But, do you really think hunters are getting priced out of hunting as a whole? Maybe, moving towards more getting priced out of some western hunting I can see, but plenty of other opportunities.
As an example anyone can decide to come to WI as a NR on a whim and buy deer tags OTC for $160 gets you a buck tag and depending on area up to 2 doe tags. Doe tags (dependent on area) can be bought unlimited for $20 a tag.
I don't know if anyone is getting priced out right now or not. Probably there are plenty of people who are priced out of the hunt they want, but not priced out of hunting--and so I agree with you that, if what you want to do is hunt, and you don't much care what animal or where, there are almost certainly still opportunities within everyone's budget.
What I'm saying, and I think Togie and others are saying, is that we need to be thoughtful about raising prices--does it benefit the wildlife? does it harm people who are the best conservationists? does it create perverse incentives? etc.
Sure, affordable opportunities still exist. But they're going away. That's the point. They might exist today, but there are fewer today than yesterday, and it's not just because we're not doing a good job of growing the resource.
So when you hear me say things like "priced out," I'm saying: there are fewer and fewer and fewer affordable opportunities. And once they all disappear, we will be. And moreover, if we're going to charge more for tags, to residents or non-residents or whoever, let's not just do it willy-nilly.