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Old 04-11-2020, 01:27 PM
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Giant Nontypical
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
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Originally Posted by mthusker
Thanks again for the reply. I will also throw this scenario out there.....Say a group of folks, decide to lease a large ranch, say, 45,000 acres here in Montana, with truly outstanding hunting for elk , mule deer and antelope. The group hopes to keep members to a minimum, say 10 or 11 total members. If each member were to be allowed to harvest 1-330+ bull, 1-270-330 bull, 2-spikes, 4 cow elk, 2 buck antelope, knowing that in the past year two bulls of over 400 inches were taken and around 10-350+ plus bulls were taken this past fall, along with a 91 inch antelope, what would you expect to pay to be part of this lease? It would all be strictly do it yourself hunting, no lodging, just access to great hunting, of course, it would need to be fair and equitable for everyone involved as far as days spent hunting. Let's ignore the mule deer hunting for now, thanks.
I wouldn't pay a dime. Truthfully I am not a fan of the whole lease thing. I think any commercialization of wildlife is bad for hunting. If I have to pay to hunt in the USA then I am done hunting. I want no part of that sort of thing. I also think that any rancher/farmer that leases their land out should not be allowed to petition a state wildlife dept for help with things like predator control or wildlife damage to crops or hay fields. If they don't allow the public to hunt and are using wildlife to make $$$ then they need to take care of that sort of thing out of their own pocket. In my native CO many ranchers in the Northwest part of the state (where the highest elk density in the nation is) leased out their lands and won't allow Joe Public Hunter to get anywhere near their land and these same ranchers try to claim huge $$$ for elk damage to hay meadows every year. If they don't want the elk damaging their hay meadows then let the public come on and shoot a bunch of cows and the herds will leave the hay meadows. But they don't do that.

But I understand that the hunters you're looking for will not be natives of the Rocky Mountain States. You want a bunch of hunters from TX, CA or NY so they can lease it. Just a question but why not let a bunch of inner city youth or first time hunters have a crack at these elk? That's a better use of the resource than using it as a cash cow.
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