As for not seeing young hunters . . . Ted, maybe you ought to volunteer as a hunter education instructor. We taught 3 classes a year at the local Izaak Walton facility in Story County when I lived in Iowa. A class numbering in the 40's was small. And ours were not the only classes in the area.
Sadly, hunter education is probably the single most effective driver of the trends and possible outcomes identified by Ted Schefelbein. To suggest he volunteer to teach one is vicious irony.
If someone doesnt take the ridiculous hunters education class as a youth it is pretty much guaranteed they will never ever be a hunter (or become consumers of hunting supplies such as SxS box locks). Plenty of people have discretionary income to spend on hobbies. Hunters safety is very effective in directing their money toward other pastimes.
I have plenty of 20 and 30 something friends and coworkers who have shown an interest in trying hunting. When they discover they cant buy a license because they didnt take a silly course for middle school kids it generally ends right there.
Go ahead and jump down my throat over calling hunter ed. ridiculous. Any curriculum with a 100% pass rate is suspect. It is mainly gate keeping in our regulation happy society and a perversion of the right to hunt (if there is such a right, every right seems to be a privilege now day). I suspect a good percentage of grey hairs dont mind gate keeping the sport.
