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re: Not a new topic: Hunter participation rates falling.
Posted on 12/30/25 at 6:09 pm to Purple Spoon
Posted on 12/30/25 at 6:09 pm to Purple Spoon
Cost of land and hunting in general is the biggest problem.
In the south unless the land is swamp that is unusable and not good duck hunting either you are going to have to spend a few hundred K$ on a piece of property big enough to kill a couple deer every year. A briar patch with Chinese tallow is 5-10,000$ an acre and will take 40 or more acres to be worth it….
A lease plus feed, gas, ect is going to be 4000$ a year or more for a poor to average spot. It’s a wealthy man’s game or going broke game….
In the south unless the land is swamp that is unusable and not good duck hunting either you are going to have to spend a few hundred K$ on a piece of property big enough to kill a couple deer every year. A briar patch with Chinese tallow is 5-10,000$ an acre and will take 40 or more acres to be worth it….
A lease plus feed, gas, ect is going to be 4000$ a year or more for a poor to average spot. It’s a wealthy man’s game or going broke game….
0
Posted on 12/30/25 at 7:38 pm to Salmon
quote:
from what I have witnessed, opportunity is decreasing for a lot of younger hunters
My son loved guns when he was young and was really wanting to into hunting. I wasn’t paying for a lease and wasn’t comfortable going onto public lands so I steered him heavily into fishing. He became obsessed with fishing starting around 10 years old. We’ve had some great memories.
He got a kayak two years ago and goes 30 to 40 times a year out on that thing.
This post was edited on 12/30/25 at 8:16 pm
Posted on 12/30/25 at 7:56 pm to MC5601
quote:
Land prices - The most significant thing holding back hunter participation is land prices. Land prices have risen around 5X in the last 25 years
Where are you talking about? In SW MS, this is absolutely not true. In fact, your favorite stock market index would’ve been a far better investment.
Posted on 12/30/25 at 11:46 pm to Purple Spoon
I spent 20 plus years working for a non profit conservation group. We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on this problem, creating opportunities for kids, women and the disabled.
We held symposiums and training sessions. We created an army of volunteer mentors and land owners willing to teach and provide access
And in the end what we learned is that while you can introduce someone to hunting, if you aren’t available to them over the course of several years in order to mentor, instruct, guide and take afield, they eventually either lose interest or become overwhelmed and drop out.
As a nation, we’ve left the farm to a large extent, and in doing so we’ve left our hunting traditions.
However, the most valuable part of the research is the fact that land leasing has had a negative impact on the number of hunters we presently have. And as the number of leased acres continues to rise, the number of hunters will continue to decrease due to lost opportunities to be on the land.
Surprisingly, there are people who don’t necessarily consider this a bad thing. They believe a reduction in hunter numbers will in turn greatly enhance the public land experience.
We held symposiums and training sessions. We created an army of volunteer mentors and land owners willing to teach and provide access
And in the end what we learned is that while you can introduce someone to hunting, if you aren’t available to them over the course of several years in order to mentor, instruct, guide and take afield, they eventually either lose interest or become overwhelmed and drop out.
As a nation, we’ve left the farm to a large extent, and in doing so we’ve left our hunting traditions.
However, the most valuable part of the research is the fact that land leasing has had a negative impact on the number of hunters we presently have. And as the number of leased acres continues to rise, the number of hunters will continue to decrease due to lost opportunities to be on the land.
Surprisingly, there are people who don’t necessarily consider this a bad thing. They believe a reduction in hunter numbers will in turn greatly enhance the public land experience.
This post was edited on 12/30/25 at 11:48 pm
Posted on 12/31/25 at 12:29 am to Purple Spoon
Lots of things.
Private land and land access if far, far far more expensive and limited than it was 30-50 yrs ago.
And I'm sorry, but suburban, sub-dividion kids (which most are now), are not equipped now to handle a bb gun, much less and rifle and range time and hunting/outdoor skills, etc.
They're mostly as all shut-in, antisocial video game kids. And usually, their dad was, too.
Public land is something no one wants to mess with.
State and local officials make it tough, too.
Unless you have easy access to a lot of land or basically raised on a farm, you're not going to be into it anymore.
Private land and land access if far, far far more expensive and limited than it was 30-50 yrs ago.
And I'm sorry, but suburban, sub-dividion kids (which most are now), are not equipped now to handle a bb gun, much less and rifle and range time and hunting/outdoor skills, etc.
They're mostly as all shut-in, antisocial video game kids. And usually, their dad was, too.
Public land is something no one wants to mess with.
State and local officials make it tough, too.
Unless you have easy access to a lot of land or basically raised on a farm, you're not going to be into it anymore.
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