In 2000 I had booked a hunt with them for the Northwest Territories. So as the years roll by they send me a new catologe every year. This year like pass years hunts just keep going up not by hundreds but thousands and here again I understand it is supply and demand. But with the lost interest of our young hunters and the cost for older hunters where will this all end up ? Would you spend $60,000 for a desert sheep hunt if you had it ? If I feel into a pile of cash it would be almost impossible for me to book a hunt like that . I guess my old working man attatude would kick in and it would say to me YOU Know How Long It Took Youself To Make Sixty Grand and I would forget the whole idea. And to be honest about it thats probably the dumbest way to look at it, memories are twice as good as money in the bank. Whats your two cents about it all ?

My money comes REAL HARD!! I love to hunt but as I have aged I find myself wanting to insure the stability of my family more than satisfying my personal ambitions. I see so many people judge the success of their hunt based on the depth of their pockets. $60M for any hunt is money up a wild hogs ass!!

Well for one thing a desert sheep does not have to cost $60,000 but $40,000 that you can get one for is a load of cash but everything is relative. To some hunters a $3500.00 deer hunt is stretching their budget. To others a $100,000.00 safari is just the cost of doing what they want to do. I guess the point is that the more money you have the easier it is to see the value in expensive things.

Mark

If I hit the lottery and money was no object, then yes, I would spend it and hunt all over the world. But the reality right now is that I'll just keep working and probably not get to sheep hunt in this life time.

quote:

I guess the point is that the more money you have the easier it is to see the value in expensive things.

Could someone please explain to me the logic used there?

quote:

Originally posted by Joe Miller:

quote:

I guess the point is that the more money you have the easier it is to see the value in expensive things.

Could someone please explain to me the logic used there?

LOLOL ~!


I think he meant the more money you have the easier it is to spend on expensive things


I will probably never get to kill a Desert Bighorn unless it comes across the interstate and we meet head on in my truck. But I figure it doesn't hurt my feelings as an Aoudad hunt can be just as tough and a lot cheaper. And most Rams and Sheep/Goats in general taste horrible.

The cost of hunting just about any specie anywhere has gone up a ridiculous percentage. Logic??? The same logic that was used to explain why gas cost 4.25/gal., oh its supply and demand...that was before the financial bubble burst and was a load of bullshit. Now that there are no more cronies on wall street artificially bidding oil upwards...guess what! 1.65/gal. gasoline. The same logic is used for hunting trips. I can't wait to see how much lower the hunting trips will be this February at the Eastern Sportsman Show...or better yet, around July when they all have tags they can't sell or were cancelled at the last minute. What is sown is reaped.

I stopped looking at outfitters when an elk hunt went from 2500 to 5000 over night and the same bullshit reasons were raised. Now I hunt public land and private land that grants permission. I sleep in what I pack in and I eat MRE's and to hell with some drunken cowboy and his 30 year old pick-up getting 5000 a week because he has horses.

When I first started researching hunts in the Yukon and Northern B.C. you could take an 8 day hunt for $3500 and could take any animal you had a tag for. Now the same hunts are $8500 and that allows you 1 animal. Then it's $2000 for a moose,goat, or Caribou, $3500 for a sheep and $5000 for a Griz. Plus you have an $850 flight to camp and the license. I realize that there are plenty of welthy people that can afford these prices but I will hunt Asia in the future because the trophies are great and the price is much more reasonable.

Hawkeye47

quote:

Originally posted by billm:
In 2000 I had booked a hunt with them for the Northwest Territories. So as the years roll by they send me a new catologe every year. This year like pass years hunts just keep going up not by hundreds but thousands and here again I understand it is supply and demand. But with the lost interest of our young hunters and the cost for older hunters where will this all end up ? Would you spend $60,000 for a desert sheep hunt if you had it ? If I feel into a pile of cash it would be almost impossible for me to book a hunt like that . I guess my old working man attatude would kick in and it would say to me YOU Know How Long It Took Youself To Make Sixty Grand and I would forget the whole idea. And to be honest about it thats probably the dumbest way to look at it, memories are twice as good as money in the bank. Whats your two cents about it all ?

The San Carlos Apache Indian Tribe price for a Desert Big Horn Sheep is $75,000 & they had 2 tags for Rocky Mtn Big Horn Sheep @ $45,000 each,Bull Elk tags are $30,000 while anterless elk tags are $620.For California tag info go to http://www.dfg.ca.gov Check Nevada for big horn sheep tags.

I think there are some honest outfitters out there that will still give you a good hunt for a reasonable price. A friend of mine just went to saskatchewan and hunted hard for 5 days and shot a deer that was smaller than the 9 point he shot right here in Connecticut.

quote:

Originally posted by 33806whelen:
I think there are some honest outfitters out there that will still give you a good hunt for a reasonable price. A friend of mine just went to saskatchewan and hunted hard for 5 days and shot a deer that was smaller than the 9 point he shot right here in Connecticut.

A CA hunter booked a successful black bear hunt in Alaska but he shot a much larger black bear in the San Bernardino Mtns where bears usually don't hibernate & feed year round.

Same thing is happening in PA. A couple years ago a friend of mine told me 2 bears were shot well over 800 pounds. I looked on the PA website and it was documented there. That's brown bear size! I am sure the heads don't get as big, but thats a big rug!

In regards to the OP's question, I think, like all things in life, as long as someone is there to pay for it the price will go up.

I'm a young guy, so a $50,000 sheep hunt or $100,000 full-bag safari is something I am accepting of since that is how it has been my entire hunting career. This right now is my "good ol' days" and 30 years from now I will probably be complaining about how a sheep hunt used to only be $50,000 (or, worse, how I was actually able to hunt at one point ). I've got a deer hanging on the wall I payed $2,000 to hunt last year (which is a lot for a college student like me). It seemed like a lot of money to me at the time, but it wasn't enough to make me unable to pay rent and the deer hanging on the wall right now, to me, is worth far more than the $2,000 the hunt cost. Almost every hunter will say his or her trophies are priceless, that seems like a good investment to me!

I think there are still many reasonably priced hunts out there. Bottom line is that outfitters charge what the market will bear, as they should. I don't believe there are too many outfitters getting rich off of guiding hunts. I did my first African hunt this year and in my opinion it was a steal. on the other hand, there is no way I would ever pay 7k for an elk or mule deer hunt when I can hunt them for the price of a tag on public land. That means I may not kill many huge elk in my life, but that's just the way it is.

quote:

Originally posted by Sevens:
In regards to the OP's question, I think, like all things in life, as long as someone is there to pay for it the price will go up.

I'm a young guy, so a $50,000 sheep hunt or $100,000 full-bag safari is something I am accepting of since that is how it has been my entire hunting career. This right now is my "good ol' days" and 30 years from now I will probably be complaining about how a sheep hunt used to only be $50,000 (or, worse, how I was actually able to hunt at one point ). I've got a deer hanging on the wall I payed $2,000 to hunt last year (which is a lot for a college student like me). It seemed like a lot of money to me at the time, but it wasn't enough to make me unable to pay rent and the deer hanging on the wall right now, to me, is worth far more than the $2,000 the hunt cost. Almost every hunter will say his or her trophies are priceless, that seems like a good investment to me!

I cant stand the line. Well im just a college student but I paid however many thousand for such and such hunt. The normal college student either lives with mom and dad, a dorm or splits an apartment that mom and dad pay for. So I would almost be sure you are probably not a average college student.

quote:

Originally posted by Jarrod:
I cant stand the line. Well im just a college student but I paid however many thousand for such and such hunt. The normal college student either lives with mom and dad, a dorm or splits an apartment that mom and dad pay for. So I would almost be sure you are probably not a average college student.

Jarrod,

I would be interested to hear why you believe I am not a typical college student?

I live in an apartment that I split with a roommate, which, under your definition, is a "normal college student." I sacrificed my free time during school (20 hours/week) and during the summer (40 hours/week) to make some extra change so I could afford my hunt. My parents and scholarships don't pay for hunting trips; I got a job so I could make some money and pay for a hunting trip myself.

I'm sorry you didn't like the line I used in my post. I didn't like your inference, poor sentence structure, and poor grammar. I would have preferred, however, that you got to know me before you made any accusations against me.

"Normal' college students live on campus in a dorm.

But back on topic. Cabelas claims to be the worlds greatest outfitter, not the Walmart of discount sporting goods.

quote:

Originally posted by onefunzr2:
"Normal' college students live on campus in a dorm.

The majority of CA universities do not have dormitory space for students beyond their second year.

Maybe congress will set up a hunter bailout fund!!!

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Maybe congress will set up a hunter bailout fund!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Sevens:

quote:

Originally posted by Jarrod:
I cant stand the line. Well im just a college student but I paid however many thousand for such and such hunt. The normal college student either lives with mom and dad, a dorm or splits an apartment that mom and dad pay for. So I would almost be sure you are probably not a average college student.

Jarrod,

I would be interested to hear why you believe I am not a typical college student?

I live in an apartment that I split with a roommate, which, under your definition, is a "normal college student." I sacrificed my free time during school (20 hours/week) and during the summer (40 hours/week) to make some extra change so I could afford my hunt. My parents and scholarships don't pay for hunting trips; I got a job so I could make some money and pay for a hunting trip myself.

I'm sorry you didn't like the line I used in my post. I didn't like your inference, poor sentence structure, and poor grammar. I would have preferred, however, that you got to know me before you made any accusations against me.

Ok so maybe I was wrong in my assumption. My point was most college students do good to afford anything extra. But I have been wrong before. As far as my sentence structure though I don't give a damn about that and never will. If that mattered to me I would have been an English major. Anyway guess I was wrong on my assumption. Anyway point is most college students are too broke to pay attention.

I could only hunt public land when I was in college. But I did buy the meanest muscle car I could get my hands on. It's all a question of priorities. Hunting has never been priority one in my life. Definitely in the top ten, maybe the top five on occassion.

$50,000 for a sheep hunt? $100,000 for a African hunt? My personal feeling is just get a magic marker and write STUPID on your forehead. That kind of money in the right hands might help a lot of people, or just make a difference in one life. I know most of those people probably think we admire, or envy them, but I just want to get hold of a magic marker so the world will recognize them.

I've seen a lot of people that lived like kings, and played big-dog until the market cut their legs out from under them. It's always sad to watch, but each man is responsible for his own actions.

quote:

$50,000 for a sheep hunt? $100,000

Year after year, for many years, there have been people who pay those amounts just for tags, not the entire hunt. But it is their money and business, I am sure most are wealthy,and the hunt is a priority. I wonder how that may change with the coming, redistribution of wealth????? Hey maybe I can finally buy an auction desert big horn tag!

quote:

Originally posted by Joe Miller:
I stopped looking at outfitters when an elk hunt went from 2500 to 5000 over night and the same bullshit reasons were raised. Now I hunt public land and private land that grants permission. I sleep in what I pack in and I eat MRE's and to hell with some drunken cowboy and his 30 year old pick-up getting 5000 a week because he has horses.

Hey, I resemble that remark Well, the drunken cowboy part anyways.

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
Well for one thing a desert sheep does not have to cost $60,000 but $40,000 that you can get one for is a load of cash but everything is relative. To some hunters a $3500.00 deer hunt is stretching their budget. To others a $100,000.00 safari is just the cost of doing what they want to do. I guess the point is that the more money you have the easier it is to see the value in expensive things.

Mark

I read an auto review about a Buggati around a year or two ago in the paper.

These guys in Italy owned by Volkswagon in Germany were/ are making a car that only goes 252 mph until you pull over, hit a button, a spoiler raises, the car lowers an inch or two and a vent closes. Then and only then will the car go 256 mph. All this for $1.2 million. Oh yeah, the car runs out of gasoline in 12 minutes at 256 mph.

My point? There appears to be a group of people that Buggatti thinks can afford this kind of car that I'm guessing could also afford a measly $100k safari. I believe there are a whole raft of folks out there that just aren't concerned with a $60 or $160k sheep hunt.

I haven't met them, but I think they are out there.

I guess I'll be the first to take exception to some of the comments here. I'm one of those considering a high priced sheep hunt. I did two sheep hunts this year - dall and stone. My lifetime quest is for the grand slam. My reasons are mainly because I consider it to be the toughest hunt there is. It doesn't have to do with money. It just so happens to cost a lot. So be it. I can afford a lot of things - expensive cars, big house, fancy watches, etc. But those are things any fat old guy can do. Sheep hunting isn't.
Sure, I could donate my money to different causes. But my take on it is, handouts don't work. The gov. spends millions/billions on handouts. That hasn't seemed to work out as the lines for more handouts keep growing. So if you want to give then that's your perogative. Note, I was one of a handful of people from a very large church to give to the homeless pastor specifically and it wasn't the ol $10 in the brass plate that many seem to think is 'cheritable'.
The other thing about these expensive hunts is I saved and sweated for years in trying to pay off my home. While many of my friends and associates were bragging about their 401ks or new cars I was steadily paying off my mort. I finally did. Now those same friends and assoc.s are crying about their 401ks and their new cars are getting older and they still have the same old mortgage payments.
I admit that I make better than avg money. But I'll be damned if I let anyone sway my decision on how I spend my money the way I feel.
Maybe when I get old and fat then I'll buy that fancy car...