Fighting boredom in all day sits.

[Scoot]

I don't really enjoy all day sits. I will occasionally do it, but rarely. It's just not my jam. Even when I do an all day sit I'll often change stands mid day.

 

[satchamo]

I fight it by not sitting all day. I think it’s an extremely unproductive use of time…

 

[UncleBone]

Take a nap. Ive woken up to several deer walking through crunching leaves, and even shot a few of them.

 

[huntinfool84]

When i went out East i found it very boring sitting in a tree all day!! I would put in 1 air pod with random podcasts to listen to. Probably not the best thing to do but it got me by.

 

[Robobiss]

This is terrain dependent, but in my AO even rifle hunting I’m very unlikely to shoot a deer or have a shot at one I didn’t hear first. If I shot one tomorrow that I didn’t hear before I saw it or could shoot it, it would be the first one.

I dub off, I play on my phone, I’ll even close my eyes or stare at a tree. My ears do all of my hunting for me. The second there’s a sound that’s suspect whatever I’m doing or thinking about goes away and it’s 1000% concentration. It’s amazing how well your ears can tell the difference between a squirrel and a deer with near 100% accuracy after you have listened to enough of them.

At least half the deer I’ve shot in the last decade (probably 75%) I was scrolling on my phone when they showed up. To this day screwing off on my phone or otherwise has yet to cost me a deer. I’ll probably cut it out if that ever happens.

I’m a millenial I can’t help it

 

[robtattoo]

4 hours is my absolute sitting still limit & that takes an audiobook & earbuds these days.
Nowadays, I much prefer to pick & choose the perfect wind, weather, moon phase etc.... & go sit for shorter, 2 hour stints.
Oddly, I find myself seeing & shooting many more deer since I started hunting this way, vs just arbitrarily hunting whenever I have 'spare time'

Quality over quantity, man!

 

[dtrkyman]

I use my phone when I have signal, even have listened to podcasts, shot a nice tom once while listening to a podcast, even had the phone on speaker no ear buds so I can still hear things around me.

Better chance at killing something while distracted than sitting on the couch!

 

[WV Mountaineer]

I’m surprised by the number of guys who have cell service where they hunt.

Whitetail hunting where I do, my phone functions for a map and a clock. Other than that it’s useless. No service. I like that.

 

[Maverick1]

I am a bit surprised by the responses on this thread. Yes, there is definitely a difference going from active elk hunting mode, climbing up the mountains and being active all day - to passive deer hunting mode, sitting in a treestand and doing nothing for literally hours at a time.

I just got done doing all-day sits for 16 days in a row (except for the day in the middle dealing with logistics and travel to hunt another state.) Outside of that, it was all-day sits for 16 out of 18 days.

I just figure the best way to kill a nice buck is to be on stand. Takes quite a bit of time and energy to hike in (20-60 minutes), setup the climbing sticks and stand (45 minutes), hunt for a couple of hours, and then take it all down again - just to do it again in the afternoon. Also leaves behind quite a bit of ground scent and disturbance.

If I have confidence in my scouting and know that a good buck is in the area, I have no problem sitting all day. If the spot is good, the odds increase of shooting that particular deer. On the rare occasion that confidence is not there, then I will relocate to an area where I know a good buck is in the area. But, that is rare.

To answer the question posed by the OP: how do I manage boredom? I really don't get bored on stand. Just stay alert. Unplug and don't think about life. Just focus on hunting and enjoy being outdoors. Many years ago I used to listen to sports on radio using a portable radio and earphones. Had a nice deer walk underneath me as my hearing was compromised - stopped using the headphones that day. That was about 20 years ago.