Is the COVID Boom In New Hunters Over?
A report released last year by the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports documented a 4.9% increase in hunting license sales from 2019 to 2020. One of the few bright spots of COVID is that it produced a rekindled interest in deer hunting across the United States as people sought to get outside, do something new and try to harvest their own food. To continue monitoring the pandemic’s impact on hunting, the Council revisited this study in early 2022 to identify ongoing changes and emerging trends in hunters’ rates of license purchases. Working with survey experts Southwick Associates, the Council collected monthly resident and nonresident hunting license sales data from 46 state wildlife agencies to compare 2021 [...]