Crazy tag prices
 

Just curious on your thoughts about what these states are doing on tag prices. Have a friend that has been inviting me to hunt with him in Kansas for whitetails . Kansas just made it $442.50 for the permit another $152.50 if your lucky enough to draw the golden mule deer permit and $97.50 for the general hunting Licence. So basically $550 for the privilege to hunt a whitetail deer. $700 to hunt a mule deer. Is the purpose of this to drive away non residents ?

This what happens when a state gets known as a trophy rack state.

Supply and demand. Basic economics 101. You can only get as much as someone is willing to pay. That is a bit on the pricey side for just a whitetail tag. I've seen higher but that's getting up there with the ridiculous for a mangy ole whitetail.

Nearly all states charge non-residents between 11 and 13 times what they charge residents. It is what it is. The OP doesn't say what state he lives in but I'm betting if he bothers checking the regs he will find the disparity also happens there.

If he checks the KS regs he will find that a resident deer tag is $52.50 and a resident hunting license is $27.50. Add them together and it cost a resident $80.00 to hunt deer. So a non-resident tag is 5-9 times as high which would be below average in the USA.

The game belongs to all the people; for a price!

If no one purchased them, the price would come down. Kansas is no different than other trophy whitetail states. An Illinois NR deer tag is over $400. An Iowa tag is $450. Colorado bull elk tag is over $600 now. When I started hunting CO 11 years ago it was $425. They charge because they can. If you want to play you gotta pay.

Even my crappy deer hunting state of Vermont charges NR $100 to deer hunt. Residents pay $26.

Not quite. The game belongs to the people of the individual states and the states are allowed to manage hunting and the sale of licenses as they see fit. United States Outfitters (USO) took a couple of the western states to court over license sales to non-residents and the SCOTUS slapped them down and found in favor of the states. This was about 7 years ago and the states in question were AZ and NM. Look it up.

I'm from Illinois and they rape non residents also. Its $411 for archery that gives the hunter a buck and a doe tag , Gun tags are like $300 for a buck and $25 for a doe tag. I have really good deer hunting here in Illinois so I guess I will play here for whitetails . just cant see paying $550 for a whitetail tag,

Like I said earlier, supply and demand. I too live in Illinois (not much longer I don't think and thank God for that!) and this state rips EVERYONE off so it's not surprising at all to see higher than average NR tags for whitetail. But as most know, Illinois is known for, as is Kansas, a big rack producing state so the NR costs are naturally going to be geared towards the wealthier trophy hunters.