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Hunting For Dollars

Ghost

Ghost

Life Member
I found this article in Hunting Illustrated interesting...

It is by two writers that share the Pro's and Con's and their views.

Hunting for Dollars


Feel free to comment on the article if you find time to read it.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Tagging a trophy has more to do with how much you can spend than how well you can hunt.
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From what I've seen lately, this statement can easily be true and seems to be in increasing fashion every year. Makes a guy not get to excited about seeing nice deer taken anymore.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: River Bttm Boy</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> <div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Tagging a trophy has more to do with how much you can spend than how well you can hunt.
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From what I've seen lately, this statement can easily be true and seems to be in increasing fashion every year. Makes a guy not get to excited about seeing nice deer taken anymore.

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It depends on the situation. If I know somebody took a great buck on their own on a DIY hunt of some sort on public or private ground, it still gets me excited to see that buck. However, if I see somebody taking their 2nd, 3rd, or 4th great buck of the season with the "help" of an outfitter, I don't really pay much attention to it. I'm still impressed with the people that can consistantly take good bucks on their own.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> It depends on the situation. If I know somebody took a great buck on their own on a DIY hunt of some sort on public or private ground, it still gets me excited to see that buck. However, if I see somebody taking their 2nd, 3rd, or 4th great buck of the season with the "help" of an outfitter, I don't really pay much attention to it. I'm still impressed with the people that can consistantly take good bucks on their own.
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Same here.
 
To me....

The "Con" writer is writing from the perspective of a regular Joe that without winning the lottery, he must do what he's been doing for years. And that's hunting public or hunting private that's in the family/friends and paying his dues to continue to hunt it if he's lucky enough. The guy that works a 40-60 hr week and fits in his obsession at night or on the weekends in and around his family life. Blue collar hunter.

The "Pro" writer is writing from the perspective(if he's not already) of a QDMA drum beater that has a bunch of cash and has the means to hunt whenever and where ever he wants. A person that has connections quite possibly all around the Midwest if not the US to be able to hunt on what some would call prime/unpressured ground. One that in a lot of instances, looks down on a blue collar hunter because...well, they're snobs/elitists. White collar hunter.

So who is right? Well...all depends on which of those two groups above you are in right now. ha, ha
 
Just my small observation, I don't see many people get giant bucks with outfitters- most shoot 3-4 year old "good" bucks. My observation and opinion.

Now, where I see giant bucks taken consistently is 2 places: the guys on the well-known hunting videos (Hunter's specialties, Drury, Kisky, Wild Outdoors) that own/hunt 2000-4000 acres in Decatur county area (not knocking owning thousand's of acres- I'd love to someday!) OR the 2nd, which really impresses me- the dudes that are crazed giant buck hunting fools that "hunt" for giants year round, work like mad, have permission on average size ground BUT are just deer hunting wizards with skills, time and work- I know some people like that who shoot giants each year- without huge $ or huge acreages.

The SECOND option is what I strive for (not that the 1st can't be a good hunter!) and hope to get to (well unless I win the lottery- which I don't play - and able to purchase 2000 acres!)
 
AND A QUESTION FOR ALL OF YOU??? I am truly just curious- not taking any side on this, just wondering if it reveals anything, maybe not.
If you won the lottery and got say $100,000,000- would you buy that 3,000 acre chunk that came for sale that you knew would be the sweetest hunting ever???
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Sligh1</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Now, where I see giant bucks taken consistently is 2 places: the guys on the well-known hunting videos (Hunter's specialties, Drury, Kisky, Wild Outdoors) that own/hunt 2000-4000 acres in Decatur county area (not knocking owning thousand's of acres- I'd love to someday!)</div></div>

Just a quick heads up, Drurys have sold all their land in Decatur county due to something with licenses is what I was told. I know that it happened, but dont know the exacts of it so I'm not gonna go around spreading rumors. Their land went for something like $2500 an acre. They sold it last year or the year before.

As for the land owners, we own a 170 acres that we bought ten years ago when it was still 500 an acre. Anyway, I like both views of writers. I guess you could call us "powder blue hunters".

We manage our property for large whitetails, but do not have a high fense or anything of that nature so the neighbors can shoot whatever they want. But there are several guys down there around us that believe in the same thing and we practice it together. Now we only hunt on our own land and only allow those we invite on it, but that is purely because we dont want accidents to happen or have too many deer taken. It's not like we have the place on lockdown.
 
I actually looked at a peice of land a guy was selling BECAUSE he was buying around 1,900 acres from Drury's (even his smaller peice he was selling to buy the 1900 was out of my league).

This does coincide with your selling timeframe above. BUT, I could have sworn he said they were buying something else. Many of those guys will sell for big $ so they can 1031 exchange for larger land (again, nothing wrong with that.). Most of the guys above do own (have bought and sold) thousands of acres. Some guy on HS video (skoronski or something) owns over 4000 acres- I know that Snow dude owns land next to or with him and hunts on his land. now, that would be amazing to own that! Good for them BUT that's just a dream for me.

Still say the bomb-awesome hunters are the hard-core nuts we each might know a small handfull of that shoot giants on "regular" ground!
 
Oh yeah I realize that these guys have huge tracts of land and I would love to be one of them, but in all reality with the profession that I have chosen to go into, that will never happen. I will probably inherit the 170 acres, but I would rather not think about that because that would mean that my father has passed.

As for the Drury thing, they had 7,000 acres or something like that....I don't know what they could find that would be larger. I think that it was way weird for them to up and get out of the property that they had like they did for the only reason to "buy something bigger." Not saying that your wrong, but they produced 170"+ deer every year on that land and I have a hard time believing that they would leave all their hard work behind like that without being asked to leave. But like I said, I don't know for sure, just my own skeptics.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Sligh1</div><div class="ubbcode-body">AND A QUESTION FOR ALL OF YOU??? I am truly just curious- not taking any side on this, just wondering if it reveals anything, maybe not.
If you won the lottery and got say $100,000,000- would you buy that 3,000 acre chunk that came for sale that you knew would be the sweetest hunting ever??? </div></div>

You bet I would! I'd take 3-5 mill and buy one BIG continuous piece of ground here in MN and then a chunk in WI. I have a lot of buddies that need ground to hunt in both states. I would turn that $$ into ground that myself, my 2 little boys and my buds(and their kids) can hunt for the rest of their lives. Build a cabin on each chunk and start one killer deer camp tradition. I've had many dreams about this whole scenario. Build a nice pad for the wife(that I won't see much cause I'll be traveling around hunting with my boys :) ), invest the rest and live off the interest. Let's go Powerball!! Just tossed down that whole $1 this morning for the cause. LOL
 
Ok, I gotta say, if I had a huge lotto win...
I'd probably buy 10,000 acres in Iowa, plenty of room for many many friends to hunt for free.
I'd also buy 2,000-3,000 in both Illinois and Kansas AND a chunk in Canada with fishing on it. /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
Give a ton of the money away and yes, live on interest and farm income! I figure this is not too far away from reality, lottery isn't that hard to win?!?!
 
I believe that rumor has it that the Drurys sold much of their Iowa land and bought several thousand acres in North West Mo. Much of their change was said to be because the licenses were over the counter for NR hunters in MO. This certainly tells us that Iowa's position on limiting NR access is perhaps working in a positive way for the resident hunters. Also according to the rumors they managed a profit of over $1000.00 per acre on the land they sold here in Iowa. If that was 7000 plus acres that put over $7,000,000.00 in their pockets besides the property tax breaks, CRP payments, and the kbillions that we gullible deer hunters paid for their canned kill videos. At least now they can start all over and exploit Missouri deer hunting because they can get all they tags they want every year.
 
Sligh1, you bet that I would buy a ton of ground. I wouldn't mind if people hunted it either, because there is no way that I can hunt that much ground and harvest the amount of doe's that need to be harvested every year, and I wouldn't mind if they took a buck in the process. I would be picky on who I let hunt, I wouldn't just open it up to public land, but if I got to know them well, and they understand QDM, then I wouldn't have a problem with them hunting. And like you, I would live off of interest, CRP payments and crop income.
 
The Drurys are Missouri residents...so I would hope that they wouldn't have trouble with NR licenses /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 
I saw the HS videos where "Skoronski's" 4000+ acres allowed all his buddies to shoot giants (I'd guess 6 bucks over 170") in one year. I'd love to let my good friends hunt, the hunting will be just as good every year if my buddies shot does and totally mature bucks, year in, year out. I've let friends hunt smaller peices too and do the same thing, I couldn't imagine it on the thousands of acres scale.

For Drury's- I know Terry always thanked state of IA for the governor's tags (I seriously don't watch the videos much- unless my bro pops it in /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif ) SO, if they are getting Governor's tags, something else must have happened. Who knows, and no, I don't want to start rumors (not that I think I am). I know for sure Mark was hunting in IA after he sold that 1,900 chunk that some guy bought. Huh, I guess whatever, it would be nice to move some publicity to Missouri though! I even feel bad for hunters trying to buy land in Decator now who could go across county line to Lucas or Wayne, pay $500-1,500 less an acre and have just as good of hunting. But since I'm winning the lottery soon I guess money's not going to be an issue anymore and I'm going to offer 25% MORE than the asking price.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: bearcatbaseball</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The Drurys are Missouri residents...so I would hope that they wouldn't have trouble with NR licenses /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif </div></div>I know the last several years Mark Drury was a Ia. resident claiming Grand River as home. I havent been on there site for awhile to see where he calls home now.
 
That was what I was hearing about obtaining resident licenses in Iowa, and I do know that he owned a house in Grand River. We drove by his house all the time on the way to the lake and only times he was ever there was pretty much during hunting season or when we heard that he was in town working on their property. O'well thats for the DNR to figure out, not me.

I don't have anything against those guys, in fact I love their shows. Decatur was still the cheapest state for land last time I knew. Has that changed?
 
I read the article. While I love to hunt big bucks as much as the next guy some of the statements from person #2 bothered me. Apparently in his eyes there is no place for the person who hunts for meat or time spent with family friends, his views cater to only those after big antlers...............

There was an iowa monster in NAW...it was stud and I was impressed but I will confess to somewhat rolling my eyes on the fact that the property is so large, has a "land manager" and 150 class bucks must be passed. Where I hunt any 150 I pass has a legitimate chance of being shot. and well, ....that's hunting where I'm from.
 
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