Been thinking about this thread all morning and I’ll throw my thoughts into the mix.
I think that measuring the cost/reward value purely in financial terms is too simplistic to answer this question with a yes or no as to whether the OP should or shouldn’t take out a loan.
Everyone has their priorities over what they think is worth it and what they are willing to sacrifice in the process of getting what they want.
Not everyone understands or is honest with themselves about the cost of getting what they want and the enjoyment they experience in the process.
How bad do you want this experience?
Is it going to negatively impact your relationship with your wife or children?
Can you afford to ensure that your wife gets to experience an equally meaningful experience that is her priority?
Are you guys able to have a completely honest discussion about what it means to you, what sacrifices it will require and whether you both are willing to make those sacrifices together and emerge stronger together?
It’s not really appropriate for me to tell you what you should or shouldn’t do and you are going to make your own decision anyway.
However, it can be valuable to hear the rationale behind the choices that others have made and their experiences and whether they have regrets or not about those choices in hindsight.
For myself and my family situation, I have come to realize that currently there isn’t a hunt on earth that I can get $30,000 worth of enjoyment from in a week. I would rather spend $1,500 twenty times over ten years and enjoy multiple hunts for lesser animals in lesser locations.
I have been very fortunate and blessed to have been a participant in hunt experiences with family or friends that didn’t end up costing me a lot of money due to the circumstances surrounding each opportunity. Had I paid market value to be outfitted for each opportunity, the cost would probably be in the 100’s of thousands of dollars for the experience.
In most cases, I wasn’t the tag holder. In every case for me, I enjoyed the times where I participated without being the trigger puller as much as the times when I had the tag myself.
This is going to sound like bragging but I don’t intend it to be so.
I have been privileged to participate in ten mountain goat hunts, five bighorn sheep hunts, four Shiras moose hunts, and probably @ 50 combined successful elk and deer hunts over the past twenty years.
There’s probably another ten or so black bears in there as well.
Nearly all of those hunts took place in Montana on resident tags. All were unguided, DIY, where the largest costs were, gas, food, and gear for the trip.
Some years, my time off work, time away from home and the financial burden caused stress on my wife that I didn’t understand for a long time until she finally understood we had to talk about it and she worked up the courage to let me know. Those conversations weren’t always pleasant and carried with them some of the resentment and frustration that had been pent up, but they were necessary and we both wish we had addressed them way earlier in our relationship.
Now, we both have a better understanding of how much hunting with my friends means to me and how important it is that she gets to have her own meaningful experiences as well. We are getting much better at figuring out the sacrifice/reward ratio and making decisions based on what we think the experience will provide comps to how much each will have to sacrifice.
If I can stress anything from the experience it is to make sure you are both on the same page.
Having been blessed with so many hunt experiences personally, I have found my bucket list of things I still want to do has decreased dramatically. I’ve accepted that I will never hunt Stones sheep. Nor will I experience a Dall sheep hunt unless it’s as a non hunting companion with the only cost being travel, lodging and food.
Lord willing and I keep my health and I can do it responsibly, I will experience a DIY Alaska moose and caribou hunt within the next five years. Then there’s going to be a New Zealand tahr and chamois/ extended tour with my wife.
In summary, only you can know what is worth sacrificing for. It would be wise to ensure you include your wife in that decision.
