someday, 20 to 30 short years from now, I'm going to be dead. My sons and daughters probably won't be and neither will my grandchildren. I want them to be able to hunt, if they want to.
Treating hunting as some kind of "I got mine, the rest of you can f*** off" enterprise, keeping that aspect of gun culture to ourselves, plays into the hands of those who want you unarmed and your ass on a living room sofa every weekend, instead of practicing your rugged individualism through sport hunting and angling.
Complaining about hard-to-get tags while wishing for less hunter participation seems like an oxymoron to me. If you really believe that less hunter participation is better than more, let your actions bear faithful witness to your words, take one for the team, and stop hunting, yourself.
