Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mule Deer and the Gallery-What can $4,000 get you?

bxroads-for 4K you could look at doing some elk hunting but you would need some travel $ as well and you would need a bit more $ for tags etc.
I would honestly say you would need about another $1500. Hunts that were/are going for much less than $3700 or so would be very suspect to me.

You could also do some hunting for whitetail and or mule deer in the Rocky Mtn states and stay in and around 4K for a good hunt.

Az. 4 coues would be an excellent idea if you can get drawn.

Lastly, I would take a close look at a bruin spot and stalk hunt. In Montana, you could do it for less than 4K including travel and tags.

You may also be able to do it in SE Alaska for close to that range, but I am gonna guess that most outfits are gonna be in and around 4-4500 and then you also have the costs of travel and tags etc.

Sort of sad to say but 4K does not buy one much anymore and with the cost of tags/travel adding another $1500 or there abouts it does make it all a lot tougher.

If you like PM me your phone # and I would be glad to give you a call and talk with you about this. I represent several very good outfits and may have a thing and or two for you to think over.

And lastly believe it or not and this appeals to me and may not to others. But...I would take a look at going to Ontario for a fall moose hunt and also do some very good fishing at the same time. I grew up (or at least got older...grins) not far from Ontario and have always been intrigued with a hunt like such.

Gotta run.

Make it your best day!

Mark D

bxroads-

I'm not sure on hunt prices now but check out Canada's eastern provinces - i.e. Quebec - for moose or bear or combo and maybe a fishing thrown in. In the past they were very reasonably priced and you could hunt something other than deer. The 4k certainly wouldn't include travel or tags and it's maybe closer to 5k or up now.

I just hunted with an outfitter in Montana this past fall who offered elk and deer at just under 4k but this did not include licenses.

It depends what your definition of "trophy" is; if you mean in "inches of bone", the chances on a 4k hunt in general probably run right down there with winning the lottery.

You can also check booking agents like Atchesons & Sons out of Montana, tell them what you're interested in and your price and they can tell you what your options are. They are very reputable.

Mark, www.hawk-lake.com

I would keep your lease even if you don't use it for a year. But curiosity getting the best of me. Is there anything that says you can't sub-lease to one of those on the waiting list for just a one year period, going through the owners without giving up your spot.

Phil

dang, bx, i could get 8 years on a very good west alabama club for that. moly, moly.
black belt or wiregrass?

For me this would be a no brainer, I'd let the lease go and spend the money hunting other things. It sounds like you have plenty of other good options for local whitetails. Besides variety is the spice of life... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> There are lots of trips that I'd love to do for $4K; upland/waterfowl birds in the midwest, black bears in either AK or Canada, blacktails or hogs in CA, free ranging auodads/ibex/oryx/nilgai in TX, mule deer in a fair area or on private land, mtn lions in about any Rocky Mtn state, etc... I one of those didn't trip my trigger that year or I couldn't get the time off I'd roll the $$ over to the next year, which would open up LOTS of other oportunities; elk in a good area, mule deer in a great area, mtn goats, international hunts for some of the less publized species like blue sheep, a variety of ibex, tahr, chamois, etc...

But then again that's just me.

bx,
You are probably ready to let the lease go.
Even if it is a good lease, you have fully experienced it for years and it has evolved into an anchor keeping you from other experiences that may or may not come in at the $4k mark.

Let go and live other things, especially since you have a place of your own to hunt.
You can check websites of outfitters in Saskatchewan, Alberta, Colorado and other western states to get your own feel of the market.

bxroads,

I have stuggled with the same questions. I have several free options to hunt deer here. I don't have the ability to pay that kind of money you're talkin about, but if I did, I think Id save the money hunt my freebies, and take a nice trip every other year on the $8K I saved.

Those you not from the south...we got plenty of deer, its land that is in short supply, almost no public land, and what is public is eat up with "Bubba" and his band of Merry Men drinking and road shooting, not to mention that the National Forests have become havens for portable meth labs. In the southeast, to hunt quality whitetails, you will pay as much as bxroads and more. The price range he's talking about is in what I'd call the High Middle 1/3. I pay $1000.00 a year to hunt very average land.

It is my thinking that if you cannot find a way to set up your life so that you can hunt on your own,... with out paying or having someone hold your hand..., you should not attempt to be a hunter nor call yourself one.

Well, in fairness to our Yank buddies here on 24hr., a pretty fine bunch of guys. it is not their fault that the nearly 300,000,000 people in the U.S.A. take up much of the available land for hunting; sometimes they have no choice except to hire a guide and hunt on private ranches. So, I kinda think that you are being a bit harsh in your judgement about this issue; we Canucks sometimes forget just how lucky we are with respect to resources, space, freedom and a good lifestyle available to anyone who wants it.

If, someone backpack hunts a sheep for example and carries his own pack and rifle and shoots his ram well, yeah, he is a "hunter" whether he has a guide or not. I am getting to the age where I will probably have to have a guide to assist me with getting out the meat from an Elk or a Moose, before a Grizzly swipes it, after 50 honest years of bush activity, will this make me a "non-hunter"?????

"It is my thinking that if you cannot find a way to set up your life so that you can hunt on your own,... with out paying or having someone hold your hand..., you should not attempt to be a hunter nor call yourself one."
kid of catty there, alberta, based on not thoroughly reading bx's posts, or understanding the south.
dude ...

In addition to the comments from others, I'd point out that some of us have career, family or other obligations that prevent us from setting up our lives so enviably.

For instance, the public hunting around Washington, DC is no great shakes for either convenience or "wildness," but I know plenty of hunters here. A friend of mine here is an avid and skilled waterfowler, originally from Arkansas. After a couple years bemoaning the lack of opportunity, he gritted his teeth and paid to join a duck club on some prime land. Now he hunts there about every weekend in season (and some of those are long weekends) unless he's out traveling to the Dakotas, the deep South, or places in between.

BTW since a lot of Canadian provinces, including Alberta, require non-residents (Canadian or otherwise) to have a guide, I guess none of those are "hunters" either.

JF

Having been on both "ends" of the pay/hunt continuum, I'd like to make some comparisons for folks that don't always see all angles of things...

I live in a City in the US, where my skills earn me, say $80,000 per year. The government takes about $25,000 of that every year, in various ways (income, SS, Medicare, sales, property taxes). That leaves me $55,000 of disposable income each year.

Now, I could move to Montana where some of family lives (or west Texas where I grew up), and my skills would probably earn me about $50,000. Assuming equal tax rates, my disposable income would be about $35,000.

I could also move to Canada, and probably earn about the same $50,000. I'm not absolutely sure what the tax rates are, but I will assume 50%. That would leave me $25,000 of disposable income.

My point in all this, is that while it seems outlandish to some people what some other people pay to hunt, they don't take into account what they have "given up" to live in their hunting paradise. If I pay $15,000 a year every year to go hunt in Canada, am I a fool for not just moving there so I can hunt for "free?" In my example above, I'm still $15,000 ahead ($30,000 - $15,000).

So, not flaming on anyone, just offering a point of view that some folks might not have.

bxroads,

without reading this whole thread, i'd keep your lease for now.

Pick a 'campfire pard or two, invite them to your place and host them on a hunt...then have them reciprocate at their place.

Everyone gets to hunt a different place/type of critter than their usual, without paying a bunch, and you don't give up your spot....

just a thought....

Oh, wanted to chime in on the original question...

Here's a list that I can come up with for hunts that you could do for about $4000. Some might come in a little higher, depending on the quality you choose.

- Tahr or Chamois hunt in New Zealand
- Stag hunt in Argentina
- Roe Deer hunt in Eastern Europe
- Mule Deer hunt almost anywhere
- Whitetail hunt in Canada (or most anywhere else)
- Black bear hunt almost anywhere
- Caribou or moose hunt in Newfoundland
- Caribou hunt in Quebec
- Auodad hunt in Texas
- Blacktail/hogs in California
- Sitka in Alaska
- Mt Goat in BC
- Nilgai + exotics in Texas

That should offer plenty to start <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Been mulling over that scheme and think it may be the best idea yet! With all the guys around here surely I could get myself into something.

Nice list there TMT! Thanks.

Aint taking the bait, but you're still a dumbass......


Roads

Yeah, that was particularly impressive.......grin........

Pretty Harsh! Totally uncalled for, and completely off topic. Just plain dumb!