Bowhunting World Extreme just did an article about this. It talked about both the money given up to become a trophy hunter and also the time commitment taking you away from family, friends, etc. Like Dr. said, all pastimes have an opportunity cost, you must give something up to do another activity. I also play hockey, it's a very expensive sport and eats up a ton of time during the week and weekends and game schedules often times make it so I can't leave school to go back home. Hunting does a bit of the same thing at times. It's expensive, we all know that, but any weekend I choose to hunt could've been spent with my wonderful girlfriend instead. That may not sound like that big of a tradeoff for some of you who are married and see their other everyday, but when your other is 5 hours away from you, trust me, it's a huge deal. At this point I don't have any more free time to give up, simply because I've already given all of it up for working, school, hunting, etc.

How much is too much to pay?I've already comtimplated not playing hockey next year so I can hunt more often. I'm also looking at starting a club at school for those interested in the outdoors, that way those of us who are interested in bowhunting can team up and possibly find some properties in out area to hunt, increasing the opportunities for all of us by finding land closer and making it more accessible. I'm trading off part of the time hockey took up and filling part of it with running a school organization and the rest hopefully will go to family time, maybe making me a little richer.