I thought about posting this in the hunting forum, but decided it would be better in the Lounge, as a caution to y'all that are regular hunters. So to the point:
I'm not so sure that millions more new hunters all of sudden is a good thing. Wild game isn't unlimited, for starters. Then there's the first timers who tend to shoot at anything that moves resulting in a higher likelihood of wounded critters and other people. That plus the public land will be more crowded. And I'd bet there will be a lot more uninvited poachers hitting public and private land, with or without a license. I have some serious concerns about that last possibility, for the first time in my life. What lives on my land is mine and I will defend it to the best of my ability. All of my rural neighbors feel the same way.
The article:
Excerpt:
https://nypost.com/2020/05/03/americans ... shortages/
More Americans are turning to hunting during the coronavirus pandemic — and amid fears of nationwide food shortages after meat plants were forced to halt operations over outbreaks.
“People are starting to consider self-reliance and where their food comes from,” Hank Forester of Quality Deer Management Association said, adding that he believes there will be a hunting resurgence over empty grocery store shelves.
Outbreaks have recently caused at least three major meat producers — Tyson Foods, JBS USA and Smithfield Foods — to shutter more than a dozen plants across the nation.
Meanwhile, some states have seen a jump in hunting licenses — including Indiana, where there was a 28% increase in turkey hunting license sales during the first week of the season.
Game and fish agencies from Minnesota to New Mexico have seen an increase in either hunting license sales or permit applications.
Nina Stafford, a building contractor from Fayetteville, Georgia, killed her first deer in January, but has come to see hunting as a viable alternative if stores are hit with shortages over the closures.
