ACTIVISTS

I just read an article on AOL of all places, about the sudden decline in hunters across the USA, and the fear that it brings along with it. They talked about how much money we as hunters bring in, the loss of an heritage, and that too many families say hunting is too expensive. The Anti’s are winning this long battle. We need to take back what was giving to us so long ago.

I say if you hunt or havent in awhile take a kid with you teach them about wildlife and the enviroment. That we as hunters are not barbarians ut good people trying to hold onto a gift handed down many generations.

Thank you

I don’t really hunt (a little phesant) the bigger issue I is finding land to hunt on, frankly most public land sounds scary.

I’ve also heard fishing is on the decline across the country.

My hunting time is on the decline also, deer hunting is getting scary for me, guy’s spend there nights in the tavern then go out with high powered rifles on a couple hours sleep and hangover, other crazy’s are killing people in the woods over deerstands .etc. Public land is scary to hunt and private land is too expensive to own or lease. Its just not worth it, I’d rather go fishing, its a much safer sport. Sad but true….

One other thing, I actually had a guy pee on my corn pile on public land a few years ago on opening day, I took the time to scout the area, lay down my corn (legally) get up very early so I was in my stand way before first light and shot my deer at sun up, because he came stumbling into the woods late and moved the buck into me, about mid day the guy leaves and proceeds to pee on my corn pile while I am looking at him. Some people that can should not be allowed to carry high powered rifles….

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I say if you hunt or havent in awhile take a kid with you teach them about wildlife and the enviroment. That we as hunters are not barbarians but good people trying to hold onto a gift handed down many generations.

Thank you

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EXACTLY !

Also, hundreds of thousands of people hunt every year without incident. Unfortunately the biased media reports 10 second garbage with 30 seconds of misconstrued aftermath all in an effort to keep you tuned in, sell a magazine, generate a knee jerk reaction or whatever.. bottomline is – get outside, hunt, introduce a kid or your neighbor to the truth, get outside. what’s the alternative for kids ? video games ? hours of TV ? surfing the web for hours ? The actions of the few that screw it up for the rest of us can kiss it

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One other thing, I actually had a guy pee on my corn pile on public land a few years ago on opening day, I took the time to scout the area, lay down my corn (legally) get up very early so I was in my stand way before first light and shot my deer at sun up, because he came stumbling into the woods late and moved the buck into me, about mid day the guy leaves and proceeds to pee on my corn pile while I am looking at him. Some people that can should not be allowed to carry high powered rifles….

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I agree that this type of thing is a big contributor to people either giving up the sport or not hunting as much.. I hear Wayyyyyyy too many land conflict stories and public land altercations now than I have in the past. That along with “spots” to hunt becoming more rare are draggin’ us down. There are many great sportsman but as we all know it only takes a very small percentage to give us a bad name or scare kids away from the sport.

My very first hunt when I was twelve something like that happened: My dad and I were hunting private land and some dude adjacent to this property missed a doe. It ran to us and my dad shot it. He came over screaming and waiving his 12ga around. All pissed off because he thought we took his deer. Dad gave him the deer and we haven’t been back to that property since. I think my dad was only sheltering me from things escalating to something that worse that could have changed me and my potential passion for hunting.

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bottomline is – get outside, hunt, introduce a kid or your neighbor to the truth, get outside.

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Great Point!! Not only bringing our own children into the sport but others as well. Many families have the tradition of the outdoors and always will. We need to get the ones that will not naturally be brought into hunting and fishing. This is where we can truely GROW the interest and participation!!

If you fear going into the woods to hunt due to an incident involving one idiot that went off the deep end, you are probaly not meant to be in the woods being a man and hunting game like our past generations. Stay out off the woods and go fishing like you said. We are all safer that way. One less afraid hunter to worry about…

My 9 year old son is fired up about hunting for the first time this year. I personally have never really hunted, but we both will be taking up the sport this season with my bro-in-law. My son used his cousins BB gun last weekend at the cabin and took out a gopher-and man was he exited, it’s all he talks about now.

I would not say I am afraid, I would say I fear morons who should not be in the woods that are. I am not a complete loss to hunting, my daughter took safety class last year and we went out hunting and we will go this year also. Maybe I have bad luck, here is one more recent deer hunting story for you. I was hunting on land that I had recieved permission to hunt, I had roofed the 6 stall garage for the farmer and in return he gave me permission to hunt 120 acres of his land, well sure enough opening day there were two other guys hunting the land, I asked them if they had permission to hunt the land knowing they didn’t, they said they sure did, I begged to differ and asked them to leave. They did not so I left and never went back not needing confronation from lying guys with guns. That same day a number of Wisconsin deer hunters were murdered in cold blood a few miles from were I was hunting over a deer stand. Maybe I should be afraid. Maybe you should be also….

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If you fear going into the woods to hunt due to an incident involving one idiot that went off the deep end, you are probaly not meant to be in the woods being a man and hunting game like our past generations. Stay out off the woods and go fishing like you said. We are all safer that way. One less afraid hunter to worry about…

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Not sure if what your saying here emphasizes the point in the post. 4 generations ago my small family wasn’t trying to squeeze into 40,000 acres of public land… 30 minutes outside a population of millions. The fact is there are people leaving on a hunting trip & NOT coming back because of someone elses negligence. There are also hundreds of thousands.. Repeat: HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people enjoying this in a safe, responsible manner. The media gives you a 30 second read on a story in an effort to shock you into staying tuned. A media story would much rather run a story about the negativity of hunting (including a decline in numbers) than run a story about the positives. Bottom line is.. whether you fish, hunt, camp, swim, walk, birdwatch, gather acorns or pickup garbage.. then we all need to do it in a way that introduces the outdoors, instills a sense of adventure, imprints some great memories & invites them back for the future. This applies to neighbors, kids, parents, etc etc..

There should be no division between the outdoorsmen, hunter vs fisher, game fish vs game fish, or whatever else you can think of… It’s only ALL OF US vs. THE IGNORANANCE of others.

I like public land.

I will be taking a young girl and a couple neighbor kids out next weekend for the wterfall youth hunt

Those little turds always bang a few early ducks! Last year the girl shot a drake green wing! That was a great day!!!

She is coming to WI with me in Oct. for the WI youth deer hunt too. All they need is a WI gun lisc. for the regular season and the kids are able to hunt for 2 days and take ethier sex! It is nice because they get a crack at a nice deer with a gun way before the big boys come out.

I think the states are noticing a decline and they are doing thier best to help out trying to recruit more youth hunters.

most kids just need someone to take them. My dad never took me hunting untill I was 17. I had to discover it on my own. Have to try to keep hunting alive.

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The Anti’s are winning this long battle.

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I don’t see it that way at all. Declining number of anglers and hunters has no correlation to the anti’s activism in my mind. Just a number they toss out there with no evidence to back it up…… The dropping numbers are due to other factors such as land use and pubic water access mentioned above.

-J.

More people are killed, hurt, “intimidated” on the road in 6000lb death machines, driven by “crazy, ruthless, un-insured, cold hearted, looney-tunes”, “in public” than any other weapon.

Yet we drive each and every day…..without hesitation.

People drown every year on the water, because they didn’t wear their life jackets, yet we still go on the water without our life jackets……..

My point is do not let 0.001% of the exceptions/incidents become the “rule”. Some of my most memorable, happiest moments in my life has been hunting with my father.

PS: Taking your child hunting/fishing also gives you a true chance to “talk” with your child about life, when it is one-on-one, without any interuption. I’m most grateful of my father “teaching” me about life while we were in the field or on the water.

Some great replys gentlemen and I thank you for them.
I am just trying to make some aware that these numbers are declining and after re-reading the article it is because of the lack of safe and private hunting land, my bad.

Its not about activism but I thought this would only heighten there reason to stop those of us who are trying to hunt and trap, and fish. Lets keep this post clean it is not to show who is a greater man, but to get our children who show interest in the sport of hunting and teach them the right and ethical way to hunt and take game.

I will be taken my 11 year old step son with me this year bow hunting he is so excited he cant sleep most nights and for me right now that is more rewarding than the hunt itself.

Lets all be safe, and kind to land owners and maybe more land will open up for us.

Thank You

And good luck to all

i cant believe that you would be afraid to hunt. come on! the incident you are refering to is extremely rare. thank god! there has never been a incident like that that i know of. the guy had a screw loose. i think that in a sport where there are hundreds of thousands of people in the woods at the same time for a couple week period its amazing that there are so few accidents. it sucks that new young hunters are going to have to even consider getting murdered while deer hunting. that fool really gave the sport of hunting a black eye. its our job to make sure we arent looked at as a bunch of beer drinkin murderers! dont spread fear! get kids involved, dont scare them

Well I am trying to hold up my end and keep my 2 boys hunting and fishing, they are going to 9 and 13 this year, had the oldest on the deer stand with me when he was 8 and he loved it, last year the youngust went with us and he had a great time. Getting up at 4am 2 mornings in a row, well .

Took them out pheasant hunting last year also, and we had fun.

The hard part is finding land, we had been deer hunting the same public land for 20 yrs with out any pressure, well the last 2 yrs we had some knuckle heads by some property next to where we hunt, they got tired of us getting deer so they moved off their land to where we are, well they wander out at 8 am, run around with 4 wheelers and we found some beer cans under the the deer stands .

So yes I fear for my life and my kids so we will have to find some where else to hunt , which gets to my next point, 20 yrs 10 yrs ago hardly saw any posted land where we went, now everything is posted, so what am I suppose to do pull some money out of my , and by land

It is kind of getting to be a rich persons sport in away, I see why there are fewer hunters.

We will keep going, but not like when I was younger, got to keep the interest going.

They love to shoot, Dakota County Gun Club had a kids day, they spent all day shooting

What nobody has addressed yet is hunter education. I believe it should be a mandatory course for all hunters. I’m not talking the kids firearm safety training although there are quite a few adults that could use it too. I mean an advanced hunter education course. Be it firearms or archery. I took both several years ago and enjoyed it immensely. Met some good people and had some great discussions on ethics and future of the sport as well as game education and safety. I’m probably in a minority on my opinion but if we made it mandatory I think you would see less problems. We spend millions on equipment and spending some more on education would be a great benefit. Maybe the funding could be used for more youth programs. Just my 2 cents.

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If you fear going into the woods to hunt due to an incident involving one idiot that went off the deep end, you are probaly not meant to be in the woods being a man and hunting game like our past generations. Stay out off the woods and go fishing like you said. We are all safer that way. One less afraid hunter to worry about…

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Lets leave that guy out, how about the fool that cracks a cool one in the stand, would like take stroll by his stand

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The hard part is finding land, we had been deer hunting the same public land for 20 yrs with out any pressure, well the last 2 yrs we had some knuckle heads by some property next to where we hunt, they got tired of us getting deer so they moved off their land to where we are, well they wander out at 8 am, run around with 4 wheelers and we found some beer cans under the the deer stands .

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Easy solution….. TIP HOTLINE

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The hard part is finding land, we had been deer hunting the same public land for 20 yrs with out any pressure, well the last 2 yrs we had some knuckle heads by some property next to where we hunt, they got tired of us getting deer so they moved off their land to where we are, well they wander out at 8 am, run around with 4 wheelers and we found some beer cans under the the deer stands .

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Easy solution….. TIP HOTLINE

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Did that, the DNR said they found nothing wrong

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The hard part is finding land, we had been deer hunting the same public land for 20 yrs with out any pressure, well the last 2 yrs we had some knuckle heads by some property next to where we hunt, they got tired of us getting deer so they moved off their land to where we are, well they wander out at 8 am, run around with 4 wheelers and we found some beer cans under the the deer stands .

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Easy solution….. TIP HOTLINE

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Did that, the DNR said they found nothing wrong

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That’s too bad. Nothing worse than bad neighbors. good luck.