Lets be sure we are comparing apples to apples. Of course these are my opinions, but I think people are not understanding what is being said. As TX says in his last post, he is talking a charge for hunting the land, not the tag price. However, we started this thing talking about elk tag prices going to $2500, which is not out of the relm of possibility, so I am not sure how this got twisted into comparing it to a tresspass fee.

$2500 is a lot of money for 1 (one) person to hunt 1 (one) deer anywhere, although for a trophy deer hunt that is probably the starting point. Too rich for my blood.

$2500 to hunt 5000 acres split between 5 hunters is not a lot of money ($500 each). I think this is one of the scenerios that TX may be describing.

In Texas, a normal hunting "lease" is for the entire season which runs from the first Sat in November until the first Sat. in January (2 months) plus the entire month of October is bow season and you can take up to 4 deer, 2 turkeys, and sometimes more game (pigs, etc.). The "average" hunting lease for the WHOLE SEASON typically runs $750 to $1250 per person. Not cheap, but worth it to a lot of average guys for the length of time they get to hunt and the amout of game they get to take.

When a nonresident goes elk hunting, he/she rarely hunts for more than 7-10 days, usually shorter. In my book, an elk TAG that costs $2500 is a LOT of money and would severely thin the ranks of nonresident hunters, which would be an extremely bad thing.

I am pretty sure that in Texas at least, if you take someone hunting on your property and they have an accident that is somehow the landowner's fault, the landowner is liable even if he didn't charge them anything.