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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RidgeHunter" data-source="post: 1671233" data-attributes="member: 4319">It's not that it would hurt the amount/quality of our bucks, it's that it would turn Oklahoma into Texas Jr. We're getting bigger bucks every year, it's cheap and easy for a non-res to hunt in Oklahoma. Give us a 100 day gun season and watch what happens to lease prices. Watch land get bought up and turned into Texas Style hunting ranches. The opportunity argument goes nowhere if it doubles lease prices for the average blue collar hunter. It's opportunity for people in the hunting biz and yuppies with more money than time.Texas' long gun season solely exists to increase the dollar bill value on a whitetail buck's head IMO.The southeast U.S. is a different animal. Nobody in their right mind wants to hunt the Southeast. The culture, terrain and land layout is way different. Fewer large tracts. Bucks don't hold a candle to what Oklahoma is producing on a consistent basis. Oklahoma more closely resembles Kansas than it does South Carolina. Imagine if Kansas had over the counter non-resident buck tags for dirt cheap like Oklahoma does. Now imagine they had a 100 day rifle season. What do you think would happen to the average per-acre lease price in Kansas? People beat the door down to hunt in Kansas as it is, and you can't by OTC tags. If they said "hey no-residents, come gun hunt anytime for 100 days" people would would pay unreal prices to lease land there. All you guys with large leases in the western half of Oklahoma would be in for a rude surprise if we had a 100 day gun season. Mark my words. Your lease prices would be likely to double, that is if the land isn't sold to someone who realizes it's a lot more profitable to book a few "big buck hunts" to non-resident yuppies who can come here and buy a gun tag at Wal-Mart for $280. I know there are guys on this forum that have posted about losing their Oklahoma leases to Texas residents because even offering more than the going lease rate in OK is cheaper than a good lease in Texas. In the next 10-20 years Oklahoma is going to be a commonly recognized "Big Buck Hunting State". It's up to the lawmakers whether we keep those big bucks easy and affordable for blue-collar residents to hunt, or if we sell them to the highest bidder like Texas does. If Texas was about opportunity they would not make you put a calibrated eyeball to judge a 13" antler spread before you pull the trigger. It's about money.</blockquote>

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