http://books.google.com/books?...20outfitters&f=false

I am sure many of you will find this very interesting to glance through. Ads for hunting in Kenya, Tiger and gaur in India and so on... One article showed the Weatheby Award Winner for that year - it is said he was one of only 7 americans to have shot Marco Polo up to that point!

The only advert that has not changed is for boar hunting at Tioga Hunting Preserve in PA, that place has been around and stood the test of time!

There is even an article on New Gun Laws!!

Man is that ever nostalgic. That issue has the add I used to secure a summer job with a hunting outfitter in Alaska. It was with Nick Botner of Stepan Lake Lodge. I offered to work for room and board (I was 16), but he threw in a free caribou hunt. What a life changing summer.

Could not afford it then and based on inflation , could not afford it now----sheep and jaguar, that is ....won't even talk about the most beautiful Cat in the World.....damn, it would have been nice to have hunted and killed a Tiger.....El Tigre' too!!

I have some old brochures from Safari operations in Kenya, and Tanganyika that have things like 10 cape buffalo on a general license, with trophy fees in the $100 USD price range, and daily fees in the area of $150 USD per day! In those days I was making $100 per week, and had a better than average job for time!
.............................Times and prices change!

Just did some math on the only advert with numbers.... 10 day elk hunt in Wyoming $550.
3% inflation today is $2593
4% inflation today is $4306
5% inflation today is $7116

Median household income 1969 $33,072
Median household income 2006 $50,233

The elk hunt in 1969 was 1.6% of median income.
The elk hunt today (5k) is 9.9% of median income.

Ski+3

i like this ad!

quote:

Originally posted by SkiBumplus3:
Just did some math on the only advert with numbers.... 10 day elk hunt in Wyoming $550.
3% inflation today is $2593
4% inflation today is $4306
5% inflation today is $7116

Median household income 1969 $33,072
Median household income 2006 $50,233

The elk hunt in 1969 was 1.6% of median income.
The elk hunt today (5k) is 9.9% of median income.

Ski+3

Ski+3
Don't take this wrong, and I may confused, but I believe your numbers are all screwed-up.

First and most glaringly: 1969 median income was not $33,072(at least I sure don't think so). I am 99% sure this number was adjusted for inflation. According to a quick search this number was adjusted to reflect 1996 dollars. Keep in mind, cars were $3k-$5 in 1969, median home price was $26,000.

Also, I ran $550 1969 dollars through the Westegg inflation calculator and come out with $3,300. I think it is fair to say the elk hunt today costs about twice as much in real dollars.

It would be interesting to know what percentage an elk hunt would cost compared to the median household income in 1969.

This is cool. I looked through the entire magazine.

I was working in 1968-69, and making more than aveage, and was making $3.25 an hour. My wife was a federal employee and was making $4,400 a year, or thereabouts. I had a friend who's father owned West Bend Mfg. and he was only making $36,000 a year, which seemed like he was a millionaire. You could buy a house in 1969, for under $10k, not a mcmansion, but a normal 2 or 3 bedroom, 1 bath house, as most were then, for $9,500.00. My father had been on the RR since 1941, and was making a $125 a week, which was considered good money. The average was closer to $80 a week..$2 an hour..

Today, if you go to Africa on a pkg hunt, you can go for a lot cheaper than an Elk hunt to Colorado, and have 4 or 6 animals to shoot, and actually see them. An Elk hunt today, is going to set you back AT LEAST $7,500.00, and the better the hunting area (Ranch, indian reservation) the more it'll cost and $12k for an Elk hunt not "unreasonable" these days.. I went on a hunt to Namibia and Rhodesia (now Zim), and spent about 14 days hunting. We spent like $3,600 or so, which I borrowed). Today, a hunt in Namibia , RSA , runs about $350.00 a day for the hunting, room and board, etc., what;s gone up is the trophy fees.. but you can still go to Namibia, etc., and spend a week or so, and get 1/2 dozen nice animals, for about what it costs to go on an Elk hunt, where the success ratio is about 20%..

Got off on a tangent, I guess. Just trying to say that the figures shown for 1969 are way off. Today, over half the workers in this country make less than $36,000 a year.. two worker families might make that much, but even there, IRS figures show that 1/2 the population makes less than $36,000 a year.. in 1969, no one was making $36k a year, if they didn't own the place.

Should have mentioned that the $7,500 for an Elk hunt does NOT include getting there, or a license.. I just came back from a hunt in RSA in May, and cost me about $8k R/T air fare, all hunting and trophy fees, etc. got 4 of the 6 animals being hunted.. It would cost that much, or more, to go to Colo or Wyoming Elk hunting with the possibility of seeing one.

quote:

Originally posted by tysue:
Got off on a tangent, I guess. Just trying to say that the figures shown for 1969 are way off.

Just to revisit what I posted earlier: from what I can find the median household income in 1969 was about $8,500. BTW, finding unadjusted figures is not too easy....

So that $550 elk hunt would have been about 6.5% of the median household income in 1969.

I think the accessibility of cheap air travel alone makes Africa much more affordable today than the past. Add to that the volume of people going or the more developed/formalized state of the safari industry and outfitters can make more money on volume rather than margin. That too makes a hunt in Africa more of a possibility for the average Joe today. It is also certainly the case that the real prices of North American hunts (especially relative to Africa) have increased a great deal since 1969.

quote:

Originally posted by tendrams:
I think the accessibility of cheap air travel alone makes Africa much more affordable today than the past.

I have always wondered what flights to Africa cost in the 1950s. I do know that they were quite involved with a lot of legs.

Does anyone know what airfare to Africa cost in the 1950s?

quote:

Originally posted by tendrams:It is also certainly the case that the real prices of North American hunts (especially relative to Africa) have increased a great deal since 1969.

I wonder what has been the biggest cause of the increase. I would guess that hunts were cheaper in the 50s and 60s because many guides were trappers who did not need to earn much to get by.

I am guessing that today there are many more guides that have a family and mortgage to support.

But.... I would guess the biggest cause for the increase is the money that must be spent on advertising the guide service. Just imagine what it costs to do all the outdoor shows.

Wow! What a blast from the past. I grew up in the '60's and used to pour over these mags dreaming of going to all those exotic places and coveting of my own Rokon motorbike!

Thanks!!!

I'm prett sure I have a price list from Ker and Downey from way back in the day. I'll see if I can find it.

I used to get a newsletter from a guy in Painesville, Ohio, back then. Two hunts stand out.

The first was a bird hunt in Kashmir (northern India). You stayed on houseboats and shot ducks from the houseboat. then you mounted elephanta and shot upland birds from there. The elephants picked them up and handed them back. You could get thousands of birds.

the second was a hunt for maneating tigers. You had to be flexible on timing. when the tiger was located, you would fly to India and a beat would be organized.

I don't remember what either hunt cost, but a full bag safari in Tanzania cost, IIRC, $15,000 in 1969 and the INdian hunts were cheaper.

US Census Bureau....
"From 1969 to 1996, median household income rose a very modest 6.3 percent in constant dollars (from $33,072 to $35,172). At the same time, per capita income rose by a robust 51 percent in constant dollars (from $11,975 to $18,136).
Hmmmmmm. I'll look some more.

Ski+3

Ski

The numbers on the net are confusing as heck, but you can't possibly believe the median household income in in 1969 was 30k+, can you?!

Below I have posted the Social Security Admin's average wage figures. Keep in mind that many houses in 1969 had a single wage earner(dad) and now most have two wage earners.

quote:

National average wage indexing series, 1951-2009
Year Index
1951 2,799.16
1961 4,086.76
1969 5,893.76
1979 11,479.46
1989 20,099.55
1996 25,913.90
2006 38,651.41
2009 40,711.61

http://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/AWI.html

Looking at the Belize fishing ad at the top of the page

8 Days for $600 in 1969.

Using the inflation calculator, that is $3500 and some change in 2010 dollars. http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi


Now a very quick google search turns up this. http://bitemebelize.com/packages-rates/

One week of fishing Belize is $2400 per week and if I read the ad correctly on adding a day, just a bit under $3000 for 8 days for TWO people for 8 days!



When looking at old ads for guns, hunting, travel, etc., folks always tend to underestimate inflation and just how much money $1000 was 30, 40, 50 years ago.

quote:

Originally posted by Duckear:
When looking at old ads for guns, hunting, travel, etc., folks always tend to underestimate inflation and just how much money $1000 was 30, 40, 50 years ago.

That reminds me of a 1955 Sears ad that someone posted about a year ago. A couple of members were marveling at the $100 price for a FN Actioned JC Higgins rifle, and talking about the good old years.

I ran $100 through the inflation calculator and found that $100 in 1955 was equal to $770 in 2010. That kinda put things into perspective.