It's astonishing how simple killing is if you use a bullet fully up to the task of expanding (as far as you intend to shoot),and penetrating well even at close range and high impact speed. (Scratch the rib shots;if it can't handle shoulder and heavy leg bones to reach vitals,it stays home. Ribs are no test;almost anything works there).
And of course put it in the right place.
Cost of bullets,compared to all the other hunt costs today, is irrelevant. Funny, guys are running around with $1000+ rifles,$500-$2000 scopes,and squawking about the trivial cost of the only thing that actually does the killing...the bullet.
All sizzle....no steak.
Just came back from a 2 day elk hunt guiding Daughter #1 on her first elk hunt. Not sure what she expected, but she had only hunted antelope before. She said she had gone from Hunting 101 (antelope) to post-grad work (elk). Unfortunately we started put hunting high (north side of Sleepy Cat) where elk often reside but we failed to find any fresh sign, let alone any elk. We later heard that the only elk people were seeing were down low and we did see a couple hundred total in the hay fields along White River at dawn yesterday as we drove home.
Hunting costs included over $1,000 for new truck tires. Had I not been going hunting this last weekend and again for the full 3rd Rifle season, I would have kept the old tires through the winter. Daughter #1 paid $240 and tax for a room at the Meeker Hotel and we split the cost of our evening dinners. Food costs for breakfast and lunch (bagels and cream cheese, luncheon meat and PBJ sandwiches, apples, snack bars, OJ and ice to keep the food cool) were minimal but not zero. Then there was lunch on the trip to Meeker and on the way back home. I didn't keep track of the gas receipts but estimate about $180 for the trip. Daughter's hunting license was about $47.
Without the cost of the tires, our total expenditures were somewhere over $550 for the 2-day hunt. The cost of bullets fired was $0.00. Even if we had found elk on public land and managed to get in range, the incremental cost of the Barnes 130g TTSX handloads Daughter #1 was using over cup-and-core handloads would have been negligible considering the other expenses. And, at about $17.38 per 20, they were less expensive than all but the very cheapest factory hunting ammo.
Given that Colorado elk hunters are successful on average only about 25% of the time, no shots fired and ammo cost of $0.00 is probably a common story. While we were hunting we talked to people from upstate New York, Missouri, and several other states who will spend more on fuel than we did for the entire hunt. Even if they have success, BobinNH is correct (as usual) - the cost of the bullets for the vast majority of hunters, compared to other hunting costs, is irrelevant.
