The Cost of Hunting

Here in Alabama ,hunting license is $24 for state, hunt my own land , do my on butchering so I guess I got very little in the game but plenty of deer , fish, squirrel, hog, goat, beef in the freezer do do my family for the winter and mos tof the summer.

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Deo Vindice O I'm a Good Old Rebel and thats what I am, I don't want no pardon for what I am and did

Who Doesn't own a rifle, or shotgun, or half a dozen or more of each? I never considered owning another firearm as an 'expense'. Knives, hatchets, saws...processing tools... don't we all own drawers full already? I've collected arms and knives, and other processing tools over the years... and inherited different sets from relatives that have already went to the happy hunting grounds...

On the idea of 'how much is my time worth'??? I don't consider hunting and fishing a chore (and do mind games to charge these activities off into dollars and cents). I have indeed 'paid' for these priveleges... but charging my time off... nope.

Along this same vein of thought... I don't work. Not in the traditional sense, of having a job, punching a clock, putting in my hours, getting a paycheck. I work intermittently. To purchase a ham at the grocery store, they require cash... that I may or may not have. To acquire a wild ham, I walk in the back pasture, and take a wild hog... see http://homesteadingtoday.com/showthread.php?t=223837 this meat cost one bullet... maybe a half pint of diesel for the tractor, 2c for the electric lights to dress her by, the water for cleaning was free, my time for cleaning and butchering, 4 hours... cost of labor??? well you could say 80$, as I get pretty much 20$/hour for basic labor type work... however, to make that 80$ I would have had to actually work for someone to make the money... and if I had 80$ I wouldn't have bought pork, but probably paid a light bill or something... So, I'm not charging myself the sweat equity I have in processing the hog, and putting over 250lb of meat in the freezer. I consider the 4 hours of labor as an investment in the future... I and my GF can eat pork (the unclean animal ) three or four times a week, all year long... all chemical free.

It's been my observation, that you can spend as little or as much as you want, in hunting and fishing endeavours...

Remember this though........................................

On their deathbed, no one says I wish I'd spent more time at work...

Hunting and fishing are noble pursuits...

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Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca
Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival. W. Edwards Deming

What Texican said.

Here we don't have to have a license to hunt on our own land. Our only expense is ammunition and freezer bags.

There are usually between 5 and 8 deer grazing around the yard whenever you look out the window. They're like maggots here.

This season Dh got a deer just between 3 and 5 minutes of leaving the house!

Last year it took him a whole 2 hours.

After reading how much others have to pay I realize how fortunate we are.

I also appreciate not having to feed them twice a day, trim their hooves, give them shots, worm them or buy a buck to breed them to!

For us, deer is the best deal going.

Pauline

We have 120 acres and are covered up with deer. This year we can get one doe a day and three bucks per season. Here in Alabama if you own the land you do not have to even have a liscence to hunt or fish on it. I have not had a liscence in 40 years. Me or the wife. Now we have lived here on the farm for 26 years and never sat out in the cold deer hunting. We have people that love to hunt so they do the hunting and we eat the deer. They bring us all the meat we can use every year. This year we have already put up three in the freezer. Had deer roast for supper with parsely potatoes, asparigras, home made biscuits with butter. Bad to be so poor. The hunters know we want two or three more and they will be be field dressed when they show up we skin and cut them up in the summer kitchen. No bullets, no liscence just freezer paper and thats about it.

Here you need no license to hunt on your own land, and you get to hunt anything that a license can hunt. Also same bag limits that anyone can buy,you can hunt with bow, muzzle loader, hand gun, or anything else that is legal. Sam

In Ohio landowners and their children can hunt on their own land and are exempt from licenses and tags (for deer)...I'm not a waterfowl hunter, but I think you'd still need a duck stamp, if you wanted to hunt migratory waterfowl...

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"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow the fields of those who don't."-Thomas Jefferson

Well I could step out my back door and take a deer for the price of a bullet, but since I like to hunt elsewhere's also, I usually buy my license, tag, etc.

Here in Oklahoma a hunting license cost.......................................$20.00
Fishing/Hunting Legacy Permit............................................ ........$ 5.00
Deer tag............................................... ..................................$20.00

Total............................................. .........................................$45.00

1st deer would cost $45.00

For a second deer add another $20 to the total and divide by two deer and the cost would be $32.5 per deer.

3rd deer would make it $28.33 each

and if your lucky enough to get you total limit of 6 deer the cost would be $24.16 each.

Cheap meat if you ask me.

But some people just don't want to dish out any money to be legal. I met my cuz at a conveniant store one evening. I asked him if he would like to go to a nearby game reserve and hunt with me. He told me he couldn't afford a license and tag. He was holding a 12 pack of beer and two packs of cigarettes. I thought to myself, if you can afford to buy all that then you can afford to be legal.

Just a matter of how they want to spend their money.

Doesn't cost me anything. I own my own property and sends me free tags. I suppose there is the cost of the bullet but that is something I would have used eventually anyway. The only costs I have would be if I sent the meat to the locker to be made into sausage, sweet bologna or some other thing I can't or simply don't go to the bother of doing at home. I do my own cuts and burger at home. There may be a few cents of cost in the freezer paper or bags.

I had a mess of rabbit and squirrel for supper tonight. They cost me whatever a .22 round each costs. Again, I shoot thousands of .22 shells a year so that might as well be free.

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Respect The Cactus!

I get them cut and freezer rapped from a bud for $35 .(deer)


I used to hunt a lot , now days I just target shoot

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWvD6qAaF_A

Be careful about the tags though, I think all states have a landowner license exemption, but not all are tag exempt. They still expect thet the deer taken be checked in.

Waterfowl are federal so you still need the stamp and the license. The feds don't mess around, A buddy of mine shot 5 minuts too early one morning and the feds took his license for five years and seized his shotgun, then fined him 500.00 on top of it.

Don't forget to check your hunter education laws as well.

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Justice is the insurance which we have on our lives and property. Obedience is the premium which we pay for it.

It's not that the landowner is tag exempt in Ohio. They just don't have to purchase a tag. Take a piece of cardboard or paper and make your own tag. You still need to check it in.

Mike

LOL Well if you figure that way, after a while and a few more deer, you would be making money deer hunting. LOL

Ok I can kill 4 Deer and 6 Turkeys on my place for free,$7 apiece for all the Antlerless Deer I want to kill.

Where I run into high $$$ is going on out of State Hunts,Guided Hunts,and having Mounts done.

big rockpile

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I love being married.Its so great to find that one person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.



If I need a Shelter
If I need a Friend
I go to the Rock!

Hunting is not cheap and people wonder why we have a declining population of hunters. Lots of physical work plus $$ those days.

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Ted H

You may all go to Hell, and I will go to Texas.
-Davy Crockett

We get farm tags here in Missouri for $0.

We pay to process because they do a much better job than we can.

Cindy