The cost of hunting....a discussion..

[outlaw38]

I just want to know if Costa's are ok to wear as safety glasses.

[Ron]

I just want to know if Costa's are ok to wear as safety glasses.

Only while weed eating and mowing

[Buff]

my life could fall apart tomorrow. They could come take everything I own. My Guns, my bows and all my mounts but they could never take away the memories. They are mine forever

[agvet2004]

Maybe to you sir... not a hobby to me. Without hunting I wouldnt have a much of a reason to be around... my life revolves around it!

I could be thinking of someone else, but didn't y'all just have a baby?

[Txjourneyman]

This is why my wife can't quit her job. Her boss owns the land I hunt on for free! I gave up my lease because, 1. It sucked, 2. it sucked , and 3. it sucked. and it was cheap. $650 year

[Coach W]

I could be thinking of someone else, but didn't y'all just have a baby?

Correct and perhaps I worded it poorly... I want to share all those experiences with him like my dad did with me... Without Hunting I dont know what I would do. Or how I would raise my kids if we couldnt go out in the back yard and shoot the bows, or go to the range and shoot .22s. And then to the lease/farm to hunt.

These are the times I remember with my dad and dont know how I would be half the man I am now without him and those times.

So its not so much of a hobby as a way of life to me!

[LeanMachine]

That's fine if you see it that way. My life revolves around my family.

Ditto! Is yours like mine and expect to eat like three times a day?!?! Ridiculous! If i could just get my 9 month old to poop in a toilet instead of her pants, i could spend more on hunting

[LeanMachine]

txjourneyman, did your lease suck?

[Txjourneyman]

txjourneyman, did your lease suck?

Now that you mention it, yes, yes it did.

[mitchbcs]

200 to stand around a sunflower patch for a weekend? be enough whine to get me drunk I imagine

If people start paying it.... that mean the guest cant come anymore?

I remember my first lease was $600. and it went up $100 every 2 years... my dad use to say, "if it goes up again im out of here!" Well the same lease costs $1200 now and yep, he is still on it and still says the same thing... year after year after year! Kinda tickles me now

[Rotag]

Thus far I have never paid for a lease. I have paid to hunt one time New Mexico but I have started to look and know it is an eventuality.

[CaptainDave]

I can remember being a kid (in the '80's) and desperately begging dad to get a deer lease like some of my buddie's dad's had. The going price back then, IIRC was around $400 a gun, and dad said that was way too high (but then again, he's not a hunter, never has been). He'd have a stroke if he knew what leases were going for today. That said, I make more money today than he made at retirement, and I would not say that I'm higher educated or hold a better job, different sure, but not a job that is known to pay an extremely high amount. I started my career just about 5K a year less than he retired at after 35 years and about 6 times what he made starting his career. To me, it goes to show that as salaries have increased, so has the price of everything we pay for. Mom used to spend less than $100 a week for groceries for 5 people and she bought the good stuff. Now, I spend that much for two people and I buy the cheap stuff. So, for my lease to cost 3-4 times what it did in the '80's, is too much, but I'm also making 3-4-6 times what I would have made in the '80's, so it's all in proportion. A $400 lease today, with decent hunting, I would jump all over, but so would every other hunter in Texas, because we can, but when it's running $1500 a year, you have to think about it a little more. Back in the '80's, you'd have to think about $400, because that was a week's pay for most people back then.

X2

[Cotton]

In the 80s they put up high fences around crop fields to keep the deer out. Now the deer are the crop and they put up high fences to keep them in.

[Brian H]

The price of everything including hunting is going up so much faster than salary increases these days. That is a lot of the problem. Something has to give,and unfortunately its hunting in a lot of cases.

[rtp]

My first lease in the mid 80s cost me $400. I had $10 a week taken out of my check and put in the company credit union. In a years time I had $520. That paid for the lease and I had $120 left over to buy hunting stuff like ammo and a license. Oh and it was 45 minutes from my employer. Wish I could find a deal like that again.