Hunting: Expensive

Hard to find a free place to hunt. Most land is leased. Understandable- game is a crop and farming is not always possible or profitable. Those who gain access for free (or trespass) not always appreciative, or treat the property well. They may litter, drive where should not, do not re-latch gates. There is BLM land out West, and in the East, there are smaller areas available.

Out of state tags can be expensive, lottery tags, guided hunts, elk hunts...

African hunting involves expensive travel, ph, very expensive tags even for common antelope, and then taxidermy fees.

Looked at just one site that offered for sale completed taxidermy mounts for under a thousand dollars.That might be 20% of what it costs to go to Africa , shoot your game, and have it mounted.


In Ohio, a reasonable goal would be deer, and if you are not too elitish-squirrel. Coyotes have killed most rabbits, and chucks. There are
no wild pheasant or quail left. Are dove, I hear.

My Uncle Bob, shot 100 rabbits and 12 pheasant a year in early ww2. Then he went to sea in an oiler. Oil tankers were reputed to be damxd dangerous, but he seemed unaware of that ,years later.

Edit: Read recently that avg lease cost per man is $1500.The older hunters as o'connor, bob hagel, elmer had better experiences than one does today. Exotic hunting was always expensive, perhaps due to travel and time costs. In the 50's, I saw 2 deer total in ohio. Now I see 10 a day in suburbia. Bad winter-ate shrubs down to skeletons. No hunting, so BIG bucks. Established gun writers get some good free deals- They just have to write nice things. I would too. Like politicians- get along or go away. Public tracts in Ohio are scattered, and often little game and over hunted. Southern Ohio-big tracts , but not close to most . Again, time, travel, costs. Has turned most of us into wannabe hunters, and plinkers. Always wished, I was out West. Even there, on private land, it is leasing. Landowner works hard, struggles to survive, and public comes up and wants free ride-no cost, no work. So, some resent landowner.

that's why we have public lands in the west. For a hundred and thirty years the plutocrats and corporations have been trying to get their hands on those lands. When I vote I always check on the candidates position and record on Public Lands issues. It's the ninth amendment to the Constitution ... there are other rights besides those outlined in the Amendments. That includes the right to hunt and the right to use public lands

jn

-For a hundred and thirty years the plutocrats and corporations have been trying to get their hands on those lands.- I can believe that. Who wouldn't. I hope there is the push to hold back the development of the beautiful lands in the west. It seems like there is an endless expanse but we all know how things can get knawed away.

One of the big problems is bad behavior by hunters, even hunters who get permission. In Texas there is very little public land compared to most states.

For many years, mostly because of cost, I limited myself primarily to waterfowl hunting on refuges. It was he-man hunting but very satisfying, do that and you're a real hunter not just a shooter. Physically I'm just not up to walking a up to a half mile in the deep marsh anymore. A few years ago our daughter told me she wanted to go duck hunting so we went out on a private lease guided hunt ($275 a gun.) As her Christmas present I paid the lease and outfitted her driving the total cost up to near $1,000.00. We killed a bunch of birds and it was so comfortable I felt almost like I was shooting off my back porch. We did it again with the grandson last year. That's the hunting experience for a lot of folks now. I used to have a couple of gigs where I could hunt deer on a friends property but that dried up too. It looks like I'll have the chance to put a hog or two in the freezer this year and if I do I'll definitely take advantage of it. The last of my gift venison is almost gone.

My father told me of how it was hunting geese in the 1950s when there were fewer of them. Got in good with an old farmer, who let them set up blinds on his land. Start of every season, show up with a bottle of Korbel (this is Wisconsin) to say hello. After the hunt, if possible, leave a bird behind. Went like that for years. Until one year, the farmer had passed, and his son has other plans. That happened a lot.

This is also why we have $2.50 a round rifle ammo and $3/round lead free shotshells. For all of the other costs associated with hunting, even at those prices game loads are a drop in the bucket.

As I write this, we are awash in turkeys. Young Jakes, a hen with her brood, a big Tom, they all swing through. We've restored native plants into an oak woodland that gets regular fire. Between that patch and the birdseed, it's turkey heaven.

If you are thinking back to what it was like in 1965 a lot of things have changed. We now have 150 million more people in the USA.
40 years ago car ownership was mostly one vehicle per family and most farm roads were in pretty rough shape in the fall and winter months. Spendable cash was being used to buy the new luxuries of life and very few people would hunt unless it was free.
Fast forward to today, a lot of kids under 20 who have never had a job some how are driving expensive vehicles with what appears to be an endless flow of cash. Things have changed and money is available to purchase a private lease that offered free hunting years ago.

It takes a lot of time and trouble but if you are in your 40's and 50's and really are into hunting and target shooting... buy your own land. Heres how I did it.

I had just lost a job when the company I had worked for 21 years was bought out and liquidated. We sold everything. Our house, our rental property, my bass boat, 23 guns, all of our furniture, everything. We moved to a 1 bedroom furnished apartment. I got a new job at less than half of former income... It is hard for a 52 year old to find a good paying job. For the next 10 months, we looked for someplace to build a home for empty nesters. We found it! A strip of woods and brush 133 yards wide and a mile long. It was 6O acres that was 2 sides of a 300 acre row crop farm. We built a house, and moved in in March. The first deer season, me, my two sons, their wives and a father and law killed 13 whitetails the opening week end. I built a pond and added an orchard of 100 fruit trees. I had a pistol range and a up to 600 yards rifle range. There is just no telling the numbers of deer, turkeys, coyotes, and other game we killed in the ensuing 20 years. We paid the mortgage off in 15 years and never looked back.

Yes, you can do it! America is the land of opportunities!

In 1969 I came back from my second tour in Viet Nam. My brother was selling what was left of the old Circle H ranch -- and what could I do? He needed his share of the money, and he had proven you couldn't make a living there. But I didn't feel right about not having a place in Arkansas, a place where I could hunt and fish. My wife and I went looking and found a remote 160 acres with a stream running through it with a deep swimming and fishing hole -- for $50 an acre. In 1999 I retired for the second time and built a house.

I have deer, bear, turkey, rabbits, squirrels, dove, wood ducks, beaver, otter, coyotes -- just about everything on my land.

When I bought my place in '91 (pre Rodney King) trapshooting buddy told me about an outlaw's place.

Guy came home from WWII started ranching about eight sections east of Pueblo. Everybody wanted city jobs and city income, so it was cheap. Never allowed hunting. Kids didn't want it so he sold it to keep him and the old lady in a retirement place.
Shortly after buying it the relation is working fence when a guy drives up in a fancy SUV wearing expensive hunting clothes. "You so and so?" What's it to ya? Sport hands him his card. Director of Recreation for a big beverage company. Signed an exclusive five year lease which paid for the place plus.

That's why hunting is expensive. The taxpayer picks up the tab for a lot of the prime hunting. Friend's BiL couldn't hunt on the family farm in SoDak. Leased to a law firm in Chicago. Elk and deer vouchers go for 5K; business expense.

But if you want to build a new factory IRS depreciation schedules will drive you overseas.