Wis.wolf fee

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Heh. In today's world, $110 is chump change. Two folks at Ruth's Chris, for instance. If $110 bothers you, you don't want to even think about non-resident license costs in elk country. :D

As hurting as wildlife agencies are for money, I don't expect any license fees for anything, anywhere, to do other than (maybe) hold steady or, more likely, keep rising.
 
Yeah it does bother me Art because the State to Wis. west there residents just pay 34.00! and a wolf I would not eat a elk I would.
 
Full bag of resident tags in NY costs almost $100. Nonresident bow license for elk in Colorado is like $350. I'd gladly pay $110 to hunt a wolf as a nonresident. That seems cheap.
 
$110 for non-resident wolf? That's a good deal!

What would you expect a non-resident fee to be? You have no interest in hunting big game in AZ, our markup is quite a bit higher than that. Which I tend to agree with. Why shouldn't in-state hunters get a better deal?
 
$110 for non-resident wolf?
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........no. That's for a resident. $10 to apply and $100 for a kill tag if you are successful in the drawing. With only 2010 tags available to shoot 201 wolves I doubt very much if there will be any tags left over. Most wolf hunters will spend over $110 in gas just to scout and hunt wolves if they are successful. Monies taken in from tags goes to pay for pet/livestock losses due to wolf predation.
 
Chuckee,

Please in the future learn to be clearer and more concise in your postings. It'll make things easier for all of us to read and understand what you're trying to say.

Second I too live in WI and while I have no intention of hunting wolves (simply put I hunt everything else and wolves would just be another expense that I am choosing not to take on at this point in time) I really wouldn't complain about the cost of the lottery and tag to hunt wolves. Its not like there are THAT many of them that everyone could go wolf hunting. Now if the cost to hunt coyote were that high I'd be pitching a fit!

Its simple really bud, if you don't like the cost don't do it. If you decide later on that you want to do it then put the money forward. Remember that we didn't HAVE to have a wolf season. I'm all for a wolf season and for allowing farmers to cull wolf packs that threaten their livestock but we're not in dire need of a wolf season. Be glad we have a wolf season and that you even have the chance to go out and lawfully shoot a wolf.

Third - complaining about the cost of the lottery and tag is ridiculous. What would yo do with the wolf if and when you've shot it? Eat it? I doubt it. Many, I assume, would go and spend much more money having the animal mounted if it was a trophy. Otherwise they'd take the skin and have it tanned then either keep it themselves (again no cheap cost) or sell it. The cost of leasing an area to hunt and/or scouting the area to hunt for wolves alone would exceed the cost of the lottery and tag. The cost of your supplies (food, lodging, fuel etc.) to hunt would cost more than the lottery and tag. In the end the cost of the lottery and tag is a minor consideration in all of this.
 
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Hansam, your post actually points out why that price is ridiculous. A wolf is basically a target of opportunity, it's pretty darn hart to "hunt" wolves even out west, much less in the midwest where the properties are chopped up so small. I know for a fact most residents out west simply buy a tag to have in their pocket in case they run into a wolf; very few actually set out to specifically hunt them (some do of course).

Montana put a similarly insane fee on NR wolf tags and guess what...all the locals pleaded for me to shoot them on sight, but of course a $350 lottery ticket or whatever they were charging was insane so I did not go for it. Charge me $20 to have one in my pocket and sure, I'll shoot a predator if I see one. But price it like big game and no one is going to bite.

So you can't eat a wolf...if you want to do anything but bury it it will cost you even more...seems like they simply don't want anyone to buy wolf tags.
 
My guess is that you can sell a green wolf pelt for at least $100. Wolves are not just targets of opportunities in this day and age, they are regarded by many a trophy animal. If Wisconsin G&F is trying to cut back significantly on the wolf herd then maybe they could lower the price. If they are simply trying to manage it, that price is more than fair to a lot of people.
 
The beauty of the net and a forum such as this is that we are all free to offer up our opinions regardless of who started the thread Chuckee.

Anyway Spaniel you've missed my point entirely.

Wolf hunting in Wisconsin is a luxury - out and out a luxury - for those who do not own livestock in wolf territory. The other thing is that wolves are NOT as numerous as say bears. Land owners whose livestock is under danger of predation from wolves are allowed to shoot wolves that are damaging their livestock. They do not need to enter into the wolf lottery or purchase the license. Frankly they're the only ones who need to shoot wolves. For everyone else its just a luxury. You can't even say you'd eat the wolf you shoot - not like shooting deer or even bear.

Speaking of bear in WI the cost of a bear license is currently $49 for a resident. Application to the lottery is $3. Currently the average wait for your name to be drawn for a bear license is anywhere from 6 to 9 years. I waited 4 years to be able to purchase a bear license - that was 5 years ago. I hunted bear once in WI and decided that I didn't like bear hunting enough to continue to apply to the lottery and wait for the license. In this state bear are more numerous than wolves and there are more bear licenses available for purchase to lottery winners. In fact last year there were a total of 9,015 tags/licenses sold. The population of black bear in WI is estimated to be somewhere between 26,000 and 40,000. Oh by the way people DO eat bear. I wouldn't expect many if any wolf hunters to eat wolf.

In contrast this year the population of Wisconsin's wolves is estimated to be around 800 and the hunting quota is only expected to be between 142 to 233 wolves. That doesn't leave many tags to be sold or filled.

Basically when there's more bears and more bear tags to be sold the cost is lower. The cost of wolf tags and lottery represents the low number of wolves in the state.

As I said before too, the cost of the lottery and tag in itself is probably one of the least expensive parts of the hunt. You'll spend plenty more just finding and acquiring a place to hunt, a place to stay while hunting, hunting supplies and fuel costs getting to and from your hunt. As someone said before in this thread, $110 is chump change, especially compared to the actual cost of the hunt itself.

EDIT: Huntinaz brings up a good point. The purpose of Wisconsin's wolf hunt is NOT to seriously cut back the wolf population. It is only to manage the population so as to limit the danger of wolf predation on livestock in Wi. With only 800 or so wolves in the state the hunt was never intended to greatly decrease the population. In that case the cost of the license is not horrendous at all.

Of course if you don't like paying the resident cost in WI for hunting wolves then you COULD go hunt wolves in Minnesota since they've got closer to 3000 wolves... of course that'll cost even more.
 
Tags?? Tags??? I don't need no stinking tags. The one I shot in the fall of 09 didn't ask for a tag. When he was about 30 feet away from the Lab I was grouse hunting with I issued HIM a tag with a 2.5" M19 w/158gr JHP. Hide???? Left him lie where he was, looked like he died of natural causes to me.....

There must be enough of a problem in northern WI to warrant the stores stocking buckshot in most all gauges......
 
Idaho is the place to hunt not Wisconsin with all the crazy hunting laws.And the DNR said in a news realease that they wanted to thin out the packs of wolfs they caved in to the tree huggers just like they did back in the early 80's about the killing of the black bears and that was told to me by a DNR warden!,and they did the same to wolf hunts 100 for the tag 10 to get in the lottery - the DNR is just another arm to get money into Madison!.:mad:
 
Tags?? Tags??? I don't need no stinking tags. The one I shot in the fall of 09 didn't ask for a tag. When he was about 30 feet away from the Lab I was grouse hunting with I issued HIM a tag with a 2.5" M19 w/158gr JHP. Hide???? Left him lie where he was, looked like he died of natural causes to me.....
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There are circumstances where the killing of wild predators is necessary to protect your personal property. Your lab is your personal property and as such you were in the right to have shot him. Really you should have notified the local warren and the warren would have then taken the carcass for research purposes but you wouldn't have gotten into any trouble for it. I have friends who have had to do the same as you did with the exception being that they all called the DNR and reported the shooting. Farmers and land owners whose property is being threatened or suffering from predation can do the same. In these instances there is no need for a lottery and/or tags.

Idaho is the place to hunt not Wisconsin with all the crazy hunting laws.And the DNR said in a news realease that they wanted to thin out the packs of wolfs they caved in to the tree huggers just like they did back in the early 80's about the killing of the black bears and that was told to me by a DNR warden!,and they did the same to wolf hunts 100 for the tag 10 to get in the lottery - the DNR is just another arm to get money into Madison!
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If you don't like hunting in WI then don't. Go hunt in Idaho if that's what you believe. As for the DNR I'm not a fan of some of the things they're doing and frankly I think they're rather skewed on their estimates of how many deer are in the state and where but aside from that I've got nothing against them. In fact I hunt almost all year round (aside from the month or so in the dead of winter where I admit I'm too much of a wuss to go sit out in the cold) and I don't have any problems with the "crazy hunting laws" that you're complaining about. I know the wardens personally in the areas I hunt often and I can tell you they're good people who are just as avid hunters as any of us. Each and every one of them takes time off to go hunting and they also have to obey the laws that are here.

Frankly I don't understand why people complain so much about the laws here. We don't have magazine limits on guns aside from migratory bird hunting (3 shells in the gun max). So that means if you want to go out there with an AR or AK and walk around with a hundred round drum (if you want to carry all that weight) you can and nobody's going to bug you about it. Blaze orange requirements are there for your safety - I almost got shot during archery season by another hunter who was walking from his blind back to his car because because neither of us had blaze orange and he saw movement and thought it MIGHT be a deer so he shot. I tell you when that arrow flew past me I hit the ground and I had my 1911 drawn and ready to return fire while shouting curses till he started to wave and apologize. I was still tempted to shoot him... but didn't. While during bow hunting its not required I think its not unreasonable to require it during deer gun season. There are other laws and rules that you have to obey that some people might contest but really I don't see anything unreasonable about them. After all I've hunted here in WI two thirds of my life and I haven't had any problems with obeying the laws here AND having a good time.

Maybe the problem isn't with the laws but with the people who don't want to obey them?
 
I gotta tell you Hansam I disagree with you on the killing and calling the DNR.Why tell on youself? this was one of the qustions I asked the warden in park Falls a few days ago.What would happend to me if I shot and killed a wolf without a permit - and this is what he told me if a warden see you kill the animal then he has THE CHOISE to either let you go or issue you a ticket and take your guns! And if no one see then I will just let the animal ROT on the Forest floor! you almost NEVER WIN against the DNR on that issue. S.S.S!
 
To be honest, I wasn't certain of where I stood having killed a "protected" animal, and seeking out a warden wasn't on my list, but I was NOT going to let that thing get to my dog. It would have been a one sided slaughter with the wolf leaving with a full belly.

In the area I hunt there are numerous signs every morning of thier presence but this was the first one I had ever seen. How many saw me is up for speculation, but this was the only one to act agressive and actually launch an attack. I felt that I had no choice.
 
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