[M.T. Pockets]

Fabs, I share your same concerns and agree that the biggest threat to the future of hunting isn't anti-hunters or gun control activists. It is going to be access to hunting land.

I'm a Firearms Safety Instructor and every year there are some enthused 12 year olds in the class and one of them will ask me "Where can I go hunting ?" and I have to tell them that they'll have to ask permission from a landowner, and I hope they know someone, otherwise they're limited to a 40 acre piece of public land somewhere with a dozen or more other hunters.

I'm in rural Minnesota and just 15 years ago I could hunt wherever I asked. Today I'd say I have access to hunt 25% of what I did then. It is wealthy people (mostly from large cities, far away) who have offered these landowners a premium for marginal farmland. I wish I sold "NO TRESPASSING" signs, I'd be rich.

20 years ago I would go to South Dakota and hunt pheasants. I knew some ranchers and would knock on doors and get permission 90% of the time. I wouldn't even attempt it today, the going rate is close to $200 per day.

Things are changing fast, and only speeding up.