However for the average man living in a metro area hunting is a rich man’s game.

I guess I may be confused as to how people are defining "rich".

Keep in mind that I have NOT hunted public lands in Texas in over 15 years (but I will be this year). I enjoy hunting in places like Alaska where it's more you vs. the wild and the chances of coming across other hunters in the bush are as close to 0 as it gets (well, at least where I hunt).

Now on to the topic: I live in Houston, the largest metro area in Texas and while I will wholeheartedly agree that public hunting options are limited in Texas, there are still plenty of public lands to hunt. Certainly, you will need to travel at least an hour away (but it takes me 2 hours to drive down town in morning traffic, so driving an hour AWAY from Houston is a light drive). An hour away is Sam Houston - that is almost 163,000 acres. If you start looking at a two hour drive range, you got many more options: The Alabama Creek WMA portion of Davy Crockett is almost 15,000 acres (and there are another dozen or so areas within a 2 hour range).

Is public hunting limited? ABOSLUTELY. But it does exist and it's cheap to hunt.

So let's see what cost we are looking at for a new hunter:

Hunters Ed Course: Online NRA class qualifies and is FREE - but you do have to pay the $5 state fee after you finish it.
Hunting License (Resident): $25
Annual Public Hunting Permit (For Public Lands): $48

So you are all set to hunt public lands in Texas for a total of: $78

Now in the LARGEST metro area in TX, getting up to the largest public hunting area (Sam Houston) is about 40 miles (80 round trip). To keep it simple, we'll call gas $3/gallon and say you are driving a gas hog up to Sam Houston that only gets 15 miles/gallon. Roundtrip hunting trip will burn about 5 1/2 gallons of gas, for a whopping total of: $16.50

So a brand new hunter who has to get his training/licensing in place will pay a total of $94.5 to go hunt 163,000 acres of Sam Houston. And after that first hunt, they'll be paying a total of $16.50 every day they hunt it afterwards.

I don't really know anyone who calls a man with $100 a rich man.

Sure, if you want to go hunting for a day and have the best odds of coming home with a trophy buck - you can lease someone's private land and that can be expensive. But preferring the expensive options over the cheap options, doesn't make hunting a rich man's game.

I guess I may be confused as to how people are defining "rich".

Keep in mind that I have NOT hunted public lands in Texas in over 15 years (but I will be this year). I enjoy hunting in places like Alaska where it's more you vs. the wild and the chances of coming across other hunters in the bush are as close to 0 as it gets (well, at least where I hunt).

Now on to the topic: I live in Houston, the largest metro area in Texas and while I will wholeheartedly agree that public hunting options are limited in Texas, there are still plenty of public lands to hunt. Certainly, you will need to travel at least an hour away (but it takes me 2 hours to drive down town in morning traffic, so driving an hour AWAY from Houston is a light drive). An hour away is Sam Houston - that is almost 163,000 acres. If you start looking at a two hour drive range, you got many more options: The Alabama Creek WMA portion of Davy Crockett is almost 15,000 acres (and there are another dozen or so areas within a 2 hour range).

Is public hunting limited? ABOSLUTELY. But it does exist and it's cheap to hunt.

So let's see what cost we are looking at for a new hunter:

Hunters Ed Course: Online NRA class qualifies and is FREE - but you do have to pay the $5 state fee after you finish it.
Hunting License (Resident): $25
Annual Public Hunting Permit (For Public Lands): $48

So you are all set to hunt public lands in Texas for a total of: $78

Now in the LARGEST metro area in TX, getting up to the largest public hunting area (Sam Houston) is about 40 miles (80 round trip). To keep it simple, we'll call gas $3/gallon and say you are driving a gas hog up to Sam Houston that only gets 15 miles/gallon. Roundtrip hunting trip will burn about 5 1/2 gallons of gas, for a whopping total of: $16.50

So a brand new hunter who has to get his training/licensing in place will pay a total of $94.5 to go hunt 163,000 acres of Sam Houston. And after that first hunt, they'll be paying a total of $16.50 every day they hunt it afterwards.

I don't really know anyone who calls a man with $100 a rich man.

Sure, if you want to go hunting for a day and have the best odds of coming home with a trophy buck - you can lease someone's private land and that can be expensive. But preferring the expensive options over the cheap options, doesn't make hunting a rich man's game.

You can either pay a little money to do the hunting yourself, or pay lots of money to have someone do most of the hunting for you.


I can go pay an owner $400 to shoot a hog, that were scouted with his/her game cameras, that were baited with his/her feeder, while I'm sitting in his/her blind.

Or I can just go to Somerville or Sam Houston and shoot one myself for free.

Reading these posts, it pretty relates to what I said earlier:
You can either pay a little money to do the hunting yourself, or pay lots of money to have someone do most of the hunting for you.


I can go pay an owner $400 to shoot a hog, that were scouted with his/her game cameras, that were baited with his/her feeder, while I'm sitting in his/her blind.

Or I can just go to Somerville or Sam Houston and shoot one myself for free.

It all depends. My lease is middle of the road in costs, I have an old rebuilt modest camper, a decent 4 wheeler (paid off now), and last year I bought a blind (built ones previous to that) and 2 home made feeders. Everything I acquired I bought/built over time.

I've had guys come join my lease and immediately go buy a nice camper, ranger, nice blind; etc Literally drop 20,000-30,000 year one. Or I have had guys who want to get into the hobby that think that need to buy all that stuff year one so they get the impression it is a rich man's hobby.

Thfs best victim.

Hunting isn’t a rich man’s sport. The statement that it is, is simply a projection/excuse for being lazy and spoiled.

If you can’t find a scarifice to afford you an opportunity to get to hunt, you just don’t want to hunt bad enough, which is fine, just don’t project about it not being as high as other things on your propriety list.

Well said and I'm sure more than just me agree!

Hunting isn’t a rich man’s sport. The statement that it is, is simply a projection/excuse for being lazy and spoiled.

If you can’t find a scarifice to afford you an opportunity to get to hunt, you just don’t want to hunt bad enough, which is fine, just don’t project about it not being as high as other things on your propriety list.

Hunting in todays dollars are actually not much different than hunting in 1980 dollars. I looked at an old price list we used in 1980. Axis Bucks were $750. In todays dollars that is $2231 Just about the same.

me grammer not the best Don... 80's minimum wage vs price of hamburger... 2018 minimum wage vs price of steak...

Actually you have that backwards. 1980's ribeye vs 2018 hamburger.

Nope it has not. Some people find any reason not to do something. Others find a way to do anything. It's the same mentality you'll find in Dems blame the "rich man".

Thfs best victim.

Colt you just won't give up. Hunting in real dollars is not any more expensive than in quite a few years. People piss off more money on eating out, going to movies, smoking or any other of the hundreds of vices that humans have than hunting. If you enjoy, it hunt. If you want to piss and moan stay at home.