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    #16
    Originally posted by txpitdog View Post
    Here’s my theory on it. Back then, exotics were much cheaper because it wasn’t that popular. $500-$750 for an axis or fallow. A guy could buy livestock and let them get hunted and buy more here and there as needed. Lower hunting interest enabled some of the livestock to breed before being killed by customers. Not too terribly difficult to offer a decent hunt and still get by on those prices with the other ranch management and maintenance costs.

    Then it became popular, and the price of livestock skyrocketed. Now, the ranch had to recover their cost on the animal and buy more to keep up with the interest. Animals are shot out before they can breed so they are basically bought to be killed. This exacerbates the price, which takes some day ranches out by itself. Others fall as the sustained need for sourcing high turnover livestock becomes a full time job itself in addition to the ranch management. More ranches fall as customers expectations increase with the sharply increased hunting prices. For $500-$750, folks are a lot more forgiving than they are at $3000.

    The happy medium, equilibrium point, is to manage a herd and only sell the number of hunts that the herd can sustain to stay stable. But this approach doesn’t offer enough hunts for a small ranch to survive, and the exotics hunts almost would have to take a back seat to some other purpose for the ranch.

    I think the exotic prices have hit a point where some people seriously question whether it’s worth it. I don’t predict that prices will come back down necessarily, but I think they have hit their critical point.
    This is spot on!

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      #17
      I remember day leases charging 500 to 750 for a two day hunt with NO kill fees. Now, you can count those places on one hand and have fingers left over. When the ranches started charging the outrages prices for kill fees, that started the decline. Just my .02

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        #18
        Originally posted by tree stand View Post
        I remember day leases charging 500 to 750 for a two day hunt with NO kill fees. Now, you can count those places on one hand and have fingers left over. When the ranches started charging the outrages prices for kill fees, that started the decline. Just my .02


        Lol...you can still get $500 a day...it’s the $10k for the actual ANIMAL that hurts the pocketbook!

        Comment


          #19
          Originally posted by BrianL View Post
          I don't think the younger generation is into hunting as much as people that grew up pre-social media(pre 2000). The old folks seem to mellow and not hunt as much, and the new folks aren't as diehard as we where. I think this is a trend that will continue. in 20 or 30 years, I doubt we will recognize hunting that we see today.
          Especially since most young guys are already hesitant to tske the plunge on upfront equipmenet costs, let alone 3k ~ hunts when theyve never done it before. The note on supply/demand and eventual contraction of demand is spot on.

          Comment


            #20
            Originally posted by Hooverfb View Post
            Especially since most young guys are already hesitant to tske the plunge on upfront equipmenet costs, let alone 3k ~ hunts when theyve never done it before. The note on supply/demand and eventual contraction of demand is spot on.


            Meh...in 20 years, they’ll all be virtual hunting anyway. It’ll be awesome to see them frantically designing perfect scenarios so people can enjoy the outdoors while indoors rather than simply going outside.

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              #21
              Let's hope so.

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                #22
                10 years ago, you could usually find a ranch that had a package deal, usually around $1,000. This included a hard horned exotic, ram, and at least two pigs. This would be a 4 day hunt. I would say if you tried to find this now, you're looking at easily more than double that price.
                Even finding a place to shoot a hard horned exotic under $2k is rare, and I think I've only seen like one ranch that still does a package.
                I used to remember seeing a lot of out of state hunters posting in this forum. But by the time you include travel + the hunt, you're usually coming in around $3k. That's a lot for what it is. Then, like someone else mentioned, it seemed like a new ranch would come along, get rave reviews the first couple hunts, then they'd book up solid for a few months...but never restocked the animals. After 6 months to a year, it was pretty obvious the hunting was poor. I think that's why you only read about a few now, they found a way to keep stocking animals.
                We used to come down every year or two. This past spring, we came for the first time in probably 5 years. For us, it came down to variety. I can do bear, antelope, whitetail, etc for that price or less. I love the Texas hunt, but it's hard at 3xs what I used to pay.

                Sent from my XT1635-01 using Tapatalk

                Comment


                  #23
                  Originally posted by hunter1979 View Post
                  10 years ago, you could usually find a ranch that had a package deal, usually around $1,000. This included a hard horned exotic, ram, and at least two pigs. This would be a 4 day hunt. I would say if you tried to find this now, you're looking at easily more than double that price.
                  Even finding a place to shoot a hard horned exotic under $2k is rare, and I think I've only seen like one ranch that still does a package.
                  I used to remember seeing a lot of out of state hunters posting in this forum. But by the time you include travel + the hunt, you're usually coming in around $3k. That's a lot for what it is. Then, like someone else mentioned, it seemed like a new ranch would come along, get rave reviews the first couple hunts, then they'd book up solid for a few months...but never restocked the animals. After 6 months to a year, it was pretty obvious the hunting was poor. I think that's why you only read about a few now, they found a way to keep stocking animals.
                  We used to come down every year or two. This past spring, we came for the first time in probably 5 years. For us, it came down to variety. I can do bear, antelope, whitetail, etc for that price or less. I love the Texas hunt, but it's hard at 3xs what I used to pay.

                  Sent from my XT1635-01 using Tapatalk
                  I went to several of these places and almost never has any success. Some of them now make you pay up front for a specific animal and that is the only animal you can shoot. If another animal comes by you just have to watch it walk off,
                  Something to take into consideration when picking a place to hunt is not only the cost of the animals but the quality of the animals and the accommodations. I've been to some places where the "lodge" should have been bulldozed down. Quality hunting is expensive but you get what you pay for. I have a small exotic ranch that I structured to be first class in every way, but still have a hard time booking hunts. The new tax laws are definitely hurting some, but most of my hunters are not writing off the expense anyway. When you have close or over 1M in a hunting ranch you have to generate some positive revenue, go under or sale. This is what I am facing right now. I absolutely love meeting new clients, making new friends and taking them out and watching them be successful, but making ends meet is difficult. Hopefully it will pick up sometime soon.

                  Comment


                    #24
                    Originally posted by txpitdog View Post
                    Here’s my theory on it. Back then, exotics were much cheaper because it wasn’t that popular. $500-$750 for an axis or fallow. A guy could buy livestock and let them get hunted and buy more here and there as needed. Lower hunting interest enabled some of the livestock to breed before being killed by customers. Not too terribly difficult to offer a decent hunt and still get by on those prices with the other ranch management and maintenance costs.

                    Then it became popular, and the price of livestock skyrocketed. Now, the ranch had to recover their cost on the animal and buy more to keep up with the interest. Animals are shot out before they can breed so they are basically bought to be killed. This exacerbates the price, which takes some day ranches out by itself. Others fall as the sustained need for sourcing high turnover livestock becomes a full time job itself in addition to the ranch management. More ranches fall as customers expectations increase with the sharply increased hunting prices. For $500-$750, folks are a lot more forgiving than they are at $3000.


                    The happy medium, equilibrium point, is to manage a herd and only sell the number of hunts that the herd can sustain to stay stable. But this approach doesn’t offer enough hunts for a small ranch to survive, and the exotics hunts almost would have to take a back seat to some other purpose for the ranch.

                    I think the exotic prices have hit a point where some people seriously question whether it’s worth it. I don’t predict that prices will come back down necessarily, but I think they have hit their critical point.

                    Exactly the price of the animals has cut out the working man!

                    Comment


                      #25
                      Originally posted by BrianL View Post
                      I don't think the younger generation is into hunting as much as people that grew up pre-social media(pre 2000). The old folks seem to mellow and not hunt as much, and the new folks aren't as diehard as we where. I think this is a trend that will continue. in 20 or 30 years, I doubt we will recognize hunting that we see today.
                      Yep, you nailed it unfortunately.

                      Comment


                        #26
                        I remember when I paid $300 for a nice ram and $1500 for a fallow. Look at those prices now.

                        Txpitdog hit it on the head. I don’t think it has anything to do with the generation of younger hunters. If anything, I feel like more people are becoming more successful at younger ages than generations before and still plenty of young folks that are in to hunting to sustain day leases. Besides that, there are still a slew of 30, 40, 50+year old folks who are hunting.

                        Price of animals has just gone up and not really worth it anymore.

                        Comment


                          #27
                          I’ve recently transitioned from having family land to hunt in to looking for public/day lease places. Can’t afford a lease. What turns me off to day leases, and why I have yet to use one, is the negative image they have, in my mind at least. In my mind, unless you pay an outrageous price for a day lease, you’re gonna pay $500 to go sit n a stand that’s full of the previous guys garbage and not see an animal. The advertising for these day leases always seems suspiscius to me as well. Too over-promising. Don’t know if this is a general way of thinking among other people in the day lease market, but it is mine.

                          Comment


                            #28
                            Originally posted by txpitdog View Post
                            Here’s my theory on it. Back then, exotics were much cheaper because it wasn’t that popular. $500-$750 for an axis or fallow. A guy could buy livestock and let them get hunted and buy more here and there as needed. Lower hunting interest enabled some of the livestock to breed before being killed by customers. Not too terribly difficult to offer a decent hunt and still get by on those prices with the other ranch management and maintenance costs.

                            Then it became popular, and the price of livestock skyrocketed. Now, the ranch had to recover their cost on the animal and buy more to keep up with the interest. Animals are shot out before they can breed so they are basically bought to be killed. This exacerbates the price, which takes some day ranches out by itself. Others fall as the sustained need for sourcing high turnover livestock becomes a full time job itself in addition to the ranch management. More ranches fall as customers expectations increase with the sharply increased hunting prices. For $500-$750, folks are a lot more forgiving than they are at $3000.

                            The happy medium, equilibrium point, is to manage a herd and only sell the number of hunts that the herd can sustain to stay stable. But this approach doesn’t offer enough hunts for a small ranch to survive, and the exotics hunts almost would have to take a back seat to some other purpose for the ranch.

                            I think the exotic prices have hit a point where some people seriously question whether it’s worth it. I don’t predict that prices will come back down necessarily, but I think they have hit their critical point.
                            I think the point is solid in theory but you can go to any auctions at all you’ll see the price of livestock has actually gone down . I guess this is due to supply being more available . You can get Axis does for $150 and don’t even mention WT breeder bucks they are a dime a dozen . Do y’all remember when 200” typical deer was the holy grail ? You could not buy one if you traded your soul now you can buy them on every corner. I think Buff nailed it .. business entertainment sustained it ...it was a write off so people were apt to jump on board.

                            Comment


                              #29
                              I guess I am going to have the slightly different opinion then the rest. I live in Colorado, I get a mule deer tag every 4 years, and an Elk tag every 3 years. I enjoy chasing exotic animals. I save money and enjoy the hunting I can find...as it comes. Day leases are a great option for guys like me that want to hunt but live in a state that does not support the resident hunters.

                              Comment


                                #30
                                Day lease dying off

                                The Day lease is dead for me. Just got back from one in Del Rio. Save your money and let them die off. My wife bought the trip for me for my birthday and we both went down to crystal creek. My wife was ready to leave after being there for 10 min. The place was trashed and filthy. I've got pics to prove it. We decided to stay since I've never hunted a place like this but had my guesses how it would go. My guesses were right they don't want you to kill and would corn for half a mile from your stand. Only got to hunt about 1/3 of ranch. Everything was flooded and all vehicles stuck. So imagine 3 grown people on a 4 wheeler not a good exsperience. Never saw a animal and will never do again.

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