Rich Man's Sport

[Pony Soldier]

I get to enjoy population density at the end of every season. The winter snow drives the game out of the millions of acres of back country and places them on private land and close to roads. All of a sudden there are lots of elk in a sea of orange. Hunting / finding isn't necessarily easier. There aren't more shots or bloody drag marks but you get to talk to a lot of your neighbors that you haven't seen since this time last year.

The elk are wild as hell and travel miles at night to where? Access is diminishing, conflicts are increasing. I was confronted by a recent Texas immigrant spouting Texas law in Montana over my ability to access the river to pick up my geese. I would appreciate if you folks in Texas could control your export of a$$holes. (I was a mile from his land.)

I worked a career for the state at less than $60,000. The people I helped worked their butts off for less than $40,000. Be forewarned when you move for cheap hunting. Everything is proportional.

 

[Geewhiz]

In my opinion the reason that decent hunting for big game animals in western states is becoming ridiculously expensive and extremely competitive is because of the amount of people doing it nowadays. I don’t know the solution to that but I am seeing it more and more every single year. I do know that Montana is selling its soul to the money from nonresident tag sales.

 

[wytx]

I have been saying that for years. The west has sat around and laughed at all the other states about the things that have happened or they have done. While we were laughing, the same things were happening to our state.

It’s going to be worse for western states when it comes to hunting. Western states simply do not have the animal populations nor are western animals as resilient as whitetails.

Hence NR limits or decreases in available licenses. That is why we have quotas on our game.

 

[KenLee]

Buy land.
To be able to afford it:
Drive cheap vehicles
Grow food
Wear cheap/second hand clothes
Quit drinking booze/Starbucks
Quit tobacco
Live in cheap housing
Give up $50 haircuts
Turn thermostat down/up as far as you can stand it
Cut out vacations
Work overtime
Hunt with a cheap rifle and cheap bow
Cancel your internet/TV subscriptions

I'm sure there's plenty more examples.
Bottom line is that most folks would rather live big and complain that life isn't fair because they don't have a great cheap place to hunt.

 

[Charlie-NY]

My Utah outfitter told me that prices are ridiculously high because hunters, themselves, drive the prices up. He claims that there is no shortage of hunters who outbid each other for good tags or prime locations. He admitted that outfitters are just enjoying the price wars that are created by hunters with plenty of money.

My buddy just sent me a picture of a poster at the Harrisburg show. Bull elk (on show special) @ $10,000 and cow elk @ 4,000.

There is certainly something to be said for the fact that hunting is becoming a rich man's sport.

 

[TheTone]

It’s bad and only getting worse. But don’t worry someone will claim we should be thankful for those rich guys buying themselves to the front of the line because of all they are doing for conservation

 

[Traveler]

This is probably state dependent. I live in an eastern state and have plenty of public land to hunt. Will I shoot a 150” deer? Probably not most years. Plenty of does. I often see people talking about “food” from hunting as justification but in the same talk bring up antler size. What someone is interested in probably impacts one’s outlooks the most.

I used to live in a western state. I go back as a nonresident every year still. That hunting trip costs less than any vacation most families including mine take.

 

[Reburn]

My Utah outfitter told me that prices are ridiculously high because hunters, themselves, drive the prices up. He claims that there is no shortage of hunters who outbid each other for good tags or prime locations. He admitted that outfitters are just enjoying the price wars that are created by hunters with plenty of money.

My buddy just sent me a picture of a poster at the Harrisburg show. Bull elk (on show special) @ $10,000 and cow elk @ 4,000.

There is certainly something to be said for the fact that hunting is becoming a rich man's sport.

10k aint bad really. archery bull in NM for 350+ is 12.5k
Cow at 4k is higher then giraffe tail.

all perspective.

There is a large conversation that hasnt been said here about the wage / wealth gap.
Hard to say its rich men if there are so many bidders.
Clearly the market is adjusting to what people are willing to pay.

 

[LostArra]

ANTLERS: the root of all hunting "problems" and hunting crimes.

 

[87TT]

I wouldn't worry about it. Your EV won't make it here on a charge anyway.

 

[fishslap]

Guys,

I'm really struggling with where hunting is going. Western Hunting, in particular, is quickly becoming a rich man's game. Do you know that in the state of Texas - you can almost not afford to hunt if you are a low income household. Between the lack of public land, cost of private land, and insane lease prices - it's absolutely a rich man's sport. And im not talking about for places to kill giants. Where I live, 5K/gun will get you a lease where you are allowed one whitetail that will score 135-150. As tag prices across states with public land quickly rise, I fear for my kids opportunities. They shouldn't have to move to a western state to be able to afford to hunt.

Where have gone the days of hunting with brothers and fathers and not having to spend a life savings to do so. Is that not getting ridiculous. To harvest food that is God-given to our society to cherish as nutrition yet is it carries the price tag of a Kings table fare. What are we going to do to slow this madness? What are possible solutions?

I did a quick search and it seems like there are much cheaper hunts for does in Texas than 5k. What’s wrong with that? There are also plenty of out of state hunts you can do for way less than 5k and have a really good chance of coming home with meat and at least some “inches” of antler.

 

[Rob5589]

Texas being something like 95% privately owned doesn't help. There's been multiple threads on the same topic. Comes down to what you want to spend your money on. Hell, come to California for fall bear. We have the largest population outside of Alaska, tags are 325 for non resident. The state needs more bears taken than it does and it will show the commission how important bear hunting is. We've had a ton of anti legislation recently. Remi Warren said on a recent podcast if he wanted a big black bear he'd hunt CA.

 

[gbflyer]

Hasn’t it always been unreasonably expensive in TX? Not much public land. I was in the Hill Country 5-6 years ago, seemed like it was a $500 trespass fee to shoot a pig.

It’s still less expensive to go to Costco for meat. I think it always has been. Pick your past time and budget accordingly.

 

[cmahoney]

Texas being something like 95% privately owned doesn't help. There's been multiple threads on the same topic. Comes down to what you want to spend your money on. Hell, come to California for fall bear. We have the largest population outside of Alaska, tags are 325 for non resident. The state needs more bears taken than it does and it will show the commission how important bear hunting is. We've had a ton of anti legislation recently. Remi Warren said on a recent podcast if he wanted a big black bear he'd hunt CA.

That tag is too much for me, great point though, I see them all the time. ONX needs a dumpster layer for CA bears.


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[Diced]

Non resident hunting trips aren't even that expensive if you're truck camping or in the backcountry.

My brother was forced to go to Disneyland with his fiance and he spent 2x what he spent on our Idaho trip this past season. And he didn't come home with all the meat and awesome memories .

I don't see how public land diy hunting is a "rich man's game". It could head more in that direction, but for now we just need to be thankful we can get tags in states we don't live in.

 

[wingmaster]

Buy land.
To be able to afford it:
Drive cheap vehicles
Grow food
Wear cheap/second hand clothes
Quit drinking booze/Starbucks
Quit tobacco
Live in cheap housing
Give up $50 haircuts
Turn thermostat down/up as far as you can stand it
Cut out vacations
Work overtime
Hunt with a cheap rifle and cheap bow
Cancel your internet/TV subscriptions

I'm sure there's plenty more examples.
Bottom line is that most folks would rather live big and complain that life isn't fair because they don't have a great cheap place to hunt.

I have another one for your list. When I got into hunting I wasn't earning very much at my job, so when I discovered I needed to make more money to make my dream hunts come true, I decided to go back to grad school and get a MS degree. It was a long grind that required me to skip a few hunting seasons, but my earning potential is much higher and I know my dream hunts will eventually happen.

My point is, how badly do you want it? Bad enough to attend night classes and obtain some marketable skills to improve your earning potential? If not, maybe you don't want it badly enough.

 

[Northpark]

There are ranches that have MLD permits that have to shoot does every year. My buddies place they have to shoot 43 does this year. You cant hardly get anybody down there to clean their does for their meat. People really dont want the meat. Almost all of it ends up going to churches and food banks.

I live out in az and love hunting in Texas. I’d jump at an opportunity to whack a bunch of does, skin them quarter and fill my coolers. Always seems odd to me in the sense everyone seems to prioritize antlers. I love hunting and meat. Antlers are cool but I tend to hunt more does and pigs than anything else in tx.

 

[SDHNTR]

It’s the way of the world. It’s not just hunting. You can either complain about it or you can work harder and smarter to find solutions.

Selfishly, I wish more people felt this way and would bow out of the game. Take up bowling. We need a pendulum swing.

 

[DanielBoom]

I feel where you are coming from... I hated the hunting opportunities available to me when I lived in Texas, so I didn't really hunt. When my boys started reaching elementary age and it was clear they'd rather put a stick in the dirt than played elite-travel-select baseball/soccer/football for 9 seasons a year, we moved.

Now we can hunt, hike, fish, ski, and camp our butts off. It was a sacrifice to live this life. We left our friends/families/careers and comfort zone. I have friends that thought and still think we are crazy, but crazy to us was sending 3-4 nights a week taking kids to various practices and most weekends at tournaments. One parent with one kid and one with the other, never together.

If your serious, make it happen. It's not easy, but worth it. If not, save a little money join a club or go to a high fence game ranch in S Texas every few years and get your fix. Outside of that, I dont know what to say. Texas is 96% private land, its never going to offer a lot of public hunting opportunities.

If you want to start your own club, check with the timber companies in East Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana. They have reasonable lease rates. This website shows several clubs in Arkansas and Louisiana leasing land from Weyerhaeuser that are looking for new members.

Clubs looking for members

Good luck.

 

[cmahoney]

Texas being something like 95% privately owned doesn't help. There's been multiple threads on the same topic. Comes down to what you want to spend your money on. Hell, come to California for fall bear. We have the largest population outside of Alaska, tags are 325 for non resident. The state needs more bears taken than it does and it will show the commission how important bear hunting is. We've had a ton of anti legislation recently. Remi Warren said on a recent podcast if he wanted a big black bear he'd hunt CA.

I glassed up these CA bears a couple years ago. Better get after them before they ban bear hunting. Bring your copper bullets and pronouns.

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