My experience has been similar to Timberland as far as hunting pressure. I'm in the La Crosse area and I know the number of gun hunters is substantially down over the last few decades (the gun harvest is down almost 50% from its heyday in the late '90's early '00's). I would guess bow hunters numbers are more stable but harvest numbers are still down over the last 10 years or so. If you count the crossbow hunters, bow harvests are stable over the last 10 years.
I agree that certain public hunting areas can get slammed with hunters but I'm fortunate to have access to private land so it doesn't affect me. Overall in my area the hunting pressure seems way down during the gun season and with the bow hunting crowd being smaller, I believe the hunting pressure is nominal. There are more crossbow hunters now but I don't think that adds much to the pressure, at least in my experience.
I agree that certain public hunting areas can get slammed with hunters but I'm fortunate to have access to private land so it doesn't affect me. Overall in my area the hunting pressure seems way down during the gun season and with the bow hunting crowd being smaller, I believe the hunting pressure is nominal. There are more crossbow hunters now but I don't think that adds much to the pressure, at least in my experience.
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