Why do we keep doing this ?

It is a far better form of recreation than going to the bar or watching spectator sports (or watching anything on TV).
 
For those of us who live in deer country, the costs are not so sever. Cost of guns for deer hunting, $0.00...I would have them anyway. Cost of deer processing, $0.00 I have never paid to have a deer processed, I have always done it myself. Cost of camping stuff, $0.00...deer hunting has never been a social event for me, I always do it solo. Cost of ammo, $0.00...bullet caster, hand loader, I shoot all the time anyway. Cost of travel to deer hunting sight, $0.00...I walk the 100 yards or so into my woods.
If you turn it into a social event, drive around acting crazy on four wheelers, pay the price to have good meat turned into an abomination of inedible sticks of salt and artificial smoke, etc. What you call "deer hunting" is not what I call "deer hunting".
 
My deer lease and travel costs were a helluva lot cheaper than my racing sports cars in SCCA. :D

But, hey, it's what I wanted to do. Ya wanna play, ya gotta pay. Heck, even if I stayed home and hunted the old family place at no cost for the hunting, I still had to pay the school district their $35/acre for 230 acres.
 
I like using a four wheeler, socializing with other hunters, and summer sausage myself. And, if I never work up another deer it suits me if I can pay somebody $40 to do it for me.
I still spend less hunting than boating/fishing, ham radio, playing golf and other stuff.
 
Bill Bucks

You forgot the most important part you should of capped that off with like on a visa commercial:


That feeling you get when the sun crests the far off hill, glinting off the cold barrel of your favorite rifle in the chill morning air.....priceless

;)
 
My major cost is seed, diesel fuel, and fertilizer.
The good ole Federal gubmint pays for a little of that. I enjoy farming. I actually like messing with the food plots better than I like hunting. I am going to buy rifles, scopes, and ammo anyway; because I have to consistently shoot my favorite thing to hunt, Paper.
 
Priceless isn't the word I'd use for that morning chill. If God had wanted man to see the sunrise he'd have put it much later in the day. :D

I hate morning hunting. I keep trying, must be masochistic. Never shoot a thing. Probably 95% of the deer I've killed have been afternoon/sunset and I don't even have to get up early to do it.
 
Really? I could sit anywhere in the woods I hunt ALL day till dark. And I can guarantee you if I don't get in there at legal 1/2 before sun up...I won't be bringing home a deer. All the deer taken from that property have been shot normally between 8 and 10 am...never later than noon. I'm a morning person though. Getting up at 5am, stopping at the gas station swapping "I'll get one before you do" friendly trash talk with the other hunters huddled around the coffee machines, the brisk hike to the stand....Boy! cant beat it fellers:D;)
 
Probably 95% of the deer I've killed have been afternoon/sunset and I don't even have to get up early to do it.
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New York deer must sleep in ..... I get 50%+ of mine within 30 minutes of 7:30AM ..... some as late as 10-10:30 ...... afternoons, you gotta work for 'em, pushing them out of wherever they are...... generally a low pecentage proposition.

I've got a few at last light ...... but most of them come wandering by the Killin' Tree right after sunrise, checking the scrape lines or following a doe ......
 
also a consideration is that all I take are backstraps, tenderloins, and quarters(liver and heart too if they aren't blasted). boned out and trimmed a 200LB buck doesn't provide much more than 80LBs of meat, the dogs get almost as much as we do.

aside from my most recent doe, all of my deer are last light deer.
 
The upside to killing one in the morning is that you don't have to be fumbling around in the dark after the deed is done.
 
Ok guys (and gals) the esteemed Jeff Foxworthy has already gone through this drill for us here

$162/pound! "And that's not including my time and poker money!"

And leave it to Kraig to bring it back into perspective! Without my oldest, I would have been blissfully ignorant of the need to bring (non-camo) makeup on a hunting trip! Or the fact you can find enough wildflowers to make a headband just on the walk to the ground blind! Not certain I had ever taken notice of the wildflowers before that one! And not to be forgotten, there was the hunting trip where that all defining moment in female maturation begins with my little hunting partner and I am 900 miles away from the wife who is much more versed in these things. :o Boy, was I underprepared for that one!

And for jimbob, go watch the movie The Patriot. You might be able to take away a gameplan using a burlap bag. That should help you sleep a little better.;)
 
And not to be forgotten, there was the hunting trip where that all defining moment in female maturation begins with my little hunting partner and I am 900 miles away from the wife who is much more versed in these things. Boy, was I underprepared for that one!
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That certainly tops me trying to tell my 8 y.o. daughter how to pee outdoors in the middle of nowhere without sprinkling her pants ...... but on the bright side, once she figured it out, she schooled her sister!

This season will be very interesting: The Boyfriend (of 3 years) is going to Deer Camp with us ...... He's never hunted ............ tomorrow we are going deer rifle shopping, because he wants his own gun. I have plenty of rifles, but he wants his own. I like the kid.
 
When you bring kids, they have to keep up with homework.

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And there is bonding;

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And snowmen

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And the fashion shows:

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Sign???? What Sign

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You can't put a price on memories.
 
I don't look at deer hunting as a dollar and cents thing. It is what it is. I see my son maybe 3-4 times a year. So its more of a bonding thing for us. That one week every year. He gets to see how much I've aged and slowed. I get to notice him doing the same_:rolleyes: "as the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."_;) Cribbage board, good food, Coor's beer and old hunting friends dropping in make our week together go by too fast for my liking. That's why I can't place a value on my hunting harvest or the time it takes. Its absulity priceless.

Can anyone tell me why I'm so anxious to get back out there next week-end, and do it again?
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As I recall your ATV accident happen last year around this time? My guess. "glutton for punishment maybe?~?"~~~~Ah Just kidding WBB_:D
A more appropriate answer: "You love this time of year and being outdoors as we all do." <This is my best guess you 'ol bushwhacker you._:)
 
It's cheaper than duck hunting. The last year I duck hunted (and I quit when they started requiring steel shot) we put it to paper and ducks cost us over $25.00 per pound. When you start figuring blinds, decoys, hip boots, things get expensive really quick.
 
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