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Seek One’s dilemma

timberjack86 said:
Brace Yourself Here We Go GIF by MOODMAN
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Fifteen pages about ethics, this is why it hard to compare what's ethical and what's legal when teaching hunter ed. While I prefer hunting in timber vs hunting a field vs hunting a subdivision, it can all be legal if you do your home work. My thing is lots of outdoorsmen think you aren't very good unless you kill or catch the biggest whatever. Even though she might be the preferred date not everyone gets to take the prom queen home.

As far as easy, deer will act different if they feel threatened. Watch video of animals being hunted by predators in Africa. Some just stand and watch their herd mate get caught and ate. Several years ago I was trying to dart a deer in a golf course community that had an arrow flopping around in its back. The homeowner could walk out on the deck and she would stand there. If she saw me through the sliding door she would spook.
Like I said this is a matter of ethics.
 
As to recruiting more people into hunting, and becoming lifetime hunters, as well as ethical lifetime sportsmen & conservationists . . . . . . .

I believe the #1 way begins with small-game hunting, and a variety of game.

IMO, squirrel hunting tops this list.
But a variety of small-game hunting (squirrel, dove, rabbit, waterfowl, etc.) can all work together to help develop a true passion for hunting.

Small game is also an excellent source of organic, free-range food, none of which needs a "processor" so much like a big-game animal. Much easier and practical to learn preparing small game for the table, than attempting to process a deer yourself.

For those who haven't tried it, squirrel is remarkably similar in taste to chicken thighs. It is not "white" meat (like a chicken breast), but it is much like a thigh, in both color & taste.
 
TheLBLman said:
As to recruiting more people into hunting, and becoming lifetime hunters, as well as ethical lifetime sportsmen & conservationists . . . . . . .

I believe the #1 way begins with small-game hunting, and a variety of game.

IMO, squirrel hunting tops this list.
But a variety of small-game hunting (squirrel, dove, rabbit, waterfowl, etc.) can all work together to help develop a true passion for hunting.

Small game is also an excellent source of organic, free-range food, none of which needs a "processor" so much like a big-game animal. Much easier and practical to learn preparing small game for the table, than attempting to process a deer yourself.

For those who haven't tried it, squirrel is remarkably similar in taste to chicken thighs. It is not "white" meat (like a chicken breast), but it is much like a thigh, in both color & taste.
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Growing up opening day of squirrel season was almost as great as Christmas. The Dixie Cafe in Byrdstown was packed at 5am.
 
ttf909 said:
Twrf meeting just said decline in hunters resulted in decline in dollars . Seek 1 and the like increase hunter interest. Do any of yall have a better way for hunter recruitment?
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Do you really believe there is a decline in hunters? Where are you hunting and saying to yourself, "Man, there just aren't near as many hunters today here as there were 10 years ago!"

R3 is a scam, it's all about money.
 
MidTennFisher said:
Do you really believe there is a decline in hunters?
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Overall, yes.

But the larger decline is in the average licensed hunters' interest & abilities to hunt as much now, compared to times past. There is also a huge decline in the average hunter's ethics. Some will do anything to post pics of themselves with a kill on facebook, etc.

For example, if we sell exactly the same number of deer-hunting licenses in TN this year as 10 years ago, but the average hunter only spends 50% as many hours annually hunting, THAT is a decline in hunting.

I'm seeing this statewide and nationally, although some areas do experience the opposite, especially near urban areas with relatively few close-by (convenient before or after daily work) public lands for legal hunting.

Then there is the issue of different types of hunting, as well as the reasons various hunters are out hunting.

A high percentage of the more recent "recruits" into deer hunting are more about just obtaining free-range, organic food, than the traditions of "sport" deer hunting.

Many of these newer hunters look down on "trophy" deer hunting, while more of us older ones have a balance of hunting for all reasons, not just as a source of organic meat. This particular sub-set of "organic meat" hunters has little desire to be in a hunting club, or lease hunting land, or "go hunting" to go hunting, as they are happy just to obtain their meat off their back porches or from a friend's 3 acres.

Some of those older hunters who were spending much of their annual time deer hunting, seem to have shifted over to waterfowl hunting. Give them a few years, and most of these will have quit hunting period, with fewer new hunters replacing them.

Seems to be a life cycle to just about everything.
Believe it or not, only a few decades ago, the opening of squirrel season was a much bigger event to more hunters, than is today's opening of deer season.

Never mind there is today tremendous opportunity, particularly on public lands, to have the woods mostly to yourself during the 1st month of squirrel season. In times past, the public lands were much more crowded with squirrel hunters than they are today with deer hunters.
 
I'd say social media is influencing that more so than a lack of hunters. Squirrels aren't sexy on social media. Big antlered bucks, ducks, and turkeys are.

We recently had some meetings with our DNR here in South Carolina about our turkey population. One point of data is the INCREASE in the number of turkey hunters over the last 20 years. And it was quite an increase. I can't imagine Tennessee is much different.

Nowhere are we seeing an actual decrease in hunters. Maybe they're spending a lot more time hunting larger animals and waterfowl than squirrels and rabbits, absolutely. But for deer, turkeys, and waterfowl, literally nobody (that isn't in a position to profit off new hunters) is saying they see a decrease in hunters.

All the discussion is that WMAs are more crowded, leases are more competitive, guys are on wait lists to join a club, point creep out West, even residents can't draw big game tags yearly anymore, etc. All of that points to more hunters. At the very least, more hunters per huntable acre. Even if hunter numbers are in decline, which I do not believe, so is the number of available acres to hunt. So that leads me to believe that relentlessly drumming up interest in hunting is irresponsible.

I'm not saying that more hunters is bad in all regards, but I am saying that we are being lied to that we need to have a sense of urgency to promote hunting to death just for the benefit of recruiting more people.

If someone truly wants to hunt, we should be willing to mentor them. If someone wants to hunt because they saw it on Instagram and wants to be the next SeekOne, tell them to get another hobby.
 
TheLBLman said:
Overall, yes.

But the larger decline is in the average licensed hunters' interest & abilities to hunt as much now, compared to times past. There is also a huge decline in the average hunter's ethics. Some will do anything to post pics of themselves with a kill on facebook, etc.

For example, if we sell exactly the same number of deer-hunting licenses in TN this year as 10 years ago, but the average hunter only spends 50% as many hours annually hunting, THAT is a decline in hunting.

I'm seeing this statewide and nationally, although some areas do experience the opposite, especially near urban areas with relatively few close-by (convenient before or after daily work) public lands for legal hunting.

Then there is the issue of different types of hunting, as well as the reasons various hunters are out hunting.

A high percentage of the more recent "recruits" into deer hunting are more about just obtaining free-range, organic food, than the traditions of "sport" deer hunting.

Many of these newer hunters look down on "trophy" deer hunting, while more of us older ones have a balance of hunting for all reasons, not just as a source of organic meat. This particular sub-set of "organic meat" hunters has little desire to be in a hunting club, or lease hunting land, or "go hunting" to go hunting, as they are happy just to obtain their meat off their back porches or from a friend's 3 acres.

Some of those older hunters who were spending much of their annual time deer hunting, seem to have shifted over to waterfowl hunting. Give them a few years, and most of these will have quit hunting period, with fewer new hunters replacing them.

Seems to be a life cycle to just about everything.
Believe it or not, only a few decades ago, the opening of squirrel season was a much bigger event to more hunters, than is today's opening of deer season.

Never mind there is today tremendous opportunity, particularly on public lands, to have the woods mostly to yourself during the 1st month of squirrel season. In times past, the public lands were much more crowded with squirrel hunters than they are today with deer hunters.
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Where are you getting your stats? Also do they count a lifetime license as say being bought each year or is it a one time thing if you get what I'm saying?
 
MidTennFisher said:
Do you really believe there is a decline in hunters? Where are you hunting and saying to yourself, "Man, there just aren't near as many hunters today here as there were 10 years ago!"

R3 is a scam, it's all about money.
Click to expand...
Yes I believe that. However I know I'm completely wrong as I stayed at the roach motel lastnight instead of the holiday Inn express.
 

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