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How Far Do You Travel To Hunt?

Fortunate to have over 50K acres of public land (6 WMAs, 2 St. Forest) within 45 min. drive, a majority of it less than 20 mins. The main parcel I hunt is under 3 mins to parking spot. Next go to is at ~5 mins. Really wanting to get out of state atleast once a year once I learn my saddle game a little next year.
 
I hunt one public tract that is about 20 min drive from my house and I have permission to hunt a small private 13 ac tract about 40 min away. However, I just did some scouting on some public land where I grew up, which is an hour and 45 min away that I'll probably invest at least a few sits this fall. Fortunately, my brother still lives there so I'll have a place to stay, if needs be.
 
Been going to CO to chase elk the last few years. That's 18 hours one way. Backpack in or can set up at the truck. Most of my hunting here is either done on public down in the SE part of state, 2 hours away or at a friends farm up in the north part of the state, 3 hours away. Farm has a house and we have a mobile home about 10 minutes off the public down south.
 
25% of the time I hunt 100 acres out my back door.
50% of the time I hunt parts of the several thousand acres of public less then 10 min. from my house.
25% of the time I hunt about 16,000 acres of public that borders a small camp we have that is about 1 hour from my house. The trips to our camp are almost always weekend trips. We have a couple of older campers that we stay in.
 
One place a 30 mind drive I found a deer trail coming from a bedding area about 100 yards from my car. Set up on it and had 3 does come about a lot 1/2 before sunset.

My theory is a lot of hunters bust on through past them and go deep so they are happy to be left alone by the road.

Another place is 3 km from my house and a 500 yard walk down a trail.

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I can be on public land within an hour, depending on which property I go to. My brother has property three hours away. So that's usually a weekend trip. Otherwise I don't have permission to hunt any properties that are close by. Hopefully one day I will own a chunk of land.
 
I’m pretty lucky in having close land to hunt. I own 10 acres at the house I can hunt and have access to the neighbors 23. We’re looking at purchasing 50 acres 3.5 miles from my house. I have two large private farms that are a 15 minute drive. A really good private farm that is a 30 minute drive, and I can be on multiple public pieces in 3-15 minutes.


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I start in Wy. 28hrs one way for prairie dogs (loads of fun) then 30hrs to Co. for elk and deer, we do a drop camp there with an outfitter. Whitetail is only 20min drive on a small private farm of a friend.
 
20-45 mins to hunt a few small private spots or bow only public chunks. Then 2 1/2 hrs to get to my cabin in the mountains...... then access to 50k acres 10mins from there.
 
25 min - 2.5 hours, if I stay I camp out in the designated camp spots at the wma. we have a lot of 400 acre public parcels, but to get where you have a better chance to harvest a animal we have to travel to the larger parcels of 20,000 acres and more.
 
10 minutes to 2.5 hours. When I'm hunting local there's some good state land spots available between 6 and 10 miles from home. These are spots I typically hunt during the week after work and late season.

The more distant spots are areas my buddies and I have hunted for decades and I pull my camper there and hunt remote for long weekends through October and the first two weeks of November. I can put the camper on state land for up to 15 days (termed Dispersed Camping here in Michigan) as long as its not unoccupied for more than 24 hours at a stretch. I typically run home about once a week during November for a shower and to bug the wife. Other than that the truck hardly ever moves once the camper's parked.

The wife calls hunting season her vacation. Not really sure what she's trying to say . . . . :tearsofjoy: :tearsofjoy: :tearsofjoy:
 
I can walk out my door and hunt on public behind my property, drive just under 30 minutes to three other public lands, two of which are in a neighboring state or drive 45 minutes to yet another few public areas. I used to strictly hunt behind my house when I was a tree****d hunter but since I've been "enlightened" I have expanded my home range significantly and saw some nice shooters, two of which I've already begun scouting for in those areas and planning my ambush sites for the upcoming season.
 
3 hrs most of the time drive & make day hunts. Hunts aren’t bad, but it’s tough to do offseason scout trips that require 6 hrs of driving.
 
live in South Florida with crappy options for public land. Usually drive 3-6 hours (EACH way) to hunt public land in state. Will camp (usually) or cheap hotel for 3-5 night trips. Will make 4-6 trips between October and January.
 
I am very blessed. I have a buddy that owns 134 acres, I'm the only one he lets hunt there with the exception of himself. He's not a bowhunter either just gun hunts but he has started x-bow hunting over the last two years. Our community also has 1,500 acres of watershed property that is available to residents and landowners only, they just have to go to the municipal office and get a free permit. Finally, I am within from 8-20 minutes of state land. For the first time ever this past season I started also hunting in PA. That is a 35 minute drive. On occasion, I go back to my old family farm (although my family no longer owns it) I do have permission to hunt there if I want. That is about an hour away.
 
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I’ll drive up to an hour away during archery. Since 80-95 degrees is out norm I prefer to hunt presets and most of those are within a half hour to 45 minutes. I’ll drive a couple hours and scout all day and may bow hunt that evening. My lease is about 15 minutes from home. Apparently I just watch deer on my lease
 
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