Average shooter prices

This buck is available AFTER November 24th. I intend on using him as a breeder one more season. Unless you are in need of a breeder buck yourself then come get him now for $15,000. After the 24th, he will be cheaper.



Jeff 573-517-1865



His sire is Loyd Ervins "Jesse" son of "Larry"

His mother is a "5Brow" daughter "5Brow" is out of "Hydro Ax's" mother.

I don't raise whitetails or own a preserve but I am often a viewer of this site. The deer biz is no different than anyother,and there are some cold hard facts you breeders need to face...you need to pin point your market, by that I mean the market is flooded with large deer over 200" that people whom have dispensible cash at their finger tips in a down market will still buy at fair prices. BUT those people are few and far between in this economy. WHAT YOU NEED TO FOCUS (PIN POINT) ON is the shooter market for working class hunters whom can still scrap $800-$1000 together for a deer hunt even in a down turned economy. Better to sell a dozen 130-150" 1 1/2 -3 year old bucks @ say $500-$1000 every year that one 5 year old 200" buck every other year for $3000

Invest cash in a fenced preserve..by either going with a partner whom has a shooting preserve or converting 100 acres of your own land into a decent hunting grounds an focus your sales towards the working man rather than the dr.& lawyer types. Give the working man a decent place to hunt so he feels he has hunted his buck and not sat in a pen and killed a pet, give him a hunt for a 140" buck for $1200, and you'll sell out every year. Instead of bitching about preserve owners buying from you like a flock of vultures beat them at their own game.If you can't go it alone to open a preserve then get a groyup of breeeders together sign the legal agreements and run your own preserve.....trust me the working class hunters will come.

Sell a dozen 130"-150" bucks at $500 to $1000 each per year. And how does a person pay the insurance and the property taxes? Not even talking about the expense of having raised those bucks and fed their mothers the whole time. Or paid for the lodging and food for the hunters. How about all the permit fees we pay the state each year? How about the cost of having the head of each buck harvested sampled and tested by the state for CWD? The local vet charges over $100 per hour just for that process which is a state mandated requirement. And at what point does a person recoup the cost of all the fence it took to fence in that 100 acres? I dare say that is another $40K or more to have that done. I don't think folks realize the costs that all add up to put on a hunt.

Look Roger everyone one that operates a business has overhead, I have it as well but the gist of your rant revolves around the very problem I was pointing out to you. It's really very simple when broken down...volume. I doubt you ever got into whitetail raising thinking it was a short term money maker. What I suggested are basic business management practices, ie. if you have too much invested as an individual in fence around your hunting preserve why not remove that fence and pool it with another breeder? Nothing is etched in stone if you can't feed and lodge hunters at the start up make arrangements for a good rate with a local B&B or motel and diner pass that onto the hunter. I'll bet the motel owner will be more than willing to offer special rates for your clients in return to fill empty rooms...I know I would.

Your commodity/niche market in this down turn an depressed market is the appeal to the "Average Joe Hunter" whom still has a decent paying job but doesn't wish to spend $3-5K on a mid west free range hunt but will spend $1000-$1500 for a good high fence hunt for a decent buck..go with that ...or you could sell your does for meat at $175-$200 apiece IF you can find a buyer so you do not have to feed them another year hoping the market will change.... On my desk right at this moment i have a report that basically reads the current down swing has yet to bottom out and will have a min. of 7 more years before any serious up turn takes place...how much feed will those does eat in 7 more years???????

Take the advice or leave it, matters little to me.

Washington you bring up some great advice......but Roger does as well........you very easily have about 300 dollars a year in raising a whitetail buck or doe.......so at 3 years of age thats 900 just to raise the buck for three years (not including if he got sick and needed extra care) now add in the mother as she needs fed too........(lets just solit it in half since they often have twins) so that would be another 450 to add in bringing the cost up to 1,350.00.........there is no way you could (Raise) the deer and sell them for that kind of money (500 - 1500) and stay in business. Also at a lower dollar you need to up the number of hunts you need to make money.....you only have about a four month window in which you can sell deer hunts as well......that leaves you 120 days...divide that by three (most hunts are three day hunts) leaves you 40 hunts.....(unless your preserve is really large and you can have multiple hunts at one time......that is not many hunts to work with...........40 hunts at 1000 dollars is only 40,000 dolllars....factor in all expenses and you will be in the red..........I do understand where you are going with your idea Washington and tink it is a good one......just don't think you could sell for as low as you are saying.

Dennis you explain that well.



Washington I can appreciate your effort even though I don't agree with your numbers. They are simply just too low to be viable.

I would sell for that price all day long!!!Being a little farm with low numbers and with good blood to make shooters in 2 yrs sounds good to me!!! I would much rather move 10 a year and make 15grand than have them fighting or getin sick or lose them some other way.I guess that way it would pay to be small and have a low overhead!!!

Mike you grow 10 a year and they are all 150's at two years old............ you are way selling yourself short.........But if your doing it and want to give up your secret I would love to know how!!!! plus i just might be one of your biggest buyers at that price!!!

I sure wouldn't want to HAVE to sell at that price!!! I know ny says i can only have so many deer so they either have to go or i dont breed anything at all so i can stay under my number.Either that or put up more fence and the way this bizz sounds that is not gunna happen soon.I know up here i hear alot of people say they would not hunt behind a fence and some say its because of the price of the deer.I know to each their own and i am fine with what anybody wants to do but people complain that they cant sell even good deer but their next sentence they say they are breeding a bunch of does this year.I know things are bad in this world now and just mabey a working man buck could work for some ranches.I have not been here long enough to make 10 shooters yet but i know i was one of the ones that spent quite a few grand to get in this bizz and to get good blood.This year yearlings are 130plus so i sure hope they will push 200 at 2!! If not i guess i bought the wrong blood and with the prices of great blood and the number of huge yearlings out there i would say the sky is the limit!!!!

I was away hunting free range whitetails for a few days.

I will add to the mix many of you do not think there is a market for hunting <140" deer and you're wrong. I know many hunters whom come into my shop each week that would do a high fence hunt for a 120-130" buck for around $1500 every year provided they felt there was a hunt to the harvest and not sitting in a small 50 acre pen with hand fed deer..THAT IS THE NICHE MARKET YOU GUYS ARE MISSING.

Washington,

you must not have read a lot of our posts on here.......no one said they did not believe there would be a market for the 120 -140 inch bucks for 1,500 dollars.......but your not hearing us when we say there is quite a bit of cost for raising these animals...and at that price your not making a dime. Maybe if feed costs would go down drasticslly as well as meds....then maybe this could be something one could focus on.

ddwhitetails said:

Washington,

you must not have read a lot of our posts on here.......no one said they did not believe there would be a market for the 120 -140 inch bucks for 1,500 dollars.......but your not hearing us when we say there is quite a bit of cost for raising these animals...and at that price your not making a dime. Maybe if feed costs would go down drasticslly as well as meds....then maybe this could be something one could focus on.

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What I read were posts that ring of "everyone agrees there needs to be changes to the biz but no one is willing to make them". Breeders are an independant lot and seem to be willing to muddle along making ends meet with memories of past high end market days still in their minds hoping it will once again rebound to that point......that isn't going to happen without true change to the way the biz is run., ie. instead of 1 breeder buying a truck load of feed 5 buyers should buy a train car load of feed ..does that sound familar? kind of like Walmart logic?????? Like it or not your market has peaked everyone saw $$ in growing 200"+ deer to the point the market is flooded and buyers yawn at them today. The industry can still make money but it will need to adjust to their buyers market.

15 years ago I bought out my family's sport shop and worked 70 hrs a week to turn a slim profit yearly..today after radical changes that my father deemed foolish, sure to bankrupt me I own 10 shops and no longer work.

Washington,

I hear you and I agree with a lot of what your saying........You are absolutely right about where are market is and if you read a lot of my past posts you will see i have been saying the same thing. I am looking at ways to try and get my feed costs down and yes buying in bulk is one way.....problem is most farmers have their own feed mixes and don't want to share what they are........you are right in that a lot of these farmers are going to quit living in the past as things have changed and WE the industry need to change with them.............washington I too am a successful business man and took over my fathers company with my brothers......we grew the business to a very large size and sold a portion of it.........I'm doing ok myself........Washington, I do wish a lot of the people in this Industry would quit sittting on their hands and pretenting that there are no problems when there clearly are.

Anyone have a train car for sale?

nickh said:

Shooter prices have really come down especially in ohio. If you have a preserve in ohio your going to make about 70% more than anyone else can make because they only buy off of people that are willing to sell there deer for $500 or less. On some farms in some different states you can buy 200 inch deer for $800. And there going to shoot it for $8000. This year if you talk to almost anyone that has a preserve in PA there probably going to say they lost a couple hunters to OHIO.

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200" stocker bucks for $800! Really?

I'll take a thousand at double the price!!!



Of course delivered!



Score does matter!!!

I will take a couple 200" shooters at $800, and hold on to them until the market picks up. I am in Ohio and I have not seen this. The price has been way down but I do not think that low.

I will take a few at that price.

I'm not a deer breeder, but I am a serious deer hunter. If this season any of you deer breeders have 190"+ deer available and you are selling them for under $2000 like has been posted in this thread, then please let me know. If you have a place to let them loose, and if they arent tame, then I'll be happy to fly up there and shoot one or two



and I'm being serious

Hi Washington,

There is a market for 125s at $1500. But, there is no profit. Just like there is a market for $2.00 gas... BTW, I charge $1500 for a 125. But, the deer must be at least 4 years old, and therefore has some pretty off genetics, so you are hunting a true cull. In our area, 125s are pretty common without any high fence, feeding etc..

hardpan