Opinion On New Hunters

[PlentyOfDoes]

More hunters the better. I do wish new guys would try out small game hunting and trapping more. Most newer hunters I've talked to wont eat wild meat except for venison.

 

[Rich M]

More hunters the better. I do wish new guys would try out small game hunting and trapping more. Most newer hunters I've talked to wont eat wild meat except for venison.

Nothing wrong with rabbit or the upland birds. Some are downright good.

 

[DuckDawg22]

How many poachers are "new" hunters? Far bigger problem IMO as poachers always get the headlines that the normies see.

I'm a new hunter too, didn't start until I was 30 and moved out of the city. Is it my fault that I was born and raised in an area that hunting wasn't an option? I don't think that's fair. Have I spent thousands of dollars on gear (and the Pittman-Robinson bucks that go with it) because I had no one to hand stuff down to me? Yes. Do I still suck at hunting? Yes. Even with all of the resources available, you still have to get out and execute and until hunting has a version of Forward Facing Sonar like the bass guys have, I don't think the experienced guys have much to worry about.

Do I know a dozen other people my same age that tried to start out late and quit because it was hard? Also yes. So for every FNG you see out in the field blowing your public land elk, there's probably another 10 that spent just as much money that have already quit, and your resident tags are cheaper because of it.

 

[Yoder]

Haha, I have lived in Iowa my whole life. I am 40 years old. It has never been worse to hunt here than now. I have the most money, time, energy, I have ever had in my life to pursue whitetails and turkeys. I have good access, but waaayyyyy less than 25 years ago. It also takes a lot more of that $$$$$$, time, and energy to obtain the little bit of access I have, and some of it is not even exclusive access.

The reason people always shout Iowa, Iowa, Iowa is because the regulations are good. We don't have crossbows in archery or rifles during the rut. There are only 6000 Non-resident tags available per year. We do have a state that is only 7% timber and becoming less every day due to row crop and development with a very limited, fragile whitetail resource. We have massive access issues, even with the limited NR. All of the things people are bitching about NR doing are being done by residents in Iowa because they have to in order to gain access. Years ago all the private ground was basically public. You asked and you got permission. Even though most places were hunted like public, there were way more mature bucks. Now, we are being sold the illusion of exclusive access for $$,$$$,$$$. Everyone is clambering for a little spot they have "exclusive hunting access" to. Unfortunately, it is so expensive that the average guy can't afford it and someone who does "pretty well" can only afford a tiny chunk. 13.5 acres of "hunting land" just sold 1/4 mile away from here for $165k. The person who bought it is either desperate or has no idea. They definitely fell for the marketing.

There are still people that will give permission or work to lease if you are friends/neighbors. If you are a random person you have a better chance of winning the lottery than getting permission.

The laughable thing is that the hunting has gotten worse, not better than when you could door knock and go anywhere, but had to share it with 5-10 other guys. The only people that maybe have it better control thousands of acres. I thought it was absurd when stuff started getting split into 40s and we stuffed 16 "exclusive access" hunting parcels into a section. Now it is getting split into 10's. Even in the good old days, there were very few sections that had 16 mature bucks, and there definitely aren't that many now.

In 5 years we have gone from hunting 30 acres with multiple mature bucks using it to hunting 110 acres with even more to hunting 520 acres with zero bucks known about over 5.5 years old. On 80 acre piece had over 6 mature bucks that we saw consistently while hunting in 2022. Not camera pics, but actual sightings. Now, running cameras on 500+ acres spread across 3 square miles there are zero pictures or sightings of mature bucks.

Yep, come to Iowa. It's the promised land....for realtors and older landowners looking to fund their retirement, and maybe outfitters. Let's not forget suckers with sacks of $$$$$$$.

That sounds pretty bleak. There are still big deer here. There are just a lot less of them and they are being pressured a lot more. It used to be if you passed a deer you could bet on the deer. Now, if it is over 140" I would bet on the neighbors. 20 years ago I wouldn't even think about shooting a deer unless it was 150". Now, those are fairly rare. Most of the truly mature deer are small. They get passed because of the small racks. The young ones with good genetics get shot as soon as they are 140 unless you are in an insane neighborhood. That's the trophy hunting reality in Iowa. If you are a meat hunter (I never bought beef for 2 decades until last fall) the numbers are waaayyyy down and the quotas are being drastically reduced due to ehd and over harvest.

I guess, all that to say, Iowa is on the cusp of being ruined as well. Yes, we have better regulations than Illinois, but we also have A LOT LESS habitat. There are very few places left for the average guy to hunt big whitetails in the midwest.

I shout Iowa so nobody comes to PA. PA is terrible. Worst ever. Don't come here.

 

[Gobbler36]

More hunters is always better. We need the public votes and support.

Might be more tags to go around if there wasn't so many hunters applying in 3-7 states. Probably not a popular thing to say, but is it true? It doesn't feel like we have a lot more hunters than when tags were easier to draw. I know some tags numbers are cut, but we have had a real boom in hunting out of state.

We wouldn’t need votes if we didn’t show off everything hunting related in order to increase more hunters for profit.

In answer to to the larger question, no new hunters aren’t necessarily bad. I’ve got 3 boys coming up, but they damn sure won’t be posting and turning into little instagram heads. The hunting media has ruined hunting by portraying canned or highly outfitted hunts as “public DIY” hunts along with all the tag services that has ruined western hunting especially

 

[Jimmy]

We wouldn’t need votes if we didn’t show off everything hunting related in order to increase more hunters for profit.

In answer to to the larger question, no new hunters aren’t necessarily bad. I’ve got 3 boys coming up, but they damn sure won’t be posting and turning into little instagram heads. The hunting media has ruined hunting by portraying canned or highly outfitted hunts as “public DIY” hunts along with all the tag services that has ruined western hunting especially

As a Californian, the reason we lost lion hunting, hunting with dogs, etc, is not because of social media. It's because a majority of voters don't hunt, and either don't understand it, or like it.