How many hours?

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Bucky
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How many hours?

Unread postby Bucky » Thu May 31, 2012 12:32 am

How many hours do you spend in a tree during hunting season?

For me I figure roughly 150-180hrs in an average season whitetail hunting... not talking commute time, actual time in a tree.

Should be interesting to hear how many hours some of our big buck slammers spend in a tree.... I know I watched Spy go almost 6 all day sits in IL... I think I had right around 50hrs of tree time myself that week... most other guys were out and back at the shack by 10... even the BIG NAME TV guys :P


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Re: How many hours?

Unread postby PLB » Thu May 31, 2012 12:39 am

Over 120 hours in a tree last season. That was just early bow season here in WI. Gun season, muzzleloader and late bow would push that total up a bit...Ask the wife and she would say it's even higher! LOL!!!

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Re: How many hours?

Unread postby RUTIN » Thu May 31, 2012 2:35 am

I would roughly say 120-150 hrs to be conservative. This year im sure it will change a little becoming a single parent but my days alone will be spent in a tree for sure
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Re: How many hours?

Unread postby headgear » Thu May 31, 2012 3:00 am

Depending on how much time I have available I probably spend 100 to 150 hours in a tree in a given year. I know I use to hunt a lot more but at this point in my life the free time just isn't there and I am ok with that, have to make due with what you have.
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Re: How many hours?

Unread postby mibowhunter » Thu May 31, 2012 3:03 am

My hours have definitely been cut back in the past few years... Moving to MI and being a parent of 2 young children has changed my priorities, but I'd say I still spent around 100 hours hunting in WI over the course of the season.
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Re: How many hours?

Unread postby Stanley » Thu May 31, 2012 3:58 am

To me one of the biggest mistakes people make is time management. I do some all day hunts during the rut. I also spend no time sitting in a tree in the early morning when it's still dark. I feel this is a waste of precious energy that wears you down for the long haul. For me at my stage in my hunting career having fun, enjoying the hunt are essential for me to hang in there to the bitter end. I used to hunt every day from the seasons start to the seasons end unless I tagged out. Now my time in the tree varies, and this depends on if I tag one early/late whatever. I also do a lot of hunts from 10:00 in the morning until dark. This saves so much energy for the next hunt. Normally hunting isn't one and done but a long grind. If I'm sitting in the tree wishing the day would get over, I'm doing something wrong. If you sleep in, eat breakfast, take a dump, then go hunt. I have found I can keep up enthusiasm and hunt almost forever doing this. I know a lot of guys that hunt all day every day (rut tactics) when the season starts and come November rut time they are burned out and shoot the first buck that comes by. I guess i didn't answer the original question. I would say about 150-200 hrs optimum time a season.
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Re: How many hours?

Unread postby Stanley » Thu May 31, 2012 4:02 am

Stanley wrote:To me one of the biggest mistakes people make is time management. I do some all day hunts during the rut. I also spend no time sitting in a tree in the early morning when it's still dark. I feel this is a waste of precious energy that wears you down for the long haul. For me at my stage in my hunting career having fun, enjoying the hunt are essential for me to hang in there to the bitter end. I used to hunt every day from the seasons start to the seasons end unless I tagged out. Now my time in the tree varies, and this depends on if I tag one early/late whatever. I also do a lot of hunts from 10:00 in the morning until dark. This saves so much energy for the next hunt. Normally hunting isn't one and done but a long grind. If I'm sitting in the tree wishing the day would get over, I'm doing something wrong. If you sleep in, eat breakfast, take a dump, then go hunt. I have found I can keep up enthusiasm and hunt almost forever doing this. I know a lot of guys that hunt all day every day (rut tactics) when the season starts and come November rut time they are burned out and shoot the first buck that comes by. I guess i didn't answer the original question. I would say about 150-200 hrs optimum time a season.


Had to recalculate my hrs. and had a snafu in doing so. Disregard this redundant post.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: How many hours?

Unread postby Dor » Thu May 31, 2012 4:13 am

I would say it varies from year to year a fair amount. I'd guess I don't spend a much time in the tree as some (but more than most). I do NOT sit on a prayer. If it obviously isn't happening or I don't have a good reason to be in a given tree I won't be there.

I have really made an effort on my home turf to hunt a little as possible to maintain fresh areas until they are prime. On out of state hunts I sit a lot more , but also do a good bit of scouting just about every day unless deer movement dictates otherwise. For example on a 7 to 10 day hunt in KS I'd say I average 7 to 8 hours in the tree sitting per day, so that would be about 75 hours there if I don't tag out early. Probably another 100 in a tree the whole season in MN, maybe more. If I whitetail hunt another state, add another 50 to 75 hours.

Anyway, probably 150 to 250 in a given year.
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Re: How many hours?

Unread postby virginiashadow » Thu May 31, 2012 6:06 am

Stanley wrote:To me one of the biggest mistakes people make is time management. I do some all day hunts during the rut. I also spend no time sitting in a tree in the early morning when it's still dark. I feel this is a waste of precious energy that wears you down for the long haul. For me at my stage in my hunting career having fun, enjoying the hunt are essential for me to hang in there to the bitter end. I used to hunt every day from the seasons start to the seasons end unless I tagged out. Now my time in the tree varies, and this depends on if I tag one early/late whatever. I also do a lot of hunts from 10:00 in the morning until dark. This saves so much energy for the next hunt. Normally hunting isn't one and done but a long grind. If I'm sitting in the tree wishing the day would get over, I'm doing something wrong. If you sleep in, eat breakfast, take a dump, then go hunt. I have found I can keep up enthusiasm and hunt almost forever doing this. I know a lot of guys that hunt all day every day (rut tactics) when the season starts and come November rut time they are burned out and shoot the first buck that comes by. I guess i didn't answer the original question. I would say about 150-200 hrs optimum time a season.



Good post. Raising three kids and being with an active, high energy wife means I get worn down. I used to get really stressed out f I missed a morninig hunt during prime days. I would grind myself into dust within a couple of weeks come late October. These days, I still hunt hard, but I am out there to enjoy myself and not kill myself like I used to every hunting season. If I am tired I will wake up at 7ish, kiss my kids before they get on the bus, then take the little one to a babysitter before I hit the woods around 10am...big breakfast, bathroom, and a sense of not being rushed makes the hunt that much more enjoyable. That being said, I will push myself until the point of exhaustion every year once I get hyperfocused. My hunting hours have been cut back the past 5 years or so because of my family responsibilities. I bet I used to hunt 200-250 hours a season, now maybe 150 hours.
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Re: How many hours?

Unread postby Dewey » Thu May 31, 2012 6:16 am

I have been logging my hours the past three seasons and combined bow early/late season, rifle and muzzleloader season are as follows...........

2009- 145 hours
2010- 274.5 hours
2011- 198.5 hours

I would say an average season for me is right around 200 hours on stand. 2010 was much higher since I had much more time off of work for production shutdowns. That was one of my best seasons ever for big buck sightings and will have a hard time ever repeating that again.

During a typical season I average about 6 hrs/sit which includes about 7-10 all day sits during the rut and rifle hunting. Early in the season I like to get out shortly after mid-day and sit until dark. I really enjoy being out there during that time but that no doubt racks up my total hours for the year.

I only hunt weekends up until late October and then I use up most of my vacation time from then until gun season. I would say of all of my yearly average of 200 hours on stand I probably average 120 of those hours during the month of November.

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Re: How many hours?

Unread postby Z7WIBoy » Thu May 31, 2012 6:43 am

These numbers are crazy!! With 3 kids 6 and under and wife that stays home with the kids I maybe get 60 hours in for the season which means I get abused for time in the off season by the wife. I guess the old sayiing is true:
Some guys run their house and some guys run around their house - I do a crap load of running around :lol:
Now that I will be practicing and hunting Beast Style for the first time this season hopefully I can tag out early and not need the rut hunt vacation which gives me more time to hunt with my oldest son.
I hope as the kids get older I can put in more time even if it is just me filming them hunting Beast Style :D
I do applaud you folks that can have extreme dedication for killing SLOBs :clap:
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Re: How many hours?

Unread postby Bucky » Thu May 31, 2012 7:08 am

Z7WIBoy wrote:These numbers are crazy!! With 3 kids 6 and under and wife that stays home with the kids I maybe get 60 hours in for the season which means I get abused for time in the off season by the wife. I guess the old sayiing is true:
Some guys run their house and some guys run around their house - I do a crap load of running around :lol:
Now that I will be practicing and hunting Beast Style for the first time this season hopefully I can tag out early and not need the rut hunt vacation which gives me more time to hunt with my oldest son.
I hope as the kids get older I can put in more time even if it is just me filming them hunting Beast Style :D
I do applaud you folks that can have extreme dedication for killing SLOBs :clap:


I kinda wanted to show those that thought some were "lucky" or hunting primo land on this site how much time is spent in a tree, now if you factor in scouting, travel, cameras, food plots, internet searches etc = the total can sky rocket. Not to mention I spend an hour or two a day thinking about what I'm going to do in the next week (cameras, internet searches, reading here, what needs to be done food plot wise, meeting landowners to ensure access, etc). It is a cont. process for me....

I do have a stay at home wife and 3 children as well, so I do everything I can to make this time available in the fall... it is not easy for her or the children and it may be selfish on my part but it is what I live for! It helps that she has know me for 15yrs, she has been through it a time or two... with the kids I try to involve them in anything I can outdoors, my son and oldest daughter (younger daughter is only 1) both enjoy looking for sheds, shooting target bows etc
"When a hunter is in a tree stand with high moral values, with the proper hunting ethics and richer for the experience, that hunter is 20 feet closer to God." Fred Bear
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Re: How many hours?

Unread postby dan » Thu May 31, 2012 7:53 am

Over 200 for sure...
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Re: How many hours?

Unread postby Dor » Thu May 31, 2012 8:00 am

Bucky wrote:
Z7WIBoy wrote:These numbers are crazy!! With 3 kids 6 and under and wife that stays home with the kids I maybe get 60 hours in for the season which means I get abused for time in the off season by the wife. I guess the old sayiing is true:
Some guys run their house and some guys run around their house - I do a crap load of running around :lol:
Now that I will be practicing and hunting Beast Style for the first time this season hopefully I can tag out early and not need the rut hunt vacation which gives me more time to hunt with my oldest son.
I hope as the kids get older I can put in more time even if it is just me filming them hunting Beast Style :D
I do applaud you folks that can have extreme dedication for killing SLOBs :clap:


I kinda wanted to show those that thought some were "lucky" or hunting primo land on this site how much time is spent in a tree, now if you factor in scouting, travel, cameras, food plots, internet searches etc = the total can sky rocket. Not to mention I spend an hour or two a day thinking about what I'm going to do in the next week (cameras, internet searches, reading here, what needs to be done food plot wise, meeting landowners to ensure access, etc). It is a cont. process for me....

I do have a stay at home wife and 3 children as well, so I do everything I can to make this time available in the fall... it is not easy for her or the children and it may be selfish on my part but it is what I live for! It helps that she has know me for 15yrs, she has been through it a time or two... with the kids I try to involve them in anything I can outdoors, my son and oldest daughter (younger daughter is only 1) both enjoy looking for sheds, shooting target bows etc

The more time you spend in the woods, the luckier you get. It's odd that way. :mrgreen:
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Re: How many hours?

Unread postby bonemonger » Thu May 31, 2012 11:16 am

i spend on average over 200 hours a year in a stand. i know that some of the time i spend is not what is normally high encounter times, but i enjoy my time in the stand and have the ability to hunt just about as much as i want. probably 60 hours of this time is spent in Jan and early Feb hunting does in urban areas. my late season hunts have taught me more about stand location, position of the stand in relation to how the deer approach and how fast a deer can spot movement.


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