Globally, the future of recreational hunting is threatened mostly because it is misunderstood. Usually people who oppose hunting because it is a 'blood sport' have lived their sheltered lives in big cities. It is happening with fox hunting in the UK right now and is ongoing with duck shooting here in Australia, at least in those states where it remains legal. Likewise, agitators in the United States continue to spread the twin lies that our kangaroo populations are approaching extinction and that the industry established to harvest them is cruel. The fact that neither argument can be logically sustained is irrelevant.
Scientific argument is useless because science has a vested interest.
Science exploits animals for research. Hunting, at its most fundamental, seeks to harvest a surplus from nature. The game animals are already there and those that are not taken by hunters will die from other, usually more painful, causes. Tree huggers' who slander hunters and seek to protect all things from harm are themselves actually doing a great deal of harm by reducing the hunting effort. Consider the fate of white-tailed deer in the United States, red deer in Scotland or kangaroos in this country.