Maybe, but I still do.

I'm 23 and i enjoy small game hunting the most. Deer hunting is my least favorite. I believe i have a patience problem. The reason I think that small game is my favorite, is that i honestly just like to take walks through the woods. If i don't shoot anything, that's ok with me.

I wish I could find a place to walk through the woods and hunt small game - within an hour of home.

Small game hunting is by far my favorite hunting. Nothing beats a day a field with the shotgun.

Today was our Squirrel opener (9/1/16). I shot a limit of 6 in about 3 hours. Never heard another shot even when I got back to the house and was outside. Way back when (50's and 60's) opening day was a big deal. We would go early and sleep in the car to hold our spot. Rabbit hunting is a little more popular but not much. Don't care I love it. I live on a small river that's low right now.When it comes up we'll do a float for em.

Sounds like you had a great day, Mike! I spent the day in corporate meetings and 3 hours in interstate traffic.

You win!

You had to hunting for those little tree rats? My neighbor has shot more than 75 this summer in his back yard and they are still stripping his fruit trees.

As you can see by my low post number I don't post to often, thought I'd give it a go and bump this thread. I hunt with a small group, I'm the baby at 67, the oldest is 83.....and he still carries a 12GA A-5, granted we only go out for two or three hours. Big game is of no interest to me, sold all the centerfire rifles, my three shotguns serve me well for small game and birds, use an old Glenfield Model 25 .22 some days, found this little gem near new for $100 a few season ago.

Have a cousin back in north Alabama that is hard core after the squirrels. Uses mountain cur dogs and hunts off a mule. There is still a good number involved in this endeavor as Vance regularly makes the rendezvous hunts in north Mississippi and where the White and Arkansas rivers meet in SE Arkansas.

I would agree that the rack-mania aspect of deer hunting may well be the ultimate ruination of all hunting. Guys paying large sums to shoot a buck in an enclosure (high fence operations) hand raised from a doe that'd been AI'd is likened to sex with a condom.

I love sitting under a shade tree watching the sky for doves as well as shuffling around in the woods looking for squirrels. I'm in my early 40's so hopefully I have many more years of small game hunting left ahead of me. While we may not be a dying breed we are definitely a rare one. I don't personally have any friends, save one, who would be considered small game hunters. Most all of the hunters I know are into either deer or hogs. A few have hunted doves and even ducks before but no squirrel or rabbit hunters at all that I know of. The one small game hunter I do know is up there in years and doesn't get out much anymore. But oh how I love to listen to his stories from days past.

I wouldn’t say dying per se, we’re just fewer and far between. I’m 28, started off hunting big game because it was “the cool” thing to do. I met an older gentleman who knew I hunted and wanted to know if I would be interested in running beagles and hunting rabbits. Of course I was. I’ve been hooked on small game ever since. I still enjoy the occasional deer hunt, but I’d always much rather take my beagle out and hunt rabbits now. I believe less people get into small game because it’s not as glorified and you don’t get that “trophy” that proves you got the big one. Small game is more humble in my opinion.

I'm 22 and I've (largely unsuccessfully) hunted squirrels/rabbits by myself on public land since I was 17.

I was self taught too, I just wanted something to hunt and give me a reason to wander the woods in the fall.

As a senior I look forward to opening day more each year!

Our squirrel and rabbit season opens on the first Saturday in October, which is 10/6/18 this year. I’m hoping the weather cools down a little by then but, either way, I’ll be in the woods with my 16ga Ithaca 37.

OP, i totally agree with you, elk hunters, deer hunter, bear hunting here and there but not much squirrel and rabbit hunters but that's what makes it a lot of fun. i can't remember when i set out to hunt rabbits that i didn't get at least 7 or more rabbits. but i have seen people try to hunt deers and got nothing. i have seen two hunters fight over who's gonna take the dead deer meat because they both shot it.

This thread has been one of the best reads. Thanks everyone. I'm embarrassed to say that I don't hunt the local squirrels and rabbits here which are so abundant. There are days when the local bunnies are playing in the road on my way to work in the morning. They're like street gangs. I think the reason it never occurred to me to hunt them is because my wife and I both work. Meat is relatively innexpensive at the local grocery. And she thinks they are all potential pets. She's got a soft spot for small fluffy things. We have two small indoor cats. I don't know. I just didn't grow up doing it even though I was raised on a pear orchard where small game was abundant. Like I said I'm just embarrassed. I love rimfire cartridges. I'm 35. I just never needed to I guess.

I was never much of a squirrel hunter but rabbits chased by Beagles and Basset hounds are some of the best memories I have.

That was before all the land around here got cut up into country castle estates and the purple fence posts and No Trespassing signs went up.

Growing up we didn't have near the deer we do now. The first day of squirrel season was always a big deal, as was the first day of rabbit and pheasant season. You'd hear shots going off all over the mountain or farmland.

Now, we have loads of deer. No pheasants. Hawks everywhere. Houses and posted signs all over. No body owns much less hunts rabbits with dogs anymore. And squirrels everywhere. No one hunts them and I am as guilty as anyone. Most people who hunt deer don't want anyone messing up their deer hunting. I love to bowhunt deer and don't take the time to chase squirrels. Until last year. Started hunting them again before the rut and late season. Like to get out with some of the older hunters that still love to hunt and eat them but can't get around like they used to .

I am 32 and haven't small game hunted in a number of years. But I'm recently getting back into it. Having a couple of kids slowed it down. My oldest daughter like shooting her BB gun. And she will be carrying this Sunday when we go out squirrel hunting. But as for why some others are getting out of it. I think the social media lifestyle of "my" generation has a lot to do with it. It seems like people like looking at stuff that other people are doing rather than going and doing it themselves. It's real boring in the break trailer when everyone even most of the old guys are staring down at their phones. So I'll say," its Facebooks fault!" By the way I've never had any social media in my life. And I've turned out alright! Sort of...

I took my 2nd cousin with me this Sunday on a hunt on public land. I'm 45, and he is 16.
Not many squirrel hunters here. They love the deer and turkey.
We saw three deer, three squirrels, and a chipmunk. Also, on the other side of the border of the land we saw a feeder and a building with a window. Back toward the car we saw a tree stand strapped to a tree on the public land itself.

There are plenty of squirrels in there, but they are very wiley, and it was windy that day, one week after deer gun gun season.