Hunting's Bind of Less Space and Time

Luke, a junior at Brentsville High School who shot his first buck at age 11, said he doesn't talk about hunting much with his friends at school. "I just kind of keep it to myself," he said. "Some people who grow up in the suburbs haven't been around hunting much, so they might not understand."

The Wattses' access to a large tract of private land is luxury. In national surveys on hunting access, the commonwealth ranks among the bottom quarter of states, said Mark Damian Duda, executive director of Responsive Management, a Virginia-based research firm that gathers data for state and federal wildlife agencies.

"The more a state becomes urban, the fewer hunters a state has," Duda said.

Cultural changes are the other component of the trend, but public perceptions of hunting have not soured, Duda said. Survey data indicate the opposite: Public support for hunting is increasing as some suburban residents begin viewing deer as a nuisance. And the hunting photo op continues to be a mainstay of political campaigns in Virginia and elsewhere, Duda noted.

Instead, the cultural change is one of increasing social fragmentation, he said.

As young men leave rural areas in search of work, the "social support system" of the hunting culture breaks down. Fathers die. Sons move away and lack the time or space to pass on the tradition. "It's the erosion of the small hunting unit," Duda said.

Culpeper County resident Josh Tamplin, 26, has seen it happen to his hunting club. "Last year, we had 15 or 20 guys go out," he said. "This year, it was like four or five.

"The way things are going, I don't believe there's going to be any hunting around here in 25 years." Most of the guys in the club are much older, he said, and it has been hard to get friends his age interested in the sport.

"It's something I love to do, but it's just trickling away," he said.

National studies have found that the average age of hunters has risen to the mid-40s. "Hunters are getting older and older, and we're not recruiting enough young people to the sport," said Nicholas Throckmorton, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The sport is flourishing among one group, however: women. According to the National Rifle Association, 2.4 million women went hunting in 2005, a 72 percent increase from 2001. Women make up 16 percent of active hunters, with 18- to 24-year-olds the fastest-growing group.

The number of disabled hunters is also increasing, elevated by programs such as Wheelin' Sportsmen and Deer Hunt for the Disabled in Fauquier County, which offers wheelchair-accessible trails and deer stands, some with electric lifts.

But children and teenagers are the main focus of efforts to reverse hunting's decline.

Families Afield, a program devised by the National Shooting Sports Foundation and other groups, is working to lift restrictions in 20 states that limit hunting to children 12 and older. The program ranks Virginia the 28th most restrictive state for youth access to hunting; Maryland ranks 25th.

Attracting more teens is another objective, resulting in promotional efforts such as Xtreme Jakes, a flashy magazine and Web site run by the National Wild Turkey Federation. Redolent of a Mountain Dew commercial, the site advertises youth hunting events and features an "Are you an Xtreme Jake?" top 10 list. (No. 3: You'd rather bag a turkey in the woods than on your video game.)

"It's got to be a cool thing to do," said Rob Keck, chief executive of the federation. Xtreme Jakes (for teens 13 to 17) and Jakes (12 and younger) have 217,000 members, Keck said.

"I think there is a real need to be in line with what turns young people on," he said. "They've got to feel good about it and say, 'I want to be cool.' "