I keep reading everyone's comments about hunting becoming a sport for the rich and people leasing hunting ground are the reason. I will tellyou that where I hunting in Illinois, leasing ground is the cheapest way for the common man to have good private ground to hunt. If you really want to start blaming people, start looking at the outfitters. They are the ones that are driving up the prices of leases. As I states, my first lease was for $1500 5 years ago. I have since lost that ground to an outfitter who came in and offered $8000 for it. The next season I was leased a different peice of property, 256 acres with only 13 acres of timber, paid $1500 for it. The very next season it was leased by a different outfitter for $5000. I then leased 165 acres with a buddy, we paid $5000 for the property. We hunted it 2 years. We were told in December that yet another outfitter has come in and offered $12,000 for the property, but he would lease it us for $10,000. Neither of us have that kind of money, so on a new piece of ground yet again. Outfitters are the ones that are paying stupid money for the leases, but then again that can. With people coming to Illinois paying $5000+ for a week of deer hunting per person. If you really want to look at what is ruining the sport, start looking there and not the local hunter that is just trying to secure a place to deer hunt.