LAST EDITED ON Nov-03-17 AT 10:36PM (MST)[p]With 17 Wyoming Moose points and 12 mule deer points, I'll pay the NR price and be thankful for the opportunity.
There are very few moose to hunt in the lower 48. It's pretty much a supply and demand issue. Few moose and thousands of non-residents that want one. While the price is, at least for me, very expensive, I actually suspect, even at over $1,900, there is still more demand than there are moose to share with Non-residents and, so far, I can still scrap the cash together to pay for the opportunity to hunt a moose in Wyoming. Having said that, there is a price point where folks like me will have to pass but I believe there are still plenty sportsmen that would be happy take my place and pay an even higher price. I have yet to see any of the State hit a price point where they can't sell all the tags they are offering. If and when they do, the price increases will slow down until demand catches up.
Wyoming may have exceeded demand with their price for Non-resident Buffalo hunts, at $4,000.00, time will tell, they could sell them all at that price because there so few buffalo tags, but we will see.
The prices to hunt these extremely limited species are why I've screamed so loud and long for all these Western States to keep their mule deer numbers up. When I call the mule deer the lynch pin species for public hunting, the main reason is the mule deer are the one species where States can grow and maintain millions of big game animals. We know that because States have done it in years past. Animals that give birth to twins, were both twins can survive allows for phenomenal reproductive capacity. With millions of deer, the surplus can be so large hundreds of thousands of hunters can hunt a big game animal, and the Non-resident price would remain low, based on the same supply and demand principles that cause moose, sheep, my. goat price to be high. As mule deer numbers have crashed, over the last 25 years, demand has started to exceed supply, and the prices for mule deer have risen across the West. We will never have surplus moose, sheep or my. goats, the entire future of the life style is dependent on mule deer numbers. It's the same in every Western State.
Unfortunately, I'm no longer holding my breath.
DC
