Owning Land vs. Hunting Trips

[JBrew]

Both, but if I bought any land that was more than an hour away, I'd find someone I could trust to watch over it and help keep it up. Let them hunt at no cost. I'm in the situation where the farm I hunt(800 acres) is owned by a guy who lives 5 hours away. Myself and another guy manage it and can be on it in less that 30 minutes from the house. When the owner wants to come hunt, he calls and then we let him know what is going on, hunting wise. It has worked well for him. I guess it could also depend on how big a tract your buddy was looking to buy.

 

[wind gypsy]

From a strictly hunting standpoint, trips make way more sense. But there are only so many trips most guys can make with a family.

I finally settled down recently (wife and baby) and decided to compensate for my reduction in western hunting trips by buying land closer to home where I can squeeze in a half day hunt. Thus far I've found the habitat projects to be more rewarding than the ability to hunt close by. At some point that might change to the projects being work but right now they are new and exciting.

 

[wind gypsy]

Not trying to turn this into a science project or financial advice reply but just for fun, below is a table of $100,000, $200,000, and $300,000....compounding for 20 years at 10% return....accounting for $15,000/year for hunting trips...

If'n only I knew i'd get a 10% annual return!

 

[MallardSX2]

If a guy is not getting a 10% return on average (including dividends) then maybe he should just buy property. lol

 

[Broomd]

Once a man shoots a deer, elk, turkey, etc. on his own land this question answers itself.

 

[LCsmith]

How? serious question...

If a guy is not getting a 10% return on average (including dividends) then maybe he should just buy property. lol

 

[MallardSX2]

Not sure if you are asking about the 10% or how to buy the land.


If your asking about the 10% let me extend an olive branch.

The Fidelity FID-500 tracks it. Expenses are super low and I think you should be able to manage from here.

S&P 500 Average Returns and Historical Performance

The S&P 500 is a popular market index. View its historical performance throughout the years and learn more about the factors that affect its average return.

www.investopedia.com

Fidelity Investments - Retirement Plans, Investing, Brokerage, Wealth Management, Financial Planning and Advice, Online Trading

Fidelity Investments offers Financial Planning and Advice, Retirement Plans, Wealth Management Services, Trading and Brokerage services, and a wide range of investment products including Mutual Funds, ETFs, Fixed income Bonds and CDs and much more.

www.fidelity.com

 

[manitou1]

Common sense tells us that land is an investment. Trips: he will never see a penny of profit. That being said, I get bored hunting the same places all the time. I have what I call: "The Lewis and Clark syndrome", lol. Steve Rinella terms it "Wonderlust". Part of my hunting enjoyment is seeing new places (what's over the next mountain), and hunting various animals.
So for me, hunting trips wins.

 

[bozeman]

The problem with most people is they don't want to get rich slowly........ WB

 

[dreamingbig]

They aren’t making more land. I needed a plan B and we are very happy having a dedicated place we can get away to. The kids love going to the “cabin.”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Like2hunt]

I’d go for it. As long he could afford it, he wouldn’t regret it at all. They aren’t making any more land and the value of it will just keep going up and up.

 

[Marble]

I would go on trips until I know what I really wanted to do. When figured that out, I would want to live there full time. Probably sell my other house and buy something smaller/cheaper.

I hunt/scout 3 to 4 days a week. I've built my life and job around the ability to do so.

Whatever he does, I would wait 6 months to a year and really soul search before I made any decisions.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

 

[Uncle_Moose]

I have to agree with getting land. You can share it, make multiple memories with family and friends, steward the land and take ownership of its health, and do this year in and year out. If you can find a spot that borders hard to reach public land that's even better and serves to increase the value of the existing property.

 

[LostArra]

When buying land that will include recreation I would strongly suggest you double the acreage you originally planned. Especially if you plan to ever live there. Land shrinks with time.

Acres are like tractor horsepower.
No one ever said they wish they bought less.

 

[Gman12]

It wasn't a windfall but the result of a number of years of making good decisions with careers and some luck that allowed my wife and I to buy a farm. We were in our 30s at the time. The farm is 158 acres in Virginia and we live on it. It is almost a 1 hour commute to work for each of us. It is mostly woods with 50 acres of open land (usually corn). A local farmer pays us $100/acre annually for the field ($5,000/year income).

Early on I made food plots (10 of them at 1/2 acre each), enrolled some land in CRP programs, and built a pond. This resulted in a lot of work, especially for the food plots that I was happy to do. When I was in my 30s I loved the work. I was planting trees (sawtooth oaks, Dustan chestnuts, pears, crabapples, you name it). I loved seeing the results and the wildlife flourished. The deer numbers doubled or tripled in the first couple of years. Taking 4-6 deer per year with a recurve became typical after a couple of years.

Shortly after buying the farm I took my first elk trip. It started innocently enough with a short trip and almost killing an elk. Then the next year I took a longer trip and killed a 5x5 bull with a recurve at 15 yards. From there it only got worse. I'm so glad that the people on Rokslide won't judge me for this but I was on my way toward a full blown elk addiction.

Now almost 20 years later the food plots have grown over in weeds because I quit taking the time. I now draw 2-3 tags so that I can hunt 4-6 weeks each year in the western states. In order to help fund the elk addiction I lease out hunting rights on my own farm, which pays for most of my western hunting.

I never anticipated my elk hunting addiction. I certainly never anticipated leasing out hunting rights on my own land. But here I am. In 20 years my knees won't let me hunt elk any more so probably I'll switch back to deer in Virginia.

I'm not sure if this will help your friend decide what to do with his new money. But I would offer this up:

If he is the "homebody" type then he will probably benefit from owning his own hunting land.
If he is the "adventurous" type then he will probably prefer western hunting.
Or, he could do a blend of both if he has the will.

I could almost have written this same post word for word and I am also in SE Va. After going out west chasing elk, the deer hunting around home just doesn't do too much for me. We do enjoy fishing at our farm and the turkey hunting is pretty good. I have learned recently to love duck hunting so I have some new ways to enjoy the farm. But the idea of sitting in a treestand for hours on end is no longer my idea of fun.

As for the OP question, I would say both. Especially if you are in the southeast where timber is a big deal.

 

[mtnbiker208]

kick ass trips

dont worry about the kids, there job is to create there own life.

 

[Gutshot007]

The problem with most people is they don't want to get rich slowly........ WB

Casino baby !

 

[Gutshot007]

I like the idea of both. Investment dividend's for hunting trips until to old to climb mountains . Meanwhile keep an eye out for some nice land and when perfect piece shows up . Buy it. Your not rushed . Maybe you have kids getting old enough to hunt and want to do things as a family. I would try to find something close that you can use easily without to much driving or live on it.

 

[Pony Soldier]

Living out west provides a differant perspective. A number of years ago a gent from south Carolina showed up and said he was interested in buying the 160 acres next to me. He said he had a place in South Carolina and it had 150 deer on it and it was only 100 acres. He wanted to know how many trophy bulls were on that parcel. My answer was "when"? I explained that the elk visited it number of times during the summer but mostly cows. We are summer range and the bulls are usually 5-8 miles north during the rut and usually 500ft lower. During the winter they move to the winter range which 30-50 miles away.

Then he repeated "how many trophy bulls are on that parcel"? I told him that I haven't seen anything bigger than a raghorn in the last 35 years. They don't live that long here. A respectable trophy needs to be 10+ years old. All of them die well before getting to that age.

The next question was- In order to have elk on my place all of the time, how much land do I need? I responded with 3-5 sections might get you there but it depends on whether it is summer range or winter range.

Still confused he finally wandered off. Elk aren't deer !

 

[RS3579]

My vote is for land. That’s my dream. Maybe it’s not his dream. He’s probably old enough to have been thinking about one of these for a very long time. He probably already has his answer but is 2nd guessing.