How many days do you hunt each year? Just thought it would be fun to see how much you guys have been able to hit the woods.
Being that I am dating, not married, no kids, obviously I have more time than some with family. I've had a lot of opportunity this year due to a really nice schedule working four 10 to 12 hour shifts.
Bear: 1 day lol
Elk: 9 days
Whitetail: 31 days and 40+hunts (evening/morning)
I won't be able to hunt this much every year but it sure has been fun this year. How many hunts have you been able to make?
I can't tell you how many days or hours. I lost count around 200 hours. Been a long season! But I ain't done! Plan on at least 2 -3 more long sits between now and Sunday night!
That's just deer season. I'll do a lot of hog hunting between now and next deer season
15-20
over 100
About 10 sits this season. Worst year I have had for finding time to hunt. But between 4 kids, work, sports, etc....you make the best of it.
Elk--12 days
Whitetail -- 16 days and counting
Turkey -- about 20 days
Almost all were full day hunts. I'm retired
I've only managed about 14 sits in the stand for whitetails. That includes mornings and evenings and 2 all day sits. I'm currently in college so the sporadic schedule can make it difficult to make time to hunt and balance a job as well. Whether I get a deer or not it's still a well awaited stress relief from exams to sit in a tree and enjoy God's creation. Still a few weeks left in the season here in Kentucky so hoping I can get some meat for the table!
Actual hunting about 8 sits morning and evening combined. I should have Harvested my buck on day one.
Elk hunting 2 days this year.
100 or more days in the woods scouting and checking trail cams. I'm going stump shooting tomorrow and looking over a new area with a friend that just picked up traditional last month
For deer, 48 sits and counting. I guess 10 of those would be rifle and muzzleloader, but the rest were with my longbow.
I only hunted turkey 3 times this spring. It's tough to find time to get out that time of year.
All together, I would say in the 75-100 range. I hunt a LOT during deer season, and if I have a place to hunt pigs (which I do not currently) I hunt a LOT when it is not deer season!
Bisch
Around 90.
Tricky question because are considering running trail cameras, putting in food plots, planting chestnut trees, fertilizer spiking the white oak trees and hanging treestands part of this equation? Or just actual sits? That would be 52, but since I have a doe tag still it will be 53 before the sun goes down. For me, I like to say that I hunt 365 days a year here on the farm by doing everything that I mentioned above.
Estimate this year's season
Turkey...18 hunts
Deer......100 hunts
I guess it depends what you call hunting. I sat lots of mornings and evenings this year but every hunt was in my 4 acre yard.
I just don't have anyplace local to hunt...that's worth hunting on the weekends. I have plenty of time but it's all weekend time which is not the best time to be on local public land.
I really don't have any time to travel to hunt. You would think that once your kids are grown and gone that you'd be freed up some? Then they move out of town and you (I) use your limited vacation time to go see the kids and grandchildren. I love it but it isn't hunting. LOL
150 plus for personal hunting. Many, many more when guiding. I spend more time in a tree than the average squirrel.
I've never counted but it's probably in the 25-30 day range during whitetail season. And then another 5 or so through out the year chasing hogs with knives/dogs. I really wish I had a better place to hog hunt through out the year, with my longbow.
Normally 30-40 days, this year 1.5 days. Retired 2 years ago but my old job called and asked for help for a few months (Oct - Feb). I had just bought some hunting property in Mississippi this summer and wanted to buy a tractor so I accepted. Tractor and implements bought and paid for with 2 months left to work so that will be camp money. Going back in retirement March 1st so next year I will hunt a lot. It's been tuff not hunting but next season I will be able to walk off my porch and be hunting so I guess it will be worth it in the long run.
One full week in early september, then two evenings per week all the way up to the time change plus saturdays.
I'd say probably around 20 to 30 sits so far and still a month left in ohio. I usually will go about 50 times total but getting harder to find time with kids getting older and in sports.
Nick
Between 20 and 30.
Not nearly enough.
Hope to hunt in the year 2017 as much as I need to... :rolleyes:
... mike ... :archer2: ...
I hunted 80 days for whitetails and 8 days for mule deer and I also hunted in Feb and Mar. 3 weeks, for hogs, in Texas where I wished I was right now !! I killed some hogs 2 javelina, a 4x4 muley and a nice whitetail buck I had a good year .
This year has been different as I shot a buck in MN early, like 3 sit and my wife had eye surgery so wasn't wanting to go early in the year. Normal years 90-100, this year 7 Antelope, between MN and Ia probably 60-70 whitetail,somewhere around 30 for turkey. I quit keeping a log years ago so can't say with certainty. Will be whitetail hunting 2 more days this year as season ends the 31st. The state is having a CWD zone very close to here and I've been asked by 2 farmers to come shoot adult does so the sharpshooters won't. That starts the 31st to Jan 15th so I'll get some more days this year. Technically next I guess.
I got about 25 hunts in this year before I had to take some time off for a family medical issue. Freezer is full, but I hope to hunt more next year.
not as much as I like! lol. I hunted 0 days for turkey, and for deer maybe 1 all day hunt during peak rut, the remaining 15-20 were all a few hour afternoon sits.
Depends on the year, this year the more I went the less I saw and I got discouraged, maybe went 10-12 times. Then I had my second knee replacement and that took the late season away. Next year I should have knees that want to play and I hope to get back up north to the big woods. Not a lot of game there but it more like hunting to me. Time in the wilderness is priceless.
Between 150 and 200 hours
X2 on what Zwickey-Fever said, couple hundred acres to keep up with, plots, hanging stands, checking cameras, fertilizing the oaks in addition to scouting neighboring gamelands, shed hunting, shooting, wouldn't want a world without whitetails, although I do like to fish, being retired is the best job I've ever had! Guess you can say I hunt all year reminds me of a story I read a few years back called the Endless Fall, think it was in Bowhunter magazine in memory serves me right.
I'm very envious of how much you guys get to hunt ! I'll get to hunt maybe 20 days...most years less !
thats okay Nathan...many of us are envious of how many deer most guys get to hunt. lol
were I am in MA the rough number is <9 deer per square mile...is some spots its estimated as low as 4/sqmi
I wouldn't mind hunting 20 days if it meant I at least got to see deer half of those days.
Nathan, don't get too green, there were years when it was as low as 20. One of the very few benefits of being retired. Nothing else to do so guess I'll hunt.
I'd say 12-15 hunts this year. They have gotten slimmer in the past few years. I have a 4 year old and one in the oven. I'd say when I was "avid" 24-30 days a year. My little girl
Will be 5 with me next year and plans to be my new hunting buddy. Sitting in the blind right now and thinking how much fun it will be to see the look on her face when an arrow goes through a deer!
In Alaska you spend just as much time on travel, hiking, crawling to the area you are going to actually hunt versus actually hunting.
QuoteOriginally posted by Steve H.:
In Alaska you spend just as much time on travel, hiking, crawling to the area you are going to actually hunt versus actually hunting.
I can see that being an issue, those nine days of elk hunting include 4 days of hiking in and out
I made it out 25 days for whitetail this year, our season runs from September to the end of January with a couple of breaks for rifle,muzzleloader seasons. I usually get out more but this year the weather and other obligations got in the way
Rodney
I scout more days than I hunt. I am out there about 3 times a week on average for 5-1/2 months. I'd say for every time I hunt I have scouted twice.
23 Days, 25 morning and evening sits, and 85 total hours and 2 deer for the effort thus far :goldtooth: Keeping a journal this year so everything been tracked.
Been a slow year for me, too much stuff going on. Only getting out maybe three times a month. All year long. Been trying for bobcats. So the yotes been getting free ride. Had a couple come in but no shots yet.
How many days do I hunt? Not nearly as many as I want, but that will be solved in a couple of years when I retire.
I checked a few years ago with PY records. The average number of days bow hunted nationwide was 23. Over the years (46 of bowhunting) I've been 100+ times per year to ZERO the year (1991) I protested the season in Kansas where I lived in 1989-1992.
I've bowhunted 13 times for whitetails and 7 for antelope this year so far. Still have about two weeks remaining. I may get out another time or two, between rains. Forgot about turkey. Hunted 5 days in the spring for those in KY and Colorado.
I've been a little disgusted with my "want to" the past two years. It is very easy for me to make room for hunting, I just haven't. I hope to get it back in 2017.
Funny that you bring this up as it's been on my mind the last few years. I used to take the entire month of November off and hunt all the weekends and holidays in the fall. I was also able to take the entire month of May off for our spring Turkey season. Changes in life and a new job have really limited my time in the woods and on the water the last few years. It's going to get better, I'm just being patient
Probably less than 20 days spent in the woods hunting this year -- maybe closer to 15 for deer & turkey combined.
3 of those were with my son, who wasn't yet 7 years old during the turkey season. We backpacked in about 3 miles and camped along a riverbank. We only got about 45 minutes each day of hunting. The rest was spent playing in creeks, splashing in the river, finding salamanders & whacking the bushes with sticks -- exactly the kind of "serious hunting" he needs to do right now. Nights were spent talking over a campfire and under the open sky about life, nature and the beginnings of things he'll need to know to be a man. I wouldn't have spent that time any other way.
But aside from hunting:
6 backpacking trips (half were hunting-related)
4 nights camped with just my wife
3 nights camped with just my boys
2 nights camped with a good friend
6 nights camped completely alone.
Untold miles under my feet and invaluable time with some of the people I love most in the places I love the most.
I made some business changes last year that allowed me to spend more time out in the woods and out of cell phone range than in the previous 10 years combined. No complaints here. Life is good!
I got 36 days in this past season. That is down about 5 from a normal year.
D.P.
4 for hogs
15 for turkeys
12 for elk
60 for deer
The last few years my work life ratio has been out of wack. This year I got of more than last years 4 days! This year about 8 to 10 days but most of those I was back to work by 10 am. Tough to chase elk that way.
This year I put in 25 sit's and 127 hours on stand. Several all day sits. This is Whitetail season only.. Didn't count turkey season. I put much more time into scouting and shed hunting for Mature Whitetail bucks. Today is January 5th and it will be the first day of the year in scouting for bucks I want to hunt this fall.
Alot. Not sure on the exact count, but i bet my wife of only 9 months could tell you to the day!
I PLEAD THE 5TH YOUR HONOR
Typically.
14 days for elk/mule deer.
10 days for white tails.
A few days most springs of hog hunting.
A few days Turkey hunting.
And a few days for small game.
Joe
Another few days camping and camp/scouting.
Typically.
14 days for elk/mule deer.
10 days for white tails.
A few days most springs of hog hunting.
A few days Turkey hunting.
And a few days for small game.
Joe
Another few days camping and camp/scouting.
About 25 hunts for whitetail this year, about 6 for turkey and 4 for hogs.
This year was only second to none in a bad way. got out less than 7 days (mountian goat 1, elk 4, moose 2). plagued with health issues (mine and others), weather and a mental funk.
2017 be good to me.....
"not nearly enough"(Huntryx) X2.
All I could , all whitetail this year. No idea of the day or hour count!
I know I hunted 9 days straight ending on Nov 11
I knew going in this season would be rough, I was only able to sit 4 times total, maybe 10 hours all together. Hopefully next season will be better!
I honestly don't know. A ton. Between Turkey, deer, squirrels, grouse/woodcock, rabbits....so hard to figure. Just October and November may have been 40 hunts? I suppose all total for the 100.
I'm lucky to have a job w a flexible schedule. From sep 15 to nov 12 I hunted every day. Many if those were 2-3 hr sits after work. That's just bowhunting tho....I get after the ducks pretty hard after the rut....
Tim