Adulting

[browningguy18]

3 under 7 here. I have a messed up work schedule and my wife works part time around it so we dont need daycare. I get 5 weeks of vacation/sick time. A long weekend trip is about all I can manage and I’ve only been on one so far this year. Super good group of guys here local and we kinda all keep each other in birds. I help all I can all year long but after being together for almost 20 years and married 10+, she just knows it’s hunting season. Honestly my biggest problem is cash flow, or lack of.

All of mine are under 7 too and my wife also works part time nights and Saturdays, so that takes a lot of my weekend trips. My wife is pretty understanding. Sunday morning has become my go to hunting time for a little while. Its just become a guessing game of where to go. I am also pretty lucky I have a good friend that owns a smaller farm within an hour of me that will call me and let me know when the geese show up.

[lanyard]

It's a transition period. Gets weird for a bit when you've got little kids and adding parents, particularly if you end up having to parent the parents.

My best advice, find a couple "go to" spots you can drop into. Hell, even 2-3 hours away. Spots that you know for a certain wind are likely to produce something. If you can afford the gas and bolt at 3:00/3:30 you're back around lunch.

You'll get it figured out, just going to take some pain before you find out what works for you.

[browningguy18]

Two year old and four year old. And a new job with very limited vacation.

I’m about done beating my head against the wall hunting public around Bemidji. Haven’t had a satisfying hunt in years... but I have to admit I’m picky too. F

My dad is 71 and continues to go hunting. His spot hasn’t produced squat all season but at least it’s a place to go with no hassle and no outrageously early wake up time. Probably just go through the motions there until the kids are older and I can make better hunts happen.

It’s been a pretty frustrating experience but as Lanyard alluded to, it’s as much the loss of liberty as anything. I used to hunt ducks and/or grouse 5 days a week and that made it pretty easy to get birds regularly. Now it’s just pick a well known spot once every Saturday or two w/o scouting and pray it works out... basically never does.

I think I’ll be happier not bothering with Bemidji than trying to balance home and hunting. I’m pretty much an “all or nothing” mindset.


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This resonates with me. Makes me want to try and find a little spot close to home that I could buy. Maybe I could work on during the summer with my kids. Might not be the greatest spot in the world but I think with a little world but something that would just give us a place to go on the weekends. Build a big blind so it would be easier on the kids.

I didn't get into this spot until I was 15, and I didn't have much family that hunted before I did. My dad started hunting because he used to take me without a gun at first. After one year of watching me hunt, he told my mom F this, I need to get a gun. Finding good spots to hunt was always my biggest challenge. This has kind of fueled me a little to get a spot of my own. I used to always think that I could save a ton of money and just keep finding good public spots. I also don't just pile them up like a lot of you guys, but I did ok some years. My son and I are also fascinated with watching building duck impoudment videos on Youtube. I think he just likes the tractors and bulldozers. If any of you guys are TED on there, he is from MN, I think what you are doing is pretty sweet.

[browningguy18]

It's a transition period. Gets weird for a bit when you've got little kids and adding parents, particularly if you end up having to parent the parents.

My best advice, find a couple "go to" spots you can drop into. Hell, even 2-3 hours away. Spots that you know for a certain wind are likely to produce something. If you can afford the gas and bolt at 3:00/3:30 you're back around lunch.

You'll get it figured out, just going to take some pain before you find out what works for you.

This is pretty much exactly what I do. I have a few a spots that I know will be decent. 2-3 hr drive from my house. Can leave at 4 late in the season and listen to football on the way home. I can even internet scout a little. Not get spots but you can kind of sometimes tell from other reports when its go time. Like this Sunday, although I am a little worried about ice.

[emptymag]

I found a little public spot only 20min from my house that I can bang some birds and, if early in the year be home before 8am if need be and the wife can still get to work. I think this morning hunt was the 22nd morning I hunted this year and only 2 blanks for the year also. I hunt a lot by myself early in the season mid week. I’ll have to look in my log book but this could be my best year yet. Now that I sold my big boat with the mud motor I’m kinda SOL for the rest of the year. Still have like 20dzn floaters, I’ll have another boat some day....

[Quack]

I wouldn’t purchase “hunting property” unless I was filthy rich or it had guaranteed investment potential with me intending to realize that potential... but that’s just me.

Getting locked into one spot is a great way to not shoot birds.... speaking from experience.

At least not shooting birds on public ground is free.


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[emptymag]

^ this.

Just what you would pay in the property taxes for the year could pay for a productive long weekend or more trip to western MN or one of the Dakotas.

[Fish Felon]

I wouldn’t purchase “hunting property” unless I was filthy rich or it had guaranteed investment potential with me intending to realize that potential... but that’s just me.

Getting locked into one spot is a great way to not shoot birds.... speaking from experience.

At least not shooting birds on public ground is free.

Plus there's the added old man factor of NIMBY and the "Get Off My Lawn" mentality. When you ain't got nothin'?

You ain't got nothing to worry about.

Unless the property is making you money...I.E. producing annual revenue that ends up making an annual net profit?

There's no point in owning it.

[browningguy18]

I get what you guys are saying about buying a piece of land. Pretty much how I have thought and still do think most of the time. I wouldn't get locked into one spot. I also have learned that the hard way. Had a little bay up by my parents cabin I used to hunt when I couldn't find anything better. It was never a great spot but was always pretty consistent, super easy to hunt, and no competition. The past 5 years it has just gone to crap. Pretty much do not hunt it anymore. I ain't filthy rich, yet haha. I don't have that spot close to home that I can go to in a pinch. I could probably get a little boat and hunt the rice creek chain of lakes more I suppose. I have two neighbors that have a small pieces of land they use for deer hunting, mostly bow hunting. One rides down the road on an ATV and then walks down his trail. The other bought an extra 5 acres off the back of his 20. Put in a food plot and has had pretty good luck shooting deer right in his backyard. This is where the idea started for me. I would definitely treat it as an investment and try to find a way to at least come close to breaking even on it. Plus I think it would be fun to work on your spot of land over the years. You are telling me I am the only crazy one that wants to build a little moist soil unit or even small impoundment. I know I am nuts, just sounds fun. Makes the hunting season go all year. It wouldn't be strictly for duck hunting either. Maybe a spot to hunt turkeys, maybe start getting into bow hunting more. Who knows. Can't afford it anytime soon. I keep telling my wife, these are the ideas that come to me when I don't get out of the house enough. It would have to be a good location and the right situation. FF I thought you were buying the old St. Peter water treatment property?

[Drunk_Dynasty]

No kids but serious relationship living with GF does take its toll. My gf is pretty cool about me hunting most of the time but I do need to make sacrifices elsewhere to keep her happy.

Really agree with folks who said to have a good spot 2-3 hours from home to keep in their back pocket that can be raced out to and raced back from and have a chance at some birds. A very basic knowledge of waterfowl biology can help pick good spots. Some people really have no idea what waterfowl are looking for in a swamp/slough/wetland/pond.

Hunting just for hunting and not having to go with friends helps because all my other friends are old and flakey as shit or have kids and wives.

I’ll be bow hunting Nebraska in two by myself because both buddies I was going with backed out. I’m not thrilled about it, but I’d like to have atleast a little bit of experience hunting mule deer when I get drawn for a cool tag in a better state. I’ll bring a waterfowl kit with me and if bad comes to bad I’ll hunt ducks in a cool area.


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