How far do you live from your hunting areas?

[Waddams]

I live in an Atlanta suburb. Not much public land close by. It's 75 minutes to the closest public land that's a decent hunting option. Other options are farther.

The club I joined is an hour early in the morning, 2 hours plus to get home in the evening thanks to Atlanta traffic.

Do you guys have long drives to head out spring and summer scouting? If so do you find scouting time more restricted?

[Scott S]

I am extremely fortunate. I have thousands of acres of public land within 15 minutes of my driveway. Some of it inside of 5 minutes.

I feel for ya, my friend.

[DGF]

My weekday public land is only 15-40 minutes away. A couple times a season I like to make a long weekend and camp out and hunt an area about 3 1/2 hours away. It's not that it's really better hunting further away, but a nice change of scenery and I enjoy the camping/hunting experience.

-Dan

[szwampdonkey]

My longest spot to hunt is 15 minutes, most are 5-10. This was not an accident it was a very deliberate move 5 years ago to be closer to hunting spots and far away from cities. Best move i’ve made.

[mpernest]

I’m 15 minutes from the closest edge of two different public lands. It’s about 30 minutes to the farthest corner of the smaller one. The other one is huge, something like 330,000 acres, and it’s more like an hour and half to the far edge.

I don’t like the smaller one that much, but it’s where I hunt on weekdays before or after work because it’s really close to my office.

Weekends and time off I hunt the far end of the big one. That’s where I’ve been focusing my scouting this spring and summer, so I’ve made that drive a lot.

To take my old man hunting, it’s about and hour and a half to his house, and another half hour plus to the public lands near him. I usually spend the weekend at his house when I’m taking him hunting. I only scout over there to find locations suitable for him to be able to walk in. He’s not mobile enough anymore for me to take him in deep, so I just find spots that he will be comfortable.

Quota hunt applications close today, so I’ll get my draw results shortly. I put in for places ranging from half an hour up to six hours away. The rest of my summer will be spent scouting the big public near me, and whatever parcels I draw in the lottery - even if that means really long drives.

[mpernest]

Double post

[wolverinebuckman]

When we began looking to move from Michigan 3 years ago, one of my main hopes and goals was that the house would be close to hunting ground. We were blessed with 25 acres in rural Kentucky, attached to 225,000 acres of Daniel Boone National Forest. The only time I drive is a mile or two down the road to cut off some walking time, but mostly I just walk.

[-db-]

~20K acres of public in 5 large parcels within 10 minutes of where I live, most of those easily within bicycling distance (5 miles or less). Within a half-hour, I can pick from 100K+ acres. Expanded to a 1-hour drive, make it a quarter-million or so acres. Moved here specifically for such access. God bless northern Michigan.

[Stingray713]

45 min to 90 min for most

[Grizzlyadam]

Like others here I am fortunate to live in an area with lots of immediate opportunities. I can walk out my front or back doors and hunt. I have tens of thousands of acres within half an hour in every direction from home. I live where I live for the sole purpose of hunting opportunities.

[Hawthorne]

1-2 hours I have spots in just about every direction from my house. It’s getting old with gas prices.I want to live less than 15 minutes away from a million acres. Can’t always get what you want. Lol. Much better fishing close to where I live than deer hunting

[Waddams]

I guess with the distance I just don't get the time to go scouting off season very much. Monday-Friday, it's a complete non-starter due to work, church group, dad-duty limo service for my son, and a commitment to get in at least 2 good lifting trips at the gym. Weekends - it's house chores/yard work, wife/family time (we hit a lot of trails, find a cheap weekender once a month or so, and generally try to stay off screens), and then church on Sunday's. I've learned the lay of the land in the places I've hunted via in season scouting, but I never get the time make the weekend day excursions to learn more ground and in particular try to find a big buck to hunt.

It's somewhat debatable but shining I think is at least frowned on if not illegal in Georgia - the regs say you can't "harass" the wild life and some would say shining is harassing them. And if you're driving around shining field around public land, the landowners down here are likely to open fire on you, DNR is likely to just assume you're poaching and ticket you. There's enough poachers around down here I don't think shining anywhere you'd be exposed is a good idea overall. I've wondered about some night scouting in deep woods where you won't be seen and shining some but the distance home makes that logistically challenging unless I'm camping somewhere. Other life commitments make camping out somewhere a very rare opportunity.

For now, I think I'm just mainly limited to in season scouting on hunting trips and just being happy putting meat in the freezer.

[Trout]

I'm surrounded by more public land than I will ever be able to hunt in multiple lifetimes, a lot is less than 10min from home, BUT, somehow my primary hunting grounds for whitetail are about 75 miles away, mostly on diet roads so I have about a 90 minute drive. I have no doubt that I could know places closer to home better and have more time to scout them, but the drive is worth it so I just grin and bear it. Every year I learn a little more and that history I'm building is definitely adding up. Cell cams are huge for saving gas to inventory vs driving around and glossing, shining or driving up for observation sits (I actually prefer to do observation still hunts).

[brancher147]

I have public land on 2 sides of my property and endless National Forest within an hour…and more National Forest and other public land past that. Hunt some private too it’s mostly within a half hour.

[Ghost Hunter]

Camp down south is about 1.5 hours away. Public I go to is 45 mins.