[Jeff Higgins]

My German grandpa ("opa") was quite the hunter in his day. Wild boar were his favorite game, but he enjoyed picking up the odd bird now and again while walking into his boar stand. This was in btween wars Germany, and in post WWII Germany. He was only allowed one gun, so he had a beautiful Dreiling, often miss-translated as "drilling". It had three barrels; a pair of 12 gauge with a rifle barrel underneath, between them. It cost as much as his car, and his hunt club membership cost what most would consider a reasonable monthly mortage payment. He was fairly well-to-do, I guess.

His dire warning to me was to never let America turn into Europe, as far as the hunting situation. Well, sorry folks, but it has. The commercialization of hunting has taken root. While we can still hunt on public land, in many states it is just not worth it. Overcrowding, limited "public" lands, short seasons, heavy handed game departments, and on and on. Having access to quality hunting here in the U.S. now all too often entails joining a hunting club with a private lease. My opa had no choice; public land hunting died in Europe before he was born. I see the same thing happening here a generation or two down the road.

Eventually it will only be the Cheneys and the rest of the connected, monied elite that effectively retain their hunting rights. Sure, game departments will still sell licenses and tags, and there will be places to "hunt". But they will be the most uninhabitable, game poor sections of public land left. Much of Washington is like this already; our game department sells tags and operates hunting seasons in units where there simply is no game. On the flip side, it establishes hunts in units that are primarily private land, where the land owners have discovered the financial windfall of the "trespass fee". These fees can run into the $5k-$10k per season per person range in our more desirable areas.

And then there is the technology race. ATV's to carry those too lazy to walk deep into the woods. Range finders to tell you how far away the game is, and scopes with reticles designed to allow the "hunter" to hold precisely for that range. Now we have "hunters" shooting game at 732 LAZERED yards and riding over hill and dale to retrieve that game on their "Japanese mules". All the while bragging up what a "tough" hunt it was.

While my opa would never had predicted this, his warnings ring true about the privatization and dwindling access we see today. Combine the private hunt clubs with today's technology, and you have the modern "hunter" being driven around in specially built "hunting cars" by paid staff, who know exactly where the game is behind the high fences. They have thermal imaged them early in the morning, before the clients are up for the day. "Look, sir - there's one - he's a good one - about 568 yards away - hold two dots up - wind speed is 11 mph at 4:00 - the computer says hold one dot left..."