How on earth is bowhunting expensive?
Hahaha. I'm assuming you don't know many bowhunters, or if you do, they're not the kind I know. Most spend thousands per year on local hunting leases to chase whitetail deer, or take excursions out West for $5,000 or more to hunt elk or mule deer. They spend ungodly sums of money on licenses, camo, trail cams, scent eliminators, calls, binoculars, etc., not to mention the taxidermy charges when they actually kill something that they want to put on the wall. I don't know a single serious hunter who doesn't spend thousands of dollars per year on their hobby. I know frugal hunters exist, but it is not the norm by any stretch of the imagination.
We are frugal hunters. We barter for land to hunt on. DH and I have a shitty boat, so we fish, a lot. We trade fish, and work, for the ability to hunt on others lands, we have the ability to hunt 6 properties across the US, 3 within a short drive, and one of which is a commercial farm with a year round hunting permit. When he gets a deer or boar we do all our own processing, make our own sausage, burgers, roasts, smoked meats etc and then give a hunk of it back to the land owners as well. Then we also barter fish and venison for other things like eggs, chickens, other fish etc. We are largely meat hunters, not trophy.
I also have a no taxidermy law, nothing dead will be looking at me from a wall....ever.
That said, yea, A LOT of the hunters we know spend a ton.