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SLAMS: REALISTIC GOALS - 2nd in a Series

Last month this column dealt with slams and the relative costs of trying to put together the grand slam of North American Big Game animals. I heard from several readers who questioned the reality of setting a personal goal this high. Certainly, the average person will not achieve the completion of a grand slam, it would simply cost too much money and take too much time away from work and family. It is however realistic for the majority of today's bowhunters to set a goal of completing a "representative slam" of North American big game animals. This is especially true for those younger hunters that have time on their side.

Trophy bowhunting is not for the faint of heart at any level. Success involves combining discipline, planning, hard work, and patience. When setting a goal that will take many years to fulfill you increase the challenge, and dedication is added to the mix. Setting the personal goal of completing even the representative slam of North American big game animals is very ambitious, but it can be accomplished. The first step in the process may just be getting to believe in the possibility of success. This is the focus of this month's column.

The first obstacle that we need to address is the financial one. Hunting the various species needed to complete a slam takes money. There are travel costs, tags, guide fees, and taxidermy services. Many of the species will require guides, and some hunts can be expensive. That is a reality, but not necessarily an insurmountable obstacle. I remember a few years back talking to a bowhunter that was obviously envious of the fact that I had taken a number of species. From the conversation, it was apparent that this hunter believed that he would never be able to take a trophy class animal of any of these species. He was self-defeated at that point by his own conviction that he would never be able to afford to go on a trophy quality hunt for any species.

He, of course, hoped to some day take a trophy whitetail, but wasn't confident enough in that possibility to ever let a less than trophy class animal pass his stand without trying a shot. He "wanted" to be a trophy hunter, but couldn't convince himself that it was with-in his reach to be successful at it, so why really try?

As we talked it became more apparent that the cost of trophy hunts was his biggest obstacle. As we continued our conversation he kept chain smoking, and drinking beer from a cooler he always seemed to travel with. In the conversation, I found that he smoked over a pack of cigarettes, and consumed at least six cans of beer each day. I told him that he wasn't able to go on the hunts he only dreamed about because he didn't want to bad enough. At that, he looked at me in total disbelief. Of course, he wanted to go on these hunts; he just plain couldn't afford it! When we took the daily cost of his smoking and drinking, and computed the annual expense, he was shocked. The same amount of money he was throwing away on just these two vices would easily have paid for a hunting plan that would see him accomplish at least one super trophy hunt per year.

Done over time, with careful planning, these annual hunts would result in the gradual accumulation of a fine collection of trophy animals. Not that he should expect to be successful on every hunt (especially as a bowhunter, and even more so if trophy class animals were his stated goal), however some success would come his way, and he would become that which he had previously felt was outside his grasp. It would mean giving up cigarettes and daily drinking, but these were bad for his health anyway, and the money was already allocated and just needed redirection. When he spent $4.00 on a pack of cigarettes he never thought of it as eating into the money he needed to fulfill his dreams, after all it was just $4.00. However $4.00 a day is over $1,500.00 a year, and when you add another $1,500.00 for the daily six pack, you have a $3,000.00 per year available for a hunting budget. With $3,000.00 a year, and careful planning, you can amass a very respectable trophy collection over time.

Some of those reading this will argue that they don't spend that much money on these bad habits, and that they also don't have any extra money from anywhere else to put toward trophy hunting. That might be true, but does that mean you can't become a successful trophy hunter? I think not! Lets say that $2,500.00 per year in a hunting budget is all a person needs to become a successful trophy hunter. Don't worry; I'll prove the point later in the column. That means you only need to develop a plan to raise $2,500.00 extra dollars for your hunting account to get by the financial hurdle that has stood in the way of your dreams.

There are two basic ways to accomplish this. First, as explained in the above example, is to cut expenses elsewhere. It might be smoking, drinking, daily lotto tickets, or any number of other things that you can do without. If cost cutting won't solve the problem you need to increase your income. While $2,500.00 may seem like a lot of money, it is only $50.00 per week. A part time job at minimum wage will earn this much per week after taxes for less than fifteen hours work. I don't know about where you live, but there are signs up looking for help all the time at the McDonalds around the corner from my house! Put the financial excuse out of your mind by just deciding that you want this bad enough to do what needs to be done to afford it.

Planning is something that is very important, especially on a limited budget. The first part of the planning process is planning to salt the money away every week in an account especially earmarked for your hunting expenses. If the money is coming from giving up something like smoking, put the money you would have spent aside every day just as if you were spending it as always. When the cash gets to $50.00 or so, put it in a special bank account set aside for hunting only. Then make sure you don't spend it for anything else! The new car, Christmas presents, clothes, and everything else should come from where ever they would have come from before you gave up smoking or started that new job. Before we go further, it should be noted that your personal and family needs must be met first, but we are assuming they were already under control and that your only financial problem was raising the money to fund your trophy hunting dreams.

As the money starts to slowly accumulate, it is time to start planning the hunts that will use those funds for the purpose intended. Again, assuming a limited budget, you'll need to plan carefully to get the most "bang for your limited bucks". This takes discipline as well as planning, as everyone seems to focus first on the more exotic/elusive species. To try to get those elusive species, on a limited budget, we have a tendency to look for the cheapest hunts. This is a formula for disaster in most cases and should be avoided. A prime example is elk hunting. I have a number of clients come to me every season for help booking an elk hunt.

Everyone dreams of taking a huge 6X6 bull, and they almost all want help finding an $1,800.00 hunt to accomplish this goal. The reality is that elk hunts running under $2,000.00 usually have success rates under 10%, and the vast majority of hunters making up the 10% are successful because they settled for non-trophy animals to fill their tags. Playing the odds, which means you should expect to take ten hunts to get your elk, you most likely will not get a "wall hanger". The actual cost of your elk could be $18,000.00 plus travel, tags, and ten weeks of lost vacation time, and you might end up with a cow. Not what I would recommend! One the other side of the coin, a good quality trophy antelope hunt can be put together for $1,500.00 with a success rate of better than 75%. If it took you two hunts, and two seasons, to get your trophy goat, you'd have the first trophy in your collection and $2,000.00 left in your budget towards the next hunt. If you got him the first year, all the better.

If you're on a tight budget, and trying for a trophy slam, I'd stay away from expensive deer hunts. Put some personal time into scouting for good places to hunt close to home and getting exclusive permission on private land. These are great "off season" activities that can really pay off while allowing you to stretch your limited hunting dollars on other species. If you live in an area that has more than just deer to hunt, all the better, put in your time in place of cash to succeed on these available species, leaving the limited hunting budget dollars for species you need help with. To help maintain focus, and the dedication needed to succeed, you need to be successful.

I therefore recommend focusing on species/hunts with a high percentage of success when starting the process. A good quality mountain lion hunt will eat up all of your hunting budget ($2,500.00) for one year, and probably cut into another, but the success rate is nearly 100% with many outfitters, and a cougar is a great addition to a trophy collection. While I would generally stay away from $800.00 black bear hunts, for the same reason as the $1,800.00 elk hunts, there are some very high success rate hunts on trophy bears that run in the $2,500.00 range.

By planning one good hunt per season, and working hard hunting close to home for at least trophy deer, you should be able to put one trophy class animal on the wall most years. If you do a $1,500.00 antelope hunt one year you could stretch the budget the next season and do a good quality caribou for around $3,500.00. In the next two years your $2,500.00 budget would be able to handle a cougar and a black bear hunt. Add in some serious deer hunting around home for short dollars and you'd have a real good chance of having five species on the wall. At that point you'd not only be well on your way to completing your "slam" but you'd be the envy of most of the local hunters that only dream of trophy hunting.

Next month we'll talk about how to add more exotic species like moose, sheep, and goats to the collection while still staying with-in the limited annual hunting budget of $2,500.00. It can be done, you can do it, and I'll take you though it step be step in the next few months. Turn your dreams into your reality, start planning today. Remember, if you keep putting your dreams off until "tomorrow" the day may come when there aren't enough tomorrows left, and you'll have to admit defeat.

Good hunting,