Where are we going ?

[ironglow]

  I was just perusing an older hunting magazine (Outdoor life, 3/10). I don't usually get Outdoor Life, but this was a "Survival" issue, which caught my eye; Fur-Fish-Game and Backwoodsman being my regular fare..
     I was however, attracted to an article entitled "Bunny Blues", which takes to task, hunting preferences...small vs big game. There was an interesting graph showing that small game hunting has dropped off, while big game hunting has risen, accordiong to license sales..
  
A) Small game nationwide,  was at 9.82 million in 1955, peaked at 14.1 million in 1975 and in 2006 was at 4.79 million

B) Big game nationwide was at 4.41 million in 1955 peaked at 12.5 million in 1985 and in 2006 was at 10.7 million.

   The writer concluded that the "bunny hunters" simply went to big game.  I disagree with that conclusion; when I look at the demographics involved.
  In 1955 the US population was estimated (census on even 10 year basis) at nearly 166 million, while in 2006 it was estimated at over 300 millions.
       Big game hunters have expanded about equal to the population, while small game hunters have dropped off precipitously. When compared to population..we have about 1/4 as many small game hunters as in 1955...or about 1/6 of the 1975 level. This is alarming, since we who do hunt, need voters to back up our position ion legislatures.

    Yes, the population has shifted somewhat toward the cities/suburbs..81% living in one or the other...guess I'm a 19 percenter...not living in either.

  Then there is the issue of pay-to-hunt which affects many areas, particularly west and south. I suppose guys aren't as willing to pay for hunting rabbits or squirrels as they are to pay for deer or elk hunting.  It may be a good idea for the big land leasers to encourage low cost or free small game hunting , just to maintain balance...and encourage new hunters.
  I have been alarmed at this for some time and have been a hunter-safety instructor for some years ...encouraging as many youngsters as possible, to take up the sport. I am well aware that I am fighting video games and organized school sports for the youngster's time and both are better funded and publicized.
   How do we enlist more outdoor sportsman ?  We need them..

[BUGEYE]

I prefer rabbit with sage gravy over any cut of venison and bluegills over bass.
that's why I'm letting my GON magazine lapse.  it's nothing but deer and bass.
a rabbit is easier to drag out of the woods for us oldtimers.

[ironglow]

  Gotcha there Bugeye...I was down by a hedge line between woods & cornfield the other night with the temperature hovering around 4 degrees F. I thought to myself, "Do you really want to shoot a deer right now, then gut it out and drag it for 1/2 mile through 1.5 ft of snow" ?
   Didn't shoot one and wasn't too disappointed...

[bilmac]

In our neck of the woods where big game is king, I dislike what I see in that far too many folks never hunt and never have hunted small game. They just hunt big stuff. How do you ever learn to handle a gun when you only take it out of the house for a few days a year and only shoot a few rounds?

[Empty Quiver]

I may be an example of what has happened to small game hunting.

 As a youngster I did as much of it as I could. What I should say is that I walked lots and lots of fence rows wishing a pheasant or rabbit would show itself. Farming practices killed the small game population period end of story.

 At the same time archery season for whitetails was being increased. At the same time equipment and techniques were being improved. On top of this was the explosion in deer populations. Talk about a no brainer, more time in the field, more game, and more meat on the table when the stars did align.

My hunting career started about '76. I had all but given up on small game by '80, having taken up bow hunting in '78. All this happened in E.C. Ill. your reasons may vary.

[trotterlg]

In earlier years it was just far esier to hunt small game.  Hunting near urban areas was much better accepted, and it was common to see someone hunting just out of town.  Now things are far different, walking out of town carrying a gun is not as easy to do.  What you used to be able to do in a couple of spare hours you now need to dedicate a day and a tank of gas to.  I think it is just a matter of people spending their time and money on what they see as most productive or fun.  Also the Family farm is near gone, so there are not as many farm kids out popping rabbits after school.  Larry

[ironglow]

 I see what you mean trotter..the antis have infected to a certain degree, public thinking. We as huntyers, must find a good way to counter that.

[trotterlg]

When I was a kid, I could just put my 22 across the handle bars of my bike and go down to the river and shoot sparrows or out the the dump and shoot rats.  If a kid tried that now he would be shot dead in a block and a half.  Larry

[Flynmoose]

Trotter! You just dredged up a treasured memory of mine...riding my bicycle through town
in the early morning darkness with newspaper bags full of duck decoys and shotgun across
the handlebars. Our only encounter with the law was when my friend got busted for riding
his bicycle on the sidewalk. The cop did ask where we were going to hunt that day but that
was the only refefence to our carrying shotguns.
FM

[Frankn4]

Reading the OP by ironwood, got me to thinking back to the 1954-1965 era when I was a boy growing up in Eastern Kentucky and Southwest Virginia. Back then, and up until about the mid 1970's, hunting was small game and the king of small game hunting was squirrel hunting, and squirrel hunting was not a sport, squirrel hunting was a ritual. The hunt began with a religious observance and ended with a religious observance. Boys got an excused absence from school if they had a note saying they were squirrel hunting with their father or mentor. You could not start squirrel hunting until the Monday before Thanksgiving, and then only if there had been seven consecutive frosts and seven consecutive freezes. Squirrel hunting was over the last day of December. Absolutely no hunting of any kind, on a Sunday.

During the same time period, rabbit, very plentiful, and grouse, also very plentiful, were also popular tablefare. Families, extended families, and neighbors would come together for hunts and enjoy meals together of squirrel, rabbit, and grouse to celebrate the hunts.

The week of Thanksgiving was the most popular time and plans would be made a year in advance to be sure the family could be together for the hunt on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Thursday we butchered hogs. Friday we made, lard, cracklins for our bread, and sausage. Saturday, the young boys, 9 years old, were taken out by fathers, uncles, grandfathers, or mentors for their first hunt. For me, turning 9 was much more special and much more memorable than turning 18 or 21!

The most popular hunting rifle in those days was the bolt action, single shot, manual cocking, 22 rimfie. This was for squirrels and accounted for about 80% of the squirrel hunters. There were two shotguns, the 16 gauge and the 410.

The most popular 16 ga was a Stevens, bolt action, tube feed. you could hunt rabbit, grouse, and goose with one shotgun.

The most popular 410 would be a close call between the Winchester 37 and the H&R Topper.

A box of Perers 22 short, the squirrel round, was 25 cents or one dozen brown eggs. A box of Peters 410 shotshells was, I think I remember correctly, $1.95, or 8 dozen brown eggs.

My first 22 rimfire was a Stevens 15, $12.95. My first shotgun that was my very own, not one of the familie's, was a H&R Topper 410. I am thinking it was close to $30.00. It was paid for with my own money, working for 35 cents an hour as a 12 year old boy. In my gun safe today is a model 15, 22 single shot and a H&R Topper 410. When I hit post here, I think I will go get them and clean them again.

I guess I could wrie a book on why things are so different today, but, I personally, think it is all about family.

[mcwoodduck]

I think with the loss of Hunting fields just outside of town and the limited time people now have while hunting they tend to go for the biggest bang for the buck they can.  If you are going to drive to the national forrest and spend time in the woods you grab the deer rifle and my bring the 22 for small game around camp or after you filled your tag. 
But the biggest bang for your buck is Deer hunting.  Kind of easy to see them.  They are big and easy to hit.  Farmers are willing to let you shoot them.  And if you only have a few days to hunt a deer will put a lot of meat in the freezer.
Also no one has a squirrel head on the wall and says "look at the teeth on that one, almost 3/8" long or a rabbit head saying his ears are close to 9".
But we will hang a deer head on the wall or keep the rack and say he is an 8 pointer (4X4 for you western hunters) with a 21" spead.  How big is the rack on the one you killed this year?

[ironglow]

Frankn4;

 You were obviously very blessed with "community" as a youngster, something which is fast becoming all too rare these days.  I suppose it has to do with TV, video games, spectator sports etc., but that type of community interaction is priceless.  My own experiences were not quite so rich in group actuon but it sure had some of those elements.

  mcwooduck;
      You are probably correct, but for some..myself included, the bang for the buck doesn't rely on physical size.  I enjoy my woodchuck hunting just as much or more than deer hunting.  Recently, I saw a fox at about 400 yards and began a stalk through hemlocks and golden rods...he hunting vermin and I hunting him. I stalked and "mouse squeaked' on the back of my hand till I got within about 100 yards of the fox.  To add to the drama I had brought my Savage 93R17 bull barrel and grabbed a clip on the way out...oince in the field I discovered I had pocketed a Marlin .22 mag clip..so it was a 'one-shot' deal.
      Finally, after a long, moving stalk, I found the fox was standing broadside and  (beauty of the .17 HMR) when I touched off the shot, I watched old Reynard drop right there..dirt nap!  I believe I enjoyed that as much as any deer I ever shot !

[mcwoodduck]

Frankn4;

 You were obviously very blessed with "community" as a youngster, something which is fast becoming all too rare these days.  I suppose it has to do with TV, video games, spectator sports etc., but that type of community interaction is priceless.  My own experiences were not quite so rich in group actuon but it sure had some of those elements.

  mcwooduck;
      You are probably correct, but for some..myself included, the bang for the buck doesn't rely on physical size.  I enjoy my woodchuck hunting just as much or more than deer hunting.  Recently, I saw a fox at about 400 yards and began a stalk through hemlocks and golden rods...he hunting vermin and I hunting him. I stalked and "mouse squeaked' on the back of my hand till I got within about 100 yards of the fox.  To add to the drama I had brought my Savage 93R17 bull barrel and grabbed a clip on the way out...oince in the field I discovered I had pocketed a Marlin .22 mag clip..so it was a 'one-shot' deal.
      Finally, after a long, moving stalk, I found the fox was standing broadside and  (beauty of the .17 HMR) when I touched off the shot, I watched old Reynard drop right there..dirt nap!  I believe I enjoyed that as much as any deer I ever shot !

I agree I really like sitting in the woods for tree rats. 
The day I shot a really big While tail (well at least for Eastern NC), I wanted to go bird hunting or squirrel hunting at Aunt racheal's peacan grove but other people had the car keys and deer hunting we went. 
Nice fox. 
The little 17 is an amazing varmint round.   Not too good for "eating" critters as it makes a mess of them if you hit bone. 

[dukkillr]

For me it was the natural evolution of a hunter. 

I grew up hunting almost exclusively ducks and geese.  I loved that rush when 150 mallards were swinging the big water getting set to drop.  I still do.

Then I found the rush of a big cackling rooster jumping up at my feet.  Different from the ducks, maybe better.

Then I found the rush of a deer walking into the open.  Better rush.

Then I found the rush of a good buck walking into the open.  Better rush.

Then I found the rush of a good buck walking by at 30 yards or less (bow hunting).  Even better rush.

Then I found the rush of elk, antelope, caribou, mulies, bears, etc... All great rushes... Simply better than anything a squirrel can offer. 

One year in college I killed 46 squirrels.  The next year I started bow hunting.  I've killed about 5 squirrels in all the years since then.  Only so many days in a year, but to each their own.

[S.S.]

I'm going Tree Rat hunting tomorrow!
Or anything else that goes good with biscuits
and gravy!

[Slufoot]

I did my part today!

GOOD SHOOTING!
Slufoot

[Mohawk]

I think it is everyday distractions that people didn't deal with. Pulling kids and adults alike from their computers alone is hard enough. They pull themselves away for deer but not likely rabbits. Myself, I will travel to another state to hunt rabbits. Going from Tx to Az  this spring (:

[hillbill]

i love hunting rabbits and am good at it. buuuut at present where i am, they are very hard to find. the low fur price has predators everywhere, bald eagles this time of year are more common than rocks.bobcats are making a huge comebak.so needless to say we have NO rabbits.oh yea i can tramp 2 three miles in the brush and kill one, with a shotgun, if im lucky and accurate.but it just aint like it used to be.the part of my larder i used to fill with small game i just fill up with venison now.its bad when yu have a better chance of killing a deer than a rabbit, but thats how it is here.

[Frankn4]

its bad when yu have a better chance of killing a deer than a rabbit, but thats how it is here.

I live in southeastern Kentucky. I am amazed at the return of the whitetail deer.

My wife and I are retired and live on the family farm. We have various bird feeders, squirrel feeders, and a "thing feeder" because you never know what is going to show up at it. We have as many as 5 or 6 rabbits at a time at the thing feeder. There are often 7-8 gray  and 3-4 fox suirrels at the bird feeders, squirrel feeder, and thing feeder. As many as 15-20 deer in the yard, not just on the property but in the yard, near the thing feeder is everyday normal. The most I have counted at one time is 32. I have pictures of 12 point,  ten point, and  8 point, in July velvet, feeding at the same time. It never ceases to amaze me that the deer will outnumber the squirrel and rabbit combined, and that on a daily basis.

We have a very healthy population of dove and Canada goose. We also have a healthy population of turkey. I would love to trade the dove and turkey for grouse and rail.

[Mohawk]

In Texas you can rabbit hunt at night on private property. Its amazing how the rabbits will suddenly appear at night when you don't think any are around during the day.  A .38 and 4 cell Mag-lite and I am all set! We used to have a couple rabbit our bird seed dish at night ( they love bird seed).

[ironglow]

I did my part today!

GOOD SHOOTING!
Slufoot

  Slufoot;
    Looks like you had some fun..see you use the good ole NEF, I like my H&R/NEFs also. Was that ,22 LR  or one of the .17s ?

  Frankn4;
   I came by my neighbors place the other day. This neighbor has a bird feeder in front of his house, between the house & the road.  There were no birds at the feeder, but 3 wild turkeys were pecking at the ground under the feeder !