Hours in the stand?
Wisconsin
My goal is to get at least 75 hours in the treestand during archery season chasing whitetails in northern WI. I changed careers about 15 years ago and that has really cut into the amount of time I can hunt. I also have a 6 hour drive to get to my hunting area. It's hard when being in the woods is a part of your DNA.
All my sits are usually from late October through the rut. A couple three or four-day weekends during the rut are maximized by mostly all day sits. I really have to have a couple of high-confidence spots, use my time efficiently, and try to make a little time to spot check for fresh sign showing up elsewhere. Wish I could hunt more and other species, but that'll have to wait a few more years.
How much do you hunt and what do you target?
great post, I am lucky, I hunt all fall, but I am retired, and my wife gives me the fall, but now she loves to get some fall fishing in.......
I can only say this, I have a honey hole spot this year, at least this is what I believe, according to my journals, and my self described data, I will be in hat area in a stand, from 2 hours before light till of course legal shooting time ends, from Oct 25 to the 31st,,,, of course I will continue to hunt
also, this is the first fall, that as much as I love my Hoyt compound, for Wis and the UP, I am only hunting with my recurve........
I hope all of you, have a great fall season, and wish the best for everyone, and hope your blood trails are short.....
keep it real, keep em sharp, and hunt fair chase
Between deer, elk, and bear alone this year it will be in the hundreds of hours.
Even before I was retired, I always hunted the first week of the season.Also the first two weeks in November.Western bow hunts up to three states in one year so lots of hours.
My all day sits will start the last 4 days of Oct or so depending on several factors. It will be nothing for me to have between 100 -125 hours of tree time by gun season. That includes some Sept/early Oct sits. Sometimes I hope to tag out before that, but I really love to hunt. So I'm good with putting a 100+ hours in.
I put in a lot less hours in the late season, I spend a lot of time tracking,,,,, ML season, the only way I hunt, is tracking or still hunting, just for personal satisfaction
I typically take off 21 days in a row starting around October 25th. This year I have 28 days. I will hunt about 70 hours a week on average. I'll probably do 7 all day sits depending on weather and activity. Hunting isn't easy, and when my vacation is over, I'm spent! Sore neck, sore ass, and tired bones and body. I pray for rain after getting up early all those mornings.
Back in the day I hunted over 200 hours all fall. Sunrise to Sunset for two weeks in Nov. A lot of afternoon sits in Sept, Oct and Dec.
Retired now I still put in time but spend time in season scouting and still hunting. The amount of hours varies but it never seems like hours as it goes by too fast.
If at all possible. I will try to keep up my trend of ZERO HOURS in a stand! Unless I have a kid to hunt with. Even then I will try to teach them to pursue their quarry. Rather than wait for it. No time to be playing with phones, or tablets that way. Just learning about the woods, and the game. Perhaps I will call it the, HuntingGO App!!
Im too poor and lazy to use a stand. Ive just found a good looking spot and sit down and sit still. I'm hoping to spend 10 hours a week in my spot and a few all day sits qhen I get the chance.
In my youth, I hunted hard from opening day til my tag was filled or the season closed...early season.
Now, I hunt when I feel like it and don't get too juiced about it til mid October.
The last 3 weeks are go-time for me.
I hunt every opportunity I can get. I'll be up north opening weekend, and back in the Milwaukee area for most of the time leading up to the rut. A lot of weeknight hunts locally, rarely any weekday morning hunts. Hopefully have a enough spots scouted that I'm able to hunt them only once or twice and try somewhere else. Getting excited!
During my divorce I was on the stand for what seems an eternity trying to prove she was in a movie with flying monkeys and she hated water.
Not as many as when I was younger . But now I spend smart time in a stand . Meaning I don't burn them out . See a lot more nice bucks now .
Depends on the action. 70hrs Is probably my average as well.
Pasq-You came out of left field with that one, but strangely I can relate.
Some great posts here for sure. A lot of us more seasoned hunters maybe don't hunt as much as we used to, but we're hunting smarter.
Here is my young and crazy "back in the day" story. In the late 80's and early 90's, I hunted the Flambeau River State Forest with a friend and my brother. We would leave every Friday night at about 2:00 am so that we could be in the stand by first light. We did this from mid October through gun season. We hunted hard and often did mid-day scouting as well. Then hunt until closing on Sunday and then I would drive back to Milwaukee ready for the work week. We also used our vacation time to bow hunt there as well. The time and money spent was considerable, but it was always worth it for us. Sure do miss those days...
