^ What he said. Except I bought crappy gear first, then mid level gear, now I buy good gear. I also hunt bow/rifle big game and upland, turkeys and ducks. So it's more like 5k a year for 7 years. Double if you count the dog, vet bills, truck, hunting related truck maintenance. I could hunt the...
Mount it as-is and remember your pup forever. Best friends are worth way more than bones. You got both. My dog ate my turkey mount a few years back. Now he's old and would never do such a thing. I kept the mangled fan and some day it will remind me of my late friend.
Depends on what you're after. Harvest stats are similar everywhere. The areas that are higher are popular deer units and high harvest numbers are likely due to incidental encounters during deer season.
The peninsula has a whole different class of bear, much larger than the rest of the state...
I can't recommend it enough. Plenty to go around. There are several reasons why now is the time.
1. They closed our spring bear, so bears need to be managed more than ever and they're less spooky than ever.
2. All the wildfires have made for an abundance of closed roads and walk-in only...