Can you afford to continue hunting?

[Just a Hunter]

I guess the general answer would be even with the rise in the price to join a hunting club/lease it is likly still within the range that most people can still afford to hunt, but is this how you will be spending your savings?

It's not odd for hunting clubs these days to charge over $1000 for a lease that would have cost you just over $500 a few years back.

This can be a shocker for some and for others a reason to oil there guns and put them up.

I happen to be one of those that have chosen for the first time in over 12 yrs not to rejoin my hunting club. It seemed like every year the price has climbed and the last couple of years it has jumped several hundred dollars per season.

I could afford to pay the cost of the due's if I really wished, but with these prices it makes me wonder if I wouldnt be just as happy doing a bit more fishing or apply it to any number of house projects.

Hunting was once a inexpensive hobby that allowed me to remove some stress and get away for a while.
With the prices being such as they are, and understanding that with a 3 month season I would only have 12 weekends to hunt I was forced to reflect on this season. If you remove a weekend for Thanksgiving and another for Christmas your now left with 10 weekends.

Every weekend I missed would now be equal to throwing away $100, and my idea of hunting begins to become bit like work for wishing to get my money's worth.

OK, I will pass on this season at least for the most part.
I may head north to visit the family , and see if I can do a weekend or two.
If my schedule will allow I may do a WMA or two.

Should these two opportunities fall under I will likly hunt up some crickets and wet me a line somewhere.

[Bushman]

Most of the upper third of Wisconsin where I hunt is wide open for public hunting. Federal, state, county and paper mill property only require that you have a hunting license to go hunting. Sure some of the private land, hunting club or lease guys might get some bigger deer, but if you put the work in on public land up here your antler collection isn't half bad. Over my last 5 bucks I'm at a 9.6 point average. Our property taxes are a little higher than some other places, but we don't even factor in the cost of going places just to recreate other than just putting gas in the truck.

[Rembrandt]

No question prices have gone up, it's more a matter of realigning priorities.

I use to hunt 5-6 states each year and take the kids with. Those days are gone....with states taxing hunters more and more for the privilege to hunt, the licensing fees have become more than I'm willing to pay. Although it never was cheap with travel, lodging, food, and processing, we now hunt closer to home.

The memories of those out of state hunts are priceless and could never be measured in terms of dollars. We now have adjusted to the current economic times and scaled back to make it more affordable....hunting is something you can't get completely out of your system, yet we've found a way to make it part of our families activities.

[LampLighter]

I did the lease thing for 15+ years. Since 00/01 season I have been in the 80 thousand acre NWR. All bottomland hardwoods with few roads- means deep woods. Lots of agriculture (corn) around the perimeters . Bigger deer and more deer than ANY of the leases I have ever been in. And there's approx. 50 thousand acres more 5 minutes away from the 80 k. State WMA. Another NWR 10 minutes away from here has 36 thousand acres full of deer & hog. The key to getting most of it all to yourself is to bowhunt.

No, I left those leases long ago and never looked back. Cost me $660.00 this year. of that, 500 to the farmer where my camp sits, and 160 to the red necks next to me for the pro-rated electric bill.

All my previous leases shared a common theme: they always had one jealous, possessive individual who was worried you were too close to him. Also, you get , what, 3 stands ? Don't think about bouncing around with a climber following sign. Oh no. You stay on your food plot and hope a woods goat (deer) comes grazing.

Leases that jet out into the Ms. river from Baton Rouge to Arkansas run in the thousands. That area is agriculture AND river bottomland. Bucks get tremendous there. Maybe you've heard of Willow Point. Unfortunetly, when it gets that good and expensive, it quickly steers away from true hunting and becomes mostly raising animals like cattle. It ALL rests in how the shooter really feels when the trophy is on the wall, and can he really feel like he outsmarted the buck and can he really truly pass it off to his visitors when he shows it as having "hunted" and outsmarted the buck in the "wild." That is the final factor. I couldn't.

So in conclusion, I say right now my answer to your question is, YES.

[LampLighter]

it is possible that Joe Smith, a hypothetical heart surgeon with alot of money, could lease up prime Ms River bottomland and still hunt it one on one, using climbers and hunting sign, AND kill a new State record. That would be all fair in my book. He was eager enough to go get a Dr. degree and make money to eliminate others from being on the land. Any one of us could have chose that route. That is hunting in my perspective. It's the food plot, box stand, cull thing that I wouldn't recognize.

So, point is, just because it is a high dollar club doesn't always mean real hunting is not going on- however most of the time it does mean that.

You never see me on the QDM board. It is not my place to go over there and belittle them. They do their thing and I do mine.

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

Red, If you shoot only Mature Bucks and Tag out on does, then you are doing the QDM thing wherever you hunt.

Alan

[Altjaeger]

The hunter success rates may not be as high and the hunting harder than on private land, but I never lived anywhere that you could not find public land to hunt. In my case I have to drive 3 hours to hunt deer on land that is without charge and the definitions of a legal deer is such as to make it very difficult. In addition I apply for state management hunts and get drawn every few years. Somehow almost every year venison ends up in the house and I get at least a few hunts every year.

If I wanted to hunt small game a card costing about $50 would open a large number of public hunting areas to me, some 10 minutes from the house. But increasingly I prefer to go kayak fishing over hunting small game.

If you really want to hunt it is there though success in terms of a kill may not come every year on public lands. If you have to have an 80% or better success rate then maybe it is better to hang up the guns when the price tag comes too high for your tastes.

[postoak]

Alt -- I'm curious why you never hunt Fort Hood. Don't you live right beside it?

[Sabre]

I can't afford not to hunt. It's a way to fill the freezer with very inexpensive meat for me. Figuring in the cost of my license, cartridges and all the gas I use in a season {very damn little cuz I mostly hunt right out the back door} I can normally put 150-200 lbs. of boned venison away for less than $150.00.

[Altjaeger]

Alt -- I'm curious why you never hunt Fort Hood. Don't you live right beside it?

I live about 4 minutes from Main Gate and maybe 8-9 minutes from the hunt center. Over a military career I hunted many posts and have seen no post as stupidly run and hunter unfriendly as this one.

As with most you have to buy a post hunting permit which is not a problem. In order to hunt you have to be out at the hunt center at 3:00 AM to see if you can even get drawn to hunt that day with no guarantees. That is a full 2 hours earlier than most. Then after buying the permits some years the hunt plan is filled by the second weekend so that wraps the deer season. I want no part of it.

[postoak]

That's pretty amazing Sabre.

One Texas lease holder figured out his costs for the year at $5300, all inclusive. I think that's about typical for the state.

I hunt on public land like Altjaeger, but since I'm only 35 minutes away, I wind up spending a lot more on gasoline because I can't resist going up there every 3rd week or so all year long. I enjoy the scouting more than the actual hunting, I think. My license with public lands certificate costs about $75, I think.

[Sidekick]

My biggest expense is the tags. Gas isn't much because if I'm not hunting right out the back door the farthest I ever get away is about 5 miles and I use my atv most of the time. The only time I spend much money is if I buy a new stand or scope or something. I also do my own processing which saves a fair amount too.

[Sabre]

I also do my own processing which saves a fair amount too.

Same here. I've never had a deer "processed" by anyone else in my life.

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

I took two deer in to the processor one time in my life and had everything made into sausage, 50/50 with their pork, simply another contingency had arisen after I had dead deer. I was sorry that I did. I would have been miles ahead to have given the deer to someone. It was way overpriced and the sausage was terrible. Every time I ate some it gave me indigestion. I ended up giving it all away anyway (but paying for it first). I have had sausage made by another party but I processed the meat first.

Without getting back into another discussion, I spend a lot on deer meat, but I would spend the same amount if I didn't kill a single deer off the place so I guess the deer are valued at the same amount as Sabre's.

When we lived at the ranch it was bit different. I had the time and the means to do it all, all the time. Oh, for the good old days.

Alan

[dave-t.]

Last year was a down year for me. 8-10 days in a bow stand, 3 days gun hunting, 2-3 days after turkeys in the spring. 13-16 days of access doesn't seem like it should run a $1,000+, but that is where the pricing starts for the good places to lease.

Before the kiddo's came along 30 days a season in a bow stand was a mild year for me, not counting gun hunting and turkeys, or small game for that matter.

I've never leased a bit of hunting land in my life, but depending on what the kids want to try hunting wise, and how much time I can spend hunting when they get more independent, I could see me trying it. If I could hunt 40 days a year in a top quality spot, I could see that as being well worth the money.

[President Obanana]

Hunting is fast becoming a rich man's sport.

[postoak]

Alan, I've just recently learned that even if you find a processor who returns your own deer meat to you, that none of them do this for the sausage because they have to batch it. So, actually, you DO get your own meat, but mixed in with other people's deer (speaking of sausage). For that reason, I've decided not to get any more sausage processed.

[GF.]

Never had to pay for hunting access, fortunately. The day comes that I do, it may drive me out of it, though. At least for the local stuff.

For what you guys are talking about spending on a whitetail lease, I could fly somewhere out west and buy a non-resident bull tag for a DIY Elk hunt--at the low end! A guy could practically get a fully guided hunt on the other :eek:

[dave-t.]

One week in the mountains would be nice, but it's nowhere near enough hunting time for the whole fall and winter.

[howdydoit]

I feel that these leases are getting higher only because ppl will still pay that price. Ive only ever hunted public land and just in the last few years my on little 30 acres.

If hunters stop paying them and hunting somewhere else then prices may come back down. even then its highway robbery.

Howdy

[Altjaeger]

If hunters stop paying them and hunting somewhere else then prices may come back down. even then its highway robbery.

Howdy

Just the law of supply and demand.:)

[howdydoit]

Sad but true. As long as hunters are willing to pay for that once in a life time hunt, then the prices will remain high or climb even higher.

Im glad a once in a life time hunt for me is watching my Son or Daughter get their first deer.

Howdy.

[GF.]

One week in the mountains would be nice, but it's nowhere near enough hunting time for the whole fall and winter.

Funny, though....

If I go hunting for 8-9 days, I get in way more time in the woods than I could ever squeeze in on so many day-trips after whitey.... And doing it in one block really helps me get back towards being good in the woods.

Not that I mind being able to do both :D

Just hope my landowner comes through again this year.....:eek:

[Sabre]

Got my thanksgiving turkey off the ridge behind the house Saturday afternoon. Cost me one 20 gauge shotgun shell @ .50 and one turkey tag @ 2.00. Seems like a pretty good deal to me.

[LampLighter]

Good. I hope you choke on a wing bone.

[DaveHawk]

Sabre , congratulations GREAT DEAL !

It's not the everyday joe who is paying these high prices unless a group get together and leases the land. What has kicked up the prices are the GLUTTONS on shows like VS and OutDoor channel. I have a lot of customers who are pay as you go hunters from the affluent areas around DC who don't have time to hunt and when they do they are more then happy to fork out the bucks to hunt some place special with good commendations. Trouble is every Tom Dick and Harry thinks they are special too and should be in the mix.

[45seventy]

Whoa LL.
I hope you put a little smiley face
by your reply!:confused:

[My buddy]

I did the lease thing for 15+ years. Since 00/01 season I have been in the 80 thousand acre NWR. All bottomland hardwoods with few roads- means deep woods. Lots of agriculture (corn) around the perimeters . Bigger deer and more deer than ANY of the leases I have ever been in. And there's approx. 50 thousand acres more 5 minutes away from the 80 k. State WMA. Another NWR 10 minutes away from here has 36 thousand acres full of deer & hog. The key to getting most of it all to yourself is to bowhunt.

No, I left those leases long ago and never looked back. Cost me $660.00 this year. of that, 500 to the farmer where my camp sits, and 160 to the red necks next to me for the pro-rated electric bill.

All my previous leases shared a common theme: they always had one jealous, possessive individual who was worried you were too close to him. Also, you get , what, 3 stands ? Don't think about bouncing around with a climber following sign. Oh no. You stay on your food plot and hope a woods goat (deer) comes grazing.

Leases that jet out into the Ms. river from Baton Rouge to Arkansas run in the thousands. That area is agriculture AND river bottomland. Bucks get tremendous there. Maybe you've heard of Willow Point. Unfortunetly, when it gets that good and expensive, it quickly steers away from true hunting and becomes mostly raising animals like cattle. It ALL rests in how the shooter really feels when the trophy is on the wall, and can he really feel like he outsmarted the buck and can he really truly pass it off to his visitors when he shows it as having "hunted" and outsmarted the buck in the "wild." That is the final factor. I couldn't.

So in conclusion, I say right now my answer to your question is, YES.

Wow, you have over 160,000 acres nearby to hunt and you still make comments about having it "all to yourself". Then in the next paragraph, you complain about those in previous leases about hunters that were possessive and jealous. You weren't by any chance talking about yourself were you?

160,000 acres and you constantly complain about some guy being lazy and hunting with a crossbow? geesshhh. If the crossbow guys are so lazy Im sure you could walk back into the WMA a hundred yard or so and not have to worry about them.

Once again another post from you that shows your true selfish nature.

[GF.]

My landowner does 'charge' me 2 backstraps per deer... I guess you could call that fairly expensive.... I sure do miss the chops....

So if any o' you guys in down-state NY know of a landowner in a bow-zone who needs a few thinned out, just shoot me a PM :cool:

[Wapitibill]

No doubt about it, hunting is expensive. It can be very expensive and it’s expensive in many ways. Hunting takes a lot of money and it takes a lot of time. (Most people have one or the other; few have both – especially these days.) The equipment isn’t cheap, nor are the prerequisite tags and licenses, to say nothing about the costs of travel and access to a decent place to hunt.

Access to a place to hunt is probably the biggest single expense for most of us. The cost of a Texas lease is an example of a direct cost for hunting access but there are other, indirect costs. Those who say “I don’t pay anything, I just walk out the back door and go hunting” probably pay the most of all. I live in a rural area and made the decision to move from a major city 30 years ago mostly for better hunting opportunities. Had I stayed in the city I could have earned hundreds of thousands more dollars over my working life. In Montana they call it the “scenery tax.” Citizens of the Treasure State pay dearly to live in their little slice of heaven. They suffer an economic double hit in the form of rock bottom wages and sky high living costs.

Is it worth the cost? We all have to figure that out for ourselves. I think nothing of spending at least 25% of my gross annual income on hunting every year but I wouldn’t pay $10 to fish. (On second thought, I’d seriously consider it.) Nor would I pay $1 to golf at the best country club in the world. But a lot of people pay major $$$ every year to enjoy these activities. It’s all a matter of priorities. Some of friends say “it must be nice to hunt elk every year.” They also pay $100 a month for satellite or cable TV while I don’t even own a working TV set. Others own new trucks, my newest vehicle is 12 model years old. And so on.

“Hunting is becoming a rich man’s sport.” This isn’t completely true and, worse, it smacks of class envy. A rich man has the money to spend but he often doesn’t have the time because he’s too busy earning the money. We’ve all read complaints on internet forums about the “rich dude who hires a guide, flies out one day, shoots an elk and flies home the next day.” But you can bet your @$$ that the banker, doctor, lawyer or whoever would do anything to be able to spend a few weeks on a “proper” backcountry hunt but taking that kind of time off work is an impossible dream.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t feel sorry for the rich. Wealth brings many advantages. Having a large stash of cash makes it possible to choose more entrees from the menu of toys and the other good things in life: a trophy wife and a nice home and a place on the lake and a boat and a Corvette and a Mercedes and Harley and so on. The further down the ladder you go the fewer options you get pick off the menu at a time. But even if you are near the bottom of the income ladder you can probably still choose at least one of them if you work at it hard enough. A lot of average “Joe Six-Packs” own a nice new ‘Vette or Harly that they worked their butts off to earn. They probably had to do without a lot of other things in order to enjoy their choice. I read about a guy that made $20K annually who went hunting in Africa every year. (Now there’s a dedicated hunter!) Priorities, it’s all in ones’ priorities.

Hunting has its own rewards. That’s why so many of us are happy to pay the price! A good golfer or bowler might earn a case full of trophies. But those trophies cannot be eaten nor will looking at them bring back the same kind of nostalgia that an outdoors person gets from their trophies. When I’m having a bad day all I have to do is look at my collection of (admittedly) modest racks and skins and I’m profoundly grateful for the opportunity to have hunted that animal and I’m grateful for its life. I’m reminded of good times in the past and look forward to more good times to come. How can you put a dollar value on that?

[GF.]

You can't.

;)

I live around a bunch of hedge fund manager types; good guys, damn smart and they do indeed work their tails off. Most of 'em could retire at any time, live off of investment income and still pocket several times what I bring home in a year.

And I really don't begin to understand why they don't.....:confused:

One of the guys was traveling outside the US 3 weeks out of 4. He's got a condo here, a boat there... And just as you said, it's no problem at all for him to find the money to take the wife and 3 kids to Sun Valley for the weekend... He just has to wait for a holiday weekend so that the markets are closed and still probably works 4 hours a day while he's there anyway.

At least he heard me a few years back when I called him on it, and walked away from at least 10 years of deferred salary at a big, international bank in order to take a job right in town. It cost him millions of dollars, I'm sure, but it saves him 4 hours a day in commuting time when he's not out o the road again.....:eek:

I suppose it might provide some folks with a little comfort to know that he's no happier than anybody else I know, because like everybody else, the Really Stinkin' Rich Guy is just about as happy as he's made up his mind to be.

Anyway, watching these guys, I've figured out that you can always find a way to make more money, but you'll never buy another day in your life. Not a happy, healthy one, anyway. And you can't buy either the love or the respect of your children. Talking to a guy who used to be the Young Life area director, I've picked up plenty o' data on that....

Myself, I'm trying hard to figure out how to make a little more to make it easier to cover the things we need - hearing aids & knee surgery to start with - that aren't covered by insurance, but without cutting any deeper into the hour and a half of family time that I get in a day. Big stuff gets torn into by small stuff that gets used more often; faraway trips on your own get eaten by expenses related to stuff you can do in an afternoon with the wife & kids.

Anyway, whatever you feel you're short on, that can be fixed. You just have to make sure that you can afford less of what you've got in order to have more of what you're lacking....:confused:

Maybe for some guys, the math works out better to drop the $$ on a lease instead of a road trip. The lease-sellers bless you for it ;)



Myself, I can't hunt locally with my brother, so it sure was good to spend a few days with him last month, even though I could have bought a coupla dirt-cheap hang-on stands & two sets of climbing sticks for about what I spent just checking my baggage out & back plus 1 tank o' gas....:eek: Between the cow tag and the plane ticket... hell, who am I kidding? I could have payed down some debt. :eek:

So that brings me to a bit of a theory.....

Lease rates are going up steeper than a lot of things because they can be hunted close to home in a day or half a day, so they are in demand by people with more money than time. A dad can hit the stand at o' dark-thirty and make the kids' soccer game later on in the morning. Maybe it's a good sign if more hunters are realizing how important family time is, and time spent doing a variety of 'family' activities now can become hunting time later on as the kids get old enough to participate.

It'd sure piss off PETA if they were to find out that divorce, drug use and juvenile delinquency rates were all lower in families that hunt together, wouldn't it?:D

[Bushman]

What gets me is the guys with the deep pockets that announce that they or their kid got a buck that scored 185 that year. I call on a plant owner who gets big bucks like that every year and I know darned well that those deer practically have had a collar on them in their upbringing. Another guy that I know has a deer farm and grows those "trophies" in several years time. He tells me that you wouldn't believe what well heeled guys will pay for a big buck. I prefer to invest more sweat equity than most people and take a nice buck off public land in a big woods.

[Sabre]

Those who say “I don’t pay anything, I just walk out the back door and go hunting” probably pay the most of all. I live in a rural area and made the decision to move from a major city 30 years ago mostly for better hunting opportunities. Had I stayed in the city I could have earned hundreds of thousands more dollars over my working life. In Montana they call it the “scenery tax.” Citizens of the Treasure State pay dearly to live in their little slice of heaven. They suffer an economic double hit in the form of rock bottom wages and sky high living costs.

This is not true for many who were born and raised in the country and isn't true at all for myself. Why ? Because we'd live here whether we hunted or not. Most of us who live in the sticks do so by choice, don't even like going to a city for a visit, and would never consider living there. I don't like the traffic, ain't at all fond of the people and simply can't tolerate the stench. I can't begin to comprehend how people can live on top of each other like that without going insane. You are correct that wages are much lower in rural areas but the cost of living is also much lower. No you say ? Check the prices on housing rural vs urban and get back to me. You may have to settle for a 25,000 dollar a year job out here in the country but you can also buy a good solid house for 75,000. Two bedroom apartments go for 400-450 a month around here too, while I'm told the same will run 1500-2000 in the NYC area.

[dave-t.]

It has always given me a lot of comfort knowing that I could just call in a vacation/sick day and go climb into a deer stand that is less than 2 miles away, sometimes less than 300yrds away.:cool:

Family changes a lot of that solo free time. The wife suddenly became a pro at making plans for everyone once the kid's got here. But it is good to get out and roam several times a year in autumn, winter, and spring, it keeps me in the hunting mindset. I generally leave the summer hiking to the ticks and chiggers.

Keeping in touch with the outdoors does a lot for me even if I can't go out to hunt as much as I want to every season.

When we moved 3.5yrs ago, it was to a place that had a bow only conservation area, and a 1,800 acre county park within 1.5 miles drive of our house. That was just added protection that I'd have a place to wander, that wouldn't wander away from me as time went on.

[ADK Jakes]

In the early 1990's I enjoyed a 106 acre lease about an hour South of my home. We built a small camp and hunted there for 5 years. It was great to have our own parcel of land to hunt and I killed some nice deer while a member. I had a falling out with other members of the club and got out after the lease term (5 years). I now hunt the Adirondack Park which is 6 million acres of public land. I have plenty of room to roam and have done well with my share of bucks and bears. I also hunt our last family farm that is 10 minutes from my home. I don't consider that hunting as much as going there to shoot deer. My 11-year old now hunts with me there and I enjoy it because I get to spend time with her in the woods. It's more a play date but I could care less...

[DaveP]

I haven't payed to lease ground since I let it drop in the early 1980s ,and then it was over on the Shore for sika deer. Cost us princely sum of $1/acre of 600 acres!
Last I heard it was at $12/acre and going up.

BUT, one of my brothers has picked up a few farms for LESS than they were going for last year. Groups that had them, dropped them.Maybe it's the economy, and folks are having to let them go now.

He lowballed a couple landowners and got called back right before the season opened.

We hunt at home here, and a lot of public land.Can find some great spots IF you are willing to put in the time and effort, and go that extra mile.

Also hunt a few friends' farms, folks I help with hay, etc, plus some family lands.

Rubs me wrong to pay.