What Gives?

[Robinhood]

Hunting land and opportunities are down also. I hear public land is so overrun with hunters that if you strike your antlers together you will get shot.

To compete in a match, everything is expensive. Ammo, scopes etc... Even if you are shooting a factory class somebody goes all out and then your not even competing unless you spend big money there too.

I know a guy from Texas who moved to a suburb of Chicago a while back. He unloaded his weapons from the moving van and before he returned to the van for another load there were 4 squad cars with swat on the way. For many it is not worth the hassle.

[psharon97]

If you think about it, during the panic buying craze, most folks who wanted to get their guns, got what they wanted and then some. They got their ammo, accessories, etc when they thought the government was going to take them. Not only the market flooded with guns of different types, but the buyers don't really have the appetite either.

It's not just AR rifles that been flooded. Look at the bolt action market: Used to, if you wanted to build a rifle you chose a Savage, Remington, or went with the few manufacturers of custom receivers such as Stiller, Surgeon, Bat, and maybe one or two more. Now there's close to 20 that you can find off a quick google search.

[Bill2905]

The staff at a nearby long established gun shop told me recently that business is not good. I noticed last few visits several tables full of used rifles that have been heavily discounted from their original asking price and not selling. Several brand new Henry Long Ranger and Tikka T3X rifles also not moving and heavily discounted.

I got into centerfire rifle shooting two years ago and a lot has changed just since then. Prices continue to drop and I think the market is just oversold with low cost rifles. The Precision shooting buying craze may also be cooling off as shooters are now flush with equipment.

Lastly, the economy is weighing on people's minds, it's all you hear in the news. People may be less inclined to part with their money. I work in manufacturing and my bosses are concerned. Even the recent gun control rhetoric, some of it the most strident I have heard since 1994, is not compelling shooters to buy guns.

[yobuck]

Well as for hunting, there is no doubt hunter numbers are down drastically from even a decade ago.
I have hunted in PA which is my home state for over 70 years. When i was young pretty much everybody i knew hunted.
Up until about 30 years ago Pa had an abundant supply of wild Pheasants. And lots of hunters hunted them.
Some only hunted small game species like Pheasants and Rabbits and kept hunting dogs just for that purpose.
My late father in law for example was one of those, and never hunted Deer until i took him along with our crew.
Today there are no wild pheasants. And unless pen raised birds have been stocked by the PGC during hunting season, there wont be any at all for hunters.
So that alone has had an affect on overall hunter numbers.
But besides that, the deer hunter numbers are down drastically also.
In PA there are far more wild turkey today than there has ever been.
There is also a much better chance of getting a trophy buck now than at any time in my lifetime.
Yet there is less desire among people to hunt them.
I see camps in the region i hunt that in years past were occupied for the entire deer season. Our own included.
But today those same camps, many of which were passed down with no cost or effort involved to obtain, go unused during the hunting season. And many that do get used, is only for a couple days at most.
This year the PGC caved in to demand and will for the first time have opening day of buck season on a Saturday as opposed to a Monday.
No doubt they will soon also cave in order to allow Sunday hunting. That way a hunter will have 3 weekends during the deer season in which to hunt. Will that add more hunters? I personally think not at least over the long haul. The way it has been for quite a few years most hunters are gone by Tuesday afternoon. With weekend hunting that will probably happen on Sunday afternoon.
So the same hunters hunting different days is the way i see that playing out.
Archery hunter numbers seem to be holding up better than gun hunter numbers. But how much affect has legalizing cross bows had on that? Maybe that’s where some of the gun hunters went, after all it is a long season, and you can be in the woods on Sundays placing (Ahem) tree stands.

[J.Baker]

Hunting numbers are definitely down everywhere, and like Robinhood mentioned a LOT of that has to do with private land access and the overcrowding of public land.

[yobuck]

Hunting numbers are definitely down everywhere, and like Robinhood mentioned a LOT of that has to do with private land access and the overcrowding of public land.

That may well be true in some states, maybe even most.
But it certainly isn’t true in PA, which has millions of acres of open public land.
And the non res license cost is as of last year 100 bucks.
Several million is owned by the PGC bought with money from license sales over many years.
Also millions of acres of state owned land known as state game lands, but open for all the public to use.
So nothing has changed with regard to land available to hunt at least there.
Certainly in the more populated areas housing developments have taken much land, none of which which was ever public owned.
In fact the amount of open land in some parts of the state has actually increased in my lifetime.
In the late 40s when i first started it would require an entire day of traveling to get from where i lived near Philly to where we hunt.
Today with the modern cars and better roads a trip from the Philly area is about 5 hours, Harrisburg is 3 hours, also 3 hours from Pittsburg.
Hunting camps were gathering places where friends got together for an annual event. Today those events happen on an IPhone screen,
and we don’t need any friends other than those. We see it every day every place we go, including our homes.
The decline in hunter numbers is in direct correlation to the increasing popularity of computers, at least as i see it.

[Bill2905]

Hunting numbers are definitely down everywhere, and like Robinhood mentioned a LOT of that has to do with private land access and the overcrowding of public land.

Another factor in declining hunting numbers is that fewer young people are continuing the tradition as they become adults. We continue to slowly evolve towards being more of a suburban/urban society. Young people are gravitating toward the cities and suburbs to find the work and culture that suits their interests. As several have mentioned, land access is a problem too. I started hunting in my 20's in Ohio where I had friends who got me into it and I knew people with land. When I moved out of state for work, I didn't have access to land and I found the public hunting areas to be over hunted and not very productive. I deer hunted a few years on private land but that land access was eventually lost as well.

[Robinhood]

Yobuck, How about getting a crossbow and I will come visit you on opening weekend.