buck460XVR
New member
I don't lease anything, and rural Nebraska, and the whole middle of the country, for that matter, is one giant food plot/bait pile. I use the same rifle I shoot recreationally all year long, and we cut our own meat ...... The gas is a minor consideration because I don't road hunt...... I did splurge on a ground blind a few years back and lately we've gotten into making sausage , so there's been some expense on equipment for that, ..... but we generally bring back between a 150 and 300 pounds of cut and wrapped meat ...... while beef prices have fallen from what they were a couple of years ago, even if you figured just 3 bucks a pound for an average cost, and included a tank of gas and the $46 for a permit for me and one for each of my little kids ..... we are still way ahead eating deer instead of beef.
As I said....most of the time. You are an exception and fortunate to be so. I too butcher my own, debone everything and am a tad picky on what I eat. A good size buck will average maybe 50-60 pounds of meat. A good size doe 40-50. That means in a good year I will have around 100# of venison in my freezer. I bow hunt 20 or more days a year and gun hunt 7 or more. Unlike you I cannot hunt deer all year and only use one tank of gas, even tho I don't road hunt either. West Central Wisconsin is a great big food plot also, but I still put in food plots and put out mineral. I can guarantee you, I spend more than $300 total on deer hunting every year. Hell, I spend more than $300 a year hunting Pheasants, Grouse and Woodcock too. Then there's Turkey hunting.........not to mention Musky Fishing.
I don't think this is an exception....but the norm for most of us. Again, the meat while enjoyed and cherished, is just a bonus. For every hour I spend in the woods or in a tree, I could be makin' $40 an hour workin'. I could buy that $300 worth of meat working only one day in the warmth of my shop instead of sittin' in a tree in the rain/snow/cold, with the mosquitoes and deer ticks, hoping to see something. If I was hungry, you bet I'd be working and not huntin'. That's what I mean by most of us are recreational hunters and not subsistence hunters .......we don't have to hunt for meat, we just do.