What is your price per pound for venison?

Interesting question here...how much do you spend for leases, corn, feeders, etc...and what is your price per pound per say for venison after you do all this?

For example...if you spend 3K per year for lease and corn, and get your 5 deer, is it still cost efficient?

Thousands. It's better not to ask these things.

You want cost efficient go to Wal Mart. I hunt as a way of life and a passion that only members here understand.

Way cheaper to buy beef, but no where near as fun.

Thanks Ramsay. That about sums it up.

Who cares? It isn't about cost.

Cost efficient? Don't know why that even matters because as Ramsay said it's a way of life.

When you start thinking of a Hobby, Sport or doing anything you enjoy as "Is it cost efficient" you better take another look at yourself.

These two quotes say it all!

This is a reply I sent to a good friend that wanted to "buy" some jerky from me. While I was just giving him a hard time, you really don't want to know what you really pay for the meat.


Had a friend email me that he wanted to buy some jerky from me.
I always give him some when I make a batch, and now he wants more.
My reply to his email.

Let me do the math real quick and see what it costs.
I spend $2000 a year on the lease.
I spend $2300 on protein and corn.
Gas for all the trips throughout the year runs about $1700.
Food, ammo, beer and miscellaneous items come in around $1300.

I usually take and butcher 5 deer.
Average live weight is around 100 pounds.
After removing the head, hide, hooves, bones and sinew each deer yields about 25 pounds of usable meat.
Total meat for all 5 would be 125 pounds.

It takes me 8 pounds of meat to yield 1 pound of jerky.

Total cost for meat $7300.
7300/125= $58.40 per pound.
8 X 58.40= $467.20 per pound for jerky.

How many pounds did you want to buy?

Good one!

I don't care what it cost. I don't hunt for the venison. It is the byproduct of enjoying the outdoors and living a lifestyle I love.

Take into account the years I don't pull the trigger and no telling what the price per pound is.

X2

Family bought the ranch and with the cost of operations we could kill every deer on the place and not break even

Hunting and the outdoors, for us, is a lifestyle.

Sorry for the crappy video quality, but Jeff Foxworthy lay's it out nicely for you....

[video:youtube]qJa8kxPfPoU[/video]

I am a lifelong hunter as well...I hunt public land in Oklahoma. I bought my lifetime hunting and fishing licenses there over 10 years ago before I moved to Texas. I am two hours from where I hunt, and get at two deer a year...

I am just asking a simple question, not offending people. I am just curious about how much people normally spend each year on hunting? My total dollar amount is about $200-$300 in gas for trips over all seasons,$150 for camping (yes RV at the lake with showers each night... :-) ). Everything else is just R-n-R in the great outdoors...

Texas is different.

We don't have to quality public land like other states.

This means lease fees, feed costs, etc

Can't forget taxidermy either

If you think venison is expensive, try calculating the cost of dove!

I'm eating $3 doves probably

Sounds like a great poll
?? under 500/yr
?? 500-1000/yr
?? 1000-2500/yr
?? 2500-5000/yr
etc

Before I got into hunting I asked a co-worker if I could buy some venison from him cause I wanted to make chili using ground up venison and when he denied the request I was confused. Now that I have started hunting I understand his reasons. When you start to sell the meat it no longer becomes a hobby. This weeke I cooked up some dove and brought it into work and it felt great to share the meat with some of my co-workers/friends.

Correct. It becomes illegal.

What do you get when you divide Zero by any other number? Ha! and I still enjoyed the season...

Good stuff Diver Texas.

When I was working in an office setting every day and had a deer lease, my co workers got Smoked Wild Hog for the Pot Luck Lunch's , and I never got any blowback or grief from the Bambi Lover's who knew what they were standing in line to get 2nd's on.

I hunt not for Subsistence, but for Perspective and Sanity
Just Sayin'
Ron

If you sell the meat you are breaking the law.

I've only shot one since ARs started in our county (3 yrs ago?)
So I pay a lot to sit and look at deer and shoot hogs. I spend it more just to be THERE and not HERE!

Do ya count the cost per pound of venison with the price of...

a divorce lawyer for YOU & HER ...or two divorces in 4 years as just a single cause you were dating the 2nd wife before your 1st divorce was final...

the price of the penicillin shots to cure the crud ya got in Mexico on the trip back from Deer Camp that was 300 miles NORTH of the Border...that happened couple times I know of but not to this choirboy!

the truck break down when ya drove 'cross't the pasture in the dark and high centered the tranny so hard on the only rock outcropping in the pasture it cracked the tranny's transfer case cause you "thought" you saw the GW drive in to find out who was shooting too early...

or in the case on one lease...the cost of the older Mercedes leftover "3rd" car that you were usuing to hunt out of and running off a small cliff that it took 2 tow trucks to get you out of the creek bottom...

OBTW
MY Own Insurance Agent refused to pay for the 270 hole FROM THE INSIDE I put in the rear passenger door or fix the seat I ripped the cover off of on my 1 year old Suburban ...when I thought I had cleared the action on a borrowed Tang Safety Ruger 77, closed the bolt and pulled the trigger for some God forsaken reason in a driving rainstorm from a nearby tornado that was washing me off the shoulder of the County Road with runoff. Missed my hunting partner by about 100 feet as he came up out of our pasture behind me, and pulled me out of the bottom of the 2 foot deep & Rising bar ditch after the gun went off.

Stuff happens at the Deer Lease ... and what Happens STAYS at the Deer Lease...and why I ALWAYS like to have an Attorney and or a LEO on the Lease Contract with us who hunts sometimes for free...

There's Lots more where these fun memories came from...
Ron

Great stories Wiley! I've thought of trying to keep track of the $/lb cost of meat (not just venison, but hog too) for entertainment's sake, but I'm afraid I might not be able to justify hunting anymore if I did that.

Granted, this is my first year hunting so the $/lb would be quite high considering firearms, ammo, and license purchases. Public land hunting only for me. Gas is my big unknown though.

The Foxworthy video is a great video for all those folks who want some of that free venison you get each year, those folks who ask if you will just shoot a deer for them. You know the ones...

I don't hunt deer. I just hunt hogs and we got burned out on the meat and all the hassles that came with it. I eradicate for the joy of it. It takes me 3-4 trips to get a hog and the cost is about $50 per trip (vehicle expense) and I go twice a week. Never mind the ammo, food, hunting gear, etc. So that is about $5200 a year for zero meat.

I don't think I will share the math with my wife.

It wouldn't be much if I didn't have all the un necessary places... bad thing is I usually kill my deer on the places I hunt for free....

Can't put a price on sittin' outside the camper next to a cozy fire in the evening during the season and watching the stars while sipping on a Bloody Mary complete with celery.

Just now embarking on a skeet shooting program for my kids in the outdoor education club at Kennedale HS...first of its kind in the metroplex. I have a great admin who is allowing me to do this, and many thanks to the Arlington Sportsman's Club for helping us make this a reality for kids in school.

Good stuff

Best of luck to you and the kids.

RE: Dan-O
A great example of how to set an example for all of us...by talking the talk AND walking the Walk with the next Generation.
Thank You
Ron

I've never put pen and paper to it but a buddy did after an Arizona coues deer hunt. Those are mighty small deer. When he brought me a few packages of meat he said "Enjoy! That venison is about $70 a pound!" We laughed pretty hard at that one. Sometimes I think it works out ok though. An elk hunt close to home will fill the freezer nicely and cheaper than say a beef. No matter how expensive, its worth every penny every time!

What ever it ends up costing me is what I pay.

Just the icing on the cake for me. The experience is what it's all about.

Mine is actually pretty darn low . Free leases , dad usually feeds corn . I'd be good just setting a stand in a good spot . Killed more deer that way anyways . My biggest cost is gas .

one million dollars

Thank you Doctor Evil.

My venison cost $0/lb. Regardless of how much I spend, I donate all the meat to Hunter for the Hungry or give it to family. That makes it a fairly expensive pastime but still cheaper than fishing.

This thread sounds like a question my wife would ask

Wait, if I sell my horns it reduces the amount I have into the meat.

Yet again another reason why it's good to be a trophy hunter!

For pigs, in a typical year I use 2-3 bullets shooting at something, maybe a few more to make sure the gun is sighted in. A couple sacks of corn, but never more than that. Gas to drive across town to a certain farm is probably just a couple tanks worth if I hunt it hard. I can walk to the trap in my pasture. Process it myself, so only need to buy sausage spices and some extra fat to toss in it. Maybe $150 a year in pig hunting if I try hard, and most of that meat is given to the in-laws.

For deer, 1 bullet every third year, cause that's all I get to go. 2 tanks of gas to get there and back. Bit of easy to prepare food for the trip. Process all meat myself. Hunt is either free (rarely), or $80 for the TPWD drawn hunt. Another $20/year for all the hunts I apply for but don't get drawn each year. Probably in the $250 range for a deer if a TPWD hunt, $150 otherwise.

Overall, I think my venison is about as cheap as buying meat at the store, and even cheaper for pork sausage.

Fuel is about $50. each trip and I go almost every week-end during the season. Go quite a bit before the season starts. Feed year around and do use a few shells. Have to have a few supplies and groceries / beverage. It is all worth it to me cause I enjoy very much and a plus. I get to teach my grandson about the outdoors and hunting. Got his first buck last year and his first hog 3 years ago.
Life is good!