How far must you travel to hunt?

[Walkingeagle]

Hi all, question not for the farmer folks within our group but more so for the city bound. How far must you travel to find public land, or even legally accessible private land, to be able to hunt?
For myself, now that I’m in a city for health reasons, is roughly 1.75 hours, and this would be public land.
Walk

 

[deerstalkert]

Hi all, question not for the farmer folks within our group but more so for the city bound. How far must you travel to find public land, or even legally accessible private land, to be able to hunt?
For myself, now that I’m in a city for health reasons, is roughly 1.75 hours, and this would be public land.
Walk

trying to make it worse?
sorry, i just have an overwhelming aversion to cities!
Am not a farmer but don't live in a city either. none the less, i will answer, because it is the source of my mental well being.
i have to travel 12 feet. from my recliner to my front/back/side porch.

 

[appalichian hunter]

Not in the city either but about 1/2 hr. from my house to deer heaven amd thats taking my time to include the walk to my hunting spot, was on a un-mentiionable dove hunt this afternoon with two friends 15 mins from driveway to gunning fields. Health or not I refuse to live in anything that resembles a city.

 

[SciAggie]

It takes me 15-20 minutes to get to the property I hunt.

 

[10 Ga.]

Although not ideal I live 45min from a large national forest that is my hunting grounds. Its a big change from my youth where I lived on the hunting grounds (private property) like some others. I have traveled up to 12 hours to hunt but that is not my normal commute.

10 Ga.

 

[deermanok]

For me it depends, I can hunt in the woods right behind the house or a 15 minute drive down the road to my state land spot.
There's another state property I hunt occasionally which is about an hour drive north.

 

[Daryl Crawford]

I can hunt on gameland about 7 minutes away by car. Another is about 15 minutes away by car. My hunting club (where I can sleep) is about a 90 minute drive away.

 

[Ponderosaman]

Depends on what I’m hunting and how far I want to be away from a hundred other hunters. Legally, 10 minutes. There’s a small strip of desert north of Carefree Highway that is barely a 1/4 mile away from houses and just North of the DMZ. There’s dove, quail, coyote, snakes, and rabbits (used to be mule deer) there, but I’ve never hunted there. My favorite close by spot for quail is a half hour away, 40 minutes for dove (still some nearby neighborhoods), . Wild turkey with my pop is in NM 5 hours away. They are 2-4 hours away here in AZ, but turkey is draw in AZ, so I have only hunted turkey one fall season in AZ (got myself more lost on that trip than ever before). Now that I have my Porter, I plan to hunt near and far for upland game. Probably mostly within an hour from home. Here he is with a mesquite log.

 

[Dale Lilly]

Not far ... from 10 minutes to 2 hours. It depends on what I might want to hunt. Polecat ... [but I no longer hunt, getting old ain't for sissies]

 

[Old Hawkeye]

Who cares how far away you are from or how far you have to travel to get to your hunting spot. All that matters is that you get there! After that you are in "Heaven"!

 

[david w]

19 miles to the deer woods, and about a 3/4 mile walk. 27 miles to the squirrels woods. Rabbits used to be about 8 miles away, but since they decided to reintroduce coyotes, there are no more rabbits. I no longer hunt duck. The Memphis clubs have bought up the best land. We have few dove since the local peach orchards dried up.

 

[Bushfire]

40-50 minutes to red deer country, 1-9 hours to Fallow country, 6-9 hours to sambar, 7 hours to hog deer.

4 hour flight and a few hours driving to NZ for hunting.

 

[david w]

40-50 minutes to red deer country, 1-9 hours to Fallow country, 6-9 hours to sambar, 7 hours to hog deer.

4 hour flight and a few hours driving to NZ for hunting.

How big are the down under? Ever run into any Cassowaries while hunting? Hog deer? Never heard of them. Off to Google!

 

[Bushfire]

How big do the deer get down under? Ever run into any Cassowaries while hunting? Hog deer? Never heard of them. Off to Google!

Size depends on species, in terms of antlers we have some very good genetics. Our wild reds are on par with NZ.
Good representative wild stag

Bearing in mind things like this are 100% without exception born and bred in pens and released (sometimes the day before a hunt).

Cassowaries live in the tropics, we have emus down here. Bigger but not as aggressive.

Hog deer are my favourite deer, tiny little things. This stag dressed out at 32kg. Our only deer with a season and tags - 1 month and 1 deer of each ***. For a lot of effort I've shot two so far.

 

[david w]

Size depends on species, in terms of antlers we have some very good genetics. Our wild reds are on par with NZ.
Good representative wild stag
View attachment 165406

Bearing in mind things like this are 100% without exception born and bred in pens and released (sometimes the day before a hunt).View attachment 165405

Cassowaries live in the tropics, we have emus down here. Bigger but not as aggressive.

Hog deer are my favourite deer, tiny little things. This stag dressed out at 32kg. Our only deer with a season and tags - 1 month and 1 deer of each ***. For a lot of effort I've shot two so far.
View attachment 165407

Thanks for the response. My dad's parents migrated from NZ to the USA.

 

[Trapper Scott]

Hi all, question not for the farmer folks within our group but more so for the city bound. How far must you travel to find public land, or even legally accessible private land, to be able to hunt?
For myself, now that I’m in a city for health reasons, is roughly 1.75 hours, and this would be public land.
Walk

I live about 30 minutes from National Forest land where I can hunt and it takes me about an hour to get to my mountain cabin that is surrounded by National forest. However, I do see deer about every day at my home but my wife has a strict rule about no hunting in our yard. Yesterday she had a big doe walk right up to her while she was letting our pitbull get some exercise in her dog lot.

 

[Ponderosaman]

Size depends on species, in terms of antlers we have some very good genetics. Our wild reds are on par with NZ.
Good representative wild stag
View attachment 165406

Bearing in mind things like this are 100% without exception born and bred in pens and released (sometimes the day before a hunt).View attachment 165405

Cassowaries live in the tropics, we have emus down here. Bigger but not as aggressive.

Hog deer are my favourite deer, tiny little things. This stag dressed out at 32kg. Our only deer with a season and tags - 1 month and 1 deer of each ***. For a lot of effort I've shot two so far.
View attachment 165407

Here in AZ we also have a smaller species of deer that are incredibly wily and range in extremely tough terrain. Coues are much smaller than mule deer and eastern white tails. If I was to start pursuing them, I would definitely use a blackpowder rifle. I’ve picked up a shed but never seen one yet.

 

[Travis186]

When I lived in a suburb south of Houston, TX it used to take me 1.5hrs to get to my hunting spots in the SHNF. Now that I live in the Texas Hill Country I'm looking at a 3.5hr drive. I can't afford to hunt private land in the state.

 

[Walkingeagle]

Appreciate the responses of 2 minutes, 15 minutes, etc. as that was my previous life, all my life. However the city has changed things. No public land to really hunt close by and anything close is archery only. To be free to walk miles upon countless miles is a minimum of 1.75 hours from doorstep to parked vehicle. My old elk camp was an hour from me, is now 6 hours. My days of just popping out for an evening hunt are over but I’m trying to rationalize if I’m driving too far for even a day trip.
Walk

 

[BillRob]

I live in eastern Washington State, which has some detestable taxation, regulations, governor and lawmakers. That said, the state has done a great job of setting aside state land for various uses (specifically including hunting) as well as agreements with landowners which allow hunting under various sign-in, reservation and free-to-hunt arrangements. I can get to a small state preserve for duck hunting in about ten minutes, and some great mule deer hunting ground in less than an hour.