A Deer Hunters Journey to Hunt

1
A Deer Hunters Journey to Hunt

• Trent Mills
• Department of Geography
• Fall 2006

2
Close Encounters
3
Introduction

• How far do people travel to hunt deer?
• How many days do people spend a field?
• How much money do people spend on deer hunting?
• Do people spend more time bow hunting, gun
  hunting or are they equal?
• Preference Public or Private land hunting?

4
Objectives

• Travel Cost Method- A method used to valuate
  willingness to pay to deer hunt.
• Cost- What is given up to obtain a particular
  good or objective.

5
Every Hunters Goal
6
Methods

• Surveys distributed between 10/1/06 10/28/06
• Site Gander Mountain in Grandville
• Hours spent collecting data 8
• Sample size (n) 41

7
Sample Questions

• How much do you spend on bow hunting (Gun
  hunting) in a year?
• How many miles from home do you travel to bow
  hunt (gun hunt)?
• Have you traveled out of state to hunt deer?
• What percentage of the time do you hunt
  public/private lands?
• Name the counties you bow hunt in.

8
Public or Private?
9
Private Hunting Grounds
Bow Hunting
Gun Hunting
N27 (66)
N32 (86)
10
Bow Hunting Counties
11
Gun Hunting Counties
12
Hunting Days
13
Out-of-State
14
Deer Camp
15
Miles Per Trip
16
Estimated Annual Expenses
17
Results

• Hunters spend 217 more on bow hunting than gun
  hunting.
• On average gun hunters travel 99 miles further
  per trip than bow hunters.
• More people have Deer Camp during gun season.
• Private land is hunted more frequently during gun
  season.

18
Further Studies

• Randomly sample hunters.
• Problems with double sampling in my study
• How their spending is distributed.
• License fees, gas, gear, lodging, taxes
• How much Hunters would pay for bigger deer in
  Michigan.
• Cost/benefit of a better managed herd
• Conduct study with better method of exacting
  annual costs.

19
Thank You for Coming!