How many days a year do you hunt ?

[dgr416]

I try to hunt as much as possible and i use to average 100 days a year hunting .The last few years I down to about 60 days a year from taking care of my parents the last 5 years they have always been my best friends .My dad and I hunted together over 10000 times we figured in his lifetime .My dad got cancer lost him a year ago on 4th of july .He took and taught well over 50 kids to hunt .I have also taught over 50 kids to hunt .I hardly get to hunt 60 days if I am lucky these days .I miss hunting with my dad and all my hunting buddies that went to Heaven .I was so lucky to live in Alaska the 12 years that I did becsuse I just went back after 16 years being gone and its sbout ruined for hunting .I gotta write a book about my adventures they were awesome .

 

[odonata]

The last few years I've been hunting ~40 days a year. I go to the shooting range at least once a month. The majority of my hunting was for deer in Mississippi & Arkansas. I would do the archery, primitive & modern gun seasons. But I would also go small game hunting (often with a pneumatic), hog hunting in Texas & an annual trip to do some waterfowl hunting.

 

[dgr416]

Our small game has gone to pot here in Ga no rabbits quail or grouse my favorites .I was totally disspointed in Alaska this year very few moose saw only 37 in 5 months, zero caribou ,4 rabbits ,zero ruff grouse,3 porcupines , 0 black bears , one small grizzley .It use be the land of plenty now green desert .I heard plenty of wolves .

 

[Wyatt Smith]

50 or 60. But if only all day hunts count properly a dozen or less. Most days are just a morning or afternoon.

 

[mdwest]

I’d guess I’m in a deer stand 20-25 days a year… throw in another 8-10 days chasing hogs… another 10 days hunting internationally… and maybe another 6-10 for everything else (dove, ducks, small game, etc)… say 45-55 a year on average…

Some years get a little more activity.. some a little less… just depends…

 

[MS 9x56]

Most years 50-70 counting gopher hunts to tune up for big game season and bow hunting.

 

[Franco]

If you're asking me - not enough; if you're asking my wife - too many.

 

[Beck]

Not enough god damn it

 

[CoElkHunter]

You know, I envy you hunters in many parts of the U.S. Here in Colorado, and probably many states in the West, you get ONE 5-10 season to hunt big game unless you can get a leftover tag. So, you get to hunt ONE archery, muzzleloader OR rifle season per species and that’s it IF you draw a tag. Archery might be a month long though. I guess in many states, one can hunt multiple seasons for multiple deer at least but not here. And generally here, it’s not a ten mile or much less distance to hunt. I drive 3 hours to hunt deer or pronghorn and 5 hours to hunt elk. So, it’s a ONE shot deal IF I draw a tag. Even if I got a leftover tag, it’s another week off to hunt in another season with ALL of the accompanying hunting/camping infrastructure involved. And I’m not hunting in the mountains by myself anymore, so there’s that issue too. It’s not your tree stand/ATV deer hunting within a few miles of your home for multiple weekends during multiple seasons. So, I envy you hunters that get to hunt like that.

 

[Elkeater]

You know, I envy you hunters in many parts of the U.S. Here in Colorado, and probably many states in the West, you get ONE 5-10 season to hunt big game unless you can get a leftover tag. So, you get to hunt ONE archery, muzzleloader OR rifle season per species and that’s it IF you draw a tag. Archery might be a month long though. I guess in many states, one can hunt multiple seasons for multiple deer at least but not here. And generally here, it’s not a ten mile or much less distance to hunt. I drive 3 hours to hunt deer or pronghorn and 5 hours to hunt elk. So, it’s a ONE shot deal IF I draw a tag. Even if I got a leftover tag, it’s another week off to hunt in another season with ALL of the accompanying hunting/camping infrastructure involved. And I’m not hunting in the mountains by myself anymore, so there’s that issue too. It’s not your tree stand/ATV deer hunting within a few miles of your home for multiple weekends during multiple seasons. So, I envy you hunters that get to hunt like that.

I lived in Colorado from 2011-2020. I lived up in the mountains and figured out the game really well. I typically was able to draw/ purchase 2 elk tags, 1-2 deer tags, every year with an antelope tag thrown in every few years. One year I think I had 9 tags between Colorado and Wyoming. Never did draw moose, sheep or goat though. I hunted way more than I should have. Guess it’s gone down hill since I left. That’s a bummer. It was starting to get crowded about the time we moved.

As to the original question. Between, say one deer tag, one bear tag, predators, dove, quail, annual trip to Texas, maybe a couple days in Idaho with my brother if I manage to get a tag, and then a big trip to Alaska or Africa every few years. I’d say right around 50 days a year.

 

[CoElkHunter]

I lived in Colorado from 2011-2020. I lived up in the mountains and figured out the game really well. I typically was able to draw/ purchase 2 elk tags, 1-2 deer tags, every year with an antelope tag thrown in every few years. One year I think I had 9 tags between Colorado and Wyoming. Never did draw moose, sheep or goat though. I hunted way more than I should have. Guess it’s gone down hill since I left. That’s a bummer. It was starting to get crowded about the time we moved.

As to the original question. Between, say one deer tag, one bear tag, predators, dove, quail, annual trip to Texas, maybe a couple days in Idaho with my brother if I manage to get a tag, and then a big trip to Alaska or Africa every few years. I’d say right around 50 days a year.

Sounds like you did really well on tags when you lived here. My limiting factor other than drawing tags, was getting time off from work for more than a week of hunting and maybe a couple of three day hunts. Of course that available time off also included a weekend or two pheasant hunting in Kansas or Nebraska. I think Trump Jr should push his father for a paid 15 day HLA (Hunter Leave Act) which would pump millions of dollars into rural local economies through hunters’ purchasing lodging, food and supplies. LOL

 

[Firebird]

Depends on the year and the success rate. Archery season is a month long for elk but if you kill one first day then you are finished. Don’t kill one until day 20, then you got in lots of hunting days but were unsuccessful for 19 of them. As stated, some years you draw some out of state tags, some years you don’t.
I get in lots of upland and waterfowl most years. This year the weather is too good and numbers are down so I fish instead. Average year probably 40-50 days or partial days.

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Once every 14 days. Every alternate weekend, basically.

 

[BryceM]

Full days, usually 5 or 10, maybe more if I'm doing a trip to Africa. Partial days are probably another 50-60 days, mostly upland game near home.

 

[RedTag]

Our small game has gone to pot here in Ga no rabbits quail or grouse my favorites .I was totally disspointed in Alaska this year very few moose saw only 37 in 5 months, zero caribou ,4 rabbits ,zero ruff grouse,3 porcupines , 0 black bears , one small grizzley .It use be the land of plenty now green desert .I heard plenty of wolves .

This is sad but true. I’ve lived in Alaska for many years and the quality of hunting and fishing has declined significantly. Call it what you will, over harvest, mismanagement, climate change, all of the above, etc. I remember when the hardest part of bagging a moose or caribou was cutting apart the meat and hauling it back home. Now it’s very difficult to find a legal animal in an accessible area during the (very) short open seasons. Moose, caribou, sheep, numbers are down all over. Salmon fishing has been completely off limits in the interior rivers for several years now. Sure we can drive 500 miles to fish for salmon, and the odds of hunting success are better with aircraft support, so the more money you can spend on it the better your chances of success, but if I’m going to blow piles of money (and time off work!) I may as well just go to Africa and do it right. I honestly haven’t bagged a big game animal in about four years here in Alaska.
This is a good question, really, and I don’t like my answer. To tell the truth, between work and obligations, I’m lucky to get out hunting 30 days a year, and most of that is small game hunting.

 

[EBaker]

I'd estimate somewhere around 140-150 days a year. I live in Texas and hunt from the beginning of dove season through the end of quail season. I work week on week off and use all of my vacation time during deer season and spend about 6.5 days hunting on my days off. That makes it the beginning of September through the end of February, and during all of deer season starting with archery through the end of special late season I'm focused on deer. I hunt private land until I get a good buck in a place with a one buck county and we see very few does, so once I get my buck I'm done there. After that, I spend all my time on public land I happen to live pretty close to which is unusual in Texas. I even built a mini camper that I tow with my side by side where I can go the whole of my week off without even going back to my truck. That puts me around 100 days there, then I hunt 2 or 3 weeks during turkey season and another 3 or 4 weeks pig hunting.

 

[3chunter]

Turkey. 20 days. Deer. 50 days. Dove 3 days. Duck. 20 days. Small game 5 days. Predators 2 days. 100+ days for me. Used to be closer to 150.

 

[coreydb]

I never counted the days I hunted, but I quit small game and pheasant when I stopped finding anything. I always hunted two weeks during deer season until an acquaintance hunting next to me got shot....in the ass. I stopped hunting state land after that and now spend two to three weeks a year on safari and hunting preserves.

 

[BourbonTrail]

Umm, about 6-8. I have a full time job with an hour commute, small children, and my only hunting location is 2.5hrs away. It goes up when I have a safari.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

I hunt 5-6 weeks almost daily every year in Montana. Mostly for birds. And a couple weeks at most here for geese before going to Montana. Gave up moose hunting here more than twenty years ago. Total shitshow for resource management.