Rifle / Bowhunter Trends

[greybark]

The following numbers are from the "Off The Shelf" magazine a Traditional Bowhunters of BC publication.
-- Province of BC - Year 90/91 to 02/03
-- Basic Resident hunting Licenses ----- 110,000 -- 70,000 (a 36% decline)
-- Bowhunters "Checked Boxes" -------- 2,500 -- 9,000 (a 360% increase)
Now lets see - The BCWF is looking hard for new members - Bowhunters are not (WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION) "pun intended"and can easily be found.
Be sure to check those boxes.

REMEMBER -- Keep Your Fingertab On --

[Fred]

I suspect that if the numbers were broken down into years(as in 96,97,9 to date the info might be a bit more enlightening. I do not like the direction the Govts. have taken with regards to the anti-gun laws and have protested by emailing and not buying licences(as in just not hunting). Fred

[greybark]

Hey Fred , I am working off a graph so bear with me.
_Basic Resident Licenses_ _ Bowhunter Checked Boxes_ Year -90/91 110,000 2,500
-91/92 110,000 3,000
-92/93 112,000 4,000
-93/94 102,000 5,000
-94/95 100,000 5,500
-95/96 98,000 6,500
-96/97 92,000 6,300
-97/98 90,000 6,500
-98/99 88,000 7,700
-99/00 82,000 7,800
-00/01 80,000 7,600
-01/02 72,000 8,800
-02/03 72,000 9,000

There are reasons for the Bowhunter check boxes being unchecked , such as issurer not knowing and personnel choice not to do so. This could result in further increases in the Bowhunter numbers.

REMEMBER -- Keep Your Fingertab On --

[Fred]

That sort of answers my question and it looks to me like licence sales have been dropping since roughly C68 and since 95 or 97 the Bowhunters have been gaining ground. Possibly due to similar reasons? It was nice of you to break it down for us GB. Fred

[greybark]

Hey Fred , You may be right. It is interesting that during the three year period 96-98 bowhunter numbers actualy dropped and did`t increase. Some food for thought.

REMEMBER -- Keep Your Fngertab On --

[416]

Enough bow hunters check the appropriate box (l assume the box refers to the one on our hunting license) and the gov't being what they are, may decide sufficient #'s exist to warrent a seperate bow license....or a registry!! In fact my first pal had an endoresment for crossbow, my renewal didn't.....
l won't check the box for the reason mentioned above, even though l bowhunt. l can't see it being of any use to no one except gov't types, who imho already get in to my private life too much!!
l have heard of people switching to bowhunting and alternate means of hunting besides firearms, because they don't have registration requirements to deal with. This could account for part of increase in bowhunters, plus l think the sport is growing......

[Walksalot]

Interesting stats, though the numbers of bowhunters seem to be increasing the participation at the 3D shoots seems be waning.

[willyqbc]

Walksalot, I too have noticed the trend of attendance at 3D shoots being down this year...well for the last couple years actually. there has been much discussion about this at the last few shoots we have been to and the general consensus is that the price of gas has a whole lot to do with this. If you haul your trailer you generally guzzle a whole lot more .98 cent gas...or you end up in a hotel at $70 a night. through no fault of their own the shoots are getting too expensive for people to travel to more than a select few each year. At least the numbers above show a positive trend for one segment of the archery population in this province.

Keep checking off those boxes folks!!
Chris

[greybark]

Hey Walksalot , You are right the 3-d attendance numbers have dropped. I think we bowhunters/archers just saturated the province because of the allure of these events . The total attendance for the year is slightly less then the past only spread out more with the increase in shoots. I feel the 3-d thing is just going through a correction phase.
Particularly with "modern" and to a lesser extent with "traditional' archery I see a lot of new and excited archers spend in the thousands of dollars only to be bettered by an archer with a newer high priced latest high tech bow. Human nature being what it is allows these newbys to give up or become backyard shooters. The annual TBBC Championships this year matched past years numbers with over 100 Traditional archers. I have noticed a slow and steady increase in the numbers of Tradional archers at the 3-D events . In fact at the very succesfull Sagittarious indoor shoot the second largest class was "Traditional Woods" and the forth largest class was "Traditional Other".
The future of 3-D archery is a rosy one and will continue to expand if Clubs use their imagination when setting up courses.

REMEMBER -- Keep Your Fingertab On --

[Fred]

I agree with the fuel cost and the registration angles (which was my original thought). I would have loved to be at the Penticton and the Summerland 3D shoots this year but my business has dropped off horribly and I am struggling to pay the monthly bills, never mind indulging this archery bug! Ah well, we shall endeavour to perservere! Fred