BigGameHoundsmen.com

Hello all,

I am going into my sophomore year of college and I have been running dogs on coyotes now for 3 years and I absolutely love it. I always hear of guys being able to run during the week days and such and I was wondering what jobs would allow me to be able to make good money but yet be able to run a lot during the winter months. I am currently working to attain an accounting/finance degree. I ask this because I am looking into getting my first pup in about a month and I want to be able to train/run it as much as I can (other guys in the group will train when I am at school tho).

There is nothing more that I would like to do then have a job where I can get out and chase some coyotes during the whole winter.

Thanks for your input!

Kyle

Accounting is definitely not the profession to get into if you want to hunt coyote all winter. Tax Season runs from Jan 1 to April 15 and you won't have any time for anything but work then. I would recommend some type of construction or other seasonal job.

Underground construction! Once the ground freezes up were off till spring!

I run heavy equipment doing road building and site work, once the ground freezes I'm off till spring. (Nov.- March).

Or get a job working four 10's if you have to. Or a 3 day a week, weekend shift job if possible.

Check on what degree one needs to become a supervisor for Wildlife services. Those folks are going to be hunting problem critters & being paid well for doing so when others hunting rights have been terminated. Just my opinion. Al

Kyle

Not sure what State you reside in?

I would avoid Wildlife services for employment. Find a good job like most other folks in the private sector..... Some of us sport hunters have had a gut full of Government replacing sport hunters in the field and have worked long and hard to kill funding to this bloated Government bureaucracy and it is paying off in my home State of Oregon.....Wildlife Services is laying off government agents and scaling back to the point our Game Department has no choice but to use sport hunters as a management tool.

It will only be a matter of time before California and other States understand Government is the problem and not the solution to hunting our wildlife simply because Government is ineffective, cost prohibited, therefore unsustainable. You appear to be a very educated person with the ability to have whatever you want in life and the private sector offers the greatest opportunity for success in life.

Good Luck!

Mike Martell

xxxx

Al

You have caught me at a bad time...I'm leaving for Canada in a few hours and don't have time to debate this out...You make sense of some of this but where Government is concerned we differ to a degree. Please hold this thought and maybe we can start another thread and not be hijacking this mans post!

Take care

Mike

I know a guy who lives out there by you and comes to North Dakota to work in the oil. He is blessed to have others to care for his dogs while he is gone. He is now back home hunting and working dogs. Not sure how long he will stay home. Probably till he needs money again. Strong young men with a good work ethic are in high demand out here. You can make more in six months than many people make in a year.

You can make what you need, then go home and hunt. There are accounting jobs here as well, but probably would not pay as well as oil related labor. There is every job imaginable. I think mcdonalds pays 15-17 dollars per hour. For every person here trying to get a job there are ten jobs available. Every single post office is crying for help. Non-oil jobs can't keep anybody.

The American dream is alive and well in northwest North Dakota.

Whatever you do don't sacrifice your career or family for a damn coyote. That's not a smart idea at all. Get rich fast and then you can hunt all you want.

x2 to Mr. Edwards.


Become an accountant, then you will have the MONEY to do all the hunting you want and be able to afford the equipment to boot. Once you get a few years in you will get vacation and be able to hunt hard, I bet. Although someone did make a good point about tax season being in winter, dunno how that would work.

If you are set on having winters off, some of the hardest hound hunters out there are people that work shift work or get laid off in the winter. They do make good money too, they just take a dang toll on their body to get it.

Just my measly .02.

im a logger go like hell in the summer and fall have most of the winter and spring off but u wont get rich doin it but all this depends on what quality of life is to you

It is not a cut and dried answer for me. You are young, unmarried, with few responsibilities to other people. This may be the only time in your life where things will be so simple. And it for darn sure is the only time in your life when you will be as young and in the physical prime of your life.
I like the Quote Cowboyvaugn uses:

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Henry David Thoreau

The same man (Thoreau) wrote that it is kinda strange how we spend the best years of our physical health saving up for the days when we wont be able to walk.

I remember my dad telling me a story about some young Indians he knew back when I was a baby. He and others were trying to convince them how important it was to get an education. They said "Why". The answer was "so you can get a good job". Again, "why?" Well, so you can save money. Again, "why". So you can have a nice retirement. Again, "Why". Well so you can go hunting and fishing. They just looked at each other and laughed.

Like Thoreau suggested, they did that every day while they were young.

Some times I wish I had spent less time hunting when I was young. But most the time, I am glad I pushed it hard. I sure could not do now what I did back then.

Do you want to test the physical/mental/emotional limits of what is humanly possible in your chosen sport? I know that is what I wanted. If it is what you want, do it now. You don't see too many retired folks competing in the Olympics.

Ya David I damn sure wasn't implying to work your life away. I should have prolly left the get rich quick thing out. I was just jack assin around when I said that anyhow cuz I know that's damn near impossible unless you are already wealthy or you are a dog gone criminal. I just mean don't sacrifice all the other great things in life just to catch a coyote. I catch quite a few coyotes every year. 91 last year to be exact but I sure as hell enjoy other things in life besides that. I have 3 beautiful kids that give me more pleasure in life than any grubby ass hound ever has. Of course they've caught more coyotes in their life than most grown men so there's always that.