Hunting Section?

iH8DemLibz · Oct 29, 2014

Hunting is most definitely an Outdoor Sport.

Leave it alone.

Or we could incorporate the two and throw Lawn Darts at Bambi.

outrider58 · Oct 29, 2014

Norton said:
Guys,

We've worked very hard to avoid falling in the trap that so many forums, gun related or not, have fallen into….which is the continued adding of different forums to the point that there is no synergy left in any of the different rooms.

Further, it is our opinion that it leads to different factions going off to their individual corners and not interacting as a large and diverse group.

To give you and idea of what this place looked like way back when, and how much discipline has gone into focusing our discussions very carefully:

http://web.archive.org/web/20050711235331/http://www.mdshooters.com/

Amen

DaemonAssassin · Oct 29, 2014

Norton said:
Guys,

We've worked very hard to avoid falling in the trap that so many forums, gun related or not, have fallen into….which is the continued adding of different forums to the point that there is no synergy left in any of the different rooms.

Further, it is our opinion that it leads to different factions going off to their individual corners and not interacting as a large and diverse group.

To give you and idea of what this place looked like way back when, and how much discipline has gone into focusing our discussions very carefully:

http://web.archive.org/web/20050711235331/http://www.mdshooters.com/

Holy crap... That is old school MDS.

DaemonAssassin · Oct 29, 2014

I only gave the hunting section a 3% chance of being approved anyways.

:lol2:

fabsroman · Oct 30, 2014

Don't worry about it OP. There isn't enough hunting knowledge on this board to really help that much with a full blown "hunting forum".

Thing is, there is actually a Maryland Hunting chatboard. PM me if you would like the address. Sad thing about that too is that there isn't very much activity on it either. I would post a "lol", but it is actually pretty darn sad. Seems as though hunting is a dying thing in Maryland, with not enough younger people taking up the torch. Lucky for me, my son made me promise him I would take him goose hunting next month. He got all bent out of shape when I told him I was going to shoot ducks on Saturday morning and he could not come. Promising to take him goose hunting was the only way I could get him to stop crying.

lx1x · Oct 30, 2014

fabsroman said:
Don't worry about it OP. There isn't enough hunting knowledge on this board to really help that much with a full blown "hunting forum".

Thing is, there is actually a Maryland Hunting chatboard. PM me if you would like the address. Sad thing about that too is that there isn't very much activity on it either. I would post a "lol", but it is actually pretty darn sad. Seems as though hunting is a dying thing in Maryland, with not enough younger people taking up the torch. Lucky for me, my son made me promise him I would take him goose hunting next month. He got all bent out of shape when I told him I was going to shoot ducks on Saturday morning and he could not come. Promising to take him goose hunting was the only way I could get him to stop crying.

past year.. our hunter ed class has a lot of kids. they are out there.. you just dont hear about it much.

Inigoes · Oct 30, 2014

lx1x said:
past year.. our hunter ed class has a lot of kids. they are out there.. you just dont hear about it much.

Not only that. Maryland DNR are hosting Hunting 101 classes to get people interested.

The 101 classes are waterfowl, deer, or turkey hunting sessions.

fabsroman · Oct 30, 2014

lx1x said:
past year.. our hunter ed class has a lot of kids. they are out there.. you just dont hear about it much.

That is certainly good news. Question is, how many kids are attending hunter ed class versus 30+ years ago. Have to wonder how hunting license sales compare to years past, when the population of Maryland was less than it is now. Think I just found some decent data on this and it appears that there has been 50% decrease in resident hunting licenses sold. Thing is, the data ends in 2004.

http://wsfrprograms.fws.gov/Subpages/LicenseInfo/HuntingLicCertHistory.pdf

Looks like Maryland went from 169,000 or so hunting licenses in 1965 to 124,000 in 2004. Wish I could find the data for the past decade to see where we stand in comparison to that 124,000.

Inigoes · Oct 30, 2014

fabsroman said:
Question is, how many kids are attending hunter ed class versus 30+ years ago.

I can answer that for lx1x. At least half our Hunter education classes are minors. MD DNR has lowered the age limit for the Internet study + Field day to 13 years old.

Now, let's look at the traditional hunter education classes (where everyone sits through the classroom presentation) Over 2/3 of the class are minors, reason being we (local club policy, not DNR) require anyone under 18 to be escorted by an adult. That policy has turned out to be a good thing, giving the adults a refresher course in the new safety systems from when they got their hunter education 30 years ago. The most hunting accident prone age group is 44-54, believe it or not.

Females taking hunter education is on the uptick also. Moms are taking advantage of the free "training", in case they ever want to get their HQL to purchase a handgun. Young ladies are getting into hunting in noticeable number also, because it is the in thing.

Duck Dynasty is having a positive impact on America's youth.

fabsroman · Oct 30, 2014

Inigoes said:
I can answer that for lx1x. At least half our Hunter education classes are minors. MD DNR has lowered the age limit for the Internet study + Field day to 13 years old.

Now, let's look at the traditional hunter education classes (where everyone sits through the classroom presentation) Over 2/3 of the class are minors, reason being we require anyone under 18 to be escorted by an adult. That policy has turned out to be a good thing, giving the adults a refresher course in the new safety systems from when they got their hunter education 30 years ago.

Also females taking hunter education is on the uptick also. Moms are taking advantage of the free "training", in case they ever want to get their HQL to purchase a handgun. Young ladies are getting into hunting in noticeable number also, because it is the in thing.

Duck Dynasty is having a positive impact on America's youth.

You didn't really answer it though. How does this compare to what there was 30+ years ago? Then again, I think anybody that hunted on private property prior to 1977 does not have to have a hunter's safety course card in order to get a hunting license. End of the day, it really comes down to the number of hunting licenses sold as an indicator of how many people are actually participating in hunting in Maryland.

Found the other half of the USFWS data. Looks like 120,000 hunting licenses were sold in 2013. If I have some time tonight, I'll try to make a spreadsheet showing the Maryland numbers from 1958 to 2013 (i.e., the years there is USFWS data available for).

http://wsfrprograms.fws.gov/Subpages/LicenseInfo/HuntingLicCertHistory20042013.pdf

With that said, I really do hope you are right about more and more youth getting involved because of Duck Dynasty. I was talking about this with my brother on Sunday when we were in Walmart and he was buying ammo to shoot clays. He has watched the series a couple of times. I have never watched it (i.e., don't really watch much TV). He said it is more like a comedy than a show on hunting. Guess it is like all those other "reality" TV shows, which should actually be called dramas instead of "reality".

Inigoes · Oct 30, 2014

fabsroman said:
You didn't really answer it though. How does this compare to what there was 30+ years ago? Then again, I think anybody that hunted on private property prior to 1977 does not have to have a hunter's safety course card in order to get a hunting license. End of the day, it really comes down to the number of hunting licenses sold as an indicator of how many people are actually participating in hunting in Maryland.

Using the number of hunting licenses sold, will be misleading also.

A person or family member minors does not need a hunting license to hunt on their own land. What is required is that they have a DNR ID, and a hunter education certificate.

An adult family member (who is not the owner) invited to hunt on another's land will require a hunting license and written permission.

Back in the day, seeing a girl in hunter education was a rarity. It was mainly small groups of young men wanting to go out and kill something. lol

Today, we are literally overwhelmed by the number of people trying to get into our HE classes. I have to turn people away because of exceeding the fire marshall's building capacity limit.

fabsroman · Oct 30, 2014

Inigoes said:
Using the number of hunting licenses sold, will be misleading also.

A person or family member minors does not need a hunting license to hunt on their own land. What is required is that they have a DNR ID, and a hunter education certificate.

An adult family member (who is not the owner) invited to hunt on another's land will require a hunting license and written permission.

Back in the day, seeing a girl in hunter education was a rarity. It was mainly small groups of young men wanting to go out and kill something. lol

Today, we are literally overwhelmed by the number of people trying to get into our HE classes. I have to turn people away because of exceeding the fire marshall's building capacity limit.

Yeah, your one experience is not statistically relevant. It comes down to how many hunter safety courses are being offered now versus back then. How many people were grandfathered in because they hunted on private land prior to 1977 and therefore did not need to take a hunter safety course.

I find it hard to believe that more kids are hunting as children of landowners versus the number that were hunting as children of landowners back in 1960 since there is less farm land in Maryland nowadays compared to 50 years ago. My dad showed me a mall in PG County where he used to hunt quail. I thought he was nuts telling me he used to hunt quail right there. Now, I get to point out to my kids housing developments where I used to hunt doves, waterfowl, and deer. Of course, they used to be farms.

A 40,000 drop in the number of hunting licenses sold, from 160,000 back in 1958 to 120,000 in 2013, is rather telling. That is a 25% reduction. Meanwhile, your hunter safety course might be the only one around for miles and just because somebody takes a hunter safety course does not mean they hunt every year thereafter. Introduced a woman to hunting back in the early 2000's, and the only reason she went hunting was because I went hunting. She was that type of woman. Doubt she has bought a license since and I attended the Hunter Safety Course with her, even though I was already hunting 3 days a week and the only thing I took from the course that I did not know turned out to be highly doubtful information (i.e., an uncapped muzzleloader can go off from static electricity).

lx1x · Oct 30, 2014

fabsroman said:
Yeah, your one experience is not statistically relevant. It comes down to how many hunter safety courses are being offered now versus back then. How many people were grandfathered in because they hunted on private land prior to 1977 and therefore did not need to take a hunter safety course.

I find it hard to believe that more kids are hunting as children of landowners versus the number that were hunting as children of landowners back in 1960 since there is less farm land in Maryland nowadays compared to 50 years ago. My dad showed me a mall in PG County where he used to hunt quail. I thought he was nuts telling me he used to hunt quail right there. Now, I get to point out to my kids housing developments where I used to hunt doves, waterfowl, and deer. Of course, they used to be farms.

A 40,000 drop in the number of hunting licenses sold, from 160,000 back in 1958 to 120,000 in 2013, is rather telling. That is a 25% reduction. Meanwhile, your hunter safety course might be the only one around for miles and just because somebody takes a hunter safety course does not mean they hunt every year thereafter. Introduced a woman to hunting back in the early 2000's, and the only reason she went hunting was because I went hunting. She was that type of woman. Doubt she has bought a license since and I attended the Hunter Safety Course with her, even though I was already hunting 3 days a week and the only thing I took from the course that I did not know turned out to be highly doubtful information (i.e., an uncapped muzzleloader can go off from static electricity).

you need to look at the area too. 30 years ago..you can probably hunt in the backyard in pg county.

this area has boom a lot. its more of urban area now than rural.

wilcam47 · Oct 30, 2014

I helped out at our local hunters ed class and there was prob 5-6 adults vs 30 or so minors! Surprising to me was the handful of girls that were there did quite well and better than most of the boys! LOL

tsmith1499 · Oct 31, 2014

fabsroman said:
You didn't really answer it though. How does this compare to what there was 30+ years ago? Then again, I think anybody that hunted on private property prior to 1977 does not have to have a hunter's safety course card in order to get a hunting license. End of the day, it really comes down to the number of hunting licenses sold as an indicator of how many people are actually participating in hunting in Maryland.

This is true as I bought my permit online 2 weeks ago and it asked that question about previously having a permit or hunting on private land. When I checked that box it went to the next step exempting me from the HE course requirement. I have not hunted in 25-30 years. I was surprised when it did that.

BeoBill · Oct 31, 2014

lx1x said:
you need to look at the area too. 30 years ago..you can probably hunt in the backyard in pg county.

this area has boom a lot. its more of urban area now than rural.

You hit the nail on the head, IMO. Very few professional people know the owners of suitable hunting land well enough to be invited to hunt there. I'm guessing that most of the hunting activity for the AA, PG, MOCO, Baltimore and Eastern Howard population is either hunting elbow-to-elbow on public land on the weekend or paying through the nose to hunt on undeveloped leased land in the actual hinterlands.

Don't believe me? Look for the "Lease Available" signs on the Eastern Shore. It's another cash crop where there's little to no development.

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