How many days this fall hunting?

ncstewart

WKR
Joined
Jul 18, 2016
Messages
382
Just wondering how many days everyone spends actually hunting each fall?
I live in Arkansas and kinda a geek when it comes to tracking stats so that I can make my time as productive as possible. I keep a log of how many sits I get each year as well as hours per sit and weather and such.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Joined
Feb 5, 2014
Messages
1,324
Location
Tulsa Ok
8 full days for elk.

Deer..hate to say it....3 or 4 sits unless I draw some kind of special hunt. Kind of lost the fire for whitetail hunting.
 

N2TRKYS

WKR
Joined
Apr 17, 2016
Messages
3,954
Location
Alabama
Just wondering how many days everyone spends actually hunting each fall?
I live in Arkansas and kinda a geek when it comes to tracking stats so that I can make my time as productive as possible. I keep a log of how many sits I get each year as well as hours per sit and weather and such.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Come on now. You can't tell me about all that data you've collected and not give me any correlations that you've observed. Lol I'm curious to hear about it.

60+ for whitetails
 
Last edited:

Nuke Man

WKR
Joined
May 1, 2014
Messages
553
Location
Midwest
According to my wife, too many. Including trapping season easily over 100 days in the fall/winter. With spring turkey and bear, I don't even want to guess!
 
OP
ncstewart

ncstewart

WKR
Joined
Jul 18, 2016
Messages
382
Well last year I had 14 sits for deer 60 hrs total. 16 days for turkey and I don't track hrs for them. Fewest days I've put in in my life. In the past I have had as many as 70 days actually hunting not counting scouting. Had my first child so kinda slowed down the hunting.
I have two years worth of data due to a house fire I lost 6 years worth of data. The one thing I learned when I started keeping track was how much wasted time I racked up. By tracking it I have definitely been able to make more quality sits when I do go.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
OP
ncstewart

ncstewart

WKR
Joined
Jul 18, 2016
Messages
382
According to my wife, too many. Including trapping season easily over 100 days in the fall/winter. With spring turkey and bear, I don't even want to guess!

Lol. I use to run a 30-40 set trap line so I know what ya mean! That takes an insane amount of work and time


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

cnelk

WKR
Joined
Mar 1, 2012
Messages
6,798
Location
Colorado
All I can... plus 1

After last year [ 4 different states and 4 big game animals in 4 months], Im just going to go when I can
 

N2TRKYS

WKR
Joined
Apr 17, 2016
Messages
3,954
Location
Alabama
Well last year I had 14 sits for deer 60 hrs total. 16 days for turkey and I don't track hrs for them. Fewest days I've put in in my life. In the past I have had as many as 70 days actually hunting not counting scouting. Had my first child so kinda slowed down the hunting.
I have two years worth of data due to a house fire I lost 6 years worth of data. The one thing I learned when I started keeping track was how much wasted time I racked up. By tracking it I have definitely been able to make more quality sits when I do go.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I would love to read some of your findings on the best days that you've found and what you thought made them better.
 

Scrappy

WKR
Joined
Jun 5, 2013
Messages
766
It's always one day short of being fired and or divorced. Then it starts all over again the next year building up credit to do it all over again.

Last year I filled my rut tag at 3pm on the day before thanksgiving. Had to be home that night or else. Killed my late season tag on the last morning of the season. Had to be back to work the next day or else. You could say I like to get my money's worth out of each tag.
 

mlob1one

WKR
Joined
Mar 18, 2015
Messages
430
This is the max as I hope to tag out before I hit each max per animal and is for days in the field not evenings or afternoons. Still new to archery so that's my rationale for taking this amount of time off.
Archery elk- 10 days
Archery muley- 10 days
(I have the multi season tag for muleys so if I don't arrow one...)
Rifle muley- 5 days.
Late season cow elk- 5 days (plus lots of time behind the glass).

For my sons, and this may overlap with some of my hunting...
Rifle Elk- 5 days.
Late season rifle cow- 5 days.

Good luck everyone. I hope I am the 10% this year that fills his tag and his freezer.

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk
 
Joined
Mar 15, 2017
Messages
867
Location
PA
5 days for elk (first time)
hopefully at least 4 full days for whitetail archery in the mountains
maybe 6-8 morning evening sits at home
2-3 days for rifle is archery doesn't get it done.

I'll have a newborn at home this fall so that might change things a bunch. My wife absolutely loves cooking and eating wild game, so she want me to go as often as I can. I guess I lucked out in a big way!
 
Joined
Mar 21, 2017
Messages
364
Really depends. For spring bear, the season is pretty long. So I'm out 3-4 days a week for those 2 months or so. In fall I do the same. If I have a cow tag as well, I take a week off just for the extra time I need.
 
Joined
Feb 17, 2017
Messages
649
Just happen to have my excel sheet available to check my numbers for you...fellow numbers geek myself...
Since 2006 when I started tracking/keeping log books... here are my yearly averages:

Bow whitetail: 168hrs a year in the tree...8.7days dark to dark sits...and rest are 2-4 hr sits
average hours per mature whitetail buck killed: 264
average hours per 3yr old passed or killed: 52.8
average hours per 4yr old+ within 100yds: 102.66
average hours per 170"+ encounter: 924.0
*this year I celebrated my 100th dark to dark sit...big milestone for me*

Rifle whitetail: 76hrs a year in a tree or walking...2.6days dark to dark sits and rest are walking/still hunting hours
average hours per mature whitetail buck killed: 418
average hours per 3yr old passed or killed: 139.33
average hours per 4yr old+ within 100yrds: 418
average hours per 170"+ encounter: N/A

-I don't want to look at how many hours I spend scouting or prepping...that may be a bit scary...

Elk:
I don't have any tracking for elk hunts...but average probably 5 days a year?

Turkey:
No tracking as well...but probably 6-10 days a year and another half dozen taking other people.
 

fiskeri1

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jun 1, 2016
Messages
196
This fall:
12 days archery antelope/velvet mule deer
12 days archery elk
10 days late season archery mule deer/javelina

All in AZ.

Kind of unprecedented for me.
 

KJH

WKR
Joined
May 10, 2016
Messages
547
60-80 days would be my guess. Starting September 1st ending in February or early march depending on the snow conditions.

60-70% of it is hunting waterfowl and upland game.
 

BuzzH

WKR
Joined
May 27, 2017
Messages
2,229
Location
Wyoming
Depends on the year and depends on the tags I draw...I've spent over 100 days a year scouting/hunting in the past.

Sort of slowed down the last several years, but still manage 30-50 days a year actually hunting, most all of it big-game these days.

Its looking like over 50 this year with big-game tags in WY, AZ, and MT.
 

Skyhigh

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
May 9, 2015
Messages
276
Location
Eastern Montana
Good topic, I am surprised how closely many of you follow it! I try to keep track of it, but sometimes forget. I sat for archery whitetail for 18, 4-5 hour sits before harvesting a buck. I sat once to harvest a doe, about forty five minutes on stand. For archery mule deer I hunted four days, having one shot opportunity and one draw but no shot, didn't harvest a deer. Rifle I hunted for three days, shot a buck on the third day. Between waterfowl, upland game, turkeys, and big game I would guess I hit around 45-50 days in which I hunt part of the day, but probably only 15 or so of those days are full days. Scouting adds in a whole new element which would be hard to total, because a lot of my scouting is done while at work.
 
Top