How many days a year do you get to spend in the backcountry?

[Lawnboi]

Seems like you guys who live west have it made! The ability to drive a couple hours and be in some awsome expanses of land. If i was out there i would be in the woods every chance I got!

Around me we basically have nothing. Walking around in the woods around here just isnt the same, its flat, all the same, crawling with swamps and mosquitos. And to find a decent size chunk of land without roads or atv trails going through it is almost impossible.

I live east for now, I plan on moving in a few years and until im done with school im very limited to what i can do. However iv got to admit i have it better than alot of guys. 3 weeks of vacation, plus ill take a good number of extended weekend scouting, and possibly hunting trips this year.

My goal this year is to book a 30 nights in the backcountry living off my back, i feel very fortuate to get this amount of time and cherish each day i get to spend out of the city.

So how many days do you get out and sleep on the ground a year? Hunting, fishing, scouting, shed hunting dosnt matter.

 

[luke moffat]

My job enables me to have 180+ days off a year without counting vacation or any leave without pay if I so choose and its in 2 weeks off at a time.

For me it depends on what you consider backcountry. I can be in the hills 20 minutes from my house, but I can still see the town and what not below me, I like to hike and work out up there as it beats the gym any day But that just doesn't seem like backcountry just cause I am in the mountains and away from buildings. I average around 70-100 days a year in the backcountry hiking and packing.

Getting out as much as possible is what its all about. Though at times I do envy you guys that can deer hunt within a 30 minute drive of your hours every evening after work. Nearly all my hunts start with 2-6 hour drive from my driveway to the trail head, or involve hopping a plane or two as well to get to the desired location.

 

[Lawnboi]

While i enjoy driving 30min to a few hours to hunt whitetail around me, i wouldnt count that. It just isnt anything like hunting off your back. I love to hunt, and sitting in a treestand is still getting out. But its just not an adventure like it is when you go on those big trips.

And i tend to get pretty bored sitting in the stand.

I envy you guys that get to spend 100+ days out a year.... maybe someday I will be able to do that

 

[Rick Seymour]

Last year 2 days...unfortunate year, poor year, sad year, unlucky year, all of those mentioned. The year before I was pushing 60 days in the back country I believe I figured out

 

[Rod]

While I can walk out my back door to some great whitetail hunting here in Iowa, spend min. 50 days hunting.
I still train & dream all year for 9 - 14 days in the mountains!

 

[rebecca francis]

Last year I spent 110 days hunting. That was a really busy year. Most years I spend about 45 days or so days.

 

[mattstanton]

My job enables me to have 180+ days off a year without counting vacation or any leave without pay if I so choose and its in 2 weeks off at a time.

For me it depends on what you consider backcountry. I can be in the hills 20 minutes from my house, but I can still see the town and what not below me, I like to hike and work out up there as it beats the gym any day But that just doesn't seem like backcountry just cause I am in the mountains and away from buildings. I average around 70-100 days a year in the backcountry hiking and packing.

Getting out as much as possible is what its all about. Though at times I do envy you guys that can deer hunt within a 30 minute drive of your hours every evening after work. Nearly all my hunts start with 2-6 hour drive from my driveway to the trail head, or involve hopping a plane or two as well to get to the desired location.

what do you do and can I help!!!!! I need a job like that!!!

 

[dotman]

what do you do and can I help!!!!! I need a job like that!!!

Yeah no crap, sign me up.

I usually spend 20 - 30 hunting and try to add another 20 or so days hiking and camping. True backcountry time is around 12 - 15 days. Hard to get in the backcountry from KS but not hard to get outdoors.

 

[ScottR_EHJ]

I work to get about 20-30 actually hunting per season, but it depends on how much I have going on during what is my typical days off. I can usually take off early on Thursdays, and don't have to be back until late on Saturday nights.

In August I will usually get about 7-10 days of scouting. July will have about 10 of fishing, and June I don't tend to get much. Sorry working backwards here.

 

[dreamingbig]

Around 15 between elk season and scouting. I would love to get up to 30 but family obligations prevent that for now.

 

[craitchky]

Out west I will have a total of 10 days this season, but that includes a total of 3 days driving. For whitetail here in IL, it is a 20 min drive from my weekend place.
Next season, I am going to try and save up my vacation so I can spend an actual 10-14 days in the back country.

 

[Juan_ID]

Although I don't back country hunt I spent I think around 20-25 days hunting last season, whether it was morning/afternoon antelope hunts, or full day deer, antelope or elk hunts and that didn't include the 10-12 days I spent scouting... So that puts me around 35 days give or take a few... Wish I could get away for a little longer but it is what it is. This season I am looking to use a whole week + weekends to try n get my deer tag filled and drive to the desert after work everyday trying to tag an antelope. N if I get my deer soon enough then drive a couple hours north in late September to try an OTC archery elk hunt for atleast 4-5 days... So that'd put me somewhere in the neighborhood of around 20-25 days hunting total + atleast 10 days of scouting... So right about the same as last year...

 

[Backpack Hunter]

......well the majority of my time comes from 2-3 day excursions living out of my backpack. If you count those then last year I had 120 days. If you don't count those then 14 consecutive days.

 

[RosinBag]

I will spend about 30 total in the wilderness out of a back pack. I will get about 15 more from a base camp that I will drive to and hunt from there each day. I can't get many more days from that off work.

 

[flytrait]

Not near enough..

 

[littlebuf]

out of a backpack in strictly "back country" a couple weeks.this year im going to add a few trips so maybe a little more.but in the mountains hunting/scouting/hiking im well over a 100 days a year out there.but i live at the base of the cascades and it literally takes me 20 minutes to get to the mountains.my wife can tell if its been to long (like a week) and she just looks at me and says go to the woods.

 

[Aron Snyder]

My wife kept track last year and I had 103 nights in the wilderness and 145 total days afield.

She must have a boyfriend, because she's pretty cool about me being gone that much

This season I'm getting a late start because of my arm, but I will finish strong!

 

[BackcountryBull]

I have it very fortunate as I work in the backcountry for my job doing fisheries research work. We typically backpack all summer into remote locations for 8 days at a time, then I have 6 days off. We carry everything on our backs...all the gear and all the food. A lot of those days off are spent backpacking for fun and scouting for bowhunting. We do this work starting in April and go until October for the backcountry work. And add all the hunting trips that I backpack for equals quite a bit of hiking and sleeping under the stars!! So I roughly get a full 5 months of sleeping in the backcountry whether it be for hunting, work or a fun hiking trip, not counting my days off when I don't backpack, or office days during that time.

The main benefit of work is I am in backpacking shape well before hunting season carrying all of our work gear. Plus I use that as a means for testing out new backpacking gear of mine that I plan on using for hunting.

 

[JG358]

Not enough!

 

[bearguide]

sixty days average