ezearl

I'm not saying it's true. Just stating a fact.

flags

And I'm pointing out it isn't a fact everywhere. WV ain't the whole nation.

Game Stalker

You may not have access to private land, but the WV DNR is doing a good job to counter that for hunters in your state. 8%, or 1.4 million acres is under their control and is provided to the public for outdoor recreation.
This link really seems to contradict your statementsl:
http://www.wvdnr.gov/hunting/wma.shtm .

Big difference between not having and not making use of.

ezearl

I'm not saying there are no places to hunt. I'm saying I'm being told by hunters who no longer hunt it's because they have no place to hunt. And it's the #1 reason given to me. Do I agree? No. BUT they are hunters who no longer hunt hence they are part of the of the total number that are dwindling.

Because of our for **** server it has taken me 45mins to do this. Lost it once already. If some of my posts seem short and abrupt it's not meant to be anything personal.

falcon

Yep, i get all kinds of excuses for not hunting. Friends 20 years younger than me won't get off the couch and away from TV to hunt. They are eating, crapping and waiting to die.


Yep, they all want a deer or hog; field dressed and skinned, of course.

ezearl

Don't know what they're missing do they? And if I'm dressing and skinning? I'm eating.

Champlain Islander

People who say there isn't any place to hunt aren't trying very hard. True there is a lot of private land but a little attempt at getting permission to hunt is something most have forgotten to do these days.

ezearl

So far this season I've seen fewer hunters afield than in the previous 40 seasons. I'm hunting both WV and Va. Maybe because of this trend there will be more access to leased private lands in seasons to come. In the past 20 or so yrs we've lost most of our public hunting land (90% at least) in the 4 counties I use to hunt to subdivisions(was Westvaco Paper Co. land). The large tracts of private land like generation farms are also now subdivisions. Then you have the newer owners of large tracts who simply don't believe in hunting. Always said if this ever happened I'd travel to hunt if need be. So I travel. The real shame of it all is that the majority of these subdivision lands are uninhabited (never sold) and can't be hunted.

Oldtimr

Old age is killing off the biggest population of hunters, not modern hunting . the number of hunters will slowly decrease for many reasons combined, not just one reason. If it was Just one reason it could have been and would have been addresses by state hunting agencies. As far as "no place to hunt" PA has over five million acres between state game lands and and public access programs administrated by the PA game Commission and state forest and state park lands and the emphasis is over 5 million acres. The times have changed and the decline of hunter numbers is controlled with many reasons. People who say there is no longer any place to hunt are looking for a reason to justify quitting because no one wants to be known as a quitter so they toss out what they think is a reasonable causation. The bell is tolling for hunting and the less numbers we have will speed up the end of hunting because we are already outnumbered by none hunters, when we are out numbered by anti hunters the respective general assemblies the states will stop supporting hunting because the number of antis will be higher than those not opposed to hunting. Fortunately, most of us will not see than, sadly, some might. Modern hunting gadgets and gizmos however are killingn the outdoor and hunting skills that hunters used to have

kidoggy

all great empires eventually decay and crumble. when hunting is once more a necessity to life , folks will return to it.
point is lack of necessity is the overall contributing factor to declining numbers of hunters