Wow.. is it expensive to hunt nowdays or what?

[The Hedgehog]

Reluctantly, I've decided to pass on my chance to hunt NM Desert Sheep. The license fee is about $3000, and to be honest, I'd rather stay home and save a little money... not to mention my wife would be very unhappy about the expense.

To make things worse, I went to the local sporting goods store and decided to buy my 2005 hunting licenses. Picked up my conservation, bow and arrow license, upland bird and waterfowl, deer, elk, black bear, mountain lion, and 2 turkey tags.. Jeeze.. at $106 I think I may have to consider sitting home and watching TV. This is getting out of hand!!! hump

 

[noharleyyet]

Your sarcasm is dripping all over this envious Texan.

 

[mtmiller]

I hear you GH. We have it pretty good here. I saw on another board a couple months ago how we need to increase NR tags because it was getting too expensive for the residents in MT. |oo What a joke.

Hell, I spent $45 to fill my tank yesterday. Hunting in MT is cheap recreation compared to most activities today.

 

[YourRoyalHighness]

I think my non-resident MT upland bird license was more than your fist full of tags for everything that walks/flies in MT.

Should MTFWP cater to me more than you???

 

[Oak]

Hell, I spent $45 to fill my tank yesterday.

Wow, you guys must have cheap gas, too.

Oak

 

[The Hedgehog]

Miller, you'd think the FWP could manage a budget with some reasonable adjustments. Doubling the price of all resident licenses would still be a great bargain. Maybe whack the outfitter sponsored licenses and put them right back into the non-resident drawing pool. I think they should allow non-residents to apply for all the permits residents can, and it would be more fair to change the cap to a set-aside like WY. Did you see that Taulman considers our deer A and general elk licenses as "poor quality."

YourRoyalQueerness why should anybody cater toward you? It was your choice to buy an expensive bird license. It's supply and demand. Who is it that needs the econ lesson? When the tags undersubscribed they might be charging too much. If it's too expensive for you, don't apply or get a better job.

NM desert sheep are too expensive for me so I'm not going to apply. Are they charging too much? Check out how many applicants there are. Even though the sheep live on federal land, it would be queer to whine and file a lawsuit like your hero Boy George.

I just sent over a grand to WY. I don't expect to be catered to, I just hope to draw.

 

[Ithaca 37]

GH, $106 for your license and tags! Must work out to about 10 cents an hour for your hunting time!

 

[Oak]

Maybe whack the outfitter sponsored licenses and put them right back into the non-resident drawing pool.

That's the best idea I've heard on here all day.

Oak

 

[Nemont]

GH,
Just wait till you kids starts hunting then it gets REALLY expensive. Hell it costs me $35 to take my crew to a movie. Hunting is a relative bargain.

I thought the FWP was going to double all the tags or something like that. I a buying them anyway so it doesn't really matter.

YRH- The bad part is that you didn't even shoot any upland birds when you were out.


Nemont

 

[YourRoyalHighness]

Greenhole,

I think you might finally be starting to understand the issue. If you send a $1000 (how many hours of overtime at the Fanci-Freeze was that???) to Wyoming, you kind of feel you should have a "chance" to draw. If Wyoming puts in artificial barriers to you drawing, eventually you will send your $1000 somewhere else. And if you get pissed enough, who knows, you might even want to see their F&G commission slapped up side the head. Your $1000 is the revenue equivalent of 10 locals, plus you drop another $50 per day on cheap Bud Light and 87 Octane gas for the '77 Chev Pick-up....

Nemont,
I did pass on them big Sage Chickens you had running around there.... And there is always next time....

 

[The Hedgehog]

Queerness, You are finally correct about one thing, I will drink Bud Light.

$50 worth would last me a few weeks though.

 

[cjcj]

You guys really have it made, up in Montana/Idaho/Wyoming etc.....If i don`t get a decent tag in the next couple of years...I may have to move.

 

[1_pointer]

I guess MT has to compromise for the state's economy somehow. Go get 'em guys! I'll be sending my $340 to MT here shortly to subsidize you welfare hunters!!! Oh, and to ID, WY, OR, CO, and possibly AZ and NV!!! Gotta spread the love!

 

[SageGhost]

gotta love the idaho resident sportsmans package for 107$$$ putting in for antlered moose too !

 

[ELKCHSR]

$106
The price has gone up drastically...
I would say the 10-12 weeks total thru the year in the backcountry would put this at a pretty good bargain; it will cost me more in gas to do the running to the places I like to visit. That adds up to only five visits to the Movie Theater over the course of a year...

 

[MarvB]

Picked up my conservation, bow and arrow license, upland bird and waterfowl, deer, elk, black bear, mountain lion, and 2 turkey tags.. Jeeze.. at $106

Ahhhh....to have cheap tags AND animals to hunt, a guy can only dream....

:BLEEP: dang Greeny for that a local out here could only buy himself a license and a "chance" at two boney blacktails ....wish these kids would grow up so I can join cjcj in the move

 

[mtmiller]

Miller, you'd think the FWP could manage a budget with some reasonable adjustments. Doubling the price of all resident licenses would still be a great bargain. Maybe whack the outfitter sponsored licenses and put them right back into the non-resident drawing pool. I think they should allow non-residents to apply for all the permits residents can, and it would be more fair to change the cap to a set-aside like WY. Did you see that Taulman considers our deer A and general elk licenses as "poor quality."

I agree 100%, as long as there are still plenty of dollars for Block Management.

I do agree with Talman though. No big critters in general MT hunt areas. I would suggest he and his fans don't waste their time up here.

 

[Nemont]

Well it is going to be going up in the future.

March 3, 2005

FWP license fees to increase
Associated Press

HELENA - Montana sportsmen will have a better idea next week how much hunting and fishing license fees will rise over the next two years when a House committee is expected to choose between two options for increasing the prices.

One of the proposals would raise the fees once next year, generating an additional $3.5 million annually to keep the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks in the black through mid-2009. The other would increase rates a second time in 2007 to produce a combined effect of $4.1 million more per year and sustain the agency financially through 2011.

The options were devised by a special subcommittee of the House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee, which earlier had hearings of two bills proposing license fee increases.


Rep. Jill Cohenour, an East Helena Democrat who worked on the alternatives, said Wednesday the two-year option is intended to be a compromise for those lawmakers who balked at boosting the prices all at once in a single year.

Both subcommittee alternatives retain discounted prices for licenses available to young, disabled and older hunters, she noted.

The average increase for all licenses in 2006 would be $7.60. The average increase under the two-year proposal would be $8.30. Only the senior combination license would decrease, from $56.25 to $55.

Chris Smith, chief of staff for the department, said the agency prefers the two-step increase because it is a less severe approach than imposing the entire increase in one year.

"In purchasing most goods and services, we are used to gradual but steady increases," he said. "This brings licensing pricing more in line with everything else."

Smith said enacting the two increases now would mean the department's budget will remain solvent for six years instead of just four. Also, fish and game officials probably would not have to return for another round of fee raises until the 2011 Legislature, he said.

Without a fee increase of some kind by this legislative session, the department will be $3 million short of what is needed for existing programs by 2009 and that deficit will grow to $14.5 million by 2011, Smith said.

The increase is being sought now because of the delay between approval from the Legislature and when the money is collected, he said.

For example, a fee increase authorized for 2006 would not take affect until the new license year begins March 1 of next year, and the full benefit of that increase would not be realized until early 2007.

Waiting to request increases from the 2007 Legislature would mean money from higher fees would not be collected in time to prevent the department's budget from going into the red, Smith said.



Copyright © 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

 

[Erik in AK]

For $25 my Alaska resident license allows me to take the following:
1 moose
1 dall sheep
1 mountain goat
1 to 3 black bears (depends on GMU)
1 to 5 caribou (depends on GMU)
4 Sitka blacktail deer
5 wolves
1 wolverine
all small game and upland birds

Bison are available via Drawing Permits

For another $25 you can kill a grizzly every year or every 4 years (depends on GMU)
Musk Ox are $500

I should've said allows me to "pursue"... In my case I've come really close often but killed rarely (ok once)
(I mean we all can't be Greenhorn)

 

[GatoMan]

Heck I just bought a new bow and I am already pushing towards 900 bucks just in the bow, sights, rest etc......but thats only chump change for what I have spent in hound hunting the last 10 yrs. I replaced all my old tracking system this last fall with new reciever and collars...came to about 1700 bucks. Hunting is an expensive hobby.