Rising Costs

1

18 car

Member
I'm curious if some upland bird hunters will be changing or even cancelling their hunting trips due to significant cost increases. I just returned from a short vacation and experienced higher costs involving fuel, lodging and dining. Toss in the added price of ammunition (when you can find it), dog food, clothing, tires etc... It all adds up.
As for me, I'm retired and would take a part time job to fund my hunting prior cancelling a pheasant hunt!! What say you?
 
I don't intend to cancel my hunting trips, but all of my hunting is within an hour of my house. So there's no lodging or dining required. Obviously gasoline is very high right now and could go higher depending on what continues to happen in eastern Europe. Who knows what costs will look like next fall. Everything is very volatile right now.
 
18 car said:
I'm curious if some upland bird hunters will be changing or even cancelling their hunting trips due to significant cost increases. I just returned from a short vacation and experienced higher costs involving fuel, lodging and dining. Toss in the added price of ammunition (when you can find it), dog food, clothing, tires etc... It all adds up.
As for me, I'm retired and would take a part time job to fund my hunting prior cancelling a pheasant hunt!! What say you?
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Nope..no way..things would have to get a heck of a lot worse
 
Almost every place I hunt is within 15 minutes of my driveway. I have enough components to load at least 1000 rounds. No, I will continue my hunting "trips", every saturday and sunday mornings and most holidays during the season.
 
I don't really consider cost when I do anything. I am heading to Iowa a couple of times and hope to go to N.D. And hunt the heck out of Kansas. If gas is $7.50 a gallon then so be it. Shells a $100 a box then so be it. I may not be here tomorrow so I am going to enjoy life. I will get in my kayak this summer and fish everywhere. Can't wait to head up to the glacial lakes in S.D. I don't have a house payment, I don't have a vehicle payment, and have zero debt. Lets roll.
 
Checked with my accountant and wealth manager, was explained to me I must win a large lottery. If I win and buy that ranch, I will invite all of you to come out and enjoy hunting with you and your dogs on the most prime bird hunting land.
Really, no changes as I have worked for these opportunities. All paid up.
 
Things are really expensive now. I am older and will pay whatever it costs to hunt. Most of my trips are over 1,000 miles one way. I drive a Cruiser that get 12 mpg. Then Airbnb, eats, crazy expensive shells.
 
I got lucky in a 50/50 raffle at a local Game Farm that we get the dogs started every year it paid for my next years package. Ammo is getting easier to find every month and I'm set in 12, 20 and 16 gauge. Won't make any changes for our South Dakota trip gas maybe a tad more expensive but we'll make the journey worked to long and hard and saved for retirement for this reason.
 
I use 30 gallons of fuel for a day trip , I figure I hunt around 40 days between prarie chickens , doves and pheasant hunting. So probably close to a thousand gallons a year. There may be fewer day trips this year.
 
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BrownDogsCan2 said:
I use 30 gallons of fuel for a day trip , I figure I make at least 40 of them between prarie chickens , doves and pheasant hunting. There may be fewer of them this year.
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Who knows what the price of gas will be this fall. With tensions running high, etc. Not sure where we will be in the fall with Russia.
 
Not really... could say that pheasant hunting is my "mental therapy." Can't really put a price on that. I'm not going to spend $1,000's on a SD trip, but it's going to take a lot for me to not make 2 of them a year, in addition to weekly hunting around home.

Below is a SD DIY Public Land price post I made in a different thread in January... If gas and shells were to do double this cost, I would still take the same trip without hesitation. Triple it, probably make it and lie to my wife on the cost. Quadruple it... I'd have to think hard or recruit others to join, but I really enjoy a few days of just my dog and I doing whatever we want and going wherever we want.

3 days hunting, left home early Saturday morning, hunted all day Saturday - Monday, returned late Monday night.
Non-Resident License: $121 (divide by 2 trips though) = $60.5
Gas: $150?
Lodging: $55/night x 2 = $110
Food: $9. I bought one meal from a local grocery store deli. Or else I had everything else prepared in advance from things I already had at home. I am not going to count them into my cost because if I did not go, I still would have ate the exact same things just in my own home instead. You can also make an argument that you should not bring your own food and instead should support local small town businesses that rely on hunting tourism- I get that and will often do that when with a few other hunters, but this was a quick, cheap, DIY trip.
Shells: I'm not going to count those on this trip because I used up random steel shells from previous years.
Total: $329.50 = $110/day = $36.66/bird = maybe not as cheap as I thought. Could go to a local game farm for that price, but that would be nowhere near as fun.
 
carptom1 said:
Even with my poor shooting a box of shells seems to last a couple years. My last kid is a senior at k-state, made the last house payment in November things are looking up. I plan on getting after it more this year
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Carp you going to take up prairie chicken hunting with the pudelpointer?
 
hunter94 said:
much cheaper for me to stay at home and shoot pen raised birds!
think about it when gas is $ 6 a gallon.
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Already did!,! …..I’ll still be going hunting..dog training/competitions..fishing ect.
life to short to sweat the small stuff
I remember when gas hit $.50 cent a gallon in mid seventies….that hurt me a lot more then 5.6 dollars would now!
 
If prices go higher, and stay high, it may solve one of the other complaints that surfaces regularly—hunting pressure. Some will stay home. Was visiting my 90 year old mom in memory care yesterday. No thanks. Hunt your ass off while you can. Fuck it. I’ve lost lots of clients in their 70’s recently…sitting around and counting $ may be for some, not me. Your health and mobility is priceless while you have it. We are all “temporarily able-bodied” people…🧐
 
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Price of fuel,Hah. I probably put more miles on than any of you and I don't even look at the price. In the obits in this morning's paper everyone was younger than me. I spent time yesterday with my primary big game hunting partner, he doesn't think he will physically be able to hunt this fall. So the hell with the cost, I can die poor if necessary.,
 
My 3 trips to SD each year from Oklahoma hunting & fishing and my 40 plus days Quail hunting in OK is my "My outlet for Craziness." No need to cut back or quit.
 
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