What do you do for work/profession?

[RickDalton]

I’m always curious what everyone on Rokslide does for a living and how it impacts your ability to hunt.

A few questions for the group:

1. What’s your job or profession?
2. Do you enjoy it overall?
3. How much time are you realistically able to dedicate to hunting each year (days in the field)?
4. Does your job help or hurt your hunting opportunities?

Some careers seem to allow a ton of flexibility for hunting seasons, while others make it tough to get away.

Interested to hear what different paths look like and how guys balance work with time in the mountains along with various tradeoffs.

 

[hunterjmj]

Commercial refrigeration. I love it and feel blessed I do this for a living. I work for myself so I have to be available 24/7/365 but I can usually hunt 10-12 days/year. Able to push off non emergency service calls a couple days. Back when I worked for a company I usually took off 7-8 days in a row and took a couple long weekends.

 

[MichiganMan25]

Construction, building houses and what not. It allows me to take a couple diy trips a year. I usually take about 6 weeks off every fall to just hunt, plus a week in the spring for scouting. Hoping I can keep that up!
I enjoy it enough, but I enjoy the hunting more. Being able to take the time off has been great.
I should mention I'm not very good with money

 

[Andrew12gauge]

I am a CDL driver for a regional convenience grocery distributor. I run 2 routes a week, both around 24 hrs, the nice thing is I show up to work Monday night and I go to sleep for about 8-10 hrs before I start delivering, on Thursdays on the return from my second trip I’m sleeping about 6 hrs on the way home so if I have a big trip planned I usually take off late Thursday night. If you’re doing the math, yes that’s a 4 day weekend, EVERY WEEK! I make real close to 6 figures, I hunt a lot or at least do hunting adjacent activities, my job really never keeps me from hunting, the real issue I have is the 4 kids aged 18 mos-11 years at home, but the older kids hunt with me now.


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[RickDalton]

I’ll join in too.

Supply Chain in Defense. Live in the mountains though so chase elk for a week in September and early mornings before/after work along with weekends. Gets it done.

Have a family so work and family are a priority but get out as much as I can.

 

[Aussie Dan]

Forklift Driver and self employed contract shooter specialising in culling pests.
I love it!!!
Ive been a forky since I was 14, the business is only 2 years old.
I dont "hunt" as often as id like, but I still shoot a ton.

 

[UncleNommies]

I own an Asphalt maintenance business with my brother. Most of my work requires 50°F and higher temperatures. As you can guess, I stuff a years worth of work between March and early November here in the south, which is exhausting. This leaves most of deer season open! Im extremely blessed to be in the position I am! It provides for my family and allows my brother and I the opportunity to chase deer all over!

 

[CorbLand]

Finance dude for a government entity. I get tons of time off. I can hunt a shit load to be honest.

Love the job. The people I work with? Not as much. Only thing that makes it even kind of worth it is the time off.

 

[khart_6882]

Own a log truck in the Pacific Northwest

Hate every waking second of it

I usually take 2 weeks off every fall to hunt plus weekends

I work 80 hour weeks, so nearly the opposite of helping hunting opportunities

 

[Lil-Rokslider]

Farrier. Self employed, so I can take as much time off as I want, but PTO isn't a thing.

I really enjoy it, most of the time.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Nothing.

 

[Dave Thomas]

Auto mechanic. I hunt every weekend of deer season and take the week of Thanksgiving and the week between Christmas and new years off. Usually spend those weeks at the camp. Wife is alright with it as long as I'm home for Christmas eve, Christmas, new years eve and new years.

 

[huntnful]

1. Pipe Welder.
2. I do enjoy it overall, but not as much as I used to. Now it's just a means to afford my life and hunting. But I still don't mind it.
3. I normally take off most of Sept-Nov. and try to do 60-100 days in the field between scouting and hunting.
4. The job helps with being able to hunt more.

 

[Uncle Goonie]

Firefighter, enjoy it very much. I'm closing in on retirement so I get a decent amount of vacation and we can trade shifts with other guys so time off is generally no problem.

 

[wowzers]

I’m a forester in the NW. Spending 250+ days a year in the woods definitely didn’t hurt my hunting but as I have progressed in my career I find myself more in front of a windshield or computer. Overall I still enjoy it but I do miss the days of living in the woods. Hiking around all week with a cruiser vest full of paint and ribbon didn’t hurt the fitness level either.

 

[AZDC]

Mechanical Engineer. Yes, I love my job. I get to tackle new problems every day that challenge me & help me improve as a person/engineer. I get to design/build/test products that are on the leading edge of my industry. I get every other friday off, 12/24-1/2 off, 120 hours of PTO, and can earn flex time. Both of my bosses are hunters so they’re okay with me taking the time off to hunt. My job helps me hunt as no one works weekends and we are pretty much required to use our PTO or we lose it. I can hunt about every three days weekend so every two weeks and obviously can use my PTO to hunt. This past year I probably hunted a total of 25-30 days hoping to do more this year

 

[Billy Goat]

I just pretend I know what I'm doing, and people pretend to pay me.




Fortunately, I have a few other things in the fire.

I get as much vacation or PTO as they wanna call it anymore, so long as I'm game to pay for it

I'm self employed for a good while, in farm service or land management.

 

[rogerdoger]

Project Manager for a custom home builder. It used to be fun but now the clients act like little spoiled shits. Usually I am able to get one 7-9 day trip elk hunting a year. The job can get in the way of time off, definitely when project is closing in that time frame. Looking to go out on my own to get a bit more flexibility. Will get some more once my boy starts hunting.

 

[butcherboy]

Commercial butcher.
I’m really busy in the fall but can take any time off I need to hunt when me or my kids draw a tag. I barely process any wildgame anymore so it makes it easy to schedule times for domestic animals to come in plus I have a pretty decent crew that can get things done if I’m not there. I’ve been doing this for as long as I can remember and I’ll be 49 years old in a few months. I enjoy it but the pay isn’t really all that great and lots of stress when a freezer goes down.

 

[ropeup79]

Natural gas plant operator. I work 7on/7off, 12hr shifts with a hour drive each way. We get a decent amount of PTO as well so I can spend quite a bit of time in the field but the kid’s sports keeps us busy in the fall too.