Personally I can see it both ways although I tend to agree with it becomming a rich mans sport. For people who grow up with it and have a lot of stuff being passed down and whatnot, I can see how it wouldn't be quite so expensive, or if your parents buy it all for you when you are a kid or whatever, but me personally, when I start hunting I am going to have to start from scratch, I didn't grow up hunting and didn't have any relatives that hunted either so I really had no idea where to start and had no way of really knowing what I needed. Now, being 24 and married, I want to start getting into it since my inlaws are ALL hunters which is nice, but all I have so far is a .22, which I suppose is a good start. I am mainly a fisherman, so when I went to cabelas to price hunting equipment, I can see how it can be extremely expensive, I honestly don't know how so many people afford it. :? (IMHO)