Most significant threat to hunting?

[bayoulongbowman]

Gun hunters, have worst of all...but what if they banned bows...banning weapons for hunting is the worst threat now!!!!!

[Schultzy]

Originally posted by Bill Kissner:
Most of us know the the things we do that put hunting in a bad light but how many of us do anything that really promotes it? I live in Illinois where we have thousands and thousands of bow hunters. We have two state bowhunting organizations. Guess what? We have a total of less than 400 members in both of them! That is nothing short of pathetic! I'll bet I am not the only one on here that notices all the people from my state that regularly post on Trad Gang and wonder why they are not members of their state bowhunting clubs?

I hope this is not taken as a put down but rather as a wake up call. More bowhunters need to step up and help or it is certainly going to get a lot worse.

Great post, couldn't agree more!!

[saltwatertom]

Bill; I am a member of the local fisha and game advisory committe. Thats one of the things I do. Talking about the issues rationally is another thing. The lack of impact we make, is disheartining tho.

[Morning Star]

Most of us know the the things we do that put hunting in a bad light but how many of us do anything that really promotes it? I live in Illinois where we have thousands and thousands of bow hunters. We have two state bowhunting organizations. Guess what? We have a total of less than 400 members in both of them! That is nothing short of pathetic! I'll bet I am not the only one on here that notices all the people from my state that regularly post on Trad Gang and wonder why they are not members of their state bowhunting clubs?
 

When I first became a member of the Iowa Bowhunters I heard that we average around 3000 members.  That would be near 10% of the amount of resident bowhunters in this State.  I thought that was pretty poor (still do), later I found that we have one of the strongest memberships in the country, percentage wise, suprise, suprise.

Some things we can't change, but joining and giving a little back to what you enjoy is a darn good start.

I have to agree with Bill, hunters as a whole really know how to shoot themselves in the foot.

[b.glass]

My husband and I debate the clearing of fence rows all of the time. As a farmer it is a joy to see a solid field of nothing but dirt or crops. I ask him to just cut the limbs back in a fence row but he gets chainsaw happy and clears the whole thing. And this is just the tip of the ice berg. People wanting to "live in the country"  knock down sections of woodlands and houses get put up. Fence gets put up and "NO TRESPASSING" signs, and they look at you with distrust when you ask permission to hunt. I've started handing out a sheet with references. And I don't think it's as bad for me being a woman.

[Timberghost]

In my opinion,

1) The apathy, selfishness, and stupidity of ourselves - hunters and voters.

2) The Left Wing Liberal Socialists.  

3)The ignorant fools who believe and trust the Left Wing Liberal Socialists.

[CaptJack]

In Texas the big problem has always been the lack of public land to hunt on. We have 4 national forests that are all in east Texas between Dallas & Houston. They get an incredible amount of pressure. There are a few state owned tracts that are available but not many. This means that the majority of good hunting property is private and you have to buy a lease. It is very hard to find a lease in Texas that is less than $1000 per year per hunter. This has had a major effect on the average working class hunter.

We do have very good access to public lands for bird hunting. I live in Houston and can drive less than 100 miles in any direction for good waterfowl hunting. To get to the good dove hunting is around a 200 mile trip (we usually go camping)

When I was growing up my hunting mentors were my two grandfathers. One was retired- he was a woodsman and built custom Mausers on the side. He was also a dog hunter. He enrolled me in the NRA junior marksmanship program when I was eight and took me to all the local shoots. He gave me my first .22 and I had 400acs next to his house that I could hunt on any time I wanted as long as I didn't shoot any of Mr.Grant's cows.

My other grandfather was a serious duck hunter and bay fisherman. He taught me to shoot a shotgun, duck, dove, & quail hunt. Taught me to fish for trout and redfish and took me to do all of these things. If it hadn't been for these two men (both ex-military) I would never have had the opportunity to hunt and fish.

My father was very serious about his business and almost never took a day off.

And last but also as important was my uncle who got the family into archery & bowhunting in the late 50s.

If it hadn't been for them I would have spent all of my time swimming or playing tennis.

[pete p]

socialism, its knocking on the door.  youtube..."agenda 21 for dummies".  there you go

[josef2424]

I am 16 and I have had neighbors giving me the stink eye every year of my life for shooting my bow in my yard. Last year one neighbor even called the cops on me (only to realize everything I was doing was legal).

And you know why those people did that? Because nobody introduced them to hunting when they were young and taught them otherwise.

I also think that there needs to be more hunting and outdoor magazines or shows geared towards the young hunters. All hunting shows are geared towards middle aged men.  

Enjoy sharing the love of hunting!

[Danny Roberts]

I agree with GMMAT and Roger, also we're hurting ourselves pitting trad. VS compound VS crossbow too much.

[Stone Knife]

So much emphasis is put on growing and killing big bucks that most of the private land that once was open to many is now being posted at an alarming rate. I regained access on two pieces of land that I had permission in the past but then lost due to deer crazy friends of the land owner we are only allowed to hunt woodchucks and spring turkey. The rest of the year it is off limits because the neighbor wants it for deer. I stopped at another chunk of land that I always could hunt and was told that no one but their nephew was allowed on there anymore, he also wants to manage it for deer. it just keeps getting worse last year I tried to get my son into some fall turkey but our hands are tied because of lack of access to most of the woods that we always had good luck hunting, in past seasons. Lack of access will dwindle the numbers down till there are so few left that our political voice will be silenced for good.

[Ian johnson]

Roger Norris 2 made a good point about not as many kids hunting, and me and a couple friends are part of a dying breed of kids that run thier own trapline, my buddies and me would rather go build a bow or go hog or yote hunting in the summer over videogames any day, sadly though this upcoming fall simester I start college and I'm gonna have to give a lot of it up to keep up my grades

[GRINCH]

A lot of good points have been made,from the lack of our own participation to the loss of hunting sites.I have seen a lot of hope for the future here on Trad Gang,the pics and stories of Families hunting together and the mentoring of young hunters.This topic has made me realize that I need to provide more support to the organizations that are trying to promote and save our hunting privlages.

[wapitimike1]

I was involved in the politics of hunting for years and I'd say it hunters.

[JC]

Liberals and the cancer of their ideology that they spread through their hegemony of all forms media that is quickly choking the life out of apathetic, narcisstic, deluded, dependent, "in self-denial" America.

Hey, you asked.

[upatree]

Originally posted by Clay Hayes:
I posted a question similar to the one below on the hunting legislation forum while back but it got shut down when they renamed the forum.  I’d like to open it up again and get everyone’s thoughts on the issue.

 In your opinion, what is the most significant threat to hunting today?  Think big, think hard.    

Since these issues may be vastly different from East to West, please state what part of the country or world you’re from.

ch

Other Hunters!

We as hunters do not stick together.  We fight and pick at each other about how we hunt and what weapons we use to hunt and all this does is make us weaker.  We are ALL hunters even though we have a few bad apples in the bunch the overwhelhming majority of hunters are good people.  We need to stick together or we will be driven apart.

Transferal Blame is not going to help our cause.  We can blame video games(It's your house, put a limit to them), we cam blame legislators(Did we help them get elected???) etc....  Stop blaming everyone else.  Start taking the responsibility one yourself to control what you can control.  Take as many kids in the outdoors with you as you can as often as you can.  Talk to other people in a positive manner about how they hunt and show them that traditional archery is still alive and thriving(this is how I learned about it 3 years ago).  IS it hard, yes, but it is very rewarding.

[Dartwick]

posted land

There wont be a next generation of hunters in much of the East.

[GingivitisKahn]

Originally posted by JC:
Liberals and the cancer of their ideology that they spread through their hegemony of all forms media that is quickly choking the life out of apathetic, narcisstic, deluded, dependent, "in self-denial" America.

Hey, you asked.

Right the heck on!

[Ray Hammond]

us.

The same reason we are about to become the newest socialist state on the planet.

Apathy- personal detachment- the nanny state in terms of education- passivity- moral relativism- the list goes on and on...

In the U.S., generally less than 50 percent of those who can vote, do vote. Doesn't that say a great deal more about us than anything else?

I've been telling people for 20 years that our fate as hunters rests not with the anti's, but with the vast pool of people in the middle that neither hunt nor care for the rhetoric of the "save the whales nuke the Republicans no nukes don't wear fur down with hunting fishing hurts eat tofu" crowd- and if we don't win them over we're doomed.

Winning them over means we have to show them we are more than beer drinkin' rebel flag totin' night shinin' over the limit kill at all costs yahoos. Not sure that's possible any more.

100 yard shots at elk with a bow trumps all the good a bunch of people can do. A picture in the paper of a goose with a field point tipped arrow sticking out of its neck is worth 10,000 guys doing it the hard way. A guy on TV saying "I do it the hard way" and then proceeding to take 40 yard running shots at caribou works out to about a million hours of "good efforts" by the rest of hunters...so I'm not sure it can happen.

[Adirondack Bowman]

With the way this country is going, being able to legally sport hunt is going to be the least of your problems.