I am not a trophy hunter. I just want a good experience of being in the woods hunting deer under "free chase" conditions. I live in Texas and don't want to pay $1,500 to lease land to hunt deer. I go to Oklahoma where a niece's husband has access to 160 acres of land suited to deer hunting where I can hunt free. I have taken a deer there every year since I started in 2002 -- including both a buck and a doe this year. These deer are not record book deer. My buck this year field dressed 110 LBS and had a 3x4 rack with an inside spread of about 12 inches. My does field dress between 80 LBS and 100 LBS. I pay $250 for non-resident combination (doe and buck) tag. I prefer this to paying $1,500 to lease in Texas.

If I had to pay $1,500 to lease land, I would prefer to go hunt elk in Colorado. A DIY hunt can be done on public land in Colorado, and if you are willing to backpack in a couple of miles off the roadsI don't think you are going to be overrun with other hunters (horse enabled hunters will go in further). I hope to test this idea in a cow elk hunt in a Colorado wilderness area in 2006.

I dislike the idea of paying to hunt, so even if I could afford the lease -- and frankly I think I could afford the $1,500 annual lease -- I don't want to do that. To me this seems to encourage this practice which tends to the elimination of hunters who are not financially able to pay lease prices.

I mention the fact that I am not a trophy deer hunter because if I were I believe I would be compelled to pay to lease land or even more expensive hire an outfitter. It is my perception that if you want the best chance of bagging a very large deer you go to where the largest deer have historically been taken. Outfitters usually have already scoped out these same productive areas and have leased any private land that is promising. Thus, if you want access to these productive private lands you need to pay the outfitter. Public land that produces large deer probably have some quota system in place -- or else all the large deer would have been eliminated already -- and then you are in a situation of playing the tag lottery rather than hunting.

I try to give gifts to my niece's husband and the father of my niece's husband (the father actually leases the property for cattle range).