Hunting: “a dying sport”?

[jayhawk]

I think you're seeing a drop in numbers from 2021 to 2022 because people are going back to their normal lives post-COVID world. Outdoor license sales exploded during the pandemic.

Here's something I've been wondering lately: I think for many of us (though not ALL), our fathers were the ones that introduced us to hunting and fishing. Societal trends show that more and more kids today are being raised in single parent homes, primarily by their mother. As this trend continues, will it contribute to lower hunter/angler numbers and interest?

 

[CoStick]

I think western states believe the gravy train of NR will never end, I personally believe we hit the peak and are on a decline with drop offs ahead. It wouldn’t shock me if in 5 years we don’t have a 30% reduction in application numbers and that point creep doesn’t stop or will vastly slow.

I wish there were age states in each state showing the percentage of tag and pt holders by age, I bet 65-70% of these people are in the mid 40’s+.

The youth are not joining nearly as fast as the current crop will be aging out or losing interest as they can’t get tags or the tag they wanted 20 years ago.

It’s crazy expensive to be a NR hunter and it’s only going to get more expensive which will reduce the youth from every really being in the game unless their parents pay their way.

I think CO thinks it will end or decline, they have become more aggressive in generating funds in other areas to tap into different streams.

 

[Wags]

I wish states offered more Resident & NR youth tags / special hunts. I’ve forgone a deer tag the last few years focusing my efforts on my kids having tags & filling them. I know I’m in the minority there but I’ve killed & will kill plenty in the years to come. They’re only young once & doing everything we can to light the flame inside of them is crucial to the longevity of our sport & public lands.

 

[MuleyFever]

One thing to add to this discussion is that even if we see a reduction in applicants in western states we wont see an increase in draw odds for a lot of hunts. We are losing animal numbers in many areas and less animals will mean less tags issued.

 

[Jkr61]

A main driver for the overcrowded feeling on public land is the change in ownership and value of private land. Older ranchers sell there land- new owners don’t give permission or they lease to outfitters.

 

[a3dhunter]

I posted this on the Elk Forum the other day


The 2022 Draw Stats are available - https://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/Statistics.aspx

I found this interesting:

ELK - 2021 All Applicants - 246,589
2022 All Applicants - 237,942

Down 8,647 Applicants



DEER - 2021 All Applicants - 228,079
2022 All Applicants - 217,919

Down 10,160 Applicants

Deer up from 188,000 in 2019.
A lot more applications going in.

 

[a3dhunter]

CO has seen fewer total hunters the last few years. I really think this western hunting trend is about to decline. The shininess wears off, older hunters aging out and more new hunters than not realize after 5 years it just didn’t stick, young people generally not having as many hunting mentors. Will it contract to 1995 levels probably not but it will shrink

Not true at all. Numbers continue to go up. 2021 was a huge spike in applicants and hunters due to covid, 2022 is the first drop in years for tag applicants.

 

[Andrew12gauge]

I wish the super hunt stats published the number of unique people in each draw in addition to the total number of chances purchased. There are people spending thousands on them each year to essentially buy a tag. I’m also pretty confident some of them are using the money spent as a business expense/write off

I’m pretty sure that would qualify as tax evasion


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[mossyoak52]

less animals will mean less tags issued.

Not here in montana less game double the number of tags

 

[mossyoak52]

I’m pretty sure that would qualify as tax evation

I’m pretty sure that would qualify as tax evasion


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Actually its possible to do and be legal

 

[Kurts86]

I think there has been a big rearrangement in hunting. Hunting access has gotten a lot harder in the east, it’s heavily gone to leasing and owning and people who lock up acres want more of those acres to exclusively manage their deer because they are spending a ton of money to do that. Other guys just travel to hunt and pound public but the opening weekend casual hunters get pushed out. You definitely don’t see the record numbers in big hunting states like PA, MI & Wi like a generation ago. I meet lots of guys who used to hunt casually, hit a road block somewhere and hung it up but I also know guys who are serious but have expanded their hunt horizons.

The economy was on a continual upswing from 2010 to 2020 and a lot more guys could afford to travel to hunt and the numbers increased. A lot of that had turned down in 2008 and 2009 especially when you consider the disproportionate number of hunters in construction and the trades.

2020 was definitely a turning point because participation jumped overnight and 2 years later a lot of state agencies are reacting to the aftermath reigning in seasons, quotas and all things nonresident.

I don’t think western hunter numbers have peaked yet but I think we are within 5 years of it peaking. Once Colorado inevitability ends OTC elk tags and it becomes and every few years kind of hunting things will turn down. It’s hard enough learning to elk hunt but when you can’t go every year that 3-5 year learning curve becomes 10-15 years quickly.

My experience in other sports is that certain disciplines cycle through their participation popularity over time. That said western hunting as always been the aspirational hunting dream for most guys whitetail hunting the East and I don’t see that changing.

 

[Maki35]

I would agree with OP. Around here that seems to be the case. Over the years I have seen less hunters in the woods. The parking lot (public land) use to be filled with trucks/hunters. Not anymore.
On a local forum, there's only a hand full of hunters interested in talking about hunting. Everyone else talks about SD training.
I do think many have gone soft and doesn't want put the effort into hunting.
A friend has taken couple of newbies (men) out hunting (separate occasions). None have ever asked to go again. Lol

 

[Rich M]

The people who used to buy a hunting license in case they went out for the opener or whatever have been replaced by people who intend to hunt multiple states.

Whiners who don't want to drive a couple hours or not be guaranteed a tag in their preferred limited area that used to be OTC will be the first to fall off.

Dead on - I'm not gonna drive 30 hours every year just to hunt. It's got to be a planned event and I gotta know when it is gonna happen.

And no, I won't drive 2 hrs each way (4 hrs a day) to hunt locally anymore either.

I think there has been a big rearrangement in hunting. Hunting access has gotten a lot harder in the east, it’s heavily gone to leasing and owning and people who lock up acres want more of those acres to exclusively manage their deer because they are spending a ton of money to do that. Other guys just travel to hunt and pound public but the opening weekend casual hunters get pushed out. You definitely don’t see the record numbers in big hunting states like PA, MI & Wi like a generation ago. I meet lots of guys who used to hunt casually, hit a road block somewhere and hung it up but I also know guys who are serious but have expanded their hunt horizons.

The economy was on a continual upswing from 2010 to 2020 and a lot more guys could afford to travel to hunt and the numbers increased. A lot of that had turned down in 2008 and 2009 especially when you consider the disproportionate number of hunters in construction and the trades.

2020 was definitely a turning point because participation jumped overnight and 2 years later a lot of state agencies are reacting to the aftermath reigning in seasons, quotas and all things nonresident.

I don’t think western hunter numbers have peaked yet but I think we are within 5 years of it peaking. Once Colorado inevitability ends OTC elk tags and it becomes and every few years kind of hunting things will turn down. It’s hard enough learning to elk hunt but when you can’t go every year that 3-5 year learning curve becomes 10-15 years quickly.

My experience in other sports is that certain disciplines cycle through their participation popularity over time. That said western hunting as always been the aspirational hunting dream for most guys whitetail hunting the East and I don’t see that changing.

Well worded.

I do believe that once the western states get their changes in place, that NR hunting will level off. It takes a special guy to hang on to the points for years without going. I still see folks mentioning getting 2nd choice tags - how does that happen when any decent unit has more first choice applicants than tags?

How does a new hunter hang on to the enthusiasm for 3-5 years. It does not seem sustainable.

 

[CoStick]

I think much of it will shift to the Meta world for many younger folks as access and herd quality decline. For many it is about the hero shot, this would cover it all it would seem.

 

[Gobbler36]

I was looking at the Idaho super hunt draw stats from 2005 til now. The increase of applicants was staggering. I don't recall exact numbers but the deer category was 4500 entries in 2005, 2021 had over 47,000. They say hunting is a dying sport. Statistics and analytics from whoever the talking heads are aside, everything I have seen in my lifetime has indicated nothing but the opposite. I was fortunate to have come up in the life. And plan to bring mine up the same way. By all accounts, with how lazy and soft people have become these days, kids preferring video games to fresh air... one would think hunting would be dying. But man... I’m just not seeing it.
Social media has its blessings and (mostly) curses. Is that where the numbers are coming from? Is the percentage of people who hunt still the same, just in proportion to huge population increase?

Been saying it for a while, the marketing machine that is the hunting industry has been constantly and consiste trying to push this idea that hunting is dying and its just not true, I don’t need stats or any kind of data to tell me this I can see it with my own eyes no matter if I’m in Idaho or in Tennessee or anywhere in between. Declining draw, odds, also tell part of the story as well as declining herd numbers in some areas.
Don’t get me wrong I have three boys i hope to bring into hunting and already have to some extent and have gone with newer people out for bears or a first deer hunt, but I’m sick of hunting media pushing this idea, along with how to call elk, and how to apply to every state. Too much of a good thing, is……. Well a bad thing as my daddy used to say

 

[Weldor]

It is a shame that is all about the money and not the enjoyment of hunting. Our population here in AZ. is exploding, try to drive from Phoenix to the mountains on Friday or come down on Sunday. You'll swear your in L. A. traffic. Lots of new hunters from all over. Good thing we have plenty of public land.

 

[TSAMP]

I posted this on the Elk Forum the other day


The 2022 Draw Stats are available - https://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/Statistics.aspx

I found this interesting:

ELK - 2021 All Applicants - 246,589
2022 All Applicants - 237,942

Down 8,647 Applicants



DEER - 2021 All Applicants - 228,079
2022 All Applicants - 217,919

Down 10,160 Applicants

I think those numbers correlate directly to people who watched meateater during covid then found out it wasn't that easy.

 

[Gobbler36]

Like everything, western hunting is cyclic.

I think we just saw a major expansion. It was a perfect storm of the internet making information be freely available, the “Rinella/Rogan” factor, increased disposable income and free time due to a good economy, as well as the baby boomer generation retiring. Not to mention huge increases in some western state populations.

I think we’re nearing the end of that “boom” and things are going to go the other way for a while. The biggest thing is the economy is about to go through a major contraction… Combine that with the baby boomer aging out (high point holders), and gas prices going insane, I think we’re about to see a big “correction” in western hunting popularity.

Finally I a lot of people who got into it for a year or two are going to realize that elk hunting is just damn hard most of the time. One or two cool insta posts aren’t worth it. Further when it comes to the now constrained family budget, $1500 a year on tags, $2500 in gas and two weeks of vacation, that hunting trip isn’t going to make the cut.

But that’s just my opinion, I’ve been known to be wrong before.

We can only hope this happens

 

[CorbLand]

I was talking with a friend the other day about who holds points in western states. There has to be a lot of older guys with a ton of points, right? So what happens over the next few years as they try to use them before they age out? And then after that after that group of boomers ages out of hunting? Will there be a crazy spike in point creep and then back to year 2000 type points to draw? I need Newburg and Jacobson to do a podcast on it I guess.

Probably not, for every one of the boomer generation that holds points, there is at least one younger generation behind them with points. So as long as there is someone to replace someone, it will not change. Add in the trend of tags decreasing, point creep will likely get worse.

The only thing that will resolve point creep is an increase in tags or decrease in applicants. Neither of those are that likely to happen.

 

[zion zig zag]

Probably not, for every one of the boomer generation that holds points, there is at least one younger generation behind them with points. So as long as there is someone to replace someone, it will not change. Add in the trend of tags decreasing, point creep will likely get worse.

The only thing that will resolve point creep is an increase in tags or decrease in applicants. Neither of those are that likely to happen.

So what you’re saying is I’ll be 135 years old before I draw a Utah moose tag?