Are we a dying breed?

A

airmedic1

Active member
I was saddened to see that Uplanders Warehouse went out of business. They were a good company to do business with and they had a lot of items.
I was in four Cabelas in the month of December and was dismayed at how little upland bird hunting clothing they had. A few coats and a vest or two, nothing like they used to. It's tough to find good high quality bird hunting clothing and it seems to be getting harder every year.
Everywhere I look I see camo this and that but nothing with orange except for deer hunters.
Is upland hunting dying?
I for one will keep going out but it doesn't appear that many are joining our ranks.

AM
 
Whenever I want to find some good upland hunting gear I more than often find it online. In general, when I am in a hunting and fishing store, there is always more deer hunting stuff, and that's not just recently. I guess it depends on what part of the country your in.
 
I have hunting clothes that I owned for 20 years or more. Rather stitch than replace if the item is well made.

My vest is at least 10 years old and I hunt grouse and pheasants plenty.

The only items that wear out for me are pants and boots.

LLBean has three or four different types of upland hunting pants. I would take a look there if you need a pair.

I prefer to wear jeans and throw on a pair of Gore-Tex pants if the grass is wet or snow above my ankles.
 
To answer the opening poster's question, IMO I'd say "yes we are a dying breed." I don't see many people younger than 40 years old getting into the sport. Deer, turkey, and waterfowl - now that's a different story.
 
Frank C said:
To answer the opening poster's question, IMO I'd say "yes we are a dying breed." I don't see many people younger than 40 years old getting into the sport. Deer, turkey, and waterfowl - now that's a different story.
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Well with a state like Nebraska that pheasants forever has done more then our own state agency. I love upland and will always but with no support of our state that has loads of money. Waterfowl will always be around. Plus ducks geese deer turkey have proved they can live with humans. Where humans have taking where quail and pheasants live.
 
Upland4Ever said:
Well with a state like Nebraska that pheasants forever has done more then our own state agency. I love upland and will always but with no support of our state that has loads of money. Waterfowl will always be around. Plus ducks geese deer turkey have proved they can live with humans. Where humans have taking where quail and pheasants live.
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I am a Upland hunter forever.
 
airmedic1 said:
I was saddened to see that Uplanders Warehouse went out of business. They were a good company to do business with and they had a lot of items.
I was in four Cabelas in the month of December and was dismayed at how little upland bird hunting clothing they had. A few coats and a vest or two, nothing like they used to. It's tough to find good high quality bird hunting clothing and it seems to be getting harder every year.
Everywhere I look I see camo this and that but nothing with orange except for deer hunters.
Is upland hunting dying?
I for one will keep going out but it doesn't appear that many are joining our ranks.

AM
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OMG! :eek: the Cabela's store i frequent is loaded....but NE hunting sucks!...so i imagine they don't stock much.
 
Yes, we are a dying breed. My hunting buddy and I were just talking about it Friday as we were on our way back from bird hunting. Walked and walked and think we pulled the trigger twice. We both teach and the kids just don't bird hunt now a days. A few, but nothing like it was 10-15 years ago. Pheasant hunting is hard work and most (not all) kids don't want to work for things. There is no "easy" button with pheasant hunting and for most of the kids that's the first thing they look for, the "easy" button.
 
There's plenty of people out on the public around me when I go out. Usually after Thanksgiving it's a ghost town but this year I've seen people every time out. Seems like more were out this year than last around here. Not sure about the ages of those out but the numbers I would say are up.
 
Shorthairs you and I live pretty close and I agree with your thoughts. I'm not the biggest fan of the WDNR, but hey have done a fine job in increasing the amount of stocked birds, which generates interest.

I was really hoping for some bitter cold to freeze up the cattail marshes as I've done okay late in the year when I could hunt those. Tough hunting but sure is fun. Are you hitting local PHGs? Any luck? I may try Scuppernong tomorrow.
 
No doubt. Deer and duck hunting have taken all the space in the sporting goods stores here. The only Cabela's I have been in that had a good one is Mitchell Sd. The reason we have seen more late season hunters has more to do with the weather than anything else. It was 60 degrees mid december and there were still quite a few hunters out. Typically when I hunt there in december it is pretty thin. Having two boys I will tell you there is a lot more to stimulate them now than when many of us were kids. Between Iphones and gaming systems they do like it easy at times. I have made sure to get them out fishing,camping and hunting as much as I can, but sometimes I feel like it is a losing battle.
 
519vx said:
Shorthairs you and I live pretty close and I agree with your thoughts. I'm not the biggest fan of the WDNR, but hey have done a fine job in increasing the amount of stocked birds, which generates interest.

I was really hoping for some bitter cold to freeze up the cattail marshes as I've done okay late in the year when I could hunt those. Tough hunting but sure is fun. Are you hitting local PHGs? Any luck? I may try Scuppernong tomorrow.
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I'm through for the season. Yesterday was my last day out. I was hitting the PHGs except for yesterday. I was lucky enough to have an opportunity to hunt some private.
 
I find hunting clothing by looking around the internet rather than going to stores. You never what the store will have and they have upland inventory shortages depending on the time of year.
 
I also have a hard time finding decent upland hunting or gun deer hunting clothes. The selection for camo clothes for bow hunting or duck hunting is outstanding, but need something in blaze orange and it's a different story.
 
I have only been at this for the last twenty years but I think the the number of bird hunters increases with the rise of bird numbers and decreases when the numbers fall. Case in point is SD. The only state that year in and year out that produces daily bag limits is always a mad house on opening weekend. Then you have the die hards like us. We eat, live and breath the game. We will allways be there promise of a limit or the promise of a single point. I have always said that the day I am disappointed after a day of hunting behind my dogs is the day I take up golfing.
 
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