The poll has no acceptable answers for me as well. It most definitely shows the bias of the person writing it. Polls are meaningless when the pollster sets out to get the results he wanted and words the questions that way.

Outfitting is not the problem. The problem is thatour sport is changing andthat change has been a two edged sword.

Lets take Illinois, for example, 15-20 years ago,outfitting was virtually unheard of largely because the quality of the whitetail deer hunting in Illinoiswas not that widely known. In order to go hunting, one simply needed permission from a neighbor. Once the secret was out, it took relatively little time forsome landowners and enterprising entrepeneurs to realize that serious money could be made from hunters willing to come to Illinois and pay big dollars to hunt for deer that were of a quality not to be found at home.In the past 10-12 years, I've watched the cost of land in the golden triangle grow by almost tenfold. The cost of tags has tripled and the cost to lease land or to hunt has also skyrocketed.

It's easy to just blame outfitting. The underlying problem is much more complex. Hunting has always generated big dollars but theaverage joe hunter could participate in his sport close to home with his only expenditures being in gear and maybe some gas.These days, permission to hunt generally costs something. In areas where the quality of the hunting is better than average, that cost will continue to climb as long as the demand continues to grow. How has this happend? Hunting TV has certainly contributed to it. The average hunter 50+ years ago hunted close to home and food was the primary objective. Now very few of us can hunt close to home and, lets face it, with all we spend just on gear and gas, hunting mainly for food is a fallacy. My family and I love venison and we treasureevery ounce, but forwhat I spend hunting vs the meat we get, we could eat lobster and filet mignonevery day.

Hunting has become big business just like many other pastimes. I spent $20 the first time I took my kid to a hockey game. Now it's at least a$200 evening for two people in the cheap seats. Taking a week to go deer hunting used to cost 12 bucks for a license and gas to get to camp.

I got involved in a small Illinois outfitting (more like a club) operation several years ago.
Why? Not because I wanted to make a business out of the sport I love, but because it was the only way I could afford to be able to huntevery year ina deer hunters paradise. Welease enough land to be able to manage it well and take enoughhunters each year to get the bills paid. We have agood relationship with all our neighbors and with the landowners. Our hunters pay a fair price well under what others in the area charge and everyone is happy. Not all outfitting operations are like your neighbor.

Blaming outfitters for the rising costs of huntingis like blaming the guy behind the window at the gas station for the cost of a gallon of gas.