Do you hunt from home?

[Glendon Mullins]

yes I can literally walk 100 yards out my front door and be on national forest

I do out of state hunts more for the adventure and chances at bigger trophies than we have here

 

[Silveroddo]

I grew up with several hundred acres in the family surrounded by 10’s of thousands of acres of public ground I could be hunting on out the back door. Now I’m about 15-20 minutes away and we’ve been buying pieces of the family farm, hoping in the next 10 years to be physically back on that property so my son can experience some of that. 75% of my hunting takes place within 15-20 minutes of my back door. White tails and small game anyway.

 

[Yoder]

I live in NE PA. There are thousands of acres of public land all within an hour of my house. Most of the areas I hunt are less than 15 min away. I can even hunt NY and NJ.

 

[bozeman]

Yes, very blessed to be able to shoot deer in my yard and turkey hunt on about 100 acres of adjoining neighbor land. Can fish as well, neighbor who adjoins has two 7-10 acre ponds.

 

[cjdewese]

It's not easy but I have So Cal national forest out of my back yard and hunt from my house most of the time.

Feel pretty blessed to have access to nature so close.

 

[Olympics777]

I occasionally still camp but the last few years my most successful areas for deer and elk have been 30 minutes from my house so I just go home at night. I might start backpack hunting more seriously next year if I have the time though, I miss it.

 

[Hnthrdr]

I have a couple from home places and most are not. it’s just the nature and reality of front range Co these days. buddies dad was killing deer on the hog back west of c470 back in the day, so jealous. My wife’s family is all from Prescott,AZ spending time down there, there is loads of hunting 15-45 min in every direction from town, most of my spots are 1.5-2.5 hour drive just to get there. I’m about as close to the hills as you can get on the west side, but population growth, and type of people who moved to Co has put a damper on a lot of the things you used to be able to do close to town. There are still a couple folks that will let you hunt on close properties but way different these days.

 

[TaperPin]

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

 

[Meshnasty]

I can be in elk within 45 mins of leaving the house. Even with that I’d rather stay on the mountain and get more sleep. The wife and kids like if I drop in midweek to hang out for a night though.

My limit for a day hunt is about a 3-4 hour drive. Anymore than that and I like to spend the night.

 

[Wallace]

Whitetail, some bear, some upland hunting from the house. Whitetail I'm hunting within 5 minutes of leaving my back door (walking).

Ducks and geese I'm not in my main bed, but I have a camp with my own room and sleep there.

Everything else is camping, house rental, or hotels.

 

[TSnave]

As I grow older (I'm 57), I've been laughing about my circles getting smaller. How far from home am I willing to go? How far from the truck am I willing to go? I am fortunate in that I can hunt mule deer within a few hundred yards of my house and have lots of access to whitetail and elk within an easy drive. When I retire in a few years I may get back into some overnight expeditions, but for now I prefer hunting from home.

 

[LeftyWilbury]

it's a 30 minute drive for me to my preferred hunting spot. but i can hunt for elk deers and bear within 2 miles of home if i wanted to.

that said, montana sucks, don't move here. i hear idaho is nicer. they have two time zones you can pick from and a trader joes in boise

 

[robby denning]

After a trip to the shooting range I was talking w my father about how hunting has changed, the technology, and the travel involved.

Anyway we were wondering how many folks get to hunt from the house anymore? Sleep in your own bed set an alarm and go hunting. It seems with guys chasing the best perceived unit, out of state guys, and heck even front "rangers" setting up camps that it is getting less and less as in my fathers day they never traveled to hunt.. Now I am lucky as most of my scouting/hunting is from home w overnights and 2 nights mixed in there. Or almost everything I hunt is a hour or 2 from the front door even if ya count the hike, dirt bike, side by side, or jeep to approach.

So how many of you guys sleep in your own bed and hunt from your house? Does not matter what ya hunt just wondering how many folks get to hunt like this and what ya are hunting?

about 10-20% of my deer hunts are still from home I'd guess. proabably about the same % as it's always been.

If it's more than about 50 miles, I really prefer to stay there. Hate being late!

 

[mtnbiker208]

my biggest bucks, came from my yard.

 

[ceejay]

I can deer on the property that I live on, for which I am incredibly grateful that I have it and I am able to do this. That being said, I honestly miss the "deer camps" from my younger days. In a lot of ways, I wish my son could experience the comradery of a group hunting together. But times have changed.

 

[Poser]

I left my place at 5 am this morning, drove 25 minutes and hunted until 10 AM during 3rd rifle.
I have a number of spots within a 15-45 minute drive, but I also do quite a bit of backcountry hunting and truck camp hunting. 45 minutes is about my max preferred drive time when on the hunting clock.

 

[Firestone]

When it comes to deer, I chased the "better" hunting opportunities within my home state when I was younger. I believe I'm more effective hunting my local ranges even though the odds are statistically against me. You hunt them year after year and build a vast amount of local knowledge that is invaluable. I think local knowledge is highly underated and a lot of guys are chasing the new hot spots when there are mature bucks within a hour from home. If where I want to be at daylight is a long hike I will still spike out, but for the most part I am sleeping in my own bed.

For elk I'm not picky and typically kill the first 5 point that gives me a shot. So I still like to bounce around for the adventure aspect of it, but there seems to be elk everywhere and it's usually not to hard to find a five point no matter what mountain range I decide to go to.