I personally think that farmers/ranchers charge money just as a kind of "idiot filter". As tycteach pointed out, one stray bullet can cause a lot of damage, and getting recompensed from some yahoo could be well-nigh impossible.

A friend of a friend used to let me dove hunt on his hobby ranch, a privilege he extended to others. All he asked in returnwas some respect and to pick up empty shotgun shells (his cattle had been known to eat them). Even so, he stillhad problems with idiots cutting his fences, leaving trash around, etc. etc.

So guess what? Thanks to guys like that, I lost my place to dove hunt. But I don't blame the landowner one bit.