Crunching Numbers

Captcurt

Captcurt

Member
Joined
Aug 9, 2010
Messages
4,196
Location
Ozark Mountains of Arkansas
I got volunteered by a friend to help do a controlled burn on his 120 acres. He acquired it 3 years ago and is trying to make it a deer haven. He has planted food plots along a quarter mile creek bottom and built 3 shooting houses on stilts. Then he bought a travel trailer to use as a camp. Then he decided that the trailer wasn't big enough so he sold it and bought a nice 5th-wheel. Wednesday I got to drive his new Honda side by side and his new Kabota Tractor. He had the place surveyed and a fire brake dozed along two sides of the property. I crunched the numbers and with the 6 deer that he and a friend took last season, they had to cost at least $1500 a pound live weight.

I can understand it with the difficulty of finding and getting access to good hunting land, but I was wondering if anyone else goes to these extremes?
 
I bought a150 acre pine tree farm with about 150' on a sometimes creek next to a 10,000 acre State WMA. It will never be a big buck hangout because the genetics and soil quality are poor. I only take 2 or 3 deer off it a year and most are 6 and 8 pt with thin antlers. However, it is my place and I don't have to draw for permits or build up points to draw a coveted one on public land.

It's not heaven .. or hell but someplace in-between. If bear season ever opens again, I'll hope it reduces the population of them drastically. Then the place will be a little closer to heaven than hell.
 
That seems reasonable... he's also paying for guarenteed access.

Last year I spent just shy of $6K on a guided hunt in MT. So that came to about $600 a lb. I've only got 80 acres; 3 food plots, feeder, mineral lick, tractor, disc, 3pt tiller, seed fertilizer etc. it adds up. Then there's the improvements, fruit trees, chestnuts, oaks, time, and deisel.

I've spent the last 2 evenings after work pruning fruit trees that are planted for deer...

Really, there's no hunting that's truly "cost effective", it's a hobby, as are the habitat improvements.
 
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Our shop teacher in high school was a duck hunter. I asked him one time if he ever calculated the cost of the lease, the blind, shotgun, decoys, etc, etc, etc and determined the cost per pound of duck meat. I seem to recall the same $1500 number and that was back in the 70s!

Hunting is not to fill the freezer, that is just one of the things that comes of it.
 
I have a paltry thirteen acres, it joins family land so it hunts like 100 acres because I’m the only hunter in the family. Everything I do in mine and theirs is worth it for the access. I used to hunt public land and am quite thankful to have guaranteed access.
 
Milt1 said:
Captcurt, your friend probably would not call it extreme but perhaps call it a hobby, his favorite hobby, and sometimes hobbies are expensive.
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He is retired and has a healthy bank account so no foul there. It is a nostalgic place for me. Part of it belonged to my Great Uncle when I was in my teens. I took my first deer there as well as several others. He asked if I wanted to hunt it but I have access to 800 acres. I will help thin coyotes and will beg on my knees to hunt if when the bears show up again this fall. He has had 2 on camera for the last 3 years.
 
I bought 30 acres for $66000 three years ago.

I built a raised box blind and bought a $300 ladder stand and a feeder I put on the back side of the property. A couple of old skool SD card trail cams round it out.

That’s it. I’m two hours away which is short enough for a day trip but if I have to stay I just get a cheapo motel nearby or sleep in my vehicle.

Lodging accommodations are not nearby where everyone hunts and they are still 30 mins away for me but a room at $75 a night takes a lot of nights to justify a camper if nearly any size.

I had a wildfire last year that did my burning for me. :what:

No big bucks to speak of either as my soil is pretty bad as well and is also a pine tree farm. There are plenty of deer though and I like filling my freezer.

Everyone has different wants and needs and your friends probably fit him pretty well as mine fit me
 
My wife’s family has land we have food plots and I run trail cams do controlled burns yes I love it! It cost some but hey it’s just money :)
 
My brothers bought 50 acres for hunting and camping got discouraged the first 3 years because no deer in sight. I had not visited them for a while and when we got there I begin to immediately see signs of mountain lion. As I walked around the area I spotted more lion tracks, basically that area is full of lions. Told them it would not be a great place to hunt until the lions were taken care of. I convinced them to still keep it because it was a great place to shoot long range and we set up a targets from 100 to 1400 yards. Now they got permission from the surrounding land owners to hunt their properties and in turn they reciprocate. Now they have access to 300 acres. Still not that great for hunting deer but they have taken a couple of lions, and aoudad, and love shooting their 50 cal bmg's.
 
I can understand it with the difficulty of finding and getting access to good hunting land, but I was wondering if anyone else goes to these extremes?
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We have hundreds of acres because my Grandfather didn’t have a lot of hobbies except working. He paid a few hundred an acre, closest land that has sold recently went for $15,000/acre…

We get much more out of it than meat though, so it’s not for sale.

From what I read, sounds like he’s thinking. Other’s might just “invest” in an RV and lease land from someone to hunt and make improvements they can’t take with them, all a loss of money, if not total, there is at least significant depreciation.
 
And this is why hunting clubs and leases are so popular in many areas. Personally I've been doing a fair bit of hog hunting and am quite happy to hunt them on someone else's land for a small fee. No way would I want to encourage them to show up on my on my own property though with their steady spread that may happen anyway in a decade. They day I see one when I'm feeding my horses... Ugh!
 
illinoisburt said:
And this is why hunting clubs and leases are so popular in many areas. Personally I've been doing a fair bit of hog hunting and am quite happy to hunt them on someone else's land for a small fee.
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Yes, for the land owner, having others pay you to reduce your problem animals is a win, win.

Not unlike when Tom Sawyer talked Ben into giving him an apple in exchange for the privilege of painting the fence, he didn’t want to paint himself.
 
This was my argument for hunting/joining a "lease" when I lived in Ga. I figured for the time and money spent, I could go buy beef at the store.
 
When adding all the cost up you have to figure in what the property and improvements you have done to the property are worth when you sell it.
Anything in life cost money and it seems that goes up with every passing year.
I never added up what I spent per pound for venison.
Hell I've given more away then I brought home.
I take a whole month off of work with no pay, fly all the way across the country and buy a non-resident hunting license to go deer hunting.
Is it worth it.
YES-100%.
will I ever recoup any money spent.
Not one thin dime.
 
In many places land values out pace inflation. Good land is almost never a bad investment. So if you’ve got the money it’s a pretty smart investment and something you can enjoy.

If you’re going to spend the money on hunting anyway if you own your own land there is some return on investment. Maybe even a profit if you hang on to it long enough.
 
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