Depends on who you are working for. You'll get a set amount of vacation like any other job... how you use it depends on your family requirements.

My godfather was until recently my Dad's counterpart in wildlife (he's actually the director of the whole agency now... THE boss over wildlife, non-game and fisheries who reports directly to the governor, the board and the sec of natural resources). He is also one the the leading authorities in the country on whitetail deer... and if VA could have a "mayor" it would be him. he is a super super guy, and heck of a hunter and hell I can't say enough good stuff about him. He gets to hunt a lot, but thats how he spends most of his vacation time. He enjoys doing field work, always has. When you make it to that level, you can kinda decide what direction you want to go in. But keep in mind, both he and my dad have one or more post grad degrees (I don't know if Bob has a Ph. D or not) and they are top in their fields... and have been working for the state for over 35 years each.

The best way to get paid to hunt is to invent something... think about all the guys who see who are really filthy rich big shots hunting on TV... they are marketing and business geniuses... the two or three big hitters (Bill Jordan, Toxy Haas and Will Primos) found a niche and put their products in it. Bill's secret (he is the one to look at in my opinion) was to find a way to put his product on EVERYTHING and collect a royalty on it. He bascially did what Bill Gates did with Microsoft... make everything need it to work! Toxy did much the same thing. Primos started with game calls, and started to expand into accessories when he sold the controlling shares of his company to a third party investment firm whose name I don't remember.

Now, look at the guys who work for these big hitters.... Waddell, Blanton, Cuz Strickland, Brad Ferris, Troy Ruiz etc etc.... most of them will tell you that the way they got their job was pure 100% being in the right place at the right time and knowing the right person. They each have their own ways they found themselves in the right place... Waddell's for example was competition turkey calling... which is also how a lot of the HS guys got their starts like Ray Eye, Alex Rudledge, and Eddie Salter. Almost all your bigtime waterfowl guys either make calls or blow calls on stage. Some like the duck commander are just flat out people that others like to talk with and see on TV, and they are genuine and real enough to stick to products. Lee and Tiff are two I can't figure out. I don't know how they made it. I know Lee was a Chem Engineer, so he probably had some pretty big money for a pretty big farm... and since he's a pretty damn good hunter anyway and had a pretty wife that took to it as well... they were marketable. They hunt largely on their own property, and film their own hunts.. so Scent-loks investment in them was probably fairly small to start... once you make a name.. you can run with it. Problem with it now is everybody wants to do it, and a lot of those avenues are closing up fast.

Me and my old lady have our ideas... and we have our contacts... but what we don't have is ANY startup money... hell we just now got a piece of furnature to sit on that doesn't fold up to take to the beach....