POLL: What percentage of your income do you spend on hunting?

What percentage of your annual income do you spend on hunting?


  • Total voters
    226

Founder

Founder Since 1999
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So the question is, what percentage of your annual income do you spend on points, application fee's, tags, landowner tags, conservation tags, permits, the hunting trip expenses (like food and fuel), etc.? BUT, this does NOT include clothing, rifles, optics and other things that you use multiple years. Just the yearly average spend stuff.

Expand below on how much more you spend on optics, guns, backs, clothing, etc.
 
Founder, you know this is all relative. Everyone knows those who make plumbers kind of pay can, and maybe should, spread the wealth around.
 
I think it is also relative to what you make. If you and your wife are pulling down 250,000 a year 10 percent is 25k. If your just starting out in life and making 60k a year your 10 percent is 6k. I’m guessing it’s the older guys that are spending the higher amounts. It all comes down to disposable income.
Rich
 
Nobody just starting out in life makes $60K.
I disagree with this. If you have a plan and push for it you can get there. Yeah I guess if your meaning for the 2 years or however long you're in college then sure obviously you can't work a career at that point. Head for the oil fields or get into the trades you can definitely make 60k right out of school.

But on the poll topic, I work so I can hunt so definitely more than 15% goes into hunting.
 
Nobody just starting out in life makes $60K.
Half of that in Utah, if they are lucky.
I spend about 1% and I am always working a few weeks on a second job to make that happen.
But then again, most people haven't had to pay out around 15% of their income for the past 15 years on medical expenses..
If I buy something new, I will always sell something I already have and have it go towards the extra cost of the new item.
 
% change every year... I spend what I think makes sense with a couple WTF’s am I doing!
I quite my day to day job.. life is to short!! I’ll take bottom of the totem pole to gain more freedom with family/hunting and fishing.
Pay for the house in cash and live out your hunting dreams.. this is also Relative per circumstances as is everything.
 
I think it really depends what tags ya draw. Im putting in for 28 draws in 8 states this year. Hopefully I spend alot this year, but the reality is probably not so much.
 
The percentage was way higher when I was making less and hunting sheep around the old blue-ball. Now I make more and hunt closer to home so the percentage is lower. I still have lots of fun and lots to hunt. It’s more about hunting with family rather than hopping a plane at this point.
If you’re asking if there has been a great sacrifice of blood and treasure, the answer is a resounding YES! Just ask my wife. Lol

Zeke
 
A good rule of thumb is that your hunting bill should be about the same as your total tax liability. + 100% is ok for retired people like me. :)

Way back when I got my divorce the then wife told the judge that I had spent 32 weekends in the woods that year. I thought that was a pretty cool way to remember being married to her.
 
I guess I am a tight butt. My wife says I am, she may be right. I’m only at about 5-6% per year. So, I’m thinking I need to up my game and try to kill more big stuff before I’m too old or too dead to do it anymore.
I always said after my first wife passed away that I had been doing it wrong. I had always put off spending money. Wanted to save it for when we retired. Always assumed she and I would grow old, but she didn’t get to and I still feel bad for not giving her a new house and more vacations.
Here I am again, saving for early retirement that is no guarantee I’ll make to.
I’ve always been spoiled with having lots of time to hunt and play, but I need spend a little more on tags I want instead of grabbing what I can.

I really like the quote someone shared from Randy Newberg. I’ll probably run out of health before money.

We’ll see how long it lasts. ha ha
 
Easily over 15%!!!
Here’s my spin... I’m getting older & for the last 25 years I listened to my dad say that he wished he had done this or wished he had done that. Tomorrow is promised to no one... As long as I have my health, the financial stability & my wife’s support to my hunting addiction, I’m going to pursue it.
I wish I could take my dad on a mule deer hunt because that was a dream of his for many many years. Now I just send him pictures & share my stories with him. It’s not the same, but I think somehow he lives vicariously through me these days.
 
used to hunt a lot with little success. did not spend a lot of $ then as i didn't have any (thus more time to hunt). figured out how to research and get better tags, more travel time to hunting areas....
got better work the last few years but less time to take due to work and wife....

spend a little more the last few years on gear - but that doesn't count in Founder's boundaries for this thread.... Tags, points, apps, gas, food equals a few hundred dollars. Gear = a few more hundred each year after a couple thousand already built up.
 
Personally I think spending more than 1-2% (3-4% max) isn't ideal unless your making bank ($250k+ is considered bank to me). Here's where I'm at this year (not exacts):

$190 for AZ elk and deer points
$102 for CO deer point
$75 for NM elk
$125 for my ID sportsmans package
$94 for WY elk/deer points

1 NR hunt, say WY special antelope this year ($600).
$1000 for scouting, gas, mountain house and spending $ during the season. I'd consider that a good season, banked a few points, had 4-5 western tags in my pocket and did 1 fun out of state hunt.

Puts you at $2186. Which should be doable on $55k+. Of course there's a million variables.
 
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Currently 3 to 4%, but hoping to retire and get a second job when that time comes, then I am hoping more like 70% will go towards hunting (Dream hunts await). Hopefully my health will stay well and that can happen as planned.
 
As an outfitter, I spend a lot on hunting. But I started outfitting so I could get out and see critters, take pics, go camping and it is part of my business. So it's hard to say what % of my income. But I spend every penny I can getting out, enjoying the open spaces, and getting ready to hunt. I don't shoot many critters personally, but I sure try to draw lots of licenses.

And my wife knows of my addiction to hunting and getting out. She supports it. She knows it's better than a lot of other choices. We're both pretty conservative on other stuff. Older vehicles, not much travel. Just live in and love Wyoming.
 
Some of you need to read "Gunnrunning past your wife" by Pat McManus

Gist of it is, buy one, put it in your safe, and after you have had it awhile, you bring it out on a Sunday and clean it. You wife says;' "new guy?". You reply: "No, I have had this a LONG time"

It has become a running joke between my wife and I. But it gets turned around: "New pair of shoes?' Her reply: "No, I have had these a LONG time"

But truth be told, she has almost as many guns as I do! She keeps winning them at fundraisers!
 
45% goes to retirement and 21% to Uncle Sam so I can't get on board with you guys doing 15%+ for hunting.

My ten year average is:

~$2,000 on Applications, Raffles, Tags & Licenses
~$4,000 on optics, clothing, guns, ammo, bows, arrows, broad heads, packs, fuel, calls and misc. gear.

I'm not sure why you'd include food in this. You have to eat whether you're hunting or not.

I don't have an ATV. Never hired a guide or bought a landowner voucher so I guess that's how I'm staying lower.
 
Biggest expenditures the last few years are the unsuccessful applications, unused (but required) licenses and preference points. Averaging $2000+. Bitter pill but the price of playing for a non-resident who still has lots of dream hunts planned for the future. My actual hunts that I’ve gone on have been pretty affordable even with the pricey tags.

The appreciating hard assets, guns and ammo, certainly have taken a big chunk out of my annual budgets, but given that I still have them and could sell for same or more than I paid in most instances, makes that a good investment or at least a nice safety net.. or so I tell my wife.
 
The percentages in the poll are not very informative. Sorry Founder. If someone said they spend somewhere between $4,000 and $10,000 a year on hunting it may sound like a lot, but for a lot of people that would only be between 2% and 4% of their annual income. For someone else the range of $4,000 to $10,000 could be 6% and 17% of their annual income.
 
If we are including the price of tags that can vary quite a bit also depending on what a person may draw from year to year. Also in past years I certainly spent more money acquiring/upgrading gear that I now have and use every year. In January I normally line out all my draw strategies and then a budget for the gear I want/need that year and plan accordingly.
 
You would be amazed at how many fresh college grads are making $100k+ a year at their first job along with a $10k to $50k signing bonus.
I have 4 employees for my side business. all 19 years old. Crew lead makes 60k + an Eco boost... the other 3 makes about 45k... Sometimes I wonder if they know what they have... Probably not
 
I have 4 employees for my side business. all 19 years old. Crew lead makes 60k + an Eco boost... the other 3 makes about 45k... Sometimes I wonder if they know what they have... Probably not
That’s really not **** these days. They have it the same way guys that made 30k in 2008 did.
 
Hey LH!

This is Directly out of the 'URBAN DICTIONARY'

Pisscutter:

A very small sub standard Bull Elk or Mule Deer buck commonly found and harvested by Utah sportsmen.

Say Bob Im going over to see Bessy's buck, care to put down that Mountain Dew and LDS bible and join me? NO thanks if I know ole Bessy it's just another pisscutter.

by Team_UNC January 28, 2011


FOR THE LOVE OF JUDAS!!!!!

Will someone please tell me wtf a pisscutter is????
 
That’s really not **** these days. They have it the same way guys that made 30k in 2008 did.
60k and a 40k truck for an 18 year old (now 19) isnt much? Seriously? No school, no trade experience, no real life experience? And 2008 (ish) is an anomaly.
 
Depends on his skill set. If he’s got skills and meets what you need out of Supervisor seems like a fair deal!
 
Think about it truthfully, its almost scary.

My trailer gets used 50% for hunting. One of my trucks probably 75%. The sxs. The flat bed to haul it?The gas from August to feb, I dont want to know. The clothes. The food? Hell the beer.

My company hats are camo. My "work socks" are merino. Where it ends is pretty blurry

My wife is real good about looking the other way.

Its sad what I "invest"
 
I don't even want to do the calculation. It's just who I am and doesn't matter one bit what the percentage is. Probably way up there though as I make lots of molded archery parts and pieces and every mile and minute is an 'expense' for tax purposes.... life for living purposes :)

Cheers, Pete
 
This is a trick for me. My biggest expenses are in the travel. But the bulk of my Midwest travels are reimbursed to me by you, due to the fact I always book work along the way to wherever I am hunting that year. For both fall deer & spring turkey. Spring fishing as well. This is for anywhere I hunt or fish in a six state area IL, WI, MN, IA, MI & MO. Sometimes I actually make money on that due to the per diem meals.
 
So the question is, what percentage of your annual income do you spend on points, application fee's, tags, landowner tags, conservation tags, permits, the hunting trip expenses (like food and fuel), etc.? BUT, this does NOT include clothing, rifles, optics and other things that you use multiple years. Just the yearly average spend stuff.

Expand below on how much more you spend on optics, guns, backs, clothing, etc.
You always seem to spend more than you plan on, but you cant put a price on a good time with your friends and family on a good hunting trip!
 
Really ??? Have to tell my niece as a second year homeland security officer she isn't suppose to gross $69,000 /yr+ benifits just starting out
Are benifits when you work some place with no benefits so you throw a fit?
 
Entry level DPS officers, statewide, in Colorado start out at 64 with a significant raise after year one
Right but the original.quote was,nobody just starting out makes,60k, a,yr judt starting out I was,just stateing that he was,wrong
She makes,more then 60k just starting out
And she's,only 27 yrs old
She may actually make a lot more then what I quoted have not talked to her since her dad (my brother) died of throat cancer last year
 
Oh shoot, looks like this post is a bit outdated! Anyway, I still wanted to drop in and say hey. When it comes to spending on hunting, I'd say it varies for everyone depending on their financial situation and priorities. But I think we can all agree that it's definitely a pricey hobby.
 
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