Shooters Forum banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

Cost of Fuel effecting hunting

4K views 24 replies 16 participants last post by  kdub 
#1 ·
I don't want to be glummy, but I was wondering if any of you Rocky Mountain folks will notice any less hunting on public land as well as guided hunts up in the Rockies this year. The high price of fuel will be a way of life from now on. Plus, anything with steel in it seems to have gone up about 20% as well. Food, drink, supplies, etc add up to an expensive hunt.

We are noticing some of the fall out on leases down here. There are several openings in the area on hunting leases. The prices haven't gone down yet but there are more openings.

I'm finally looking at a little four banger pick/up truck, and will go less but spend more time while I am hunting.

I may get like Barney Fife and re-load my one bullet over and over again.
 
#2 ·
From what I'm seeing around here any of the gas efficient rigs are going for top dollar and there's lots of big pickups and RV's and low mileage rigs parked on the side of the road with for sale signs on them. It won't be long and your either going to have to park those big rigs or you won't be able to give them away.

I know that even with my high mileage Suzuki Samari, I'm getting out less. My fuel dollar just doesn't buy as much as it used to. On the good side my two little Samari's are worth a grand more today than they were a few months ago. I've already had several offers in the last few weeks for them. Wish I had a dozen sitting around I could make some money.

A few years ago I bought the plans for the wood gas generator Mother Earth News built and used and I'm going to build one for my old 3/4 ton four wheel drive pickup that I pull my trailer up to elk camp with. It gets 10 to 12 miles per gallon and with the wood gas generator delivering the same miles on each pound of wood chips I'm going to drive by the gas stations and give them the raspberry on the way by.

This system was used extensively in world war two in Europe when gas was simply unavailable. It will work on any carburated engine. It does cut the power down by about 40 percent, but with a 360 V8 that doesn't really mean much dinging around in the woods.

This is what I'm mostly hunting in now and at 30 mpg it's the only way to go.

 
#3 ·
yep we all in for some adjusted living styles.,. i like that wood burner thing..
a constantly renewing resource and i doubt all will jump onto that life boat..:)
my way is to simplify life any way i can..
im thinking [not hoping ] we may have an larger conflict on the horizon so i hope the military is even today getting top priorty as to gas for military readiness.. WW2 might still be going on if hitler hadnt run out of petrol..of course that might have caused the use of a lot more fat boys .. no telling how that would have changed the world..
im thinking mountain bike myself..pretty good milage there if i can get these old wallowed out joints to handle it.. the childs story of the ant and grasshopper made a big impression on me..plus my parents were very young during the depression,,so i got a full dose of what that was like..
 
#4 ·
My hunting buddy and I spent 200 dollars last year hunting coyotes. I suspect this winter will be more like 400 dollars. Will I still hunt coyotes ... The answer is yes for now, I don't know what the limit will be. Maybe a 100 dollars a shot? I hope not. I have lots of land within 2or 3 miles of my house, my buddy lives 10 miles from my place and he has access to thousands of acres of land, I will be driving to his place most of the time. I might have to buy a horse.Q
 
#5 ·
I don't want to be glummy, but I was wondering if any of you Rocky Mountain folks will notice any less hunting on public land as well as guided hunts up in the Rockies this year. The high price of fuel will be a way of life from now on.
Gas is $4.11/gal here for regular. Airfare prices are rising too. There does seem to be a bit less traffic here, although it is "slack" season in this resort area, in between the skiing tourists, and the summer tourists, so I'm not sure there's a difference yet. Personally, I hope it does affect that crowd but I'm sure some of our tourist-catering businesses wouldn't agree with me. It hasn't sufficiently sunk in yet with most people....people's realization that driving 60 miles to their job has a real effect on their income - without their income keeping up with costs - usually has a lag of a couple of months until they can't buy that case of beer anymore.

I guess I'm a lot more fortunate than some because I live for the most part within 40 miles of where I hunt, and there are many drainages that I have not explored yet, even after 19 years of living here. So in short, it won't affect me. There are other things I will give up before I give up any of my hunting. People that live 150 miles from here in which their hunting vehicle gets 10-15 mpg's are looking at $100+ round trip may not take a scouting trip or two. Out-of-staters are looking at quite a bit higher cost. I can envision that the woods might be a little less crowded. Then again, our elk and antelope hunting here is limited controlled hunt, so numbers are fixed anyway. Deer are not.

I remember a similar thread on this 1 - 1 1/2 years ago....when gas was 'gasp' $2+ per gallon!

I haven't seen Bob's "gas generator" device...sounds interesting. Desperate times spark innovation, so maybe in the end this will be a plus. It's been quite cushy for quite a long time, and that may be coming to an end.
 
#6 ·
Gonna be driving my little beer-can car to the deer lease, and just leaving my Bronco up there. Sure glad the deer camp got moved where the roads are better!

Might raise some eyebrows driving down the road, with hooves sticking out of the trunk :p
 
#7 ·
The Expedition has full time 4WD and low ratio differential. Gets an average of 11 mpg in all conditions. That makes it very expensive to operate for the normal 2500 miles during the typical whitetail hunt to Texas. That's just shy of $1K for gas alone.

Can you say "please pass the PB&J"?
 
#8 ·
I am a professional corporate pilot, and drive 50 miles round trip to work and back three days a week during the summer, and 4 days during winter. The company I work for pays a princely sum of $24,500 annually for their First Officers regardless of time in service. Now I know that it's what I agreed upon, but it was either that or still living in Key West flying with the airlines and coming home only 3-4 days a month. Keep in mind that the airlines are reducing flights which mean less open seats in aircraft. Good luck jump-seating home now!! Yeah, we're really hurting, and the loan people want their money. I can't even pay that! Fuel goes up and employers are not paying anything more. Real nice fix we're in! I can't even get a full tank on my truck anymore for $70 and barely gets me back and forth those three days of working. I don't even flush my toilet anymore without thinking about how I'm going to pay "per-flush"! And Uncle Sam says I didn't pay enough in taxes this year! My wife and I didn't even get to feel our econ-stimulas check! What a joke.
 
#10 ·
I can't believe that we still have not opened up some of these area.
The area around Williston North Dakata holds what is known as the Baccan shale. This 200,000 acres of deep petroleum, could be the biggest find in the US. This is also a good hunting area. I wonder how the two will exist.
It works okay down here ( hunting and oil exploration) I guess we're use to it. UNleaded this morning was $3.81
 
#12 ·
Luckily I can get to my hunting lease by ATV from my house. If I drive my 3/4 ton truck it is only 5 miles or 1.5 miles thru the woods by ATV. I am still planning on driving to Colorado for my elk hunt this year. It will cost a lot more in fuel but split between hunters it won't be to bad.
 
#14 ·
I just got back from South Dakota last week from a "prairie dog" hunt, which was a 1700 mile round trip. We split the cost 4 ways and had a "blast" (pun intended). Where there is a will, there is a way! I find I'm driving a "cycle" a lot more these days than my "diesel", weather permitting. I see more people "car pooling" to work, maybe a commercial bus service will start up in this area. We won't let oil companies drill or build refineries; we won't allow nuclear power plants to be built; we won't demand Congress reduce gas taxes, or make them responsible to the "will of the people" rather than to the "environmentalist"... so, there is little to expect. We're going to relive some hard times as a nation (hopefully the 70's rather than the 30's). Thank goodness those on this forum know how to shoot, hunt, fish, and survive in the worst of times; I feel sorry for all those "city folk" who are lost without the "Nanny state" to keep them "up and running". Gosh, I must be for "hope and change"; however, I sure won't be looking to a "socialist" to fix the energy problems we have.
 
#15 ·
I don't see it affecting the hunting here in NW Colorado. I know I'll still go. My '97 Expedition gets a bit better milage tha kdub's but not much. I was looking at a "new" diesel truck the other day but the little Irish girl pointed out that we'd be making payments on it AND paying for $5 fuel. Hmm, I thought, she's got a point and we promptly left the carlot. I've got a '78 Bronco, a '77 Hiboy and a '72 Blazer and none of them get very good milage. On the other hand I don't have a $600 a month truck payment either. I'd like to get me one of them Samari's like olde Bob has, they look like they'd be just the ticket.

My go to work car is a '93 Buick that gets 26-28 mpg. She just turned 250K miles and I expect her to drop dead at any moment. :eek:

As for reloading? It'll still be cheaper to do that than get store bought. I'm just going to be more careful when shooting in the tall grass. I'll be looking where the brass went instead of where the dead elk is :eek:

RJ
 
#16 ·
I broke over, and parked my Ford. Bought me a used Nissan pickup that gets 28 MPG. Got the little truck for 700 bucks, and it runs like a new sewing machine. I would much rather ride around in my F-350, but can't afford to ride in it anymore. I also gave up the idea of a Montana antelope hunt. dad, and I figured at 5 bucks for diesel(maybe more by fall) it would cost us 13 or 1400 dollars just in fuel. Then add on those non resident license fees, food, and supplies we were looking at 3 grand or better for a chance at an antelope. Maybe next year. More, and more hunting is getting to be for the rich, and not us old country bumpkins. At least I have plenty of deer, turkey, and small game here to hunt. Don't need any gas for that. Just walk out through the back yard, and I am there.
 
#17 ·
My dad's been saying for years that you can convert a car to run on gas.
I dont mean petrol, i mean actual Gas. supposedly you can switch it to any type, basically any flamable airborne fuel. downside is the back of the car is a big gas tank, takes up space and might explode if punctured :p

_Kar.
 
#22 ·
That is a viable option.

My 2000 Silverado runs on propane (as well as gas) and last time I filled it up it was $2.49/gallon. Higher than it used to be, but no where near as crazy as gas prices.

I've heard CNG fueled vehicles are even cheaper (for now anyway).
 
#20 ·
Chalk up one for Bush. He wanted to drill years ago, and congress, and others stopped it.

With record profits for oil companies it doesn't look dim from where I sit. It is dim here on the farm though. Cost me 140 dollars a day for one tractor to work. That is a fairly small one to boot. Fertilize has tripled in price, and folks complain about farmers getting 4 dollars for a bushell of corn. I say let's swap a bushel of corn/wheat/beans , or what have you for a barrel of oil. Bio fuels will never pan out. Let OPEC trade for grain, or eat sand, and chase it with oil.
 
#21 ·
Folks - the thread must remain on topic of hunting and associated fuel costs, or the dreaded "locked thread" will pop up.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top