Michael Sieve-M.O.N.

[PEATMOSS]

Anyone else catch Michael Sieves' letter to the editor in this past weeks Mn Outdoor News?

Sieve was writing about how Iowa has raised it's fee for non-resident deer hunting to $545 and lamenting the fact that we can't do that because we don't manage for antlers.

I DON'T want to open up a whole qdm debate again since we've beaten that dead horse and beaten it again, but I gotta ask is this really where we want to see deer hunting go? Imagine you grew up on a farm in Iowa and have a family tradition of deer hunting your old farmstead. If you've got a couple of hunting age kids, it's gonna cost you over $1600 just to go home and hunt on the farm you grew up on!

Is this really where we want to go?

[picksbigwagon]

If you listen to the DNR in Iowa, they lament how they such a huge population of deer in parts of the state and they want to take more doe's, but for an out of state hunter who is from Iowa originally, it costs me 250 bucks to go and shoot one doe......MN needs to start sticking it to the out of staters in all of their fee's and licenses.

[harvey lee]

I don't care for these high cost NR fees as I hunt in ND and if I want to hunt, that is what it will cost me.

ND has it set up so the NR including local farm kids that have left the state have a diffucult time getting a rifle license to hunt deer with their family members who own farms in ND.

Sad to say, thats the avenue most states are taking in raising the fees for NR hunters.

I'm afraid that if Minnesota starts to raise their fees, it will become a bidding war for licenses for all and the sportsman will lose out.

These states know what they have and will raise the license fees until they cannot sell them to anyone. Look at the fees out west for elk, deer and moose for NR hunters.

It is becoming a rich mans sport.

[archerystud]

I can't get to the article but I would like to read it.

I'm curious on how QDM directly increases license fees? Could it also be the licenses are going up because of money shortfalls elsewhere?

[Jameson]

...Sieve was writing about how Iowa has raised it's fee for non-resident deer hunting to $545 and lamenting the fact that we can't do that because we don't manage for antlers....

Please show the proof of this fact. I think he is totally wrong.

I don't know how, but shouldn't we be trying to get other states to lower their non-resident fees? Is raising our non-resident fees going to help this?

[BRULEDRIFTER]

It is very sad to see this happening, and I do feel it has a lot to do with a states reputation for producing "Quality bucks". (A big reason why I oppose QDM style management)

As long as there are people willing to pay the fee, it will only continue to rise, unfortunatley.

The only thing we can do about it is refuse to pay it and try to talk EVERYONE else out of paying it for a few years. They'll have no choice but to lower the cost.

However, I know it will be IMPOSSIBLE to start a boycott on Non-residents purchasing out of state tags.

[PEATMOSS]

My point was, I've got a couple of teenagers that hunt with me. If they have to leave the state for work or love or some other reason, I'd like them to be able to afford to come back home to hunt and someday bring their kids.

$500 plus to go home and hunt the farm you grew up on is sickening and I hope this never comes here. Remember, that non-resident you stick with a huge license fee might very well be someones kid just starting out after college.

[bigbucks]

This is an issue in my family already. My sister & brother-in-law moved to WI a few years ago. He's always deer hunted with us, bow & gun. Now it's difficult for him to hunt just one due to the price difference in the license. He's a Pastor, if those prices went to $500 & my nephew's soon going to old enough, that would go away completely, that SUCKS! They're only 4 hours away, but across a state line.

[CSTPETER]

Seems like straight up capitalism to me. Simple supply and demand. I don't agree with it, but I understand it. My opinion is that NR fees aren't getting a lot higher here because our product is not worth it. Like I've said before, Mn is the Wal-mart of the deer hunting world, Iowa is the Macy's.

[PEATMOSS]

Seems like straight up capitalism to me. Simple supply and demand. I don't agree with it, but I understand it. My opinion is that NR fees aren't getting a lot higher here because our product is not worth it. Like I've said before, Mn is the Wal-mart of the deer hunting world, Iowa is the Macy's.

One thing that has made this country great, and imho superior to Europe is the fact that hunting, fishing and similar pursuits have been the pastime of the working class. I hope our resource managers continue to manage and regulate wildlife with this in mind.

Remember, everytime someone gets priced out of the game, we'll have one less voice, one less license sold, perhaps one less gun owner and a new generation that never gets introduced to the great outdoors.

[mrklean]

very sad to see NR mn fees are some of the better in the country and im proud of that, but when you look at the states around use its sad. I am hopefully going out west this fall (pending draw results) for antelope in montana, $205 for a NR tag, plus $50 for doe only tags, thats a steal if you ask me.

[Neighbor_guy]

What ever happened to our "we charge what you charge" rule?

IMO the cost that some of these states charge out of staters is a lot like putting up KEEP THE H OUT signs. I used to hunt outstate all the time, now with the way things cost, I will stay close and hunt in MN.

[Bear55]

I'd say hunting has been a rich mans sport for years now, sure you can get by cheap some of the time but if you start adding up guns, bows, land, shack, trucks, wheelers, endless numbers of other equipment and gadgets you have to have some money to own all that stuff. Then when you factor in the QDM/non-QDM guys and you have two groups of hunters that want different things. A lot of times the QDM guys are willing to pay extra money to hunt and that drives up the price of everything. I think the Walmart/Macy's comparison is spot on, you basically get what you pay for. The guys who put down the money for the land/tags/hunts usually get better hunting.

I also don't blame the guys shelling out the $$$ either, I know if I had the money the first thing I would do is buy up a nice chunk of land. Like someone else said these things are market driven. There are a lot of things out there that I can't afford because people are willing to pay more for them than I will, its been this way forever and won't be changing any time soon.

[Rob M]

make up for the non res hunting fees in Iowas by jacking up MN fishing. We have them beat there.