Hunting as a sport declining

[Flysmallie]

9 minutes ago, Devan S. said:

To a point, as a country the population centers provide better jobs and opportunities to earn a living for the working class America. Thus working adults with younger kids move to these areas to better provide for their families. I don't know of many kids even in the small SWMO towns that can get outdoors and enjoy much more than a back yard on their own until they are really able to drive. These kids are forced(more or less) to be a product of their environment which are things like school sponsored events, YMCA, local pools, parks, and/or the virtual world. Times have changed. 

And we have taken a lot of those opportunities away from them. Springfield has some parks that have water with fish in them. These are areas that are easily accessed by kids that aren't of driving age yet. But the city has made it illegal to fish in these parks. We can't continue to complain, not saying that you are, about all the kids want to do is sit around and play video games when that is the only option we have given them. 

I hate the trophy aspect we have made out of everything. It doesn't matter unless it's a 160+ buck, or a 10lb largemouth, or a 20 inch smallmouth. That's freaking ridiculous. Again we can't/shouldn't complain about the environment that we have created. 

[Gavin]

Access is a huge issue. Permission to hunt & fish used to be easy to get. Permission  goes to the highest bidder these days.

 

[Seth]

Access to prime private ground may be an issue, but there is a TON of very good public ground available to anybody who wants to hunt in MO, especially if you archery hunt. With crossbows now being legalized in MO, you can hunt with an easy button the entire season. Not all states have it that good.

Everything comes down to who is willing to pay the most for it when it comes to hunting and fishing these days. That's just how the world works. It sucks, but with so many willing to pay to lease decent hunting ground, can you really blame the land owners for leasing it?

[Flysmallie]

6 minutes ago, Seth said:

Everything comes down to who is willing to pay the most for it when it comes to hunting and fishing these days. That's just how the world works. It sucks, but with so many willing to pay to lease decent hunting ground, can you really blame the land owners for leasing it?

I don't blame them at all. I just hope I die before fishing comes to that. 

[fishinwrench]

I always enjoyed bird hunting and small game hunting way more than deer stand sitting.   Truly good areas for quail, squirrel, rabbits, ect. became extremely hard to find after I moved away from my home town.  And from talking to my buddies up home it isn't what it used to be up there anymore either.

[Seth]

11 minutes ago, Flysmallie said:

I don't blame them at all. I just hope I die before fishing comes to that. 

Right now, fish is as expensive as you want to make it. You can go fish for bluegill with a push button and worms from the bank or chase little green bass out of a $100k bass boat. I don't think that will ever change as there are public waterways everywhere throughout the country.

[Seth]

16 minutes ago, fishinwrench said:

I always enjoyed bird hunting and small game hunting way more than deer stand sitting.   Truly good areas for quail, squirrel, rabbits, ect. became extremely hard to find after I moved away from my home town.  And from talking to my buddies up home it isn't what it used to be up there anymore either.

I wish I felt like messing with squirrels. They are infested around here and drive me batty when I am trying to deer hunt every fall. Rabbits are hit and miss, but it seems like we have a bunch of them this year though. I'd have a hard time shooting a quail just because they are so few and far between around here. We usually have a couple that hang around our back pasture. A few years ago we had a covey that would be in the yard most days when I got home from work that numbered between 12-15.

[Devan S.]

13 minutes ago, Seth said:

Access to prime private ground may be an issue, but there is a TON of very good public ground available to anybody who wants to hunt in MO, especially if you archery hunt. With crossbows now being legalized in MO, you can hunt with an easy button the entire season. Not all states have it that good.

Everything comes down to who is willing to pay the most for it when it comes to hunting and fishing these days. That's just how the world works. It sucks, but with so many willing to pay to lease decent hunting ground, can you really blame the land owners for leasing it?

Agreed. There's more available public ground than we give credit for. I think access certainly plays a factor but I don't think its as large of a factor as we perceive it to be when we do have a good amount of public land available when talking in the broad sense of hunting and not a specific game animal. 

All other outdoor activities are growing and they are largely tied to access as well. Fishing, camping, animal watching, hiking, floating all continue to grow and not just grow with the younger group but by all user groups. 

I don't want to diverge too far but the ultimate goal of hunting is the taking of the life of a wild animal. I could certainly see why someone that wasn't introduced at a young age during their formative years would prefer to migrate toward the other activities opposed to actually hunting. We were taught at a young age likely by our family without preconceived notions of what the public image perceives as right and wrong. Fast forward to trying to learn about hunting when you already have those preconceived notions developed by society that prefers to push realities of consuming meat into the back of their mind and suddenly those other outdoor activities look much more appealing. 


 

[Johnsfolly]

35 minutes ago, Seth said:

Access to prime private ground may be an issue, but there is a TON of very good public ground available to anybody who wants to hunt in MO, especially if you archery hunt. With crossbows now being legalized in MO, you can hunt with an easy button the entire season. Not all states have it that good

I agree with this statement. I'm having trouble finding public blocks of land here in Maryland that are more than 100-200 acres. That is just not enough land to have more than a hand full of deer hunters using it at the same time. PA has a lot of public land, but a lot of the game lands are transition areas only like the side of a steep ridge. Nothing to keep deer in those areas. So you see little game. MO has some of the best public land hunting that I have encountered but have not been to many western states.

[Johnsfolly]

40 minutes ago, Seth said:

That's just how the world works. It sucks, but with so many willing to pay to lease decent hunting ground, can you really blame the land owners for leasing it?

Most of the areas that I see deer or turkey are on leased properties. We do have permission from our landlord to hunt a small section (1/2 to 1 acre) of our backyard and do have deer coming through. So may get one ore more bow killed deer this year.