Urbanization & Inflation Vs. Hunting

By Horace Gore

Our inflationary times not only have an effect on daily living, but they also affect outdoor recreation such as hunting. Anybody who hunts the bigger game like whitetails, pronghorns, exotics, or maybe a Rocky Mountain mule deer or elk, knows it can cost as much as the pickup you’re driving, the guns you’re carrying and all the money in your pocket, just to go on a good hunt. The eight million Millennials balked at hunting and joining hunting organizations. This has influenced license sales and hunting throughout the state. Historically, inflation occurs when a government prints more money than goods and services are worth, or when demand is greater than supply. Money loses value as goods and services get more expensive. In the past, most countries that suffered society-killing inflation were European, along with some African nations, which printed more money than the economy could bear.

My Uncle Theo was in Germany at the close of World War II. I remember him telling me about looking for a place to sleep, when he opened a large trunk that looked like a quilt box. The trunk was full of paper money, so Theo slept on it. He said, “German money was so inflated that it took a wheelbarrow full to buy a loaf of bread.”

Some of us can remember when everyday living was 20 times less than it is today. People who made $50 a week now make $1,000. In 1950, the cheapest Ford car cost $1,800, and a deer lease in Gillespie County was $125 for a party of four— about $30 per hunter. About $200 would take you to Wyoming for an antelope hunt, and another $50 would get you a good elk. We all now have much more money to buy these same things—it’s called inflationary spending—and it’s affecting how we hunt.

Hunting has become a specialized sport available to only a small percent of the population. Saturated deer habitats of 100 million acres are filled with 800,000 hunters, from 30 million Texans. If you break it down to the hunter-license buying ages, including both men and women, only 6% of Texans buy a hunting license, 4% hunt deer, and 2% hunt doves. Other game, including exotics, turkey, waterfowl, quail, pheasant, squirrel and varmints add a small percentage to the whole.

Hunting is a sport of supply and demand. There’s a limited amount of hunting, and it usually goes to the highest bidder. Two generations ago, about half of Texas hunting was free, via relatives, friends, or company leases. Now, with hunting values increasing each year, free hunts are scarce.

Texas hunters, per capita, dwindle every day. The cost of everything associated with hunting continues to increase, causing many Texans to look for other recreation. Looking ahead at 2050, over 90% of Texans will be urbanites with few places to hunt, regardless of the cost.

Today’s market shows each harvested deer in Texas is worth an average of $1,800, and by 2050, that value could double. The next generation may have to pay a summary cost of $200 or more for a limit of doves, and a duck hunt will cost more than a box seat Dallas Cowboys ticket. So, there may be a day when there are more golfers than hunters in Texas—a result of urbanization, inflation, and supply and demand.