A Federal hunting license and an access/lease type fee, a fee large enough that the fees covers the cost of the land management.

6 years... I hope you are getting your PHD. When I lived in Michigan it was $12 for a deer license. That was for one buck. Went back to hunt after living here and it was around $200.

I personally like the fact that I can hunt and fish just about everything TX has to offer for about 70 bucks, and that my friends from around the country can come hunt with me for about 50 bucks for a 5 day license.

As DC said, I would rather the money go to local people for all of the other things than to the state. After all, who would make better use of those monies, the state or the local people?

Dog we don't agree much but you are very right on this one.

Booner...an you think Medicine Bow WY is any different in needing Hunting Tourist dollars than Brownwood, Santa Ana or Coleman Texas is.

IMO way more folks go to Wyoming from Texas than from Wyoming to anywhere in Texas...and that lemming like surge to the Rockies by Rockies States Non Residents every year is why we the Taxpayers of Texas, and elsewhere are getting ripped off on both ends of that deal because the State of Texas feels desperate enough to give away our Tax Dollar bought Services to encourage Non Resident traffic and Sales Tax Receipts...and the States in the Rockies are allowed to take full advantage to abuse us with restricted access and exoribatent fees of their Federally Owned Natural Resource that we paid for in our Federal Tax's.

Cut this anyway way you want in either direction, but I am looking for a Fair & Balanced equal distribution of the Natural Resources on Federal Lands...nothing more and nothing less.
Ron

I don't really have a problem with the price .What I have a problem with is the way TX administers it public hunting program. They should requier higher fees on the draw hunts for non residents and dis allow non residents from being eligable to draw for the premium tags, ie bighorn, exotics, pronghorn. That way it won't interfere with the dollars being brought into the local comunities, it boosts the outfitters revenue and helps the residents have a realistic shot of drawing a tag on public land.

I haven't read all this but the bottom line is a whitetail tag is just not as valuable as an elk, mule deer, bear, antelope, moose, or sheep tag.

That's it and that's all.

I hate the western states' high license and tag fees too-but it's just supply and demand. Many if not most of them are "sold out" every year (limited draw areas) so they could charge even more.

And your reasoning is??? Not based on the fees Jensent paid, but why should we charge that amount???


Total tags sold in 2011, resident and non resident. Bust those fees high enough and how many out of state hunters do we lose?

Not near enough. The less hunters the less supply and demand issues for lands to lease. Fewer hunters will eventually bring lease prices back within reason. Just my

Lease prices will never go down. Every year 100's of thousand acres go from productive agriculture land and hunting land and is turned in to residential suburbs. There is a 10 mile wide half circle south of Abilene that is now part of the asphalt jungle. 10 miles x 20 miles is a lot of land lost in 20 years. 20 years ago I hunted on some of that land that was leased, today it houses and small ranchitos.

Most of the out of state hunters hunt with outfitters, not on their own leases. Those places are already tied up, they won't be coming on the lease market. Next add in the new found wealth of the oil business people, many ranches are being bought up today that were leased last year, these places are no longer on the lease market.

There will be no cheaper leases in the future, higher yes, cheaper, no way. Welcome to reality.

low fees bring in lots of business.

most texas trophies are taken on private land NOT public land.

so low fee does not increase competition for public land use.

so in the end ... low fee attracts lots of hunters for private property and keeps capitalism going.

What pisses me off is that youths from out of state pay $7. My Grandson even though my son owns property in OK has to pay I believe $284 to hunt there. Does that sound fair?

It's cheaper for me to hunt out of state than to hunt locally. So far, knock on wood, I've drawn out for NM every year. I enjoy hunting NM because I've got about 100 sq miles I can hunt. I get 5 days of hard hunting in and out of my system. No worry of filling feeders, broken contracts, losing your lease, or trying to get one more hunt in. Now this year might change, my fiance's parents has a large ranch in La Salle county and I've been given the OK to hunt both whitetails, axis, pigs, and turkeys. I'll probably still go to NM though.

You better hurry and mary that girl before a sly hunter beats you to it

I pay $280 to only get to rifle hunt 16 days in Oklahoma.

Texas is $325? Or close to it and you get to rifle hunt for 2 months.

Don't seem that bad.

Most States I have researched say to get a Resident license as a student you must meet the requirements for Residency, list their State as your PERMANENT address, AND have Drivers License from their State.
BUT if you are active duty military, some States will let you purchase a Resident license without doing the above.

Yessir, we are considering it. Our wedding is going to be on the opening day of dove season and our families and guests will hunt birds and then have a BBQ and dance that night. She LOVES to hunt.

I wish they would change the non res fees on the MLDP permits. I have friends that I want to come down to hunt but the non res big game is 300+ the 5 day is only 72 and they are going to use the MLDP permits anyway. I dont see why they need the full big game license. The state gives us 80 tags, someone has to shoot them, we already paid for the tags

I think that Tx should adopt the rule, if Tx residents can't buy otc tag in a certain states we should not allow that states residents to purchase one here.

Exactly jkd!!!

Disagree jkd, we have way to many deer, most don't use all there tags as it is.

With that said I spent a ton of money on outstate tags this year so I get it

I see your point, I am guilty of not using my tags. I also should mention, I am talking WT, I understand Elk and other species are a more rare commodity.

U saying they should raise prices

As a non-resident hunter, I do not want to see the prices increase, that's just human nature. I think the $315 is a fair price, but it is also the cheapest part of my operation.

I want to hunt Oklahoma but I'm not paying $200 for a single deer tag. How is $200 for a deer tag ok and $315 for a non resident tag in texas to shoot 5 deer 4 turkeys and a mule deer buck a fair price!?! There is nothing fair about it. I understand from an outfitters standpoint agreeing with non resident fees. It makes it to where other states can hunt there operation more often.. But to us guys just hunting it makes no sense... We basically just triple our fees for non-residents, while other states charge anywhere from 10-12 times for non-residents..

I'm pretty sure in OK you can kill what ever the season limit for deer is on that one license. For instance if you pay $280 for an archer tag you can kill 6 deer, 2 being bucks.

The Texas boys have nailed it. Low license fees plus high lease fees equals more than public land out of state tags. Have no problem with our non resident fee structure. Some of that cash goes to the state and a lot of it goes to landowners, guides, retailers, lodgers, grocery, etc.....of course hunters in any state will need to buy the necessities anyway.