Declining license sales in PA, a new theory
As of now, license sales are, thankfully, only down 1% from last year. This is good news as the drops have been larger in recent times. Lets all hope the trend is slowing down and will stop and ultimately level off or reverse itself.
We've argued the reasons. The NSSF says that lack of time to hunt is the number one reason. The USP claims it's people giving up cause there's no deer.
Well, here's another theory... After Neville pointed out that 3 out of 10 speakers at a recent event who spoke out against HR had been cited/ suspended/revoked for killing illegal deer. It got me thinking about some of the crowd, remember I said SOME, that I personally know or know of thats screaming the loudest. They were the ones who made sure their wife, non hunting brother in law, neighbor etc "bought" a license so they could help them "fill" their tag. We all know it went on for years.
Maybe, since those so called sportsmen can buy more tags, the wife no longer needs to buy a license? Given the percentage of the decline, it wouldnt take too many situations like this to make an impact on license sales. I remember a GWnear of my camp remarking that he made it a habit to check issuing agents for license sales after opening day and that he was always amazed at how many women decided to go hunting after Monday and managed to bag their buck right away. I wonder how much license sales have dropped among womenin that period after opening day and on through the gun season.