Indian Summer
WKR
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2013
- Messages
- 2,271
How much would you pay for an elk license? In other words is there a limit? Is there a point where you’d say nope... for that much money I’m out?
I read the threads about license prices going up. Draw odds going down. Idaho is limiting non resident elk hunting. Colorado units went to a draw. Montana is looking at bringing back outfitter sponsored licenses. The bottom line is demand far outnumbers the supply. And the cost of game management goes up just like gas and pickup trucks. So we’d all be fools if we didn’t accept the fact that the cost of elk tags will keep climbing as well.
I think about the new hunters. The guys who at some point said to their deer hunting buddies “Hey what do you guys think about doing an elk hunt somewhere?” To them the cost of a license is what it is. They don’t have anything to compare to like the guys who have been at it for 20 or 30 years or more. Will the rising cost of licenses deter them from sticking with it? Will elk hunting actually become a rich man’s game?
Every once in awhile someone who knows my but doesn’t will ask “Are you going elk hunting this year?” The people who know me look at me and we just laugh. Do bears shit in the woods!
To some people elk hunting, just like deer hunting for others, is a way of life. I guess the word is priorities. If you have a passion for something, or a downright addiction then you’ll find a way to make it happen right? Where there’s a will there’s way. So for the guys in it for the long the question never comes up “To elk hunt next year or not?”
I shake my head when I click the submit button for a $1300 elk tag. But it never crosses my mind if I should reconsider paying that kind of money. What am I going to do.... not elk hunt! Pfft yeah right!
Myself I don’t think I have a limit. Don’t tell Fish & Game I said that! I guess if it got to the point where I could hunt moose in Alaska for the same money I might bounce back and forth. Other than that I cannot lie.... my name is Joe and I’m a terrible elkoholic!
So where do you draw the line? If your elk tag cost $2000 would you still hunt? What if it was $2500? $3000? Would the wife make that decision for you? I’m curious to hear the different answers and opinions.
I can’t live without spending time in places like this and coming home with a freezer full of meat and another set of antlers.
I read the threads about license prices going up. Draw odds going down. Idaho is limiting non resident elk hunting. Colorado units went to a draw. Montana is looking at bringing back outfitter sponsored licenses. The bottom line is demand far outnumbers the supply. And the cost of game management goes up just like gas and pickup trucks. So we’d all be fools if we didn’t accept the fact that the cost of elk tags will keep climbing as well.
I think about the new hunters. The guys who at some point said to their deer hunting buddies “Hey what do you guys think about doing an elk hunt somewhere?” To them the cost of a license is what it is. They don’t have anything to compare to like the guys who have been at it for 20 or 30 years or more. Will the rising cost of licenses deter them from sticking with it? Will elk hunting actually become a rich man’s game?
Every once in awhile someone who knows my but doesn’t will ask “Are you going elk hunting this year?” The people who know me look at me and we just laugh. Do bears shit in the woods!
To some people elk hunting, just like deer hunting for others, is a way of life. I guess the word is priorities. If you have a passion for something, or a downright addiction then you’ll find a way to make it happen right? Where there’s a will there’s way. So for the guys in it for the long the question never comes up “To elk hunt next year or not?”
I shake my head when I click the submit button for a $1300 elk tag. But it never crosses my mind if I should reconsider paying that kind of money. What am I going to do.... not elk hunt! Pfft yeah right!
Myself I don’t think I have a limit. Don’t tell Fish & Game I said that! I guess if it got to the point where I could hunt moose in Alaska for the same money I might bounce back and forth. Other than that I cannot lie.... my name is Joe and I’m a terrible elkoholic!
So where do you draw the line? If your elk tag cost $2000 would you still hunt? What if it was $2500? $3000? Would the wife make that decision for you? I’m curious to hear the different answers and opinions.
I can’t live without spending time in places like this and coming home with a freezer full of meat and another set of antlers.