Western hunting is all about catering to the money folks. ... used to be a poor person pastime to feed their families. Now its turned into a billion dollar empire with high tech gizmos, tv shows, and designer camo.
Yes, but that's supply and demand. If more people apply than licenses, then there's to much demand, so raise the price, or at least the market can handle an increase. Outfitters as well, the cost of a hunt is higher than years ago (used to be easy to find a good sub-$5k elk hunt 10 years ago). Yet demand still increases.
Does this cut out some people? Yup, or at the very minimum it limits them or makes them make hard choices.
But it's free market.
I've golfed longer than I"ve western hunted. Golf went through the same thing. CROWDS, green fees went up and up and up, crowds eventually said "ya know, this isn't worth the money for an all day round of golf" and crowds went down, green fees went down. Now they are coming back up, all supply and demand.
