Can you make a living hunting critters?

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>>34025801
there's a guy that went to my highschool who spends most of his year out in idaho for the hunting season. he's a guide for people looking to hunt bear and shit like that. his dad comes from a rich logging family, so getting started up was pretty easy for him. he flies a single engine cesna from nc out to idaho every year. been doing it for years now, and earns a pretty good living at it too.

You can, but if you should is more or less up to you to see how well it turns out financially.
Do pest destruction as sort of a sideline business with my brother in law but (for the sake of being actually useful on this cunt of a forum) on the off chance someone actually needs to know. I'll try to be complete as I can.

Basically, be a registered business and insured.
From a tax I can accumulate wear on my firearms and vehicles, write that off as a business expense so it cuts out a little less at the EOFY. Insurance, in case there's the chance of property damage, its there to help out.
Legal side of things, will vary where you are in the world. I have an alphabet of licences and I also have a small morass of gov approved safety checks, background checks and training that basically says to them 'I am not a yahoo or lunatic, I kill shit as a business'. Generally as well to keep from being bothered, we're discrete people who don't go photographing anything, keep our heads down and that will keep the greenies and peta types from molesting you.

This is a bloody business. A 'quiet' weekend with just me on foot means anywhere between 50-70 pigs or goats killed, some jobs are so big that it requires a helicopter and aside from the additional cost of that, it means anywhere between 4-600 dead animals over 2-3 days.
Are you a good shot? No? Then fuck off right now.
Are you interested in trophy's, bragging and being a great hunter? Yes? This is not the job for you.
We kill quickly, humanely, safely and without any kind of sportsmanship involved. That's it

Setup is expensive. Remember you're not going down the range with your friends and then waddling off home thinking you're hot shit. You will need reliable-
>Transport
>Firearms
>Ammunition
It doesn't have to be pretty, but it has to work EVERY time you go to work. Someone's paying you, be professional.

cont

>>34026917
Plus get used to sleeping in a truck, tent or someone's shed out on a farm, that can be a bit weary after shooting for 8-10hrs. You will need to get your shit together as an outdoorsy type, protective clothing, boots, hat, food etc. I also find it a bit taxing as it takes me away from my family and that can be hard on them... but sometimes it kind of fun to get away too!
So its not all negative.

Lastly- what market is there in your area and what needs shooting?
Most of my stuff is tied up in about half a dozen government national parks and there's about 2 dozen or so farms I will also do shooting on. That isn't a large amount of work really.
There is enough to offset costs, leave a bit over at the end of the year, but otherwise its not sustainable really as full time work. So I've got a farm and an engineering business which is my main income and this stuff is not really a charity, but it does need to be done and there's not a lot of people who do it.

Can you make money- yes
Can you live off it- probably not unless you had a lot of work somehow

>>34027013
Quality post. Thanks.

>>34026917
>Are you a good shot? No? Then fuck off right now.
Can you clarify on just how good of a shot?

>>34027409
You're welcome, hope it helps you make some decisions

>>34027435
Legally some types of animals (kangaroos here) I am required to shoot in the head with a certain weight of bullet. That basically means beaning something the size of a man's boot consistently, in all types of weather, wind, light conditions and ranges. Admittedly, they'd be just as dead through the chest but we have screaming animal rights people ready to stone us to death already and there was some culling which involved animal abuse in the past with less than savoury practices.

Also if you're on a vehicle, that does require a certain skillset to pull of consistently with a rifle or shotgun. Helicopter work is also one of those things where it is not easy due to movement, maintaining safety (so you don't shoot the helicopter!) and some people just can't handle skimming 30ft off the ground at 100km/h while your lunatic pilot is dodging trees, rocks, power lines and a certain degree of "working with other people" so he can line you up.

Someone post the webms of the guys shooting pigs from an ATV and Emus from an Helicopter.

>>34026917
>>34027013
>Shooting shit from a helicopter

Literally my fucking dream. Pls hire me

>>34027592
>ride of the valkyries intensifies
https://youtu.be/lcu9BxTpQj4 https://youtu.be/ubt19wLNcKM https://youtu.be/vAfJG1PMjbY https://youtu.be/lcu9BxTpQj4

>>34029129
> mfw I'd literally pay money to do this

>>34029286
Pony up several grand and there are a few outfits in TX that do it.

>>34028983
Mate my damn ammo and diesel costs could stick someone's kid through uni I swear!
For a while during my wifes pregnancy I was considering contracting some stuff out, but actually finding someone with both a Cat-D I can trust and willingness to go somewhere hot, miserable and blow the shit out of things was basically non-existent. So I lumped it on my brother in law mostly... its turned full circle now as I 'owe him a couple' :)

>>34033529
>Cat-D
Must be 'Strayan. Here in the US if I wanted to shoot anything from a helicopter it costs anywhere from 4-15k not counting the costs of traveling to Texas.

>>34034532
Yep
Private charters can be expensive and also depending where you are in the world, also subject to various licensing requirements by Aircraft/Flight authorities to be allowed to fly around with some guns shooting at things. But mostly its a risk thing, generally you're under the auto-rotation deck if something shits itself (usually around 100m/300ft) and low level flying is very stressful for the pilot who's responding to the shooter and maintaining the spatial awareness not to hit anything.
Basically that ramps up prices more than it would for a regular joyflight where everything's straight and level, low risk and you can get any gronk with a licence to do it.

Most of us also tend to have a brass-catcher on the guns too, spent cartridges and shells flying around a cockpit are an accident waiting to happen if it ends up in someone's eye (that might be flying!) or get wedged under a pedal. Then on top of that, two guns is usually compulsory if one has a malfunction, then sorting out where to secure 10-20 magazines and everything else as you're not going to be reloading while flying. Well you could, but its a waste of flight time.
Hence, its not simply a case of turning up and just flying out to bushwhack some stinky critters.
Over time you get to know the pilots and companies, they get factored into the quote and generally will give a discount to you at a business level. Plus there's heaps of not very sane, ex-military guys that have a bit of a jonesing for it :)

Security is also something else that legally I'm obligated to perform in the process of the job and there's the hassle of keeping anywhere between 11-18k worth of guns, sights, spares, mags and ammo secured so it doesn't go wandering off. Essentially a big fucking metal box with 2 layers, several locks and padded on the inside, which is not cheap.

>>34035797
Very interesting stuff. You've got a cool ass job man. You should start your own thread sometime.

>>34036296
Ah not much more to tell, a lot of it is really just basic business administration, fiddling around with small mountains of paperwork and a knowledge of the legal system, laws, rules and regs.
If you're in doubt about anything, often its a case of getting it in writing from various government and police agencies. Oh and by some twist of fate I ended up marrying a solicitor (aka lawyer) so that little bit extra legal knowledge will save you a lot of bother in the long run when setting up a business. (You don't have to marry your lawyer though!)

I might talk a bit about various types of firearms for the job.
As I mentioned before, it doesn't have to be pretty, but it has to work and you should plan for contingencies where there is a failure. So for most of your gas operated firearms- spare gas tube components, extractors, maybe a firing pin and the like are points of failure. Not common, but it happens. The main gremlin for any firearm malfunction is usually in the feed somewhere and by experience, its usually the damn magazine. You will need spare mags anyway, but it doesn't hurt to spend a little more on ones that are good quality. Anything else that goes to shit, you're probably not going to fix quickly in the field.

For what I deal with-
Pigs, goats, dogs, cats, foxes and roos. Rarely will I get called into cull wild horses, its about as politically and emotionally explosive as you can imagine, only seconded by roo culls.
>.223 and 5.56 with 62-70grain
>.308 and 7.62 with 142-170grain
That covers nearly anything I come across. If you only deal with smaller species- 5.56 will generally be the best problem solver for the $, .22LR also is quite expedient for short range foxes and bunnies out to 100m or so.
We lean heavily on the 5.56, its cheap to run a lot of ammo though, there's a wide variety of guns in that calibre, 7.62 is a heavy, 1-shot hit on larger goats and pigs, with a bit more range. But at an increased cost.

cont

>>34037703
>Isn't 5.56 and 7.62 cheap enough anyway?
Yes
But when you go through a couple of 1000 rounds of each a year, that does make a substantial difference to your EOFY statement.
Reloading is also one of those things which generally falls into 2 categories: not shooting much, 50 rounds here and there through the press is quite economical.
Running 500 rounds through a press is a mindfuckingly boring, shit job! If you have nothing better to do, by all means do it, but I kind of value my time (and shreds of remaining sanity) to find something better to do.

Shotguns are also a valid firearm
The 'but' there is that you need to pick the load for the target, consider the cost of it and how much you will use. When you're lugging 100 rounds of 00 buck, whatevers in the gun, that will also add up to what you can physically carry around and some days we'll be doing a lot of shooting (100's of rounds) so it isn't the preferred problem solver for our potential targets, despite it being very effective at close range. If you are engaging something like pigs in close, brush conditions then it is worthy of some consideration- I would recommend you just go with something like an old SxS or O&U 2 barrel.
One shot for the kill, 2nd for, oh shit its still coming
Lot of people won't like that, but the rapid reliability of the double barrel isn't to be ignored, plus at that range with multiple pigs- you'll nail one and the rest will be skedaddling off into cover anyway. If you're lucky you might be able to quickly acquire a 2nd target for the other barrel
If you're not keen on that, get a pump action.
Yes, semi's are a thing, but generally I've found them to be more fucking trouble than they're worth in all honesty. Lot of cleaning, failure to cycle certain rounds etc

cont

>>34037840
Pistols
Generally not useful at all unless you're dealing with some kind of spectacularly dangerous critter. I have on occasion lugged out my ancient .357mag 686 when hunting pigs, but for the majority of what we shoot at, it'll be running away. Most pigs will run as well given a chance. For the north americans the euros who might run across something like a bear- pistol might not be a terrible idea at all

Rifles
Semi's are the way to go and get yourself a good one, doesn't have to be the shiniest or newest gun, but just make sure it has parts available. Easily fixed and something you know you can tear down, clean and put back together at the end of the day.
There's lots of them out there, whats available here and whats available to you though are highly variable. Don't really recommend 2nd hand guns unless they're in great working order, like buying a 2nd hand car- take someone along for another opinion that knows their shit too.
We use a DDV7 as our main workhorse and a new-ish era of the MR762, both are towards the expensive end of the range but have never failed us. They're what we can get, they work, yes there's better, you might not like them, I'm ok with that :)
Just remember they will be taking a beating because they're tools- not wall hangers.

Apart from that, I've got a fairly old BLR in 308 and a very ancient Weatherby MkV in 300WM
They're useful because they're reliable- the BLR for its compact size and will knock the hell out of pigs quite well, the MkV is a fucking anachronism, but it will kill nearly anything out to about 3-400m. Which is handy for things that are more cagey than usual: ie- deer

Deer are a problem in some areas, us killing them is taken incredibly badly by everyone
>You killed bambi!
>You killed our sport!
Yeah, bambi is a cunt because they wreck fences, mess around in the suburbs and all rather cute until he murders your dog or goes through your windscreen
We don't like deer

cont

>>34025892
That critter is probably covered in critters

Nasty

>>34037964
Scopes
Don't skimp on scopes, a big semi auto or running a lot of rounds through a 556 will knock them around. Repeated recoil absolutely shreds cheap scopes and scopes with cheap mounts.
What you'll want is reflex sight for close in (0-150m) work and an optical for longer ranges (anything further than 200m away)
Reflex/red dots etc, lot of that comes down to your personal preferences on "what I like to use" in terms of its display and features, shop around though and see how other people find them through reviews. Other peoples reviews can be taken with a grain of salt, manufacturers reviews are often garbage mixed in with the odd nugget of truth.
Optics though, all the well known brands are there, been sold for years. Germans and Japanese make excellent optics and have done so for decades and generally won't see you go wrong. Your angle of view can be quite narrow though for long range shooting, for closer in, rapid shooting- the reflex is king.
Pick your tools for the job basically. Expect to spend a lot of money there.

Night optics
Generally we avoid shooting at night for safety reasons that we won't be able to see whats behind the target, its dark, you can damage a vehicle, get lost and run into all sorts of mischief.
>Some people do it and run the risks
>Some places its illegal- so check
For good ones they're frightfully expensive though, spotlights are much cheaper. You will also need to learn why animals come out at certain times, certain moons and times of the year to really be effective

Bait
Using it isn't 'cheating' like sporting shooters
Attracting a whole mob of animals into an area and then going hammer on them with a big fucking gun basically works. You can research what works for what animal and don't feel too bad about it, you're just there to remove them.
Make the most use out of natural terrain to channel them and also artificial like fences, stock yards and the like.

Thats me done for today