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If you haven’t heard by now, The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation has raised the rent on non-resident hunters, and the rent went up substantially. A deer tag for archery only was $300 last year. That same experience in 2024 will now cost non residents over $700! And if you want to hunt rifle or muzzleloader seasons, that’s an additional $500 per season. So…that begs the question…why was such a drastic price increase necessary?

Micah Holmes – Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation Assistant Chief of Communication and Education joins the discussion this week to explain how this change came about. Was it disgruntled residents sighting crowded public land? Was the department trying to decrease the number of non-resident hunters by increasing the price? Was in a financial decision based purely on needing to bring in more revenue? What about the businesses that will be impacted if less non residents are buying gas, coffee, meals, hotels, and hunting supplies? Does it affect other seasons like waterfowl or even youth hunters? Much to discuss with Micah.

(A nice archery buck I took in 2017 on my first Oklahoma deer lease)

 

Next, we check in with our friend Steve Lemenov of Armasight. The longstanding thermal/night vision optics company continues to push innovation and performance in the realm of hunting under the cover of darkness. They are also the only one in the game that can boast they’re made in the USA. We talk various applications for thermal and NV and which marketplace is bigger between the two. Steve highlights some of the user friendly functionality of popular units like the Contractor Thermal series. We talk new units and the companies continued dedication to customer service. He also addresses some of the crazy regulations his home state of California has on thermals, firearms and suppressors.