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Travel Time to hunt

AT Hiker said:
This is exactly how I look at it as well. I want to wear out before I rust out, I want to tell the stories not be the one wishing I had those stories. These adventures make my day, others get satisfaction by other means...and thats ok too.

My wife and I want to retire to the Big Horn mountains. Live in a small/cheap house and spend every moment we can in the Mountains. Hunting should be cheap for me by then 😃
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Oh me....the Big Horn Mountain area is fabulous.....when stress levels elevate I'll look at my wife and say "you know I hear Sheridan is nice this time of year"....she just smiles and says yep....we love that area.
 
One property I hunt is where I live...walk out the door and to the stand.....the main property I hunt is a 15 minute drive....both are hunted on landowner/farmland exemption...so fuel and permit cost are minimal....food plots, stands and shooting houses are another conversation....but as others have mentioned...I don't golf....fish a little.... turkey hunt some...but deer hunting and land management is more my passion these days.....I do enjoy hunting out west...over the years we've hunted Texas, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana.... actually enjoy traveling to hunt....if my budget would allow I'd go more often but going every few years is nice.
 
Been driving to Clay County for a little over 20 years now. The annual nonresident license has changed some but it is $306 now. Round trip is almost 4 tanks of fuel towing the trailer and I make at minimum 3 trips a year to bush hog for my parents and also hunt muzzle and gun openers. Mom feeds us so the food cost is low. So, maybe 1500-2000 a year? And I travel 11 hours one way :)
Locally, nothing within an hours drive. Have a lifetime license here so its just fuel and time to drive to the woods and not see anything!
 
AT Hiker said:
This is exactly how I look at it as well. I want to wear out before I rust out, I want to tell the stories not be the one wishing I had those stories. These adventures make my day, others get satisfaction by other means...and thats ok too.

My wife and I want to retire to the Big Horn mountains. Live in a small/cheap house and spend every moment we can in the Mountains. Hunting should be cheap for me by then 😃
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Hurry up and retire cause I'll be knocking on your door. I love the northern Wyoming/southern Montana area for sure.
 
Tn most spots 15 min one is an hour away and I don't go there much, really need to go more.
Ky is a Little over an hour away
Illinois is about 3 hours
Ar duck lease about 4 hours
Montana is 24 hr one way

l have never figured up the cost, and don't want to. I figure there are much worse ways to spend my money. 😀
 
A lot & don't keep up with it either or it MIGHT bother me 😂. It's an hr to my place in TN & already been 4-5 times this year staying 3-5 days each trip. There's really no down time as it's a year round endeavor. Been working on that place 20 years & hope I never get caught up.

Like to travel & hunt as well. So have been blessed to hunt AK, MT, WY, ID, NM, AZ, UT, CO, SD, NE, KS, CA, IL, KY, MN, MI and all the southern states. Still building points in WY, UT & SD too so hopefully there's a few more upcoming trips left in me. Vast majority of out of state hunts are diy public ground or trespass fees in which I usually camp. Have been a few full blown guided but not many.

Also try to fish a week in FL each spring & back in July for scallops.

Several mentioned northern WY & I have to agree. Buffalo is near & dear to my heart. Always thought I'd retire around there but all 3 kids & 8 grands live within 15 miles of me, so that's not happening!
 
Usually 30 to 45 minutes from house to truck being parked. Sometimes has little has 20 minutes. Sometimes literally I just walk off my back porch into the woods I own behind my house among with some farm land that joins mine I have permission to hunt. Don't do this to much though. I live in a subdivision but behind my house is a lot of CRP and farmland. But I always worry about a deer dying in someone's yard. Even though I am 100% legal and it has never happened it still something I think about.

Has far has money I have a lifetime 100% disabled veterans license so I don't have to pay anything. Unless I want to duck hunt I do have to pay the migratory bird stamp. I do process my own but if my wife is home I take it to the processor. She loves deer meat but she literally doesn't want to see how the sausage is made. Lol
 
Rakkin6 said:
…I do process my own but if my wife is home I take it to the processor. She loves deer meat but she literally doesn't want to see how the sausage is made. Lol
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My wife has walked into a couple murder scenes herself. Counters covered in chopped meat, grinders humming, totes of pork fat, casings soaking in mixing bowls, etc…she just shakes her head and says "your cleaning that up"
 
10 minutes to deer lease. Between $1-2K for the lease and incidentals. Then I can hunt my small 20 acres I live on.
4 hours to duck lease in SE Missouri. $1000k for that lease. $600 in gas for all trips, $400 for hotel stays. $200 for shells.
All in, around $4k per year for hunting.
 
Normally 30 to 45 minutes from the house. A few quota hunts in middle Tn are 2 to 2.5 hours away. Don't know on the amount spent though. Last year I got a used camper for hunts. But that can also be used outside of hunting.I didn't tel the wife all I could think about was sleeping warm during my 2.5 hour away hunts.I'd say I spend to much money on it. But hey when I was in my 20's I didn't spend hardly anything. And I can recall freshly I was miserably with not the right gear. And I froze to death all the time. I'm to old now to want to hunt like that. So I spend what it takes to be a little more comfortable.
 
killingtime 41 said:
Normally 30 to 45 minutes from the house. A few quota hunts in middle Tn are 2 to 2.5 hours away. Don't know on the amount spent though. Last year I got a used camper for hunts. But that can also be used outside of hunting.I didn't tel the wife all I could think about was sleeping warm during my 2.5 hour away hunts.I'd say I spend to much money on it. But hey when I was in my 20's I didn't spend hardly anything. And I can recall freshly I was miserably with not the right gear. And I froze to death all the time. I'm to old now to want to hunt like that. So I spend what it takes to be a little more comfortable.
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Just started applying for quota hunts a few years ago. I only apply for Oak Ridge. I live in Clarksville, but apply for Oak Ridge because I am originally from about 20-25 minutes away from Oak Ridge and I would just stay with my family for free. But I started applying at the wrong time (Covid). Every hunt I have been drawn for deer and turkey has been cancelled. But I did get some points and I got drawn again this year for the turkey hunt.
 

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