The cost of one animal per pound butchered.

S

Sure Shot Mc Gee

New member
I'm curious.
While sitting enjoying the Sportsman Channel here last night. I tallied my usual expenses plus the land tax on my property. After all said and done. I figured on one medium size deer harvested off that property I maybe clear 75-80 pounds of meat after its butchering. I then divided that poundage into my overall expensive's which could include its prep by my friendly butcher if I chose to use one. Came to be over $23.00 a pound.
WHAT!!_:eek:

What do you figure its costing you to hunt this year per pound wraped for the freezer?_:rolleyes:
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Add in the tractor and implements, seed, fertilizer and time messing around with food plots I don't even want to think about it. Good thing it is fun.
 
A true businessman would calculate in all the overhead costs and expenses....like land cost, taxes, insurance, fuel, seed, vehicles, ATV's, etc. That way you know the true cost of this addictive pastime.
 
Don't sweat it. Women and race cars are a helluva lot more expensive. :D The only reason I ever worked was to support my huntin', fishin' and sports-car racin'. When I quit racin', the pay raise was big enough I didn't have to work any more--but I could still afford huntin' and fishin'.
 
all cost figured fuel, food, gas for atvs & generator, cost of hunt, its been about a year now and i dont remember all that was figured in but we put all the meat together and had bologna made. everything came out to about $300 per stick of bologna. trip was from maryland to wyoming. makes coby beef almost look cheap.
 
What is your time worth per hour? Was that figured in the equation?

How many hours of scouting? Planting food plots(if you do that)? Practicing shooting and actual time spent hunting.

Cost of all gear, with the above mentioned, plus what the OP stated(taxes,etc.) I'd say more like $100-$125/ pound. :rolleyes:

But, there are a few things in life worth spending our hard earned money on. Getting out in the woods is great mental therapy for me whether I shoot anything or not, as I'm sure it is for many.
Too, if I quit getting out in the woods, I'd probably end up seeing a shrink at least once a week to the tune of about $150-$200/hr.

Thinking of things along those lines, I'll keep paying my $100-$125/pound and enjoying my expensive venison.:D
 
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The fringe benefits make it well worth the cost. Primary one, time in the field with my 13 year old daughter away from the TV and internet and building her interest in the shooting sports before boys and friends take over all her time. Lost her older sister to all that and she will go target shoot now and then but has no interest in hunting.
 
Your bad math...

If you subtract the cost of what other vices you would have been engaged in :D you'd find the cost per pound was closer to free ;)
 
Naw, TV don't cost that much. ;)

A buddy of mine figured it costs him about $1.25 per pound on the hoof to harvest and self process deer and hogs and that is just feed, plot, and tractoring, not including anything else. Of course, he shoots a lot of hogs he doesn't eat as well because the freezer only holds so much.
 
As others said, one cannot worry about the cost. You can't put a price on staying out of work to enjoy the peaceful outdoors. :)
 
It appears a few here could take a winter cruise down in the Caribbean with the wife/ sweetie for the same amount its costing to chase that elusive Speed Beef around back in the bush. Ain't that some'thin. lol :D
 
Who takes their hard earned meat to a butcher that you probably can't trust? :rolleyes:

It only cost me for the tag and some gas. I don't count food, I'd have to eat if I were home too. No way would I pay for a butcher to take me for a nice cut of meat or worse. I can run a knife. :D
 
Re: Art's observation about the cost of women and race cars - great point.

The best-tasting, big, juicy piece of meat I've eaten in 70 years was the grilled elk filet my son-in-law shared with me a couple of years ago, after his first elk hunt. I will remember the taste of that meal 'til the day I die. Did it taste better because of the significance of the ritual? Probably. So what. It was outstanding. Can't buy that at Publix.
 
Interesting thread............lots to think about here.............

What someone said about sanity comes across as the counterweight to it all. Don't know how often it is, maybe most of the time!, but when Louann and I hit the woods, as soon as the trees close in around the dirt road and the gate hitches shut, the blood pressure goes down.

Some days we'll spend a couple of hours just idling down the roads looking at the trees, flowers and now and again snatching up the binoculars to inspect a animal of some sort. Other times we cut wood, or mend a fence or run the tractor down a few fire lanes.......and then there are the times we "hunt".

Less hunting than anything else BUT everything else is in preparation for and support of the "hunt"...........and what is hunted?

In our case it's more and more about the afore mentioned "sanity".......well worth every dime.

Especially as the sister in law NEVER shows up in the woods!!!!
 
I always tell my wife that I love her so much that I'm willing to spend $1,500 to go on week long Wyoming hunting trips to provide her with the highest quality $20 a pound antelope that money cab buy.

When you factor in all you expenses, it adds up, but what hobby doesn't.
 
This is a depressing thread :D

I try and think of it like this: Some things I do to make money and some things I do to give me a reason to keep making money!
 
It is embarrassing to think of what I spend per pound on wild meat, but even as expensive as it is, it's cheaper than chasing the wild painted up city women.:D

Mrs. WBB is costing me thousands of dollars per pound, over the last 35 years, and tells me she's not going to get any cheaper in the future.;)
 
I've never hunted solely for the meat*. I've spent what I could afford to spend on the total package which we call "the hunt". Getting out in the boonies with friends, sitting around the campfire telling yarns, chousing around in the brush, trying to outwit some critter: That beats the heck out of watching some Vidiot-box or hanging out in a beer joint.

Personal enjoyment costs money. That's the system in which we live. I've never had a problem dealing with that reality.

* Well, okay, sometimes in my back pasture, back when I ranched near Austin. Drive out, kill a doe, drive back to the house. But I never really thought of that as "hunting".
 
The cost of hunting deer

Bought a truck 10,000 dollars------ had to have a 4 wheeler ---3000 dollars---
Bought a new gun-----600 dollars----- spending time in the woods with family and friends ------- PRICELESS !!!!
 
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