Commercialization of Hunting Leads to Increased Lease Prices

Taking advantage of our God given natural resources in Texas seems to be only for the rich and well to do now days.  I'm referring to deer hunting or for that matter any type of hunting in Texas.  The cost of a deer lease has skyrocketed in the last 10 to 15 years, or so it seems.  I've been looking for a place to hunt for me and my two sons the past couple of years.  Right off the bat, I'm sure you can see my problem.  Three guns for a lease.  Open the check book.

 Land owners have changed the way they charge for leases.  Used to, you could find a land owner who wanted to lease his property for hunting, negotiate a price for the lease and then split the cost of the lease between the number of people who will hunt on it.  The landowners have caught on and determined that they can make a lot more money charging by the gun rather than a flat rate for the lease.  Who can blame them?  After all it's all about the almighty dollar now days. This has lead to skyrocketing costs for hunting leases.  But then again, if someone is willing to pay the money, why not charge it. 

Whether you want to deer hunt, dove hunt, quail hunt or hog hunt you better be ready to open your wallet.  I attribute some of the increased costs of hunting to the increased commercialization of hunting that has taken place over the last several years.   Take for instance all of the hunting shows on television now a days.  Have they done justice to the sport of hunting?  I think not.  While they are enjoyable to watch, most of them are just a disguise to sale a product.  They do nothing more than create a market for their products.   This commercialization has, in my opinion, led to the high cost of hunting products and hunting leases.

As long as we are willing to pay the prices the landowners want to charge, the cost has nowhere to go but up.  At what point will people say we just can't afford it anymore?  When we as hunters realize we don't have to have the newest food plot seed, the newest strongest doe urine that drives bucks wild, scent blocking clothing, heaters for our stands, or camo that truly makes us invisible, the commercialization of hunting will slowly subside and prices I believe will realign themselves.

Hopefully, the time will come when hunting is again affordable for the normal person and we can continue to pass on the joys of hunting to our children and grandchildren.