Red,

It was clear that they were friends of "Jimmies" as the one gentleman states that "he has known Jimmy for a long time". This of course does not mean they were personal best friends. They may simpy have been paying regular customers that go there yearly to take management bucks. The reality is that they likely had already paid the 3500$+ fee for taking a management buck, but had no intentions of paying the fees for a true "trophy buck"

The other point that makes it obvious that these guys were pretty close to the owner/guides is the simple fact that were allowed to hunt without a guide. This is not allowed on most of these ranches for obvious reasons.(If a shooter wounds a buck that is not recovered the guide is obligated to estimate the rack size and the shooter pays for the buck regarless of whether the buck is ever recovered in the future. )

As far as the discussion of cost go...here is the prices...