Truth be told...I spend all I can afford every year.

Worth every penny too

This year I've bought 2 new rifles and scopes for each, a tripod stand and countless bags of corn

YOLO!

Hmmm, sorta like asking, how much do you spend on you recreation...guess it depends on your disposable income and your recreational opportunities...answer, it varies from year to year...

Y'all ever add up makeup, haircuts & color, dermatology products, shoes, wine, etc some spend. Hunting is nothing. I make almost 4x what I made when I got out of school and lease fee is the same as 10 years ago. I still mow my own lawn, well my boy does now.

as pappy once said:
Would rather be hunting or fishing than working, but a wise person realizes by working can afford ta hunt or fish.

As low-income worker always heard from others, how hard times are.
One of me first posts twas of when we went ta a (credit adviser), showed em our bills & such. Then was asked any ither expenses ? Wich said, $200.00 hunting lease.
Twas told, thats BAD investment. So YA agree with your statement.
We did the family tent camping, ever since little ones in diapers. Lease was family outing, with chance ta put on d 24-7-365 food stamps averaged less than dollar a day. So we got up & left. Our kids didnt know just how poor we was. Doing more with less. Even helped out land owners with taxes, & hog problems, Twas a Blessing when WMA opened up just down d road, $40.00 permit back then, cheaper dan $200.00. Still helped land owners, put out d word, afordable hunts, an can be some of d best do it yourself hog hunts, surrounding areas, tis privet, 24-7-365 hunting pressure.
d hogs not a problem big bucks in hog hunten. 3 types of hunters. Low-income hear, & when tis cheaper at d store, just go back ta campen & enjoy d wildlife. Tis thinken high prices stops lots from hunting. Cost of living goes up, twas lucky ta get an hour raise, always hear, times is tough.

I try not to think about it. Just tell the wife about all the her time she will have when I am gone.

parents have 16 acres. so aside from purchasing the license, we are lucky and don't have to pay except for fuel and food. Cons are that it is fairly small obviously (luckily our neighbors are really nice), you are stuck with whatever bag limits, restrictions, and changes that occur in the area. But the pros are that it is your place (my parent's place in this situation), and you come and go whenever you like. Any improvements are permanent. Aside from harvesting animals off your own land is the lack of pressure. We are about an hour away from the place. I don't feel immense pressure to have to clear out my schedule to make room for a weekend at the lease. If something pops up I don't feel cheated because I missed a weekend of hunting I already paid for (again knowing full well it is my parent's place). I have shot 1 deer and a few hogs from our place in about 15 years. Success rate isn't high, there are AR restrictions and 1 buck only save for a couple weekends. But it is awesome because the enjoyment of being out there is awesome.



If my parents didn't have access to this, I would probably do WMA, but not nearly as often. Gone are the days (for the most part) of getting a decent lease for under 1k

Firearms and ammo used for hunting - $10,000
Licences and tags (38 years worth) - $4,000
Deer Camp (purchased 10 years ago) - $160,000
Moose, Bear and Fishing Camp (purchased 2 years ago) - $350,000
Nicely equipped Zodiac - $12,000
Side by Side - $12,000
Snowmobile - $12,000
Fuel (total guess for last 38 years) - $25,000
Bait (rough guess for last 38 years) - $15,000
Other misc gear (blinds, clothes, calls, snowshoes, etc) - $10,000

Grand total of $610,000. In that time I have put about 12,000 lbs of finished meat in the freezer for an average cost of about $51/pound. Figure if i stop spending now I only have to hunt for another 260 years to make it cost effective.

Edit - forgot my archery gear, the two canoes, the kayak and taxi costs - better make it 300 years.

New gun and scope-1100.00
Canvas wall tent-600.00
Elk tag-607.00
Spending time with my wife, son, and friends in hunting camp-Priceless

In those top purchases you've added to your net worth. So there is that.

I've yet to find an inexpensive hobby.

Golf clubs are expensive and a round of golf is expensive yet I still enjoy that, more so now that my son is showing interest.

I used to go to off road parks, that's expensive too because I have an extra vehicle for it. When something breaks off road, and something always breaks, that's expensive.

Wife and I enjoy all-inclusive beach vacations, those aren't cheap!

I work to live, don't live to work.

What about taxidermy?

That hits the home improvement budget line item..

That depends entirely on what the objective of your hunt is....

If you just want to kill turkeys with minimal effort, while in usually decent but not motel 6 accomadations with often great homecooked food.... than an outfitter is the way to go.

If you want to go on an adventure, and earn a bird the old fashion way... then Motel 6 and 7 days of hunting new public ground gives you more memories and ultimately more satisfaction. I guess you could call this "The Barta Way".

Just depends really... hunting is all what you make of it.... personally... when you look at the big figure... I'm not traveling anywhere to hunt public land that isn't way out west... where pretty much everything is public. I'd rather eat homecooked meals and benefit from the knowledge of an outfitter on a piece of land than fight the retards that turkey hunt most public land in my part of the world.

Every summer I try to prepare and purchase more hunting equipment. I just started hunting 5 or 6 years ago but hunting is so damn expensive for everything. just this year alone I bought a pair of binoculars $225, new hunting jacket $225, new hunting backpack $300, garmin handheld gps $250, 2 pair of hunting boots $300 and another $200 on camping supplies for my trip. This doesnt include the $90 I spent on drawn hunts plus the $80 for a winning slot.

Lets not forget the $1200 gun with $800 riflescope and $400 worth of bullets, ground blind $65, primos tripod $120, bino X $450, etc etc from years past

it is like it never ends!! LOL

question:


where do you hunt that warrants a $200 jacket and $300 backpacks?


Do you do a lot of mountain hunting?

I needed a day pack that was also capable of hauling out 100 lbs of meat for my mulie hunt in west texas this year. hence the Eberlestcok Team ELK backpack. I actually think I bought it on sale for like $260 plus tax

I cant buy clothes off the rack. I am as large as a real bigfoot so shoes (size 17) jackets size (3-4XL) arent easy to come by and you dont get to pick out what you want. If you do find something you want and it is in your size and if it is actually in stock then you buy it right then regardless of price. But most are just not in stock. Basically I just dont have much of a selection or much on choices.

makes sense.


I was just wonderning as those are mountain gear prices not sit in a blind prices