Why Hunters Quit Hunting

It's Not Just About the Land

Tuesday is "podcast night" for the Okayest Hunter podcast. I needed a topic to discuss without a scheduled guest lined up. I genuinely am curious about why some hunters give up hunting. What better way to explore this than with our listeners on our live stream podcast?

Let’s start with the obvious.

It’s easy to point to lost land access as the smoking gun behind declining hunting participation in the U.S. And, undoubtedly, a big one—52% of ex-hunters in Pennsylvania cited it as their reason for quitting. If you zoom out and listen closely, you’ll realize that’s only the tip of the iceberg. The real picture is way messier and far more relatable.

It's Never Just One Thing

It’s rarely one thing that pulls someone away from the woods. As one of us said during the show, it’s not usually a single event. It’s a slow unraveling. The reasons stack up: life transitions, family obligations, career demands, rising costs, confusing regulations, shifting ethics.

“There are always several factors that play into it. It’s never just one thing.” 

When Life Happens, Hunting Slows Down

Kids, careers, mortgages, it’s the usual suspects.

Hunting takes time, money, and energy, all of which are in short supply when you're juggling bedtime routines and back-to-back meetings. Some of us haven’t hit that phase yet, but we’ve seen it firsthand. Sometimes I wondered if I just haven't hit that phase of life yet where it’s been deprioritized enough that I don’t have time for it. 

It’s not just young families that are leaving the deer woods.

As folks age, injuries and health issues creep in. The drive to grind for a big buck after decades of hunting can fade. Sometimes, it’s not about being done with hunting, it’s just about being done with hunting that way. Some of us know the all-or-nothing mentality all too well, and if we feel like we can't go 100%, then it feels like, why bother? 

The Financial Reality of Chasing Deer

Then there's the cost.

Gear, tags, travel. It adds up fast, especially for someone trying to get started. Imagine dropping a thousand bucks just to get rolling, only to show up on public land and find a parking lot full of trucks. Not exactly the solo wilderness vibe YouTube promised. According to Deer & Deer Hunter, high cost is one of the most cited deterrents for lapsed hunters.

That cost hits new hunters hardest. But even veterans feel the pinch when gear gets pricey and tags double overnight. And don’t even get us started on out-of-state hunts.

Red Tape and Regulation Fatigue

Add to that the labyrinth of regulations, permits, and ordinances, and it’s no wonder folks get overwhelmed. “When you don’t know what you don’t know, it’s really hard to figure out what you ought to know.” A discharge permit just to shoot a bow on your own land? Some of these rules are so niche and fragmented, it feels like you need a legal team to go hunting in your own backyard.

The Slow Death of Deer Camp

But it’s not just about the rules, it’s about the culture. Rural land is disappearing. Deer camp is fading. What was once a weekend full of chili and card games is now a solo mission to outsmart a hitlist buck. The community aspect of hunting, the part that made it feel like ours, has been traded for individualism, access leases, and exclusive trail cam intel. "It became more about this personal goal to get this buck. And that kind of took away from the community of hunting." said Derek on the podcast. 

At Okayest Hunter, we’re not here to gatekeep, we’re here to grill, play Euchre, and maybe even shoot a deer. Our goal is to lift up that nostalgic deer camp ethos where everyone’s welcome, nobody’s an expert, and the only competition is who brought the best snacks. 

The R3 Paradox: More Hunters, Less Room

And then there's the paradox we can't ignore: if access is the problem, how does recruiting more people help? It’s the R3 trap—recruit, retain, reactivate—built with good intentions but not enough elbow room.

“If we recruit too many people in, it exhausts the resource and crowds it, and therefore people have a bad experience—existing and new—and thus they fall back off.” We’re not saying don’t recruit. We’re saying don’t recruit without also solving the access problem. Right now, we’re just shoving more quarters into a busted arcade machine, hoping something magical falls out.

So What Now?

The solution isn’t easy, but these are some thoughts we had: 

• Fix access: Encourage cooperative land use, reward landowners, and support urban/suburban hunting opportunities if possible. 
• Decentralize the focus: Encourage small game, turkey, and upland hunting, not just big bucks, to help act as a relief valve. 
• Simplify the process: Make it easier for people to get involved and feel confident they’re doing it right. Easier said than done. But some regulations are so complex it really can become a hurdle that some hunters just refuse to navigate. 
• Rebuild community: Hunting shouldn’t feel like a solo grind. It should feel like deer camp. Can we bring back more physical registration stations? 

What's our place in all this? We believe Okayest Hunter exists to make this whole thing feel less intimidating and more inviting. Whether it’s through a laugh on a podcast, a giveaway that helps folks gear up, or just saying what every hunter is already thinking, we’re here to make sure the campfire never dies out.

At the end of the day, what keeps people in this thing isn’t inches of antler (at least it should be about more than that) it’s connection. To the land. To each other. To something bigger than ourselves.

Published May 7th 2025 by Eric Clark