Grocery Store Meat Vs. Wild Meat Coat?

[Off in the Bushes]

Do you think that pound for pound it is cheaper to eat wild game/ fish then it is to purchase meat at the grocery store. Putting flavour and preference aside.
If you factor in all the gas and the tags for the game and then defer the valve of hunting equipment, and processing equipment over 10 years, do you think that is cheaper?
I personal do not think so but, I don't process my own game into pepperoni and jerky etc, and that is a massive expense.
I hunt because I enjoy it and it is my recreational activity. If I had to hunt for food for a cheaper alternative food source, I wouldn't do it.

Sorry for the typo it should say cost.

[sideshowkev]

I am kinda afraid to work it out in case my wife ever reads these boards but considering the price of jerky, pepperoni, and naturally raised meat (no steroids or antibiotics etc) I would have to think it works to to the same or a little cheaper and I think the meat is a little better for you. I hunt for the recreational aspect of it first and foremost. But when it comes to the animal itself, am more concerned about filling the freezer instead of hanging something on my wall.

[pitw]

I butcher and process all of my meat whether it be beef, pork, chicken, deer, elk or moose and am absolutely positive that the wild stuff is cheaper if you are not hunting for horns and shoot them off your deck.

[catnthehat]

Yup, wild meat can be cheaper, but for most of us it isn't.

"Cheaper" is not even in the equation for me, as I am a sport hunter these days, I don't hunt to survive - I do it for enjoyment.

Cat

[Pioneer2]

Never came across growth hormones in my wild game unless you count the stories of the one that got away!...............Harold

[duffy4]

A lot of guys will tell you wild game will end up costing $XXX a pound once you add up all the gas, gear and your new 4X4 to hunt in. Some even kind of "brag" about how much it costs them.

All I know is when I go skiing it costs $ and I don't bring any venison home. When I go golfing, if I "shoot a birdie", I cannot skin it and roast it.

Hunting for me, is a lot of things and providing meat for the table is one of them no matter what the actual cost in $.

Besides where can one buy a meal of grouse breast and pickeral cheeks in a wine and cheese sause???

Robin in Rocky

[Suka]

For most of us it's not, but it can be done easily.
When I first started out I lived solely on wild game for maybe 5 yrs. Fishing local lakes costs next to nothing, I'd make a loop hunting birds on the way to and from work, nowdays instead of draws, you could pick up local suppl. doe tags. Butcher/wrap everything yourself.
If you either had to, or wanted to; yes, you can have your freezer full for pennies.

[Pioneer2]

I imagine it is expensive for those that don't fill their tags?I wouldn't know?Harold

[heavy chevy]

Not when fuel is a buck 30.

[Howard Hutchinson]

I would agree that unless you are able to shoot off your back deck and do all of the processing, it is more expensive to hunt than go to Safeway..
But like many have noted it is the actual time spent out with friends or even better with your son/daughter. There is no price tag on seeing your son/daughter bag that first grouse, first buck etc...Yikes getting sentimentel But ya'll are pickin' up what I'm layin' down...

[Grizzly Adams]

I guess, if we were truly subsistance hunting and you boiled the cost of your meat down to the price of a bullet, it would be, but most of us hunt for recreation and that introduces a wack of costs, the Native in the back woods never has to contend with. Yes I know, we eat it, but the meat is sessentially a by-product of our hunting experience.

Grizz

[Appletree]

Interested in how it would go, I worked out the cost of last year's buck. I shot it close to home, on the first day, with a gun I bought cheaply and have owned for a long time. With gas, tag, new gear I picked up for the year, and butchering supplies, it came to $200. So, this year I did pretty well for myself, as far as meat value goes. If I were to travel any farther than that to hunt this year, though, that figure would start to climb pretty steeply.

Oh, and I don't even want to know how much my duck meat costs per pound; that's a whole different story.

[ctd]

When I looked at the price of Sockey Salmon and Halibut in the store I realized I had about $200 worth of fish in my freezer.
I then added up how much it costs to go fishing minus the flight cost. And I am at the min break even for going on a fishing trip between four of us.

To me once you look at it as others have what other sport can you come home with something yummy to eat and say you enjoyed the time out.

[roger]

Evolution has programmed us to be hunters and gatherers, it is in our genes to be self sustaining, so the costs associated with (sport) hunting are considered irrelavent.
Eating what you harvested, (be it fur, fin, feather, or grown in your own garden) satisfies that basic emotional need to be self relient and establishs confidence in oneself.
A panfried shore lunch of fresh trout or tailgate bbq'ed grouse is a reward for time and labour spent. No doubt our knuckledragging 1300cc brained distant cousin Neal Anderthol got the same rush after a successful hunt.
eating 'wild' should never be about cost savings, otherwise that booner whitetail that we are all after is worth about $50G.