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Old 05-31-2021, 03:12 AM
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AlongCameJones
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Join Date: May 2021
Location: Lawton, OK
Posts: 121
Default I had to pay that man.

Originally Posted by mrbb
wow I didn't think many folks hired a guide to deer hunt back in 1996>

and to shoot a small buck too boot
I hope you didn;t pay too much LOL


times have changed for sure though this I agree,
but that is life, nothing will ever stay the same
doesn;'t always mean for the better or the worse, though!
most likely a little of the both,
I had to pay that man $500. He was listed in the classifieds section of a hunting magazine, if I recall. That included skinning, gutting and quartering. His two adult sons pitched in with the work. His wife at his ranch house prepared me six hot meals over two days. I killed about ten ground squirrels on his spread and that varmint hunt was on the house. He would have included lodging too, but would have been a ranch hand bunk house so I stayed in town at a cheap motel instead. He would have charged me an extra $750 for a trophy buck. This was expensive California, though. I was then from the suburbs and did not know any rural landowners. People from the city and suburbs still indeed paid guides or private landowners even then. It was my first deer hunt.

Nowadays, some game ranches in Texas charge you $2,000 or more for the privilege of relieving their private land of one or maybe two deer. Good luck getting a berth on their spread before they are all booked up too. There are more wannabes these days than hunting opportunities available. Hunting has been getting progressively rarer and more expensive like housing. There is no cheap red meat on the table via your own gun anymore. The landed gentry seem to hold most of the access to hunting opportunity. There are too many people these days to compete for resources. The notion that the American public owns the game seems now old hat. Grabbing a gun, heading for the woods and going for game is no longer a free-for-all. You would be doing the game ranch operator no favor by taking his deer for free. You either personally know a private landowner (to relieve their land of pesky plant/crop destroying deer) or you pay the piper as they say. There is public land but it isn't recommended for greenhorns.

I was a noobie hunting in 1996 so I thought a paid hunt was a great way to start. I figure I had about $800 total into that little 1996 buck counting: the guide's 2-day hunt fee, motel, deer tag, hunting license, NRA hunter safety course, ammo, gas and a butcher. The butcher was some crabby old dude a friend of mine knew and he wouldn't even grind my venison so as not to get his meat grinder "dirty". I now know to use a bona fide wild game processor for deer that offers grinding services as well as fattening the grind with beef tallow.

I learned a few things from this nice older rancher gentleman and guide so it was a learning experience as much as it was a little meat in the freezer. I had not a clue on how to hunt DIY. My grandfather stopped hunting for good just before I was born and my mother was anti-hunting so my brother and I living in the CA suburbs had no family mentors. My father gave up rabbit hunting in boyhood.

Last edited by AlongCameJones; 05-31-2021 at 03:41 AM.
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