Considering prices are all over the place, a bit of math: Let's say one wants to hunt bull elk in the west somewhere. Call it $10k for everything (travel, tag, guide fee, etc.). Might be more, less, fine, but just a number.
- Africa safari: Plains animals, what, roughly $5k for 6? Airfare: $1500ish. Shipping all the animals back (excludes taxidermy, just shipping),$1500ish? Total, roughly $8k+/-. Success rate is 100% or something very high.
- New Zealand (I have hunted stag, chamois, and tahr there a while back): airfare, hunt, etc. north of $10k anymore. Again, very high success rate.
- Side note: New Zealand has elk as well as red deer.
- Hunting "back east" in the USA: Tags are cheap, but where does one actually hunt AND have a lot of success? Most land is private (limited public land), I would think one would have to factor in access costs (lease, trespass fees, whatever) to get a total. I am curious what the success rate (animal harvest) would be for a non-resident hunting public land during general seasons. I honestly don't know. I suspect it would be pretty low for the first few years anyway. That rate would probably go up with the right opportunity on private land/lease.
I agree with
@wytx that late season cow elk hunts, public land DIY are probably the best value out there for meat hunts. Tags aren't the easiest to get, but decent value prop, and very high success rates. For trophy hunting, wow, value is in the eye of the beholder. Big bull elk in Utah? Bongo in Cameroon? New Zealand Red Stag?
