What is the future of hunting?

Eventually only the people with a lot of money will be able to hunt. Those and the ones who have family land.

Our hunting club of over 60 years is on the verge of getting shut down because a large company is buying up all the land we lease.

I've been in a couple clubs that lost their leases to either corporate clubs, or the dues got so high that most people were forced out and the club shut down.

I don't duck hunt much, but I've heard of several people losing their leases to people with deeper pockets or companies just not leasing out the land anymore.

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Eventually only the people with a lot of money will be able to hunt. Those and the ones who have family land.

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this

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t is sad but if you mention hunting most insurance companies will freak out

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That is another big part of it. Companies that hold a lot of land aren't leasing it because of liability reasons. Too scared they'll get sued. Sad state we're in.

The world of hunting has already changed and those that don't learn to change with it will be left out in the cold. The days of 5000 to 10000 tracts that are there to hunt for generations are over.

Well, maybe not. If you are a bowhunter there are more then ample opportunities all over this state in public land. The catch is this. People are going to learn how to hunt all over again. No corn. No box stands. Limited atv use.

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damn that private property and private property rights.

Land is available to be purchased by hunters too.

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yeah if you have a few million dollars lying around doing nothing

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find smaller tracts of land

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Almost impossible to do around here it seems.

some friends and I talked about doing the same thing, going in together to purchase a larger tract of land and having it set up as a divided interest based on how much each person put in on it.

of course, we were talking about it while sitting around a fire drinking, so it never went much farther than that

Hunting is slowly dying. I've got a few theories:

1. The average age of hunters is going up and most kids are involved in activities other than hunting. Of course, hunters are their own worse enemies at time as some hunters bitch about crossbows and primitive firearms when those were added to draw more people into the sport.

2. I think the horn-nazis are starting to have a negative impact on the expectations of the sports. I'm all for managing a good herd, but television shows have ruined the expectations of young and old hunters. When my son is old enough to hunt, I will be just as proud of him if he kills a spike or a huge buck. However, in a lot of places, waiting until a deer gets huge is not an option. Eventually, a hunter has to have success with a kill or they will quit the sport. Don't get me wrong, I like the trend away from the "if it's brown, it's down" hunters, but you can't ignore the negative effects of it swinging too far the other way.

3. The way we live has changed. Gone are the days of a lot of people living in the country. In the case of the property my parents and I own, we have five houses on the property. Two are currently in good shape, one needs a little work, one is falling in and one is completely collapsed. On that one mile stretch of highway there were five familes just twenty years ago, now none live there. People that would have lived there, now live in the suburbs with no exposure to hunting. I see people complain about neighborhoods taking over hunting land and that may be true around cities, but I can take you to areas of this state that are devoid of population that once were small thriving communities.

4. The attitude of companies leasing land has changed. I am on the Board of our club which has been in existance for 40 years. Last year, we were told by the company we lease from that they intend to keep raising the lease payments until they start losing a lot of clubs. They don't really need that income stream with all the liability exposure and additional trouble on their end.

5. Hunting is/has become a rich man's sport. Years ago, a hunter had a rifle and a shotgun (at most). Now you have hunting leases, different seasons (bow, primitive firearm, rifle, etc), gasoline has gone up as has the price of feeding the deer, deer stands, trucks, 4-wheelers, etc, etc, etc.

The only solution is to purchase your own land. Is that expensive? Of course (see #5 above). But there are ways to receive income from property through forest management. Personally, I just purchased another 15 acres beside our property both for hunting and because it gives me more land to harvest when I am ready to cut timber.

(sorry for the rambling post, it probably doesn't make sense)

The future is going to be determined by those who can buy land, and then public land.

Two of my friends and I have been talking about an idea we had, which it seems a few people on here are thinking about. Upon graduation, and a few years following, we decided we would try and buy a mid-sized tract of land together. Defray the cost of land three ways, and leave it closed to the owners and immediate family. Buying some clearcut land would probably be the best bet at it is cheaper(roughly 800-1000/acre).

500Acres@900(median price)= $450,000
$450,000/3= $150,000

Which isn't bad if you think about it, and if you replant trees (Say..200acres of pines, and the rest hardwoods/pines/whatever) then over time you can cut them and make money back. It's a long term investment, but with the state of things now..it makes sense to me. I'd much rather pay $150,000 and have my own land to manage deer then hunt in some club/public land.