Harvest History Graph for your viewing pleasure
- Thread starter Lundy
- Start date
Very nice graph Kim! Thanks for sharing that! It's crazy how bows and xbows have killed more than guns the last 4 years.
huntn2
Senior Member
Also interesting that the gun and total have the exact same trend line and the decrease in gun is greater than the increase in bow.
That was my thought as well. Do you think the decrease in gun is the result of a generational shift? Maybe the older generations aren't being replaced by younger gun hunters? Maybe the decline in deer has turned off many to hunting altogether? Maybe more have switched to archery and we simply don't have as many deer to kill? I don't know. Just lots of possibilities. I do know we have better equipment than ever. It allows many more to be more efficient than prior years. I think we simply have less deer. Whether you are gun or bow hunting.
huntn2
Senior Member
I agree it shows well and thanks for posting it Lundy.
Also very interesting to see the archery harvest has leveled off over the past 7 years while gun and total continued to drop.
huntn2
Senior Member
Tough to say Phil. Sense permits aren't sold by season, it is difficult to truly know the statistics behind the swing in hunter participation in archery vs. gun. That said, I think a safe assumption is many who once spent a week or two in the woods during gun are taking advantage of the longer archery season.
Is there a level of turnover due to age driving less gun participation? Highly possible. Also possible that the recruitment of young hunters may be slipping due to other activities and loss of interest through an increase in skunked hunts.
Is gun harvest dropping because less participation means less deer being bumped leading to less shot opportunities for stand hunters? Is it dropping because land access is drying up? Or is it because there are just that fewer deer?
My guess, a blend of all 3. So then it is the chicken or the egg - which came first...did deer numbers dropping lead to a lower harvest, causing hunters to give up/slow retaining recruitment of youth (which the man at the top said would happen before they achieved their goals), also leading to hunters loosing land access through leases locking up properties as people tried to buy their own slice of heaven to preserve...
Interesting facts. It appears about only 1 of 3 tags buyers take a deer. So the hunters who buy couple tags are already figured into the totals.
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huntn2
Senior Member
That looks to be a minimum of a $1.8M drop in permit sales (assuming they are all the $15 antlerless. If they are the $24 either sex, that is a $2.8M loss in permit sales (2009-2016).
IMO, archery has caught up with gun because the gun hunters realized they have 4 months to hunt versus just one week and a few days. I have no scientific data to base this on but I'd bet a very strong majority of those are hunting with crossbows.
Regardless if it's horizontal or vertical the technological advancements in both have perpetuated their popularity astronomically.
Regardless if it's horizontal or vertical the technological advancements in both have perpetuated their popularity astronomically.
Milo
Tatonka guide.
- 8,190
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it's also easier to slip into places they aren't supposed to be with no orange on
Gordo
Senior Member
Road kills have been dropping at a fairly consistent rate. That says a lot. It's yet to level off since 2002. Sure there are other variables as to why less deer are being hit every year, but population has to be number one.
I sure wish we had an accuratte number for 'whitetail population' every year since 2002. It just doesn't exist.
I sure wish we had an accuratte number for 'whitetail population' every year since 2002. It just doesn't exist.
