gregrn43

i dont have to worry about paying that much to hunt, i simply dont have 3500 dollars to spare hunting lol. lest of all on a nurses pay lol

superstrutter

If you have the money to do it, why not? I see nothing wrong with it. Personally, I would not pay that much to kill a deer. Killing a booner doesn't mean that much to me, so I'm not going to pay thousands to do it. Don't get me wrong, I would love to kill a booner, but it's not happening where I hunt.If I can get a 120"-130" buck, I'm estatic, and BTW, 135" is the largest I have taken on my property.

WhitetailsInc.info

It always surprises me to see the reaction of relatively few to the cost of a hunt on managed ground. This is not to my knowledge a canned hunt, a canned hunt is in a high fence area.

It would surprise many to see what it costs to buy/own/maintain a large tract of land.

$3500 is quite middle of the road in terms of a good hunt these days. The upper end FAIR CHASE hunts in big buck areas are going up to $6500.

timbercruiser

I probably spend more than that each year between leases, gas, food plots, food and other expenses.

kickin_buck

I would never use an outfitter to hunt whitetails. I know a lot of people have no problem with using an outfitter and therefore have no problem forking over the $3500 (which is about middle of the road, there are a lot of places that are much higher priced) to do so. Living in the mid-west (IL) I can lease ground and chase good whitetails without an outfitter. Now, if I was going to go out west and chase elk, I would more than likely (at lease my first time) use an outfitter. It all depends on what you want and if you can and are willing to pay the price.

Pro-Line

I live in Ohio...own 400 acres in WV. The license/tags are around $150. The gas for one round-trip is around $80. I make 4 trips per year to bowhunt...that's $470 plus probably $150 other monies (food, etc) and I do my own processing. That's about $620 for the season...which if I get 3 deer is about $200 each.

These numbers are a little off because I don't always go by myself and have someone to share expenses. I don't mind, though. I don't have to fight crowds or leases..and I can use my land year round.

kevin1

Your poll omits the choice of "zero", I have a paid off lifetime license, so I wouldn't pay any of those prices.

ipscshooter

Is "ranch" a term of art that has a special definition of some sort? Here in Texas, 99%+ of the land is privately held, and the generally accepted practice is if you don't pay, you don't hunt. So, we "lease" (which you appear to approve) "ranches" (which you appear not to approve). The lease I'm on is a 2000 acre cattle "ranch", and costs about $2500 per person with roughly 15 members. It's a year round lease, and each member is allowed 3 bucks and 4 does, as many hogs as you can shoot, and opportunities for turkeys, quail, doves, bobcats, foxes, raccoons, coyotes, squirrels, cottontails, jackrabbits, and any exotics (one of the guys got an Axis Deer a couple years ago) that may have escaped from other ranches in the area.

gbrownlee

I have done it and would do it again if it were the right place. I would not however go to a place that says "up to 150" or something along those lines. Just pay to hunt and kill whatever i want, not have to pass a huge deer because my budget doesnt allow it.

Kid

Thankfully, i don't have to pay anymore than what tags and gas costs me to hunt in a State where people will pay thousands to hunt. So my limit is about $56 for tags (that covers archery and firearm)and whatevergas costsfor the year. That would be the case even if i didn't live in Illinois.