The farthest I ever hunted from home, was a six hour drive one way, just to hike up to one small ridge, eat lunch and head back home. There have been some whoppers on that ridge, so it’s not as crazy as it sounds. Just like a rock hound visits multiple places, and develops favorites, pocket hunters are always pouring over maps & adding spots where old deer have been hanging out.
For someone with a license that has a wide variety of country to hunt, and a lot of time to do it, having a variety of good pockets is a lot of fun and ideal way to break up the season, or to fill in between seasons. If there are only two days to hunt, I wouldn’t pack in anywhere.
Many good animals come out of Wyoming, shot after or before work, let alone weekends. We used to hunt every day after high school, and my fall grades in college were always a letter grade worse than spring - I like to think entire class schedules that only meet on Tuesday and Thursday were dreamt up by hunters. Nowadays, Western Governors University would allow someone to hunt as much as they wanted and still graduate fairly quickly if they are disciplined. 20 year old me might struggle with that much autonomy.
There’s some good memories waking up at 2:00am and driving tired, but excited, and returning home with only enough time to grab 6 hours of sleep and do it all over. I worry about kids driving tired, and I suppose our parents worried about us, not to mention old guys doze off with the slightest amount of relaxing music, or after a big breakfast, so I would worry if I had to be the driver now. Lol
