Sure, thats all your tag cost. But bullets, guns, camo clothing and boots, optics,fees for hunting areas or hunting camps , whatever scents you may use, hunting stands/blinds; if you feed deer year round then there's the price of corn and feeders, cameras, grass seed, with equipment to till and plant, gas for said equipment, and then there's lodging if you stay at a camp or a hunt away from home.... Thats not including whatever you use to process the deer if you use those vaccuum bags, special knives, gas and consumables
Bullets - I shoot less than 1% of my ammo at deer.
Guns- My deer rifle cost me nothing- inherited, as was eldest daughters. TheBoy's .... I did buy that one, but I'd have bought it whether I hunted deer or not.
Clothing/Boots- I have spent a bit on that stuff over the years, mostly because the kids grow out of it...... but I'd have to buy them raingear and boots anyhow, it's just (mostly- several years the kids just wore their winter coats) cammo and blaze orange.
Optics- See Guns (I have bought 2 scopes in the last 5 years ..... but amortize that over the lifetime of the scope (effectively forever) ..... and I spend more on coffee ...
Fees for hunting areas or hunting camps- We don't pay to hunt.
We just ask nicely, and have done that since before the kids were born (1990's).
Scents - You got me there- I usually spring for a bottle of doe-pee every year ..... and my BIL usually gives me some Scent-Away every Christmas (maybe he's trying to tell me something?).
Hunting stands/blinds- We sit on the ground(or a big round bale), or spot and stalk.
Feed Deer- Baiting is not only illegal here, but a waste of time: Why would a deer come to my little pile of corn when there's a pile of corn 300 yards long and 50 yards wide next to every elevator in the county? And a pile of milo just as big? Or a planting of Biologic or whatever next to a 600 acre alfalfa field? They are completely surrounded by hay and grain ..... pointless.
Equipment to till and plant, gas for said equipment- See "Feed Deer" above ...
Lodging- Public Campground (Free Will Donation) .... We gave 50 bucks for the 3 days last year ....some years we stay in an unused machine shed or a City Park for free.
Thats not including whatever you use to process the deer if you use those vaccuum bags, special knives, gas and consumables at camp...
Nothin special about my knives ..... and freezer paper and cling wrap are pretty inexpensive compared to beef. My biggest deer processing equipmet investment was a used chest freezer I bought 3 years ago for $50.
Gas is indeed the biggest expense ($200-$300) ....but we spend more on gas to go visit relatives in Colorado ..... during deer season, the relatives meet us halfway!
