A lot of farmers now view leasing their land for hunting as just another form of generating revenue that wasn't available in the past. One of my cousins recently had some fellows from out of state offer him several thousand dollars to lease his land for deer hunting. He doesn't hunt and neither does anyone else in his immediate family, so he would be crazy to not jump at it. Folks are gonna have to accept the fact that they are gonna have to pay to be guaranteed access to hunting in the future. You may pay an outfitter, get your own lease, or buy land. But one way or another, more and more folks are gonna have to pay. But of course, if an epidemic wiped out most of the deer population, especially the trophy deer populations, I'll bet that hunting would get back to being cheap or free pretty quickly.

demand will decline, sooner or later, and the outfitters will disappear, they are simply the middle man nothing more nothing less. they generally get a bad reputation for being greedy, which in some instances is well deserved.

I can say the outfitter in my neck of the woods is willing to help out the local guy who has no property. unfortunately this is not the case mostparts of the country.

Well, as I suggested earlier, outfitting is a longstanding practice throughout the U.S. Dunno how it would fall thru in Illinois unless something happens to the deer population.

With Baby boomers hitting retirement and inheriting money, I don't see huntingslowing down anytime soon. Land value will continue to rise and outfitters will continue to pop up. My dad and his friends are starting to do more and more hunting around the country as they inch closer to retirement. I think this will becomemore of a trend then a fad.

if you're right about increasing costs, and in the short term you may be, hunting will become cost prohibitive. only the wealthy will be able to afford it, hunter numbers will decline as will demand.

you're a young guy, if you're not wealthy or stand to inherit some property you may one day find yourself priced out.

That's a good argument for hunters in general to try to pressure their states to develop more public lands for hunting.

I think the #1 reason people detest outfitters is simple:

they are the people who took something everyone could share in for free and started charging admission.

Well, when it comes to deer hunting, it appears that lots of people are detested: outfitters, people who hunt with dogs, leasers, out-of-state hunters, people who post their property, etc. Its funny, but sometimes when I am back home in Illinois hunting on my property, my car with its Ohio plates ends up parked next to my neighbor's truck with its "Ban out of state hunters" bumper sticker. I really miss the good old days.

you arent a real hunter unless you drive a truck or some sort of 4 wheel drive vehicular!

Naw, i can fit two deer in the trunk of my hyundai and take it places where an S-10 would get stuck. Its all in the driving skill[8D] Its just like guns, i can show up with my old single shot H&R Topper and kill more rabbits than my buddies with their big expensive semi-auto Brownings.