How much of a hunter are you?
 

1- Do you try and hunt every week say October threw January? Deer, small game, varmints, etc?

2- Do you take multiple weeks of vacation for hunting if you work?

3- How much time do you spend scouting and putting up tree stands, putting out cameras etc prior to hunting season?

4- Do you hunt public or private land mostly?

1. yes

2. retired

3. Spend much of the off season hiking, but don't really scout everywhere i could end up hunting, because it is so far. Much of the off season i play tag with deer on public land close to home. When i have a tag in hand, i drive many miles to get to public land, and go hunting, without scouting much.

4. hunt public land only

When I was younger, I used to hunt ever possible chance I got. But the older I have got, then the more I have cut back on my hunting. Mostly due to health.

Being retired, I hunt when and as much as I want.

I take a walk through my woods every day. If you call that scouting. And I like to wander game trails. I have permanent tree stands. So I don't put them up anymore.

And I hunt private land but do sometimes wander out onto the Federal Forest.

#1 I used to. The chukar hunting has gotten poor over the last few years and I don't pound it like I used to.

#2 yes, and I take at least a week for fishing.

#3- it depends. If I have a super good tag I scout every weekend before the hunt for about a month.

#4- public land only.
I have friends that own land and Idaho has plenty of Access yes land but I don't hunt private. I used to ask but every time I did I got the same thing. I used to let hunters on but they shot my cows or my irrigation lines, or what ever. Then I had to sit through a two hour lecture on how hunters are the worst SOB' in the world. Or I ran into the land owners that think I should pay 100 dollars to hunt the barren plowed field. I am sic of land owners and I won't hunt their land if they ask me to. I lump them in the same heap that they lump me into. I haven't hunted private land for at least 10 years and I don't want to. Not even for the biggest buck or bull in the world. Ron

My Family had a farm in Ladysmith Wisconsin. I went there about 40 years ago. I wanted to go back and hunt but never got around to it. Ron

I hunt most weekends 12 months a year for big game, plus at least 2-3 weeks of my annual leave as well. During that time I also try to squeeze in ducks and quail during their seasons. Scout red and fallow deer but while they're growing antlers sambar are hard so its year round bone down this way :)
Depends on what I'm hunting as to whether its private or public.

It keeps me sane!

1. I used to hunt every available day I could Oct thru Jan, then Turkey in spring, etc. Now with a son playing HS football (they lost states last weekend :() and baseball, and a daughter in MS sports... I don't have nearly the time that I used to. I still hunt a good amount, but not like I used to. I'll get back to my old ways eventually, just right now this is the situation I'm in...and I'm good with it. Wouldn't trade it for a second.

2. I take 1 week specifically for hunting every year, opening week of WV rifle. We go to our cabin. Since I work for myself, I have the ability to go whenever I like..just have to schedule it in.

3. See #1, used to be a ton...now, not as much. I have alot of stands already set up that stay out all season. I just started game cameras this year...love it. Got 2 nice bucks showed up in the past couple weeks right behind my house :happy0001:

4. I hunt private only. I own land where I live in VA, and we have a big farm where our cabin is in WV.

How much of a hunter am I????

My freezer is full!!!!!!!!!!!! ;)

Four deer in a week, been passing on deer since the end of October....

Yes. i try to hunt at least one day of the week all year long. Hog hunting is a big deal for me.

i'm semi-retired; most of my consulting work is done from home.

A few hours each week.

Oklahoma has a dearth of public hunting land. The vast majority of my hunting is done on private property, including my own. i've killed a lot of deer on Ft. Sill over the years.

4- Do you hunt public or private land mostly?


Why would this matter?????????????

1- Do you try and hunt every week say October threw January? Deer, small game, varmints, etc?
If I can. Problem is, the U.S. Navy often decides they have better things for me to do than hunt every weekend. But if I'm in the USA I'm usually hunting every chance I get

2- Do you take multiple weeks of vacation for hunting if you work?
Well, let's see, I have hunted CO, WY, MT, CA, HI, NE, KS, TX, FL, AL, VA, PA, NH in the USA. I have hunted British Columbia and Sask in Canada. I have hunted South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Cameroon in Africa. Does that count?

3- How much time do you spend scouting and putting up tree stands, putting out cameras etc prior to hunting season?
Lots of time scouting but I don't use tree stands or game cameras. I still hunt and track. I'm more concerned about knowing where they are moving and where they are feeding and I'll do the rest one step at a time, unguided, by myself.

4- Do you hunt public or private land mostly?
Both. I hunt private land, state land, national forests, national wildlife refuges and military bases. If I can legally get on it, I'll hunt it.

1. yes from the start of bow season until through march. Feb and march is mostly squirrel and the conservation goose hunt.

2. I take a week for muzzy hunting and the opening week of gun season.

3. I plant and maintain food plots on the places that I hunt every summer. I have 7 game cams that I put out around the first of July and take up the end of Feb. I have ladder stands for the permanent places that I hunt and have 2 summits and 1 API if I choose to hunt in different locations.

4. Private mostly, I hunt 3 different farms one is in the river bottoms in the delta. Its flat land where rice, soy beans, corn, and peanuts are grown. The other two farms are hill ground, rocky with poor ground, cattle are raised here. One of the hill farms the north and west borders is a WMA (public ground) I do some bowhunting on it every year.

1. I used to. Now with two boys both under 3 there are days i just feel like waking them up to eggs and sausage in the morning. Or more often now just go out for a little get a squirrel or two and bring them home for scrambled eggs and squirrel.

2. Never needed to

3. When not out fishing (Windy days) will head into the woods for a bit check the areas out and check trail cams. Last season been scouting for a bit areas i never been to before, always better to have more areas.

4. Public land but the land is only opened when the base determines it so some days you may find all areas closed and you got nothing to do.

People who hunt public land have a lot more opstacles to over come over people who hunt private land.

I start in Aug baiting for the bear opener 1 Sept. Then wait for deer archery 1 Oct sometimes throw in a week for moose in Oct as well. 2 weeks for deer in Nov and another for deer in Dec if we get drawn.
Then it's bunny time till Feb. Turkey in May. Then fishing till Aug.

I'm always looking whenever I'm in the bush and if I feel the need to move a stand I do. I usually set up/ move two or three stands each year.

I hunt Public land only so getting away from the crowd is paramount.

Somewhere in between all of this I visit with my wife.:rolleye0011::love::happy0001:

HA

Been hunting the Uwharrie National Forest since 1983...

Buck from this year...






Buck from last year....

Slight difference between the uwharrie arrive and say croatan or holly shelter

1- The only thing I hunt for is deer. Our bow season starts around the middle of September, and I hunt every chance I get thru the end of the year. So YES, I do hunt every week during those months.

2- I take maybe a few days off for vacation if I am working. My job is pretty flexible, so I usually have some time off anyways.

3- My hunting spot is about 15 acres, and I run 4 trail cams year round. So that is my scouting. I have hunted this spot for about 10 years, so I pretty much know it like the back of my hand, and I dont like to pressure the deer there, so I try to stay out unless I am checking cams. I do try to get out as soon as the snow melts to do some shed hunting, and to just look around. I have 6 ladder stands, that stay out year round. I might move a couple of them thru out the year.

4- Private Land.

Yep, they just walk right up to me and ask to be shot... ;)

Im not taking a shot at you just expressing the the Uwharrie is probably second in the state for public lands to hunt. Other areas like the Croatan or Holly Shelter are over populated with hunters leading to smaller less mature deer. If I narrowed my point down to anything think the difference between Public Land and Private can each be categorized into what makes one area better then others. Pressure, size, vegetation, predation, etc. You can have crappy private land with these same issues just as you can have great public lands by managing these categories. Any hunter then has the reasonable ability to mitigate or manage whether the land he is hunting on is better or worse to an extent. You lose more control on public land but there are places on public land that have great opportunities.

Do you try and hunt every week say October threw January? Deer, small game, varmints, etc?
Just deer, and the last few years just the two weeks of muzzlelaoder season. I will occasionally go try to call in a coyote, but not with any regularity.

2- Do you take multiple weeks of vacation for hunting if you work?
No. In the past I've tried to take off a couple extra days around my regular days off. This year I just didn't work on my days off.

3- How much time do you spend scouting and putting up tree stands, putting out cameras etc prior to hunting season?
Not as much as I would like. I've tried a couple food plots but have yet to get one to grow successfully. I try to put up a camera or two do some scouting, but I'm sure I could do more.

4- Do you hunt public or private land mostly?
I hunt our farm. I don't know what there is for private land here. Before moving to MN I hunted almost exclusively public land in WY.