It's a Start

Indiana recognises they have a problem--hunting licence sales are dropping--FAST! They are at least proposing some positive steps to address the problem.

https://www.foxnews.com/great-outdoors/indiana-hunting-decline-recruitment

Here's hoping they are more successful at attracting the ladies to hunt.

Don't they have some weird regulations concerning firearms?

loosing hunters seems to be a problem nationwide .
I think they have a law about only straight wall cartridges for hunting ? I seem to remember reading about a XX Hoosier , maybe a 35 Hoosier wildcat that worked out well for these guys .

Hoosier myself so thought I'd chime in.

Rifle cartridges allowed was updated a couple years back to .243 bore (PRIVATE land only, not state owned) and up but we did have some odd rules.
The current "limitation" gives me a chuckle lol

The cartridge must have a minimum case length of 1.16 inches and a maximum case length of 3 inches. (Holy Crap! Just how many rounds HAVE a case length over 3 inches?)
The cartridge must fire a bullet with a minimum diameter of .243 inches (same as 6 mm).
A hunter must not possess more than 10 of these cartridges while hunting deer.
Full metal jacketed bullets are illegal.

Only my opinion but being in the middle of it more than a half century in the field I have a first hand view of the issue. It's finding a place TO hunt compounded by people tying up land for themselves and loss of habitat. Fence rows disappear on a regular basis. Small woods or creek lines with mature trees get bull-dozed by farmers optimizing their land to plant every single kernel of seed corn they can.

Even when you have permission, count on some other hunter coming up and unhappily asking if you do.........even when they themselves do not.

I've lived in this county all but 3 years of my 66 and knew most the farmers in the area.......but we all got old and some got out of farming or passed away. I'm down to a couple areas to hunt where there is a creek line that is so wet around it that it's tough to farm, but it's not very big. Another is two small woods 4 and 7 acres very close together with light fence rows coming in and out of it. There is three of us hunting that and not together.

My only salvation may be sitting out in the fields a couple hundred yards out with decent glass. Anything where hunting is allowed either has one person controlling it or there is about 4 acres of woods per hunter.

The swamps of my youth are all drained, bull-dozed and tiled for drainage to plant more corn.

There are no game birds. I haven't seen or heard a pheasant or quail in more than a decade and I LIVE out in the boonies. Rabbits are tough to find. Waterfowl is present for those willing to put in the work and time to draw in birds but finding a place TO do so, flat isn't easy.

Current deer harvest is reported down 3k from last year but still over 110k in total. I can predict though that MY county here in the North central part of the state.........took less deer. I'll be surprised if the count isnt down 20 percent. There just wasnt much shooting going on opening weekend. For decades I counted shots I heard opening day and then, it was almost always near or over 100. I heard 9 opening day this year.

Again, I live out in the country. I have seen exactly ONE antlered buck in 2018.......and not during season. Ten years ago and previous years 4-9 bucks seen opening day (IN the woods) was normal.

Kinda glad I'm old. I hunted the golden era of the hunting fields of Indiana...........but not going to quit.

God Bless
Steve

I rather hoped you'd chime in, Steve. Good to gain your perspective.

I'm seriously, for the first time in my life, hoping to put money back (after my current project.....hehehe) and finding something out of state........maybe try for a moose permit in Maine or something.

Being poor and a hunter.........ugh......not so great.

God Bless
Steve

Hey, we're all pulling for you. Until then, live vicariously through the reports published here.

Too many have decided that hunting has to be a "money maker". I'm Not paying for a "lease" no way. When I was a kid. Farmers and ranchers would let you hunt because they weren't getting "predation" payments from the state, and then charging 150 bucks per gun per day to hunt. Back then if some one let you hunt, you made sure that they got a ham for Christmas or a donation made to the local FD in there name. It wasn't so hard to find a place to hunt. Now, I have grown children and I am pretty much the last generation of my family that will hunt because there are so many rules and regulations and reasons why not, and money dictates that everything gets farmed. No fence lines no road ditches. Further west there is more public land, lots of it, so maybe that helps, but in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Mn. not so much. Sorry Im ranting... CL