Oklahoma bill looks to DOUBLE non-resident cost

[NMSbowhunter]

We okies don’t want to hunt Texas anyway we all want to hunt Kansas haha.

LOl. I'm sure the Texas cops and state troopers who wanted to hunt Oklahoma but now won't due to the cost will just make up the difference when they see Oklahoma license plates in Texas.

 

[dalton916]

That’s what I would do, lol

 

[rambotogo]

Jmo but I think it would hurt the local businesses.

 

[OSUTodd]

Something else I just thought of - our wildlife department is doing everything they can to get us to shoot more does and fewer bucks. I would be willing to bet that unless someone lives where it's really hard to get any deer, not too many hunters are paying for nonresident tags to go shoot does. I doubts that plays any role at all in the logic for this change.

I'm pretty much opposed to legislatures making wildlife management decisions all around, so they should just let the wildlife department make the call on license pricing.

It also sounds like there may be some misunderstanding of reducing the bag limits. Oklahoma sells OTC nonresident tags, so it wouldn't put any limit on tags sold, it would just reduce the season limits on deer nonresidents can take.

 

[mschultz373]

I am not sure what is really behind these ridiculous non-resident fees in so many states now. If it’s true that hunting and the number of hunters is generally declining, yet the state relies on hunting as the primary tool for managing wildlife… seems like lower costs would make sense towards managing wildlife, generally? (I recall even hearing the head of the NDA say that some states need hunters to kill more deer)

Notice, though, this only makes sense if the latter statement is true. I could understand if 5,000,000 people were wanting to hunt X state every year and killing way more deer than desired.

But I never hear that as the motivating factor. And so these fees strike me as blatant extortion by the state. Some segment of rich guys will always be able to afford it so why not raise some extra revenue?

Meanwhile no one is ever going to check back in to see what this extra revenue is going towards.

ballot initiatives and legislation for wildlife management are so supremely stupid. But we live in very stupid times.

 

[brydan]

I'm pretty much opposed to legislatures making wildlife management decisions all around, so they should just let the wildlife department make the call on license pricing.

Agreed. This is just junk legislation, politicians play this game all the time. They propose some feel-good legislation they know isn't even going to make it out of committee. Then at reelection time they stand up and talk about the legislation they “proposed” as though they’re out there fighting the good fight but in reality it’s completely meaningless.

 

[IkemanTX]

We okies don’t want to hunt Texas anyway we all want to hunt Kansas haha.

Well, your state will lose out on an absolute TON of license money, as well as a large amount of ancillary expenditures as well if passed. I would bet that this drops non-resident numbers by at least 40%. Considering that your public land is funded by percent of tag sales, it could wreck your public land management funding.
Lots of small towns in OK. live off of hunting revenue… this bill puts them, and leasing landowner’s, incomes in the crosshairs simply out of spite to outsiders.

I have a decade of hunting OK as a non-resident. My father and stepmother live on family land in OK (that I often hunt), but I will 100% stop spending any time, money, or buying fuel in the state if I am not hunting there… there are Texas gas stations I can fill at to get to/from my parents place. I currently spend multiple hundreds of hours a year there and probably 20%+ of my yearly fuel/convenience store purchases are there. I’ll send those to another state instead if this goes through.


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[IkemanTX]

The original post said double the cost and halve the harvest. I misread the halve the harvest as halving the available tags.

Bag limit reduction per hunter is what is proposed.


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[shmelton]

I can’t remember exactly but I thought there was a state that did this.

Louisiana does it with Fishing licenses I believe. 2 states are different prices then the rest.


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[shmelton]

Interesting article on the subject…I don’t think a lot resi hunters in destination states realize what the OOSER’s are providing for them.

What Happens If Nonresident License Prices Keep Climbing?

It’s supply and demand. The state’s residents own the game, full stop. States should cater to residents first. These statements pop up in every conversation and on every hunting forum when it comes to the resident/nonresident debate. The precedent set decades ago in the courts set up the system...

www.themeateater.com

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[The_Fit_Ness_Monster]

Here’s a thought, hunt your own state it’s much cheaper. Never understood travelking to hunt what you have in your state. Only thing I’ve travelled to hunt is Elk bc there isn’t elk in Louisiana. But white tail hunting, why would I spend 3-10x the price of tags to go to another state to hunt whitetail when we have them here? It’s always seemed ridiculous to me.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

Here’s a thought, hunt your own state it’s much cheaper. Never understood travelking to hunt what you have in your state. Only thing I’ve travelled to hunt is Elk bc there isn’t elk in Louisiana. But white tail hunting, why would I spend 3-10x the price of tags to go to another state to hunt whitetail when we have them here? It’s always seemed ridiculous to me.

I mostly agree with this and I have only been out of state twice to hunt. Both times were in Ohio. I loved it and the people I met in Ohio were great. The deer were on a whole other level. The does in Ohio are the size of our big bucks body wise. It's just a different world going to some of these big buck states. Kansas and Iowa would be like a candy store to a guy who is good at hunting public land bucks in the South. My buddy and I saw 7 or 8 bucks that would go 130 or better both times we went. This was public land one time and a tiny permission we got the other, and had never set foot on it before we got there. You can go several seasons here and hunt smart and hard and never see a 130. Within three days of hitting the ground in Ohio both times I had put an arrow in a 140 inch buck. It's just different.

 

[GCTerpfan]

Here’s a thought, hunt your own state it’s much cheaper. Never understood travelking to hunt what you have in your state. Only thing I’ve travelled to hunt is Elk bc there isn’t elk in Louisiana. But white tail hunting, why would I spend 3-10x the price of tags to go to another state to hunt whitetail when we have them here? It’s always seemed ridiculous to me.

A lot of States don't have the liberal bag limits of LA. I don't hunt out of State often but, this year proved it's a long bow season when you fill your only archery tag the first week of September. I was limited on time and vacation this year so I didn't hunt out of State but, buying a license in neighboring WV definitely crossed my mind more than once.

 

[The_Fit_Ness_Monster]

I mostly agree with this and I have only been out of state twice to hunt. Both times were in Ohio. I loved it and the people I met in Ohio were great. The deer were on a whole other level. The does in Ohio are the size of our big bucks body wise. It's just a different world going to some of these big buck states. Kansas and Iowa would be like a candy store to a guy who is good at hunting public land bucks in the South. My buddy and I saw 7 or 8 bucks that would go 130 or better both times we went. This was public land one time and a tiny permission we got the other, and had never set foot on it before we got there. You can go several seasons here and hunt smart and hard and never see a 130. Within three days of hitting the ground in Ohio both times I had put an arrow in a 140 inch buck. It's just different.

Oh yeah I say it’s ridiculous but I totally understand why people do it, but to me I wouldn’t want to be spoiled to that. I’ve seen it happen to a lot of my friends, they go hunt in Kansas or Oklahoma and then they don’t like hunting Louisiana bc it’s “not as good”. Idk I never got it, I’ve never met a true hunter in N.LA say there’s no deer here. Sure our deer aren’t as big but to me a whole extra deer isn’t worth the price it costs to travel and hunt another state.

 

[elk yinzer]

Here’s a thought, hunt your own state it’s much cheaper. Never understood travelking to hunt what you have in your state. Only thing I’ve travelled to hunt is Elk bc there isn’t elk in Louisiana. But white tail hunting, why would I spend 3-10x the price of tags to go to another state to hunt whitetail when we have them here? It’s always seemed ridiculous to me.

I hunt surrounding states just to extend my season. We only get 1 buck tag in my state. Different states have earlier archery openers and different gun openers. They have full Sunday hunting which we don't. Some of their season stuctures and different hunting culture (read way less hunting pressure) result in more older bucks. And most of all because I hone my skills at home and test my he-man ego on someone elses turf. All about the flex, baby. You think my trust fund bought filming gear just to sit around and gather dust?

 

[SNIPERBBB]

A $600 tag is too rich for my blood. On the other hand, my state just did the opposite - we hadn’t had a license cost increase in a very long time and our in state fees doubled. The new total license cost is around $100 depending on which options you select. Meanwhile the cost for out of state licenses was not increased proportionally. My feeling in my own state was that if fish and game needs more revenue for meaningful expenses - increasing fees for out of state hunters is a reasonable place to do it. But $600?!

To Daltons good point about no net gain in revenue: has OK given any explanations for the theory or intention behind the change?

usually an increase in nonres fees is a prelude to across the board increases. Or just grumbling about nonresidents. The thinking a lot of times on nonres is they dont seem to care how much it costs to hunt out of state, they are coming anyways. The numbers here show that .

 

[The_Fit_Ness_Monster]

Yeah I can see all those reasons why maybe the price of traveling is worth it to some. Granted I recognize I may feel this way bc we do have such liberal hunting lengths and tags in LA. Sportsman’s Paradise baby!! Most of the reason I bow hunt is bc I get 4 months of it and 6 tags. Which I’ve argued before we have too long of a gun season and too many tags.

 

[NMSbowhunter]

Oh yeah I say it’s ridiculous but I totally understand why people do it, but to me I wouldn’t want to be spoiled to that. I’ve seen it happen to a lot of my friends, they go hunt in Kansas or Oklahoma and then they don’t like hunting Louisiana bc it’s “not as good”. Idk I never got it, I’ve never met a true hunter in N.LA say there’s no deer here. Sure our deer aren’t as big but to me a whole extra deer isn’t worth the price it costs to travel and hunt another state.

Oh yeah, I prefer to hunt here in MS just because it is more of a challenge, and I can fund an entire season for what a one week hunt out of state would cost. It's a lot more bang for the buck, pun intended.

I can see the point if you were in a one buck state and tagged out early or lived in a small state or on the borders of several other states where it would make a lot more sense.

 

[IkemanTX]

Here’s a thought, hunt your own state it’s much cheaper. Never understood travelking to hunt what you have in your state. Only thing I’ve travelled to hunt is Elk bc there isn’t elk in Louisiana. But white tail hunting, why would I spend 3-10x the price of tags to go to another state to hunt whitetail when we have them here? It’s always seemed ridiculous to me.

Man, why didn’t I think of hunting my own state… that solves everything…

Considering that there are only 3 pieces of public hunting ground on the north side of the Dallas/Fort Worth area servicing a metropolitan population of 7 MILLION people, there isn’t much room on those properties. Full parking lots, and guys parking along roads for lack of parking, is a constant during season. Private land access is pay to play, there is no longer such a thing as “permission” for 99% of of here in Texas. So, if you’d like to supplement the $2,000-3,000 for a lease I can’t afford, I’ll take it. Otherwise… I’ll just continue hunting the state that is a 40 minute drive from my house and has less than 20% of the pressure of my state’s public ground, and hope this yahoo senator isn’t successful in proving me out of that as well.


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[NMSbowhunter]

Man, why didn’t I think of hunting my own state… that solves everything…

Considering that there are only 3 pieces of public hunting ground on the north side of the Dallas/Fort Worth area servicing a metropolitan population of 7 MILLION people, there isn’t much room on those properties. Full parking lots, and guys parking along roads for lack of parking, is a constant during season. Private land access is pay to play, there is no longer such a thing as “permission” for 99% of of here in Texas. So, if you’d like to supplement the $2,000-3,000 for a lease I can’t afford, I’ll take it. Otherwise… I’ll just continue hunting the state that is a 40 minute drive from my house and has less than 20% of the pressure of my state’s public ground, and hope this yahoo senator isn’t successful in proving me out of that as well.


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Yeah Texans are in a tough spot for public hunting land. No doubt about it. Has there ever been any work to get the state to purchase or lease more land for Texans? Unless I'm wrong, many states have a system where landowners get a pretty good tax break for putting their land into walk on public hunting. Has there ever been any talk of doing this in Texas? I don't blame you a bit for being upset about this proposed hike in out of state dues. You situation certainly warrants concern.