Young/New Hunters, are you concerned about the future of hunting?

[String&stick]

This will rub some (probably many) wrong but here goes.

Hunting will be fine. We are probably at or closing in on the apex of hunting pressure. I foresee things starting to fall off within 5 years 10 max. Why? Boomers. As recently as 2 years ago it was estimated that Boomers made up 1/3 of the hunters in the United States. These hunters currently are at the tail end of their hunting lives (if not life in general) and are well setup for it. Many currently hunt multiple states, have lots of time to do so, and have the funds! They also over their lives have pushed for things to be better for them. They are currently 59-75 years old with an average age of 67. In 10 years going by us life expectancy at least a third of them will have passed, another third will be in the sunset of life and while they may enjoy the goose pit or deer blind they won't be doing as much walking for pheasants or hiking for elk.

Right now you have 3 main generations involved with hunting. Boomers, Gen X, and millennials. That is two large generations (millennials and boomers) bracketing a smaller generation (gen X). And you have a very large generation with high hunter participation and high income retiring with lots of free time. When the Boomers pass you will lose some major components. Gen X is about 2/3s the size of boomers and has a lower hunter participation rate. So in 10 years as boomers age out and Xers take the reigns of retirement and free time there just aren't as many to be out there.

With boomers basically gone from the field statistically in a decade. (Youngest boomers will be 69) you will have Gen X, millennials, and Gen Z. While millennials and Gen Z are big generations hunter participation continues to decline or stay stagnant. You also have two generations that will have much less disposable income or it will come later in life putting off out of state trips or having that money spent elsewhere.

Couple this with burn out and fatigue from not getting tags out west, struggling to get access, etc. And those committed should have ample opportunities.

Now outright bans on hunting would throw a wrench in that but many states (mine included) have had the foresight to protect hunting with their state constitutions. Making it much harder to end hunting and even putting it as the preferred method for population control of wildlife.

Populations will shift, certain states may get harder to hunt. But overall I believe opportunities for my kids (12, 9, and 5) will improve over what I see now.

Only time will tell.

(I don't mean to be callous to you Boomers, my dad and uncles fall in this group and it will be a sad time to see them leave the field. Just a reality of father time)

Edit: I know there are 65+ year olds that can probably walk me into the ground, I'm making generalizations not calling anyone old or frail!

 

[Pacific_Fork]

10-15 years ago the backcountry was one’s own private hunting oasis. Today you can go anywhere between 2-8 miles off trial and run into groups of people on every ridge and they aren’t boomers. I hope you’re right though.

 

[tt_johnsclist]

I hope you are right too, but from what I see the boomers were mostly casual hunters and the social media generations behind them are much more “hardcore” and “die hard”. While we loose total hunters were are actually gaining hunting pressure, unfortunately.

 

[mxgust]

I think it matters where the numbers of hunters are declining as well. You could lose a lot of hunters back East that hunt locally and not change pressure in the west at all. It will be interesting to watch it shake out. Along with the social media stuff there was a boom in popularity for the outdoors in general during Covid. I’ve wondered if it has staying power. Once people figure out it’s hard and don’t have success will they keep going out? It’ll be interesting to watch

 

[bayoublaster7527]

Honestly, in places like Colorado the powerful coalition of progressive political groups, animal rights/anti-hunting groups, and gun control groups are the greatest threats to our hunting heritage. If you don’t pay attention to Colorado politics, ProgressNow dominates state politics with Committee Chairman Polis wielding total control.

 

[Bajr]

Honestly, in places like Colorado the powerful coalition of progressive political groups, animal rights/anti-hunting groups, and gun control groups are the greatest threats to our hunting heritage. If you don’t pay attention to Colorado politics, ProgressNow dominates state politics with Committee Chairman Polis wielding total control.

Exactly

 

[HappyHuntr]

I'm 15, live in western washington about an hour east of seattle in the snoqualmie valley. Just a bunch of good old boys. Literally everybody hunts geese and duck, plays baseball, and shoots elk in the valley. The bird numbers have plummeted do to the bird flu and the elk herd has dropped about 30-40%. There are three i guess you could say groups of elk; The main herd with all the cows and their calfs with a 5 or so bulls and the 6x7 herd bull, then the "dropout" group which is 15 or so spikes and other young bulls, then the "30 somethins" Which is some medium bulls fighting over a couple calfs. Before Carnation Farms came in, you could shoot a 6x6 bull any morning of elk season. While there are still good numbers, The decrease in numbers from the 50's and early 60's is honestly embarrassing.

 

[jewbacca]

I'm an adult-onset hunter. I'm worried about the future. It's never going to go away entirely, but there are significant headwinds that threaten to limit opportunity. The political/environmentalist ones that have reared their heads in WA are really concerning. That mindset is spreading.

I live in UT currently, and one of our own US senators (Mike Lee) is and always has been an enemy to public lands.

The population surge throughout the West brings a lot of issues. More anti-hunting sentiment, more land access issues, and so on. I'm trying to be as politically active as I know how to be.

 

[HikeForAReason]

Hello,

Went off the deep end a bit so don't read if you don't want to. This might irritate some folks but it's one opinion on what we can do and how we can help keep us a part of the puzzle especially in my area. Hopefully it doesn't ruin anyones day.

24 here and living in North Central WA. I think it's a continuing cycle and the game opportunities are evolving. Like many have stated there will definitely be access with land issues coming up and a decline in tag purchases as generations age. Massive wilderness areas for the traditional deer and elk hunt are shrinking as well as the population it holds. Our opening deer season has become more of a crowded hunt than what it once was. It's not more hunters it's shrinking land that has access to hunt. Not much we can really do about it the human population is growing and hunt land is a desirable spot to be just outside of town for recreation areas. You can travel more remote but even then that will eventually become crowded. Most people only have time off to hunt close to home for a weekend so it may seem crowded but if everyone who recreated actually hunted it would be much more crowded than you could imagine on an opening day. The issue I've seen is shrinking land. How we can work with that is finding better ways to work with the land we now have to share. You see a lot of coyote and predator hunters doing night hunts with thermal and suppressors or people entering day hunts with less camo. They look more urban to not concern those with no knowledge of what we do and how safe we can make the sport to those nearby while we do it. Sure you can try to educate them but unless they walk in the shoes for all the years we have and continue to do so they will never fully understand our way of thinking. That and one bad apple ruins it for all of us. We're just simply outnumbered and will continue to be. The best way to stay essential is to work with the biologists to keep the environmentalists happy that you're working with scientists and leave no trace. Go unnoticed in the game management we do. Sensitive people that vote against us don't want to know animals die and that's okay it's the developed world we created that These people can live in their little bubble where nature is harmless. They don't want to know the truth and will never see our method as a more humane option than the starvation and predation that nature provides. People with these mentalities can thrive in our world today because what we do is no longer essential to daily survival as a species. Coyote hunters hunt highly populated predator spots at times when the caller won't be noticed by those who are asleep and their target species is most active. They act more as damage control in the cover of night. Sure we don't hunt other animals at night but some of the developed areas and farm land offer exploded deer populations for damage hunts. Some of these are for 'master hunters' which means you passed a proficiency shooting test and do roughly 20hrs of wdfw volunteer work a year. This can be simple as go sign up to help clean up the woods for a weekend. Easy stuff. it's one more hoop to go through but it shows us as hunters are volunteering every year to make the outdoors a better place. It shows we work with biologists. It shows every one of us do MORE for conservation than a hiker and others who don't hunt. It's a paper trail that wdfw can show we make it a better place in multiple ways and are tested annually on our proficiencies in what we do. The people that don't know better don't know that's a really easy shooting test and most real life shots are much harder. On paper though it gives wdfw a way to justify our role and show us as a significant contributor instead of someone constantly blaming their tactics for our poor experience in a previous season while also making recreation areas scary for some folks 4-6 months a year. It's a way to scratch their back so they can scratch ours. Sure we give them money for tags each year but in a world of billionaires in big cities the real power is in getting off your phone and making the woods a better place. Money doesn't talk as much as solid trusted labor does in places like this. Us hunters with knowledge of our areas doing one weekend a year for the environment and the game it holds could really make a difference in our image far more than any petition trying to explain our culture and values. Fish and game is trying and some may only be willing to work with us but a lot of our older generation methods might just be the square peg trying to fit in a round hole. Sure you'll still be able to travel far to those deer camps or high up hikes but even then those opportunities may become more permit based. As they pressure more for bear and wolf populations to increase we'll need to adapt to work as an adjunct with fish and wildlife. Developed areas where such predators are not safe to be is where we must secure a foothold in our place for population management. Additionally we'll need all of us doing a small step in volunteer work for one big environmental footprint saving them money from grants and presenting our community as a good benefit to those who don't understand the positives of what else we do. As generations go on the skills won't be passed down as a sad reality but that's evolution. Hundreds of years ago everyone did a lot more tasks we don't need anymore. It's not a loss of skills it's an adaptation. We can either continue our passion for conservation and the culture it brings or move on. Much like playing real musical instruments, raising your own food (as much as it pains me), making your soaps, canning, etc. These have gone away as common skills. People have become an essential cog in the wheel of cultural development and to perform that task to such a specialized level they trust in the others to do their part in providing for the developed society. The system works until it doesn't but for now in developed societies it's what we got. Independence to handle it all on your own is no longer needed. It might be again one day but it's not needed everyday and for that reason it's been phased away by the majority. It's no longer an essential survival item for most and instead it's a transition to a passion for wildlife. We're the few that know there's gotta be someone to play predator when the prey gets overpopulated after thriving off the rich benefits of a more artificially controlled safe ecosystem. Whether that prey is deer and elk or coyotes we're just here to help keep our wildlife happy as the world continues to develop. Eventually they may realize nature's predators can't go without a predator in a developed society. Until then predators can eat what their instincts tell them to then just live off our byproducts to survive until they find more instinct driven wild food so the predator prey starvation cycle never really resets and the prey is left to suffer in our wild areas. Until the majority realizes that I think we're stuck and need to secure a foothold in where we can make a difference in the end goal which is wildlife conservation. Garbage, developed lawns, safe zones, it's all new stuff to take on with population management and there's been no history of how to manage it before or how it pans out in previous centuries. The best bet is to work with biologists and be there to help where we can and really volunteer and focus on making a positive image of hunters in a way that non hunters can understand. It's not feasible to teach them all our way of understanding let's bring the perspective to their side. While still we must come to the sad acceptance that we're holding onto something that's generational. It needs to be passed down by some but how it's been done in the past will likely be very different than how it will be done in the future years to come.