How Much?

[GobbleNut]

The discussion about nonresident license fees got me to thinking about just how much each of us would be willing to pay for a license to hunt a turkey somewhere. What would be your limit?

Taking that concept a bit further, IF all the states eventually started setting their license fees in the neighborhood of $300+ for a single gobbler, would you pay that?  How about if the license went even higher than that...say, $400+?  If those fees were the only game in town, would you pay it...or would you just stop hunting out-of-state? 

For me personally, spring gobbler hunting is the ONLY hunting I pursue outside of my home state. It is important to me...and I generally only hunt a couple of other states each spring. Currently, I would guess the average license cost is around $225 +/- for most of the states I have hunted...some as much as $250-$300. (and the costs of all the extraneous stuff associated with going on those hunts is usually considerably more than that)

Bottom line for me...if push came to shove...is that I am pretty sure I would just grit my teeth and pay the extra money to go turkey hunting. I'm sure there is a limit to what I am willing to pay to pursue this passion...but I haven't reached it, and I'm not sure what it is...    

How about you?...

[Greg Massey]

In my opinion if it's a Bucket List Hunt of a lifetime or a special Hunt out of State with a friend / friends, cost wouldn't matter. I would spend that 300 + dollars just to drive to Unicoi Show and a lot more money inside the SHOW ... LOL.


But I do agree cost is getting out of hand for out of state hunts...IMO

[Tail Feathers]

I gotta play the game, no matter the price.  I would choose lower cost options if possible, but if the going rate is $500 per state, I will have to pay it.

[deerhunt1988]

Once states hit $300+ for a single turkey, I'm going to look at alternatives. But doesn't mean I won't pay it. Five years ago $300 was definitely pricing me out, but times have changed and I'm going to travel. I've hunted every state and the only time I've paid $300+ for a tag was Nevada. A $300 landowner tag plus associated license costs ran me $523. And that was a one and done deal. That same landowner tag is now $4,000 through an outfitter.

As many other non-residents start looking for alternatives and where they can get the best bang for their buck, more pressure will be put on cheaper states. This will cause those states to enact non-resident restrictions or jack their prices up as well. It is all just one big chain reaction that some of us have been warning about for years.

I just hope the increased prices and new non-resident restrictions will eventually cause a few to give it up, although there is no indication that is happening. If a few would give it up and we could have a higher quality hunt with less hunter interference, the increased tag costs could be more justifiable. But the past few years I've just been paying more to experience more hunter interference as the number of turkey hunters (both resident and non-resident) on public land have saw such a significant increase all across the country.

Remember when the ones who helped contribute the most to this tried blaming it all on COVID? hahaha.

[GobbleNut]

Once states hit $300+ for a single turkey, I'm going to look at alternatives. But doesn't mean I won't pay it. Five years ago $300 was definitely pricing me out, but times have changed and I'm going to travel. I've hunted every state and the only time I've paid $300+ for a tag was Nevada. A $300 landowner tag plus associated license costs ran me $523. And that was a one and done deal. That same landowner tag is now $4,000 through an outfitter.

As many other non-residents start looking for alternatives and where they can get the best bang for their buck, more pressure will be put on cheaper states. This will cause those states to enact non-resident restrictions or jack their prices up as well. It is all just one big chain reaction that some of us have been warning about for years.

I just hope the increased prices and new non-resident restrictions will eventually cause a few to give it up, although there is no indication that is happening. If a few would give it up and we could have a higher quality hunt with less hunter interference, the increased tag costs could be more justifiable. But the past few years I've just been paying more to experience more hunter interference as the number of turkey hunters (both resident and non-resident) on public land have saw such a significant increase all across the country.

Remember when the ones who helped contribute the most to this tried blaming it all on COVID? hahaha.

Yep, all of the above.  Let's just hope the Law of Diminishing Returns kicks in at some point (and sooner rather than later). Add to that the axioms that license fees are going up, private lands that could be accessed on a handshake are now leased or require a three-figure (or more) access payment, and the quality of the hunting in a lot of instances has plummeted in terms of bird numbers and competition.
......and here we be...   

[zelmo1]

$300 for a single bird will be ok when I retire, but right now it's not my thing. Time is precious and for a single bird I would have to scout, get permission and then pinpoint birds before the season started so it would be a big time investment. Z