Good hunting opportunities may be dwindling and antihunters may be putting more pressure on hunters these days, but according to Jim we can actively make sure hunting has a bright future.

Some of the fondest memories I have of my childhood were the times I spent wandering the hills and creeks of central Texas with my single-shot Stevens 20 gauge. Back in those days (you'll notice I'm not being real specific about exactly how long ago that was) we longed for the weekend to arrive so we could pack up our gear and hit the woods.

At first, of course, my parents were reluctant to let me take a gun and go out on my own. I had to show them that I knew gun safety and was grown up enough to practice it. This was the first inkling I had about serious responsibility and promises. But since there were so many creeks that needed exploring I figured that I could make a deal--and keep it. My friends and I hunted squirrels and rabbits and doves when they were in season. We supplemented our fare with fish from the creeks and wild grapes from the creek banks. The deal I made was about gun safety, not eating a balanced diet.

My family moved to San Antonio, and my buddies and I would tie our guns to the handlebars of our bicycles and ride down Babcock Avenue to the edge of town. I don't recall any of us carrying our guns in cases on those jaunts. They were just fastened to the handlebars for the world to see. Nobody much cared. A policeman stopped us once, but what he wanted was to mooch a few of the cottontail rabbits we'd collected. We fixed him up, assured him that our guns were unloaded, and he let us go on our way.

Texas has very little public land, so our hunting trips were always on private property. Back in those days it wasn't difficult to get permission to hunt and camp on private land. You simply went up to the ranch house, introduced yourself, and asked permission to traverse the land. It was amazing how many landowners were happy to have us on their places. In return we often shared our game with them and always left our campsites spotless. Those were the unwritten, important rules: Always leave a campsite spotless and be very careful of fire, clean your own game, and eat what you shoot. Those rules stick with me even today, and I tend to judge a hunting party by the kind of camp they keep.

But as with many other things, the face of hunting in America is changing. Public land is seeing more and more use, and game, especially trophy animals, is getting harder to find in these areas. I'm sure there are still places in this country where hunters can hunt on private land, but that aspect of our sport is fading.

When I was a kid my home state of Texas reported having some two million deer. Rio Grande turkey, which had just about died out in the drought of the 1950s, were small in number. In the intervening years, however, that picture has changed considerably. Latest reports indicate that Texas has in excess of four million deer, and the wild turkey has made a remarkable comeback. Due to the lack of public lands, this comeback could not have happened without the cooperation of farmers and ranchers. This is just another indication that the American farmer and rancher are the greatest conservationists in our time.