Household income/age at time of first guided sheep hunt

[svivian]

especially when it sure seems like the market is being driven by retired boomers that would have the flexibility to go at the drop of a hat.

Yeah this actually happened at the hunt expo. One outfitter in Alaska had two cancellation hunts available and went in the first 30 minutes of the doors being opened on Thursday....

 

[Mojave]

especially when it sure seems like the market is being driven by retired boomers that would have the flexibility to go at the drop of a hat.

Yes!

I got an email from WTA on Monday in August about a guided cancellation antelope hunt in New Mexico for $1500 on Saturday. I was the 8th caller, I live 150 miles from the unit. All a guy had to do was pay the remainder of the deposit, and buy my $50 resident license.

A family of 5 had booked it and one of them had died. So they all cancelled and forfeited their deposits.

It was fully booked by the first caller. I forgot to mention that I called an hour after I saw the email come out. That is the kind of stuff that is going on with cancellations now.

Second thing. My father told me and I agreed, if I am ever booked on a big hunt and anyone other than my wife or kids dies. I am going on the hunt.

 

[svivian]

Interesting to see that we fall in the upper half of the most common income bracket, have no kids, only debt is house, and I feel like it is way above out of our spending for a sheep hunt.

Curious, if you take a late cancellation hunt, what is the price difference? Like in Alaska? Just curious.....

I am in an identical situation as you and feel the same way. I think this is where priorities play in on what people are willing to spend their money on.... or what position they are in at that moment.

Could I drop the cash and go right now.... yes but I just can't spend that kind of money right now when i have other things I want to accomplish.

 

[Mojave]

I get the impression that the savings available now on cancellation hunts pales compared to what they used to be. Maybe some folks get a deal occasionally but it seems there is frequently a line of people waiting to save a little.

Brendan from Kuiu got a Stone on cancellation for the remainder of the deposit. Something like $10,000.

 

[Blockcaver]

How long ago the hunt occurred affects the cost. My first (lousy) guided archery Dall hunt 25 years ago was done on a lot less salary and cost for the hunt than today....i.e. income < $100,000 matched up with a hunt that was only $5,000.

 

[cbeard64]

Interesting poll.

The income answers do not surprise me. I am mildly surprised no one so far has been over 50 on their first sheep hunt.

 

[OMB]

Too many variables in the whole thing..

I was just thinking that my income and net worth is probably at least double what it was when I went in 2019. To @WoodBow's point, I was single then. Don't think i could justify it now with a wife and 2 kids. Funny thing is the prices of good AK Dall hunts have doubled since then too!

I booked my first when I was single and life was cheap, and by the time I went, I was engaged and married, bought a house and nice looking English Setter to boot. I spend 15 minutes every day thinking about going back.

I don't want to be the person that harps on this, but there's a giant glut of hunters aged 60-75 that are retiring with a ton of cash and it's driving the price of brown bear/moose/sheep/etc hunts up astronomically. Baby Boomers make up 1/3 of all hunters, we're stuck in a giant supply and demand problem, with the supply decreasing and the demand going up.

Sure would have been nice of the Baby Boomers to care about sheep numbers and habitat 20 or 30 years ago, instead of now when they're all scrambling to get their Grand Slam and complaining about the price.

 

[ClearCreek]

Interesting poll.

The income answers do not surprise me. I am mildly surprised no one so far has been over 50 on their first sheep hunt.

I guess I am an outlier. I was 66 when I went on a DIY sheep hunt.

ClearCreek

 

[svivian]

36 voters so far, thanks to everyone who has participated so far!

 

[jjjjeremy]

You should add marital status and number of kids to this.

Also add marital status before/after the hunt!

 

[TheGrayRider]

Hunt date: December 2022.
Species: Arizona desert bighorn sheep.
Age: 54 in body, 27 in my mind.
Annual income: Don’t know as its paycheck to paycheck around here.
Net worth: Nearer to bankruptcy than retirement.
Marital status: Under supervision for two decades and counting now.
Outfitter: Definitely. I ain’t that good.
Public land: Every square inch of the hunt.
Mexico high fence hunt: Hell damn no!
Level of fun, 1 to 10 scale - 594.
Lucky, blessed, and grateful: You know it. God bless America!

Best of luck with your hunt planning! Just do it, TheGrayRider.

 

[TreeWalking]

Drew TX Aoudad tag for public land. Went unguided. 50's. Could have afforded the hunt when I was 16 and working farm labor at minimum wage type earnings plus a few side hustles like shoveling snow.

Drew CO Rocky ewe tag. Went unguided. 50's. Tag was over $1,000 so probably could have easily afforded by the time was 30 and making a bit under $80,000 with a wife and two children and a home mortgage.

Neither tag caused any financial stress.

I passed on a guided Canadian bighorn ram hunt in my late 40's because the success rate was 50% or worse while the cost was 3x a decent guided September bull elk hunt. No regrets. I like to see critters on hunts and horseback hunts are fun but by Mile 30 I have had plenty of fun that week.

Have never drawn a bighorn ram tag but have tried for a few decades and gotten into a few raffles each year as well. Am near the age the tag would likely not be hunted like it should be for such a magnificent trophy.

 

[Wildwillalaska]

I’ll be 50 right after this years sheep hunt. BUT, all my sheep hunts, and immediate family have all been unguided, DIY. I want a Stone something fierce, but just can’t justify the cost when most the difference between them and sheep in the mountains behind my house is largely grey hair. Hard to spend $65k+ for gray hair when my Dall hunts have cost me between $1,000 and $3,500, depending how far and number of bush flights in.

last few years I’ve put in draws for every state the license service suggests—so hopefully someday before I’m 70 I’ll draw a tag—which I will absolutely hire a guide for. And admit if I hold fast on not going after a stone, I’ll likely do a guided dessert bighorn within the next 5-7 years.

 

[HornPorn]

Any time a thread says "guided", it's like moths to a flame with the DIY guys and humble bragging. They circle for awhile, resisting, but eventually surrender to their urges

 

[Wildwillalaska]

We just don’t want to feel excluded, had us at sheep, not guided. And not anti-guide, several friends and close family are/were hunting guides here in AK. I just haven’t used a guide yet, and will clearly be north of 50 before I do.

 

[mtwarden]

Looks like in the 2% category for age and it's not under 18

 

[svivian]

Looks like in the 2% category for age and it's not under 18

Thanks for getting the 65+ on the board! I was getting worried

 

[CorbLand]

Hunt date: December 2022.
Species: Arizona desert bighorn sheep.
Age: 54 in body, 27 in my mind.
Annual income: Don’t know as its paycheck to paycheck around here.
Net worth: Nearer to bankruptcy than retirement.
Marital status: Under supervision for two decades and counting now.
Outfitter: Definitely. I ain’t that good.
Public land: Every square inch of the hunt.
Mexico high fence hunt: Hell damn no!
Level of fun, 1 to 10 scale - 594.
Lucky, blessed, and grateful: You know it. God bless America!

Best of luck with your hunt planning! Just do it, TheGrayRider.

View attachment 514743

Good looking ram. I was down in Arizona with a family member that drew a desert tag in the same time frame. Fun damn animals to hunt.

I won’t vote as I haven’t been on a guided sheep hunt.

 

[30338]

Haven't done it yet but a guided desert ram sure would be fun.

 

[VTHunter08]

Like someone said earlier, I started saving for guided hunts when I was 28, putting $100/paycheck into a separate savings account. The smartest thing I ever did was dump about half of those savings into the stock market in March of 2020. By the Spring of 2021, I had enough saved to either spend most of it on a dall hunt or spend it on a couple other guided hunts and continue putting in for western draws...being from the east coast and never having hunted out west, I picked the latter and went on a mule deer hunt in Colorado in 2021 and am going on a mountain goat hunt this fall...once that's over, it's back to socking money away for another 3-5 years before my next hunt.