Wyoming outfitter, landowner, DIY battle!

[Overdrive]

As a licensed guide in Wyoming I can tell you that not all outfitters are in favor of taking all the licenses in their area.

The biggest problem is the Wyoming outfitters association has way to much pull and influence with the Wyoming fish and game. The higher ups in the WOA are making policy's that benefit them or their boys club members.

Land owner tags should definitely come out of a different pool not the public's, some of these land owners have 1000's of acres and the elk never leave so how can they be considered public elk?

 

[Indian Summer]

In my experience with the Montana Outfitter Guide Association those of us who were public land outfitters didn’t benefit from anything they did. We didn’t even belong to the organization. Their focus was the private land outfitters mostly in the east end of the state. I remember when they got outfitter sponsored licenses. The cost was $1500. Back then drawing a license was easy. But it wasn’t guaranteed and that’s what they wanted. The hunters with deep pockets paying for private land hunts over near the Breaks didn’t blink an eye at paying that much money but our clients sure did.


As far as Wyoming landowner licenses go… I’m a mountain hunter. The elk I hunt don’t even have the option to go use private ranches for a refuge. So I couldn’t care less if private landowners got tags to hunt their property. They should be allowed to hunt it every year. But those licenses shouldn’t affect what’s available to everyone else, they should not be used by outfitters or anyone but the actual landowner, and they should only be valid on the land that qualified them for the licenses. I can’t imagine anyone having a problem with that.

 

[Wags]

You own 400 acres in WY and that is all the land you would hunt given a landowner tag? I don't think anyone has issue with landowners getting tags to hunt their own land. I think most have issues with landowners getting unit wide tags in areas that take away tags from everyone else. I'm not all that familiar with WY LO tags, but I think non transferable LO tags that can only be used on the land they have been issued for would be a pretty easy sell to everyone.

CO does something similar with their tags where they have Unit wide tags and PLO (Private Land Only) tags. I can tell you that is an imperfect system as well and really only benefits the land owner.