Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

I'm curious how many of you think hunting opportunities in your area have improved or not improved in the last 10 years or so. Also where do you hunt, the Northeast, South, Midwest, or West.

RE: Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

With the price of a good lease going through the roof in TX and public land being scarce and crowded I have to say definitly not improved for the average Joe. A decline in quality unless you got the big money.

RE: Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

Improved. Emphatically! Public land hunting is really gettin phenominal in MO. I love it!

Man, there I go tellin all my secrets again.....I hate when I do that....[&:]:D

RE: Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

Lehigh County PA is very good, mostly suburbia but its hard finding and keeping a good place lots of new homes going in all the time. I would have to say itHas not improved for the average hunter here.
bowstringpa

RE: Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

improved here in central wisconsin where i hunt. i have seen nothing but improvement since i started hunting 7 years ago. of course ive hunted a lot more too, but ive started letting little bucks go and we plant food plots now.

RE: Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

Not improved here in Illinois. More outfitters, harder to get and/or keep permission, and non productive farmland is now being auctioned as recreational land selling for as much as good cropland, mostly by wealthy investors from both instate and out of state. Most public land is getting crowded in hunting season.

RE: Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

The quality of what hunting there is available(IF you can afford it) has been getting better as the concept of Management has been slowly gaining steam.

HOWEVER... this new emphasis on quality has caused the overall cost of hunting(everything from equipment to property to lease) to sky rocket. When I was a kid, venison was a STAPLE of our diet. We ate venison EVERYTHING. From tacos to lasagna, to chili, stew, and chicken fried venison(man this is making me hungry) because it was cheaper than beef. Now days Pound for Pound, venison is some of the most expensive meat we can get.

Overall, it's becoming harder and harder for the average joe to take advantage of the "quality" hunting oppurtunities, and the "average joe" hunting has been slowly fading.

RE: Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

I live in southeast PA Schuylkill county. I think there are more oppurtunities for people to hunt. But I also believe finding unpressured land is getting somewhat harder.

RE: Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

Here in Wisconsin I think it has improved due to cwd. I have seen more big bucks each of the last four years than i did all my years before that. Cwd has caused more does to be harvested, you have to earn a buck somore hunterspass on the two year olds( which were most commenly harvested before). I call cwd the dnr way to forcetrophy management. I'm very happy with the hunting in my area.

RE: Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

Here in CO we have seen a major change in the way the DOW in handling things, not better. The dry years have hurt us a lot, animals have gone to water where they can get it and a good portion is on land that you will never get on. Hunter numbers are on the increase along the front range and the gas prices are keeping people closer to home. Drawing tags has become a joke. No things are not better.
Gselkhunter

RE: Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

For Texas, you need to add another category. "Gotten Worse"

RE: Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

Seems to me, just by reading these posts, that highly sought after places, ie, Illinois and Texas, where people are flocking to, the hunting for the "average Joe" is declining. Yet another reason I am against QDM.

RE: Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

I grew up during the 60s-70s period , I don't recall seeing more than a couple of deer the whole time , and I lived right next to 400 acres of prime woods . Turkeys practically didn't exist at all , I don't remember ever seeing one back then . There is currently more game in this country right now then there ever has been , we have much better gear than our forebears did , and state game agencies are doing a great job in general despite the limited funding most of them get . I hunt almost exclusively in Southern Indiana , but I see tons of game everywhere I've been recently .

RE: Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

More and more suberbia = more and more places to hunt in my book.:)

RE: Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

Well said, I hear people all the time say how bad they want to elk hunt in trophy states like Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, its their dream to draw a tag and have a try at a trophy bull elk.On the other handwhen talking to people who live there it seems that there dream is just to go out and hunt each and every year. This last Feb at the RMEF elk camp in reno Nevada, I was talking to a fella from Nevada who loved to hunt elk but in the last 20 someodd years he had only got to go elk hunting 3 times in his home state. He did try to save up money and hunt elkout of state about every 3 years. Places like Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, might not hold the number of trophy bulls or even the next record book, but its sure nice to be able to get a tageach yearand still have low hunter numbers. Idaho andColorado are over the counter, I can't say for sure about the otherstates. But from what I understand its easy to get a elk tag in any of the states I mentioned.I know one thing Iwould die if Icouldn't go elk hunting each and every year. lol

RE: Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

It's a trick question for my area of New England:

Better: There are more deer now than ever before.
Worse: There are far fewer places to hunt all of those deer.

Land development, mainly in the form of the cursed Culdesac, have either ruined whole parcels of land for hunting or have made it nearly impossible to either access or legally hunt them.

RE: Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

Improved drastically for me in the last few years. The poacher that owned the farm next to ours sold and finally disappeared. The number of bucks around has increased exponentially since he left. That SOB used to kill 6-10 bucks a year and just cut off their heads. I'm glad he's gone and hopefully he is in misery wherever he ended up. Not that I am bitter or anything ;)

RE: Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

Very southeast Pa Berks,Chester counties have gotten terrible. everything closed .Gamelands jammed with hunters. Land going for 50,000 plus a acre. I took action and bought property in another state where land is still cheap.I wont be buying anotherPa. huntin license again. In the state I bought land.Land owners dont need a huntin license.

RE: Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

I would have to say hunting for the serious do-it-yourselfer here in Northcentral Montana continues to improve. Lots of good elk hunting if you are willing to work for it. The Whitetail hunting is spectacular. Not to be arrogant, but if you can't fill your deer tags here, you just aren't trying hard enough. IMHO Montanans are very protective of their public land, and there is more of it than one person could ever hunt.

RE: Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

I hunt in the Midwest (MI and IL) and I think the opportunities have impoved. The deer numbers are higher and the bird numbers have been good as well. Part of my view may come with getting older and being able to go out more so I may not be totally objective on this topic.

RE: Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

I would say improved.We lost the family farm many years back and have just now got good productive land to hunt on. The club I hunt with is very picky about what we can shoot. We also have been putting in good food plots along with the 100,000 lbs. of pellits and corn. The quility of deer has improved. We've just got to get some of the good ole boys to shoot does. I'm tired of hearing "I thought I heard a buck comming down the path."

Boldplate

RE: Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

Hunt the midwest, Trempelou, Bufflo county on forest crop land. A few small private land parcels. Hard to get permision to hunt private land
anymore, everyone wants money.:(

RE: Have hunting opportunities improved or not?
 

Hurricane Katrina pretty ruined the woods around here, making deer hunting virtually impossible.