Hunting season is upon us. And hunting season means driving season, and that means hunting this fall will be a bit more expensive than a year ago.
Things aren’t too bad if you’re filling up with gas. I checked the average cost of a gallon of regular this week: $4.48 according to AAA. A 350-mile highway drive, roughly the distance between Missoula and Billings, will cost a hunter in a 4×4 Ford F-150 with a 2.7 V6, $65.33. I’m using the national average for gasoline, by the way, and the EPA estimate for the F-150 of 24 highway mpg. A year ago, that same drive would have cost $46.08.
If that extra 20 bucks is going to break your budget, I suggest you sell your F-150 and buy yourself a beater to get around in until you get a raise.
If you’ve upgraded to an F-250 diesel, things are a little bleaker. The cost of diesel fuel is up about 58% in the last year, from $3.75 a gallon to $6.53 (again, the national average). The EPA doesn’t estimate the mpg of heavy-duty pickups, but guesstimates for the highway mileage of an F-250 that isn’t towing, range from 18 to 20 mpg. Using 20 mpg, that trip will cost you $114.28 this year, compared to $65.63 in 2025.
None of this is great for the pocketbooks of hunters, or anyone doing a lot of driving this fall, but it’s also not an “Apocalypse is upon us” level of dystopia, either. In my case, I was planning to cut back on road tripping this fall due to work commitments and an improved forecast for bobwhite quail on the Plains near home.
I usually head to Wyoming in October to visit the chukar grounds. Round trip, that’s 1,370 miles that will cost about $255.73, up from $180.38 for the trip I took to Wyoming in 2025, during Thanksgiving Break (my Ranger’s EPA estimate is the same 24 mpg as the F-150). Sometimes, I also visit California at Christmas to see family and hunt quail on the side, but not this year.
Researching the cost of higher gas prices was an eye-opener. A teacher’s schedule is handy when you’ve got hobbies that are miles away, such as fly fishing for trout. That requires at least a drive to Wyoming for me, and then there’s the licensing and gear and on and on. So, a teacher’s salary isn’t as handy when it comes time to pay for the hobbies summer breaks allow for.
That sounds a lot like whining about having to pay an extra $20 to drive to Billings. It’s not something I’m thrilled about, especially since the high fuel prices feel like such a political own goal, but I’m not going to give up fishing or hunting over a Jackson. I’m mad about high prices, but I haven’t gone mad.
If you are planning to drive somewhere far away to hunt, despite the extra cost, it sounds like there could be some decent bird numbers out at the end of your pricey road trip. While Montana’s pheasant outlook is hard to predict, considering uneven weather, a mild winter allowed for a lot of carryover, but rain in May and June may have wiped out early nesting efforts.
Out on the Plains, the forecast is more positive, where a mild winter and timely rain may be enough to overcome the drought that hammered parts of bird country in recent years. South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas all seem likely to have good, maybe great, seasons.
Be forewarned. Redfield, South Dakota, the Pheasant Capital of the World, is 1,963 miles from Kalispell (round trip). So you can budget, that’s $361.39 in gas if you’re steering an F-150 toward hunting heaven. Oil burners will cost hunters $632.10 at the pump.
Be sure to bring your credit card.