49er - Sounds like you have put some thought into the matter ... What say you?

Somehow I think it's his fault.

If its the internet's fault then we should blame Al Gore, he invented the damn thing.

You are correct sir. He's a fat bastage, who also sleeps with Tipper.

He has no more of an opinion than what anyone else has posted.

I think it's bouncing boobs. I could look at bouncing boobs all day...I should start a web site, nobodies done that yet.

The list is growing:

1. Out of state hunters can't afford to hunt here any more.

2. Ivan and Katrina caused it.

3. Obama's economic policies caused it.

4. $$$$ and selfishness

5. Increased lease prices from timber companys,

6. increased club prices due to trophy only clubs with small memberships.

7. Increased gas prices.

8. Increased ammo prices,

9. increased food prices.

10. Many people quit hunting due to the lack of places to run dogs.

11. Small game hunters droping out because of deer oriented clubs that will not allow small game hunting.

12. People just quit buying license and still hunt.

13. Young people not interested, old people die.

14. Global warming.

15. Disney World instead of hunting.

16. Jobs take up hunting time.

17. Politicians are screwing us, (see no. 1 - Disney World ????).

18. It's the internet causing it.

19. I did it.

20. Prolonged military intervention like in the 60's and 70's

21. Liberal doe harvest having a negative effect on the deer sightings

22. Al Gore invented the internet and caused it

i wish they would double the fees for out of stste hunters ! the price per acre would drop . my believe .

One thing is for certain...there seems to be plenty of reasons to quit! LOL

I was doing the little survey to see just how long the obvious reasons will be ignored. People hate to face the truth.

I believe we all know about the major major changes that have been made during the last decade that likely have been major contributors to the decline. If we all ignore the problems, they will probably go away.

End of survey. Carry on.

Hunting is like the white boys version of meth, regardless of the price we are still going to pay to do it. Hell, I was looking at new bass boats last night and most of them are upwards of $60,000!! for a bass boat and some idiots are paying that for them.

Pygmies in the Congo ate a sacrificial monkey. Hell to pay now I tellya.

Korean hookers

Well they do smell like Kimshee....

Are you saying that the "obvious reasons" are the ones already on the list, or are you saying they have not been mentioned yet?

I have only been hunting a few years now, so I don't have perspective over more than that. I'll add my best guesses though:

1) Since the drop over the last year is large, I would hazard a guess that there was some change in the way the # is being calculated (systemic error).

If the numerical drop over the past year is real, then ...

2) The $$$ price and time/effort price to obtain a "quality" deer hunting experience has crossed some threshold for the Average Joe deer hunter. "Quality" obviously strongly influenced by expectations. "Expectations" being influenced by a constellation of factors including rising trophy expectations from internet/TV/magazines, possible decrease in deer sights from doe over harvesting in certain areas, and increased lease $$$ putting upward pressure on expectations in general.

I think there's sort of a viscous cycle feedback loop that comes into the picture once the money/driving time passes a comfort point:

"Man this deer hunting is expensive and time consuming for what I get out of it"
.
therefore
.
"I better get every last drop of enjoyment off this dern deer lease"
.
therefore
.
"I'll kill every deer the law allows in order to avoid feeling like I left something on the table"
.
therefore
.
Deer hunting quality decreases (meanwhile in the information age we are bombarded by images and stories from MidWest deer hunting
.
Back to Top (repeat)

Bush caused it,obviously.

The three main reasons of losing hunters, IMHO:

Increased price of gas
Negative approval of hunters by others
Increased cost of hunting clubs/seed fertilizer/leases.

$$$$ is most likely the reason.

Cause: Unlicensed dog hunters ran deer off of out of state deer hunters cornpiles and shot the deer on the property line and could not get permission from the other land owners to retrieve their deer. Out of state hunters quit because of the dog hunters and the dog hunters quit because of the ajoining land owners. The land owners quit because the warden wrote them a ticket for want/waste.

Somebody needs to check their facts...either 49'er or the Montgomery Advertiser. Below is an excerpt from a story, March 5,2013...the link is HERE

"The number of licensed hunters taking to the field in Alabama has increased during the past five years, reflecting national growth in the sport.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has completed a national study on the outdoors and outdoor activities, and it shows a 9 percent growth nationwide in hunting license sales from 2007 to 2011. That reverses a 25-year slide.

The study is conducted every five years. The national report was released late in 2012 and state-by-state reports came later.

In Alabama, the number of licensed hunters also has seen an increase, up from about 423,000 in 2001 and 391,000 in 2006 to 535,000 in 2011."