Pricing out young guys with families who live in states without elk isn’t something to be proud of in my opinion. Hunting shouldn’t only be a rich man’s game particularly public land DIY style. I’d like my 18 year old grandson to keep hunting after I retire & can’t afford to subsidize him. I’d like the electrician who married the oldest granddaughter to be able to take their 3 boys.
Like the rest of the old farts here it won’t keep me off the mountain unlike crowding & wolves will eventually.
Having to own a truck & potentially an atv/UTV for thousands of dollars, $2,000 binoculars,$1600 in scope & rangefinder & carrying around $1,500 in packs, boots & fancy clothes, gloves all the other BS elk hunters buy cost of elk hunting is expensive & tag costs aren’t the biggest share.
But it gets more expensive every year. Hunters with the most money buy private land guided hunts like Europeans & hunters in Africa. We have always been different in America where a few bucks & more drive, stubbornness & grit could get you a rich man’s trophy on a working man’s salary. I hate to see that end.
