My experiences are not extensive but as said above, very much a balance of what you pay against what you are likely to get!
Examples:
I have spent a lot of time out with a local-ish chap over the last few years, have seen quite a few deer but shot very few. This is a very professional guy with excellent facilities and a significant amount of ground but I just don't get lucky. I learnt a fair bit though, it is very convenient, I like the guy, he has a lovely woodland range and until recently was very reasonably priced with few if any trophy prices.
I have spent most of the last twelve Augusts stalking early season red stags on Mull. VERY reasonably priced (about £250 for a mature clean stag inc. stalk) but at that time of year one stalks a lot, sees a lot of animals in velvet and only the occasional clean and shootable animal. However, I learned A LOT and loved the early mornings and the late evening in the Scottish island light. Very unusually, the stalker there made no charge for blank stalks! Yeh!
The third example is roe stalking in early August in Yorkshire with a very well known pro. The price was based on the quality of the head, starting at about £200 (as I recall) and topping out a lot higher. I killed a buck on both my stalks and as I had specified no medals, got a bronze for the price of a cull. Great value if you want to kill things but not heavy on the management front.
Lastly, I am stalking with BASC in early December at Hockwold: £250 per outing but no trophy fees whatever. There are those that tell of multiple shots on a variety of deer and apparently few plank outings. With my luck I will probably be one of them!
