How many really hunt ...

Otokiak

Otokiak

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How many of us on this board really hunt ... I mean religiously ... not once a year but all the time? I'm curious to see how many animals you take each year while hunting ... :)

Otokiak
Rankin Inlet, NU
CANADA
 
I would like to think I used to really hunt, I fished every weekend in the summer, duck/goose hunted every weekend in the fall as well as two weeks big game(alternate Deer/Moose/bear) hunting then rabbits every weekend in the winter as well as the odd coyote/fox hunt, then I met a girl....... and got married had kids ( I like to call them dream stealers) and now with 4,5,6yr olds its a little bit of waterfowl and one big game hunt a year......sigh......maybe in 7 or 8yrs my boys will get into it with me...big sigh as a tear slowly runs down my cheek.
 
I totally understand that most parts of Canada have seasons ... I just want to see how many really hunt though. What types and how many animals you take each year. ;)

Otokiak
Rankin Inlet, NU
CANADA
 
i spend on average 40-50 days a year hunting, bear moose deer and grouse, as soon as i get RPAL in mail and get ATT im going to minnesota for some handgun hunting of grouse and deer.
average year is 3 big game, in ontario i'm allowed 5 deer, 1 moose and 2 bear. and grouse are usually 6-7 limits. in off season i reload and target shoot, about 3-4hundreds rounds a season .

we have open big game seasons from aug 15th to dec 15th.
 
I hunt birds mostly, I hunted approximately 40 days last season for geese last season,maybe a week for deer over the various muzzleloader and archery seasons, 12 days for turkey,throw in the odd grouse hunt or duck hunt.

I figure 70 days all told give or take a few evenings and mornings in the winter chasing Rabbits aswell.
 
Considering the seasons here. I hunt big game from 01 Sep to 30 Nov (I am scouting now) That allows me a crack at muleys, white tails, bear, moose, and elk. Coyote after that. Hopefully wild pigs this year (I am trying to track down possible problem counties for areas of interest). Spring bear and I have shot close to a thousand gophers since march.
Glock, I feel your pain, shile my kids were growing up, my time for hunting was short. Pretty much what yours is. However, now they are grown, old wife gone and new wife likes to hunt and shoot, so it is all gravy for me. Spent my time in hunting hell and now in heaven!!

Luckily my children all like wild meat so, my estimated tally this year (2010) is 3 whitetail, 1/2 moose, 1/2 elk, 1200 gophers, 20 coyotes, and a fall bear. Hoping for a wild pig. Any help on that would be appreciated. Travelling so far to get open elk and moose areas is the only glitch, but, I went 4 hours to shoot in gopher heaven for a LONG Saturday (4hr drive Fri night, 12 hrs shooting gophers, drive home) so I guess I can justify thravelling to Spirit River.
 
Deer from sept 1 to Dec 4, archery, muzzle and rifle. Moose every two or three years if drawn. Elk archery and rifle every year. Sharptail and ruffed grouse every fall. I probably spend 30 plus days hunting each year. Plus fishing most weekends as long as the season is open, both water and ice.
 
I have a young family of three kids but it doesn't stop me from shooting some big game. For the last 6 years I've shot 5-7 big game animals per season and in season.
We eat only big game, and organics so I get the required time to fill the freezer ;)
 
I've been a bear enthusiast since I was a little kid, so interacting with bears is my addiction, and I moved here to feed that addiction. Being on the ground face to face with a big polar bear, or any bear for that matter, a few feet distant is pretty cool. There's nothing else like it . . . although African buffalo in the long grass comes close. There is no polar bear season in Churchill so you can only kill a bear in self defense, or in the defense of others. I've been accused by some on this board for behaving in an unethical manner by putting "endangered" animals at risk, simply to feed my ego. According to these high thinkers, because I get too close, I'd have to kill the bear if things went south, so they wanted me charged with harassment of wildlife, despite the fact the professional photographers (and their armed escorts) who publish all the cutesy bear pictures get as close as I do. As a result I don't talk about it much online anymore, but I continue to do it. In more than 20 years of close contact with them, I've yet to kill a polar bear in self defense, although I've come close on a number of occasions, those specific situations have been the result of the actions of other people, not from any situation I created.

The exception to that was a large male I had a rodeo with shortly after moving here. He was in a bad mood (I had woken him up) and I hadn't yet gained sufficient experience to know how to act when one inadvertently invades their personal space. Their reaction is often to close the distance even more, and your natural reaction is to try to get out of the way. More often than not, aggressively and quickly moving towards the bear puts him in a fight or flight state of mind and he'll choose to back off until he's had time to figure things out. Once your distance to the bear has increased, you can safely move out of the area. Another instance was a cabin robber I was laying for, but a pal of mine killed him before I could.

These experiences have allowed me to gain a fair bit of knowledge about these guys, and the learning continues. Over the years I have seen bears killed. Some by being over-dosed when when darted. I've seen bears drown when they were darted and got into either the river or a pond. I have seen male bears eat cubs when the mother was caught in a culvert trap and couldn't protect them. I've seen bears killed because they were getting into someone's garbage, and one was shot when it chased a dog into the house. I've seen bears killed for killing dogs, and I've seen bears killed when they became habituated to breaking into cabins and being rewarded. I've even hear about a bear being killed when an inexperienced helicopter pilot accidentally slam dunked one into the ground when he was slinging it.

I don't have a problem with hunting polar bears, but we can't do it here unless the rules change, and that's not going to happen with today's attitudes, despite the fact that hunting was the original form of eco-tourism and is not harmful to the species when conducted responsibly.
 
I usually put in about 20 days spring bear hunting. I could kill any black bear every day, but I'm looking for a special one. This year I will spend about a week hunting elk, 2 weeks hunting moose and about 30 days hunting deer.

Didn't do any winter predator hunting at all last winter. Might do some this winter.
 
Spent about a week bear hunting this spring, about a month of actual big game hunting days last fall not counting the travel days, and to be honest, I lost track of the number of days out waterfowling.
 
with the new baby and the #####y wife i`m out as much as i can 5 coyotes one skunk 2 squirrels one coon about 400 groun d hogs missed the turkey :( and this is the first year i have got a moose teg so we will see how the3 seson ends i hope with a deer on the pole and a moose and i hope a fall turkey good luck to you all and be safe have fun and keep the sport alive.
 
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