I have to respond by the thought mentioned earlier that the reason most of us from other states think the prices have skyrocketed the last few years were because of "other" out of staters... moving in to say Colorado by the hords and making it more difficult (votes) for hunters in general. Get rid of the guys from out of state that help out the small local businesses during the downtime ( in between summer tourism and skiing ) and you can control the entire state. (See easterners and California lefties taking over Colorado etc. Hollywood is telling us when and where to hunt. Just wait till Kerry gets elected, at least we'll all be on equal ground hunting with a slingshot if we're lucky.

RedRiverHunter and I agree....along with Mike Eastman..."No fences here".

Hunting now is so commercialized and it has come down to the almighty dollar. I just got back from The Texas Trophy Hunters show and was amazed by some information I got from an Outfitter that has a fenced in hunting area saying he could "create" a record book buck by tranquilizing him and altering his antlers while in velvet! I feel the same about records being broken in baseball etc. I know longer think it has meaning! It's like seeing some big fat guy harvest a record bull elk. I know he didn't hike 200 yards much less a few miles of stalking and climbing....he paid someone several K's to get his picture with a dead animal walking (standing) probably in a fence somewhere. Just look at hunting magazines 20 years ago compared to today.

That's one reason I'll (as long as I can) still hunt public land and gripe about the $ and as I said have less money to give to the mom and pops even though they are not the voters that jacked up the price!

Agree with some of what you say, I hunt public land like yourself.

To my knowledge the issue of raising big game license fees in Colorado (who at the time lagged behind nearly all other states for non-resident big game fees) was not put before the voters, but was decided upon internally by CDOW.

For folks doing an away from home/remote big game hunt (barring the really exotic stuff), the cost of license is the least of the expense compared to travel, camp, and time of from work or away from business.

EKM

Lets get real on the gun issue, duroman you don't honestly think if John Kerry is elected you are going to loose your guns. I for one am far more concerned about our economy then what the Republicans and the NRA would have us believe about what just is not going to happen .At the rate we are loosing jobs in my area there are very few guys heading out west due to the fact that they just cant afford it this year. George Bush is to busy stocking game on his ranch to worry about guys like us.

I like the way that sounds, especially when your talking about a President. Its good to know that he likes to hunt and fish.