How much time do you have to hunt?

[John3]

Being self employed I bust my a** all year. Long days weekends, whatever I need to do.  I do this so I can take the time to do what I love. Bowhunt... I hunt deer around home; but the greatest blessing is being able to travel to hunt. I go off to hunt between 20 to 30 days a year. My goal is too work hard another eight years, then semi-retire and take every entire fall off. Yeah, what I life this will be.

John III

[Dr. Ed Ashby]

Rufus, welcome to the club! Ever since I retired, some dozen plus years ago, I LOOK FORWARD to getting up every day!    

Ed

[Two Arrows]

Well, I took the new job. The past eight years I've had Wednesdays and Sundays off for hunting or family time. That was real nice, having a split week, in order to let some of my spots cool down between hunts. Now I will be hunting Saturday afternoons and Sundays. I hunt alot of public land in Nebraska, so I will be dealing with more of a crowd of hunters. I guess I will be doing the opposite of what the crowd does in order to improve my chances of filling my tags. I also am giving up my weeks vacation in November (this year) to chase whitetails in South Dakota. That is the part that really bothers me, as my dad is 74 and still hunting, and I need to be there to help him out.

The way I figure it, I will be able to hunt 1.5 days a week, or 9 to 10.5 hours a week. Maybe I don't have it as bad as some people, but losing that week in November is a real bite in the shorts!

[Luckyned]

ZERO! O.k. I exaggerate but not by much. By the time I split up my vacation between..let us put it this way..I have a dates I can't escape..my kids birthdays, Wifes, mine, and add in anniversities..all happen in October!!!!!!!  Lack of planning on my part.  

[Bonebuster]

Very few of us get as much time to hunt as we wish. With hunting out my back door there is still not enough time to get out as much as I would like.

Maybe thats why I (we) spend so much time during
the off season getting ready for those precious few hours we get when the time comes.

I know I am blessed. I feel for our soldiers, and their families, who are missing out. Somewhere, there is a boy or girl who wants to hunt and can`t, because dad or mom is away.

Fred Bear said it best... "Happy Hunting".

[Wary Buck]

One thing for the young college/high school athlete/bowhunter to think about (while he's wishing he could be in the woods):  you only get one shot at HS/college athletics and then that window is closed.  If you love those sports, give them your best shot as you can hunt (hopefully) the rest of your life.

In many ways, I'm kind of glad I didn't start bowhunting until college as I'm afraid it might've cut into my HS sports and in looking back, those were special times as well and I'm glad I didn't have anything else that vied for my time.  When my college dropped cross country, I tried the bow and haven't looked back yet.

Don't get me wrong, I hunted like a fool while in HS (mostly gun for ducks, pheasants, etc.).  But cross country, basketball and track always came first.  I fit the hunting in around those times.  Chasing girls came in behind all of the above.  

[joe skipp]

Five weeks plus my days off.......      :cool:

[Shawn Leonard]

I hunt everyday after work and all weekend from the start of deer season to the end(Oct.13th. to Dec. 15th. or so.) That is about 30 hours a week or so. I also take the have from Nov. 2nd. to the 19th. off this year and will hunt every hour of that time I can. This is after a job change. I used to take the whole month of Nov. off. It is still not enough. Shawn

[kennym]

3 days a week and a weeks vacation in late Oct.

Almost forgot,I've got corn and soybeans to harvest somewhere in Oct.Better be done before vacation time!   :rolleyes:

[Mitch-In-NJ]

Self employed, too.  But I can go pretty much any time I want thanks to cellular technology.  If there's any kind of emergency I can be home in 30 minutes.

Deer season presents a problem though.  If I kill a deer and then get a call that requires immediate attention, I am stuck.  Sure, I can always come back for the deer, but around this part of NJ, if you leave a deer after dark it will be gone that night.  Bears, coyotes... I even saw a timber wolf on a property I hunt on.

And until this year I never hunted opening day.  Too many hunters.  But my brother moved to a new house this year and his property borders a state park.  He lives on a cul-de-sac and that's the only access to that side of the park.  The other access is 5 miles away so I am fairly confident that we'll have it all to ouselves tomorrow morning.

All that said, stuff always comes up and I never get to go as often as I'd like.  Crow season opened July 1st in PA and Aug 15th in NJ.  Been out 5 or 6 times.  Dove season in PA opened Sept 1.  Been out twice.  Same for goose in NJ and PA.

Of course, once the corn comes down I will be out for birds more.  It's a little slow now... and damn hot.

Prattle on why don't I?

Yeah, not as often as I'd like.

[BTH]

I try to get out as often as possible. Last year I probably hunted an average of 8 hours per week.
This year my average is skewed because of Africa. But I'll be deer hunting this weekend and hopefully every weekend until November.