I can see the outfitters leasing the land pissing everyone off but I got news for you guys it happens here and all we have are whitetails to hunt. Lease ground here to just hunt whitetails runs $10-$12+ a acre. Most guys hunt these lease's opening day (saturday) and sunday. I have seen some leases bring as much as $25 a acre to hunt just the opening weekend of rifle season.
By doing away with outfitter tags do you guys really think you will gain hunting priviledges on these ranches that are now off limits? My opinion is there will always be someone with a tag willing to pay to hunt there.
I think this was a bad move for the state of montana in a economic way. The guys that paid for the outfitter tags will take there money and buy tag voucher's in other states. The guys that have the money to pay for outfitters and the outfitter tags are not going to wait to draw a tag. They will find one somewhere (they have the money). Guys like me that can't or won't pay for the outfitter tag are the guys to say [bleep] it I ain't going. It would be interesting to see if business suffers from this new decision or if business stays the same. I doubt if they would admit it if it hurts business.
