Yes I do know what they pay in fees to the agency responsible for managing the States Wildlife Resources, the MTFWP...that would be ZERO. Before you get out over your ski's...their clients pay all the license fees, outfitters pay NOTHING, no percentage of what they charge a client goes back to the MTFWP.
Since leaving Montana, I've paid over $10K directly to the MTFWP in license fees as a NR hunter.
Prove me wrong...tuffie.
Allright home. On top of taxes, there are land use fees. Grazing fees, client fees, camp site fees to just name a few. On forest they have to pay a day use fee per hunter. Private land, those guys pay the landowner directly which is the guy caring for the resources.
Myself, I'm a public land guy. When hunt for myself. Its always OTC tags for me. The private land hunters for sure get a better experience as they get too hunt real wild animal. They are low pressure which allows the animal to behave as normally would.
Pressured wildlife on public land isn't living a normal life. They behave different.
Outfitters are held to higher standard. They are responsible for the actions of clients. Their forest/wilderness camps are inspected constantly. They have to be set up the same every year. They clear and maintain trails in conjunction with FS.
The clients are obligated to behave respectfully to the environment and animals.
They spend an extraordinary amount of time with predator depredation and other preserving stuff.
DIY guys not so much. They can do whatever they want. We all know those yahoos make life hard on everyone. I have piles of examples. Just as I'm sure you have piles of examples of shitty outfitters.
I'm not denying there are some real shit show outfits out there. We call them scabs. Unfortunately they have migrated into MOGA. Noone that is legit has one ounce of respect for that bunch.
Just as no self respecting DIY has one ounce of respect for the DIY bumbs of the world.
You wanna lump all outfitters together, fine. Then you best lump yourself in the same category as the DIY guys leaving shit everywhere, killing stock, wounding animals and not bothering to look for 3 minutes before moving on. flock shooting, trespassing, poaching.
Until Trump got the economy banging licenses never sold out here. Now that lucenses are selling out...the next thing going to happen is prices are gonna go up.
Everyone thought the bill would hurt the outfitters. Just cutting our own throats. Spite always backfires. That was a very shortsighted bill.