Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting haven’t elk hunted colorado for a while - fees went up

Westill have family farm land back in Iowa where I grew up. As a kid I hunted small game extensively - rabbits, squirrels and pheasants. A non-resident license used to cost $80 and I refused to pay it even though I would have enjoyed pheasant hunting on the family (and friends) lands during my trips back. Now if I go back the cost is $144 for a license and habitat fee. Haven't hunted Iowa since I left in the late 70's because the license cost was too high for the reward.

I would gladly pay much more than that to hunt moose or big bears or elk or buffalo as a non-resident. In 1981, though, I made a conscious decision to move to Colorado so I could hunt elk here. Don't really have any desire to hunt big bears or buffalo but might do an Alaska moose some day.If that day comes, I expect the non-resident license cost to equal a new car payment or more but still be a relatively small part of the overall cost of the hunt.

Non-residents who bitch about license costs are really saying they can't easily afford it or they consider the reward (the hunt, since many will go home empty handed) insufficient. In either case there is an easy answer - don't buy a license.