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BULLET POINTS

America's Hunters Are Older, Male and Make a Good Living

They've also been busy lately, informs the US Fish & Wildlife Service

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by Dain Fitzgerald

Staff Writer t

Image: therussogroup.com

New year, new survey.

Pacific Standard reports on the characteristics of America's hunting class, taken from a survey commissioned by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The standout finding is that the amount of hunting going on lately is a sharp reversal from a downward trend over the last two decades (a claim that would seem, at first glance, to contradict this):

From 1991 to 2006, hunting participation had dropped 11 percent and the number of hunting days had not significantly changed. The 9 percent participant and 28 percent day increases puts the 2011 hunting status on par with that of 1991 hunting, the high point of hunting in the last twenty years.

Other hunting facts gleaned from the survey: hunters are overwhelmingly white; roughly 8 times as many men hunt than women; the likelihood of hunting increases with age until 65, when it begins to decline; and finally, it's all a comfortably upper-middle class activity, contrary to certain stereotypes.

"Americans are more likely to hunt as their income rises, up to the six-figure mark, where it starts to decline," writes PS' Michael Todd. "The lowest rates are among those making less than $20,000 a year."

What are the most popular game? Turkey, elk, bear and deer, Todd tells us, with minor game such as squirrels and rabbits, as well as migratory birds, almost as juicy a target.

Via Pacific Standard.
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Are you at all surprised by these findings from the US Fish and Wildlife Service?

Comments (view in Forum)

  • CATTLEPROD
    !
    Its a good thing they're there too for population control. Deer were way overpopulated at a local park, they looked more likebabys than full grown because of too many deer not enough food so they had to thin them out. There is also a huge wild pig problem about to wake people up about the NEED for hunters.
  • Zazziness
    !
    While I have to agree the deer population must be kept down by hunters, it's not a bragging point. The only reason that's so is because we wiped out their natural predators.
  • stepped_in_it
    !
    Surprised....no! Older = more time on their hands. Male = we kill it and drag it back to the cave. Good living = money to blow.
    What I'm trying to figure out is this article "picking" on older (age discrimination), Male (sex discrimination) or well to do (liberal discrimination....lol). Oh well, I think I'll grab my guns and go shoot something and drag it back to the man cave!
    Happy New Year
  • jessejaymes
    !
    I just knew that somehow this was going to be my fault. I'm old, white, earn more than the national median and own guns. But I don't hunt. I don't fish. I'm a concrete cowboy who likes to target shoot and has guns for home protection. I did blow up a horny toad with a black cat firecracker back in the 1950's when we didn't know any better. I guess that's still on my record.
  • bsking
    !
    I get it... since hunting is done mostly by older white (evil) men... it's something that should be done away with.. another words when we confiscate all their guns it won't matter , since its just white men hunting anyway.

    by contrast, the same group is now conducting a study that will show gang membership is mostly younger black and Latino men who use their guns for their own survival and the survival of their families... so we better leave them alone...

    .....now if we can only find a way to fund these studies through a public service grant using specifically tax money that has been extracted from white men it would be a perfect ending to a perfect story.
  • Mia
    !
    I love it. You are so right. They have their agenda and it is gun control so now they will use every opportunity to propagandize. The tv shows all of a sudden, will be filled with story lines to sway and motivate the uninformed. "news" stories, polls, rhetorical questions will all be implemented to get the end result that left progressives want , which is, an unarmed populace.
  • bsking
    !
    @Mia exactly. and you know you can almost see the moronic daytime shows like Maury Povich or doctor Phil suddenly change from incest to gun control to captivate the low information public.... and you know they'll be watching ... they got another extension for unemployment
  • u
    Tina
    !
    Of course the problem with confiscating a red necks guns is first finding them and second hoping he isn't going out to the shed to cobble together a double barrel shotgun from a couple of pipes and scrap metal. I know boys when I was growing up who made cross bows from truck leaf springs and a few other parts and used them to hunt deer and other things in and out of season. Money was tight and meat is meat when you are hungry.

    The funny thing is that many of those pushing for gun control would still be puzzled that massacares happen and those doing them just switched to other weapons like pipe bombs. I can see their version of gun control working about as well as prohibition if not worse. You can sneek large quanities of drugs and people across the boarder then why not a large quanity of guns and ammo. Or somethig even smaller like precussion caps. Which to make shells at home.
  • u
    ProCCW
    !
    @Tina You are so right. I have a home in urban America and another in the country. The good ole boys can make anything. If it comes down to it (confiscating weapons) I will be standing with the red necks. There is no way anyone is gonna get their guns without a fight. Talk about an armed malitia. They will be blocking access into townships with truck loads of heavily armed men. They have heavy eqiuipment, and the means to reload their own ammo.
  • View all 14 replies >
  • u
    S-N-A-F-U
    !
    Here's an Interesting slant on hunters - The world's largest army... America 's hunters! I had never thought about this...
    Some enterprising individual added up the deer license sales in just a handful of states and arrived at a striking conclusion:

    There were over 600,000 hunters this season in the state of Wisconsin .. Over the last several months, Wisconsin's hunters became the eighth largest army in the world.

    More men under arms than in Iran .

    More than France and Germany combined.

    These men deployed to the woods of a single American state, Wisconsin , to hunt with firearms, and no one was killed.

    That number pales in comparison to the 750,000 who hunted the woods of Pennsylvania and Michigan's 700,000 hunters, all of whom have now returned home safely. Toss in a quarter million hunters in West Virginia and it literally establishes the fact that the hunters of those four states alone would comprise the largest army in the world. And then add in the total number of hunters in the other 46 states. It's millions more.

    The point?

    America will forever be safe from foreign invasion with that kind of home-grown firepower.

    Hunting... it's not just a way to fill the freezer. It's a matter of national security.That's why all enemies, foreign and domestic, want to see us disarmed.

    Overall it's true, so if we disregard some assumptions that hunters don't possess the same skills as soldiers, the question would still remain... What army of 2 million would want to face 30, 40, 50 million armed citizens???

    Consider ...On a smaller scale, and with some outside help with weaponry, the 'rag-tag' Mujahideen defeated the soviet army in Afghanistan in spite of all their firepower and aircraft.

    Interesting.....
  • Drake_Burrwood
    !
    Oh the Chinese know so did the Soviets the first place they went was to the gun registries of overrun territories. They hated american record Keeping. Scattered to hades and gone.
  • Dan_Tien
    !
    The reason that I don't hunt anymore is because there are too many hunters concentrated in too small areas with too little shooting discipline.
  • JustTheFacts
    !
    I've taken 7 - 8 deer before I quit and let me tell you it's quite boring and no challenge at all (never missed once of course their bigger than all outdoors ... it's almost like shooting a cow ... pathetic huh!)

    I only killed them for the meat but since the cost of cutting them up has going up to almost $100 per deer ... I found it cheaper with less labor involved just buying it from the store instead!

    Don't get me wrong, they do need to be thinned out because they damage our hay and corn fields quite a bit!
  • u
    kyrebel
    !
    Have you ever ate venison(deer meat)? Its good, I like mine in a crockpot, with potatoes,onions,and carrots. Gotta have a skillet of cornbread too, Yum Yum. It is also tradition to hunt and quality family time. Each generation teaches the next and stories are made and told. People learn about there great grandparents from stories of hunting. My dad took me hunting and his dad took him. Now I take my son and daughter, they enjoy the camping and peacefullness of being in the woods. It's something they will always remember.
  • u
    bobrob
    !
    @kyrebel I also enjoy the peacefulness of being in the woods, but without the hunting
    portion of the experience. And does taste good. I like mine on the grille. I eat it,but don't kill it.
  • Granny_Grey
    !
    Around my part of the woods it is not a sport it is putting food on the tables for families. Regardless of the story here I doubt that they took in to account the individuals that own property and hunt on their own land. They aren't older, necessarily white and they don't have a bankroll.
  • View all 23 replies >
  • TheJimmy
    !
    The post I made on here yesterday about Conservatives being hunters and Liberals being gatherers must have inspired this topic because it kind of seems out of place.
  • stepped_in_it
    !
    Age old question. Is it the size of the weapon or how well you aim it?
    By the way, a lot of good points and ideas you brought up in your paragraphs. Have not "digested" fully yet as work keeps beckoning me to go for and provide.
  • Post Removed by Moderators
  •
    PoliticalSpice
    !
    @stepped_in_it Too bad scalia doesn't go hunting with him more often. Hey, thanks for noticing, got much greif for it. Thing is did it cause neo asked and he said not a peep in reply.

    Happy new years to you too!
  • stepped_in_it
    !
    @PoliticalSpice You will always get grief from someone. It is new to them and some just want the old ways back. And all the while they will be complaining by using their "new" found way (the computer/smart phone and the internet). We are evolving and must learn to adapt...or go the way of the dinosaur (if you believe the world is older than 6000 years....lol)
  • View all 9 replies >
  • u
    ProCCW
    !
    Ya know. I just wonder where they took their polls, Urban America or Rural America. I'm guessing only in the Urban areas. If you are in a rural area during hunting season, you will see nearly every household has hunters.
  • Real4WheelDrv
    !
    Exactly, heck here in Michigan the first day of firearm deer season in November is a day off from school now because attendance was always so low.
  • u
    ProCCW
    !
    @Real4WheelDrv Oh my!! School children with guns! Yea here in rural Missouri as well. In the mornings the young boys are out hunting with their Dads and Grandpas. Most moms and daughters are holding down the fort, waiting for their turn to go out.
  • hwyangel
    !
    I was wondering that too. I know a lot of people in Michigan who don't even register their guns. One makes his own guns as a hobby, and another just uses his to shoot deer that raid his vegetable garden and for food of course. Then I know another guy that inherited his guns from his father. Only one of three of my guns are registered.
  • Real4WheelDrv
    !
    @ProCCW Yeah, I'd love to go just once, even just to say I did something that's a tradition. Even Grandma hunts occasionally with her crossbow.
  • View all 12 replies >
  • Dan_Tien
    !
    In my experience, the real "I have to hunt to feed my family" crowd tend to live in remote areas, hunt all year long and don't usually bother with hunting licenses.
  • Thunderchicken
    !
    I'm surprised at the older and good living bit. Most hunters I know started with their fathers and have taught their sons. IOW they start young.(I remember my cousin getting his first over & under combo gun. We were probably about ten.) Also most hunters I know grew up hunting and hunted before their salary became what it is.(At ten, who had a salary? We did odd jobs and depended on our allowance for ammo money.)
  • Granny_Grey
    !
    This surprises me also. My youngest child has many young men who are friends that go hunting with their fathers. I would hardly call any of them well to do.
    I guess it depends on what you call well-to-do.
    My son-in-law is a carpenter (non-union) and he shares his kill with family members.
  • texas_cutie75
    !
    Around here hunting and fishing are passions. I don't particularly like to hunt, but I love venison. Now give me a fishing pole and a decent puddle of water and I'll be a happy camper. The traditions are passed down generation after generation... just another article that isn't completely accurate.
  • u
    DrNickels
    !
    Exactly. I remember growing up and many of my friends all of their family hunted including the women. I spent many hours hanging out with friends processing deer. I know of at least 3 families that everyone hunted, everyone butchered the deer, and they never bought meat from the store except for a rare meal of chicken. Also these families were poor. We are talking less than 50k per year and a family of 5. They had a small amount of land and they hunted it. They also has a garden for veggies.
  • MadAmerican
    !
    No, because I have noticed that where I was raised there are too many deer and hardly anyone hunts. When I was a child you could miss the opening day of deer season if you had a note from your parents.
  • Thegrif
    !
    Nope, cause its me, and the 143 members of our hunting club. Country boy don't mean dumbazz hick. Heck even moonshiners make upwards of 100,000 a year, well the couple I know of do anyway.
  • Speedieg
    !
    Living in the south no I am not surprised. I think hunting is a valuable skill that should be taught to the young. We need to understand where our food comes from. Some of my friends children don't know that the chicken on their plate and the chicken they only see in books or TV are the same thing.
  • u
    XLP
    !
    The stats are a little surprising I guess. Just for discussion overpopulation does hurt the animals. Also many states have programs for hunters to donate their kill to the needy. Kentucky and Texas are 2 that I know of off the top of my head. The animal is professionally prepared and packaged according to, I suppose, USDA standards.

    I would also add that the typical hunter is probably conservative; didn’t see it in the article. It is more of a masculine pastime, although they are women hunters. But liberal/progressive men are very feminine.
  • u
    KyleMFb
    !
    No there no "need" for hunting now days people these days want to watch tv instead of getting up at the crack of dawn going into the middle of the woods and waiting all day hoping to see game to shoot
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