In Texas, hunting has become a pastime for the well-to-do

Correction: Because of a reporting error, a story in yesterday's Nation pages about hunting in Texas misstated the number of states that were once republics. Four states were formerly independent republics -- Texas, Vermont, Hawaii, and California.

KENEDY COUNTY, Texas -- Having long been a way for politicians to burnish their bona fides with rural voters, hunting is steadily morphing into a high-class pursuit for the wealthy and the well-connected, say officials in this rugged brush land of South Texas where Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot one of his hunting companions.

As the availability of public gamelands has shrunk, private outings to preserves such as the Armstrong Ranch, where Cheney accidentally fired his 28-gauge shotgun at Texas lawyer Harry Whittington on Saturday, are fast becoming the only way to share in one of the state's most fabled pastimes, many in the area say.

So when local residents hear outsiders describe how big ranch hunts are typical for those who live in this part of Texas, many respond with a roll of the eyes. ''If you don't know somebody who owns a big ranch or unless you're quite well off you don't get invited on these special hunts," said Chuck Shipley, 65, who runs the state's visitor center in Kingsville, 50 miles north on Route 77 of the Armstrong Ranch.

''It's not like it used to be. It's pretty expensive to hunt in Texas."

But the cost means little to outside luminaries who gather at local ranches. Cheney was merely the latest in a stream of high rollers to hunt on one of the several massive ranches in the county, officials said.

''The big oil men, the chemical companies, all the bigwigs come down here to hunt," said Shipley. It's a far cry, he said, from the days when anyone with a rifle or shotgun could set out across the railroad tracks into the vast open spaces and hunt for deer, birds, and other varied wildlife.

Deep in the windswept plains of Kenedy County -- population about 400, with no restaurant or gas station in 1,400 square miles -- the Armstrong Ranch, like the Kenedy and King ranches, has hosted presidents and princes.

Britain's Prince Charles once played a polo match on the 50,000-acre spread in the Lower Rio Grande Valley between the Gulf of Mexico and the Mexican border. Both Presidents Bush have been to the ranches in the area several times, according to locals.

Settled in 1882 by John Armstrong 3d, a lawman famed for capturing the outlaw John Wesley Hardin, it became the homestead for a powerful family that mixed rugged ranch life with Harvard and Yale educations, and that has been a fixture in Texas Republican politics for generations.

The founder's son, Tom, became one of the first executives for Standard Oil Co. in the early part of the 20th century. Tobin Armstrong, who died last fall, was a top fund-raiser for the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign, collecting more than $100,000 in 2004.

While the numbers have dropped in recent years, there are an estimated 20 million active hunters in the United States, according to industry groups. More than one million Texans alone apply for hunting licenses each year, according figures from the state Department of Wildlife.

And politics and hunting have long been inextricably linked in Texas, as politicians have sought to embody the rugged individualism of the only state in the union that was once an independent republic.

''Hunting is deeply ingrained in our folklore and heritage," said Thomas Myers, a political science professor who teaches state government at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and who grew up on a ranch. ''Just like Richard Nixon watched the Washington Redskins play football, here you go kill Bambi or some birds and you're part of one of the boys."

President Lyndon B. Johnson was famous for driving his guests around his vast Texas ranch. President George W. Bush, when he ran for governor in 1994, went hunting at the same event as his Democratic rival, then-Governor Ann Richards, as each sought to establish credentials as average Texans.

President Clinton acknowledged in his memoirs that he believed Democrats lost to the GOP in 2000 because they failed to appeal to hunters like Bush did.

In 2004, both Bush and the Democratic nominee John F. Kerry devoted parts of their websites to hunters.

But hunting is no longer a surefire way to connect with blue-collar voters, say many in Texas.

These days, the sport is as often associated with millionaires as backwoodsmen.

''In recent years there has been the sale of tens of millions of acres of public lands for private mining and logging, which is no longer accessible to the blue-collar hunter," said John Rosenthal, president and cofounder of the American Hunters and Shooters Association in Frederick, Md.

''The lack of access to public hunting lands is the number one reason that hunters drop out of the sport," added Bill Brassard of the National Shooting Sports Foundation in Newtown, Conn. ''There appears to be a trend toward pay-to-hunt operations."

On the King Ranch's 825,000 acres, a one-day deer hunt costs at least $1,000 per person, according to the ranch's website.

Quail hunting goes for $450 per gun per day. A three-day outing could cost $5,500 or more.

In Sarita, the only town in the county, where the elementary school for ranch workers' children and county offices are located, Diana Mata, the dispatcher for the Kenedy County Sheriff's Office, said she remains an avid deer hunter.

But ''unless you know someone on the property," Mata said, ''it's not as easy to go hunting anymore."

Bryan Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com.