hardcastonly

Is anyone else really pissed at the ever increasing licence fees, out of state hunting licences, restricted draw points, fewer over the counter licences and states requiring you to pay in full for licences months in advance, especially when you can,t hunt where you want too for years at a time?
even in a few states theres laws you can,t hunt the same area two years running.
this is always been a financial as much as game numbers, and hunting quality issue but it seems like a damn race to see which state can price the average blue collar guy totally out of hunting.

http://fwp.mt.gov/hunting/licenses/a...dentCombo.html

https://wgfd.wyo.gov/Hunting/WGFD_APPNARRATIVE

http://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pa...esandFees.aspx

https://idfg.idaho.gov/licenses/fees-nonresident

https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/licensing/hunting

flags

I hear the same rant every couple of years. Bottom line is the price on everything has gone up. Most game depts use license fees to fund them. If the cost of doing business for everything goes up then license fees also have to go up.

When I started driving at 16 years old a gallon of unleaded was 48 cents. Today I paid $2.28 for unleaded. Costs for everything else have gone up as well. In 1985 I bought a new Ford F-150 XLT Lariat 4x4 for $10,250. Today that truck would cost at least $40,000. Game depts have to buy vehicles, fuel, radios, airplanes, office supplies, lab eqpt etc... and it all cost more today than it did 5 years ago. Expecting license fees to stay the same isn't logical.

Nobody makes you or I buy a tag. I hunt because I want to and I don't care what it costs, I'll pony up the cash for the tag. I'd rather pay than not play. But to each his/her own. I have had hunters cry about tag fees to me when they go out and buy a new pickup every year. Or have the latest and newest technological gizmo. Or blow a grand or two a year at the dog races. or burn up a bunch of cash by buying booze and tobacco. Yet they cry about some $$$ to hunt. I drive old trucks that are paid off. I have a computer that is 6 years old. I don't own a smartphone. I don't gamble or smoke and I rarely drink. But I do hunt. Priorities my man, priorities.

Oldtimr

Nope, not me, I expect license fees to increase, My state has not had an increase in 20 years and it is a crime that the general assembly in PA will not pass a license increase bill. I don't expect to hunt in 2018 for the same price I paid in 1978. I also expect to pay more for a non resident license than a resident of whatever state I am hunting in does. It really make you shake your head when people think nothing of spending over a grand for a rifle and over $2,000 for a high end crossbow and then bellyache abut having to pay a couple of hundred dollars for a hunting license. Nothing is for nothing.

Flags when I started driving in 1963 gasoline cost 26 cents a gallon and my hunting license cost $5.00, I smoked at that time and a pack of cigs was a quarter.

hardcastonly

I doubt you can find a single state where all the licences total less than $700 and most will cost over $1000 for a deer/and elk combo
I don,t expect prices to remain at the 1960s prices I started with, but now that Im retired spending $2K-$4K on a weeks entertainment takes some of the fun out of the trip.
here in FLORIDA the local resident guys over 65 no longer are required to buy a hunting licence ,
Id love to see some discount in the price for the non-resident guys over 65 even if it was just a couple hundred $

Liv2hunt

To me it's the best purchase of the year! I get more enjoyment out of hunting than almost anything, it's therapeutic and helps me decompress from the stress of owning a construction company. If it's too expensive you must not love it.

hardcastonly

Ive been making the trip most years for almost 50 years now, I love the hunting, but finances are not always what they used to be either.

Oldtimr

You have to learn, you adapt to conditions. Conditions never adapt to you. In PA if you bought all the licenses as a non resident they would not add up to $700.00 and it would be unusual for a non resident to purchase all the license that were offered in another state. If you want to play, you have to pay, if you don't want to pay, don't play, your choice.

flags

I grew up in CO. I used to be able to buy resident elk tags for very little money. I paid less than $70 for a bighorn tag when I shot my ram. But I now live in TX and if I want to hunt CO I pay non-resident fees despite being a CO resident for more than 45 years and still owning property there. But in TX I don't pay any state income taxes and frankly I save a lot more in tax money that I spend in non-resident fees.

You can cry or you can hunt. I'll hunt.

mthusker

First, hunting anywhere is a privilege, let alone hunting a state outside of the one you reside in. I will comment on my state, Montana. Yes, over a $1000 for NR big game combo is high, you know what else is high, state income tax, had over $21,000 withheld this past year for state income tax, true, a small portion will refunded, but still a lot of money, not even counting other state and local taxes. A NR get's by cheap in my opinion. Does NR hunting help our state economy, of course, but you can make the argument that resident hunting suffers from it, I know residents who have been denied tags to certain areas here in Montana, while a NR get's to draw a tag, sorry, to me, that is wrong. Some will say that is greedy thinking, but, who is the greedy one, those wanting to hunt where they live, or those expecting hunting opportunity in other states along with the one they call home?

JoeA

It's a numbers game, spreading increasing costs among a decreasing number of hunters.