Your Favorite Backyard Hunts

[Ben Long]

I'm a bit of a homebody when it comes to hunting. Most of my hunting is within 75 miles of my home in NW Montana, but that includes 4 million acres of national forest and 1 million acres of timber lands, so it's a hell of a backyard. That said, family medical issues have shorted my leash and my spare time and budget considerably over the past decade. I'm lucky to have a friend who allows me to hunt whitetails on a 2000 acre ranch on the outskirts of my town. Maybe 10 minutes between leaving my house and loading my rifle. On the high point of the property I can check look at my home's bedroom lights through my binoculars. I very much miss the adventure that goes with the backcountry and roadtrips. However, having that opportunity close to home has saved my mental health and kept me in venison several winters. I am very grateful for it.

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[glass eye]

Backyard

 

[NDcoyote]

I really enjoy chasing spring snows. The snow is gone, long sunny days, time afield with good dogs, beers on the tailgate with good friends while some fresh meat is on the grill..Hard not to love it. End up putting a ton of miles on the truck scouting but its always worth it! Along with hopefully piling up a few snows, its always fun to see the ducks and other birds migrating back up here.

 

[Dougfirtree]

Backyard is relative. For stuff that’s 30 minutes from my door, it’s trout fishing, grouse, whitetail deer,
and turkeys ( I have zero interest in
turkeys).

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Within a couple hours drive is some of my favorite country Ive ever been in.

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Wait, have you ever hunted turkeys in the spring? I'm just having a hard time wrapping my brain around your statement. Too sedentary for you?

 

[jryoung]

Literally my backyard.




I can be casting here in 30 minutes from my house.

 

[thusby]

I wait all year for these little guys to show up and then we spend one glorious day hunting them before letting them move on.

 

[FAIR CHASE]

 

[westbranch]

If we had to, we could do all of our hunting, foraging, and fishing within 15 air miles of our house in national forest. . Actual driving time to get to some of the spots is up to 1 hour on forest roads. It is high pressure, but the only time I have actually ran into another hunter in the woods was during rifle elk season. Very heavy road traffic usually.

First time looking for morels in ID a couple years ago:



The dog was not interested in the antler...


This guy survived the main hunting seasons with the high pressure archery and rifle hunters. First time elk hunting for my wife in this general area last fall. Saw another hunter that shot a mature 7x7 in this high pressure area.

 

[Nameless Range]

The first decade of my hunting life, I viewed those who traveled to hunt as outsiders -even plates with a 5 on them, who had driven 15 miles south to hunt in my neighborhood, were viewed as interlopers. That was naive I know.

All of these animals were killed within 5 miles of the house I grew up in, and if I did the math between dad, my brother, and I, we are are probably well over 50 deer in that radius.

So for backyard hunts, my favorites would be looking for mule deer in little hidey holes that our family has identified over the last 3 decades - all taking less than 20 minutes to drive to from where I grew up. When Wikipedia was brand new, the page for the town I grew up in said "There are 100 deer for every person". Dunno where they got that, but for a time it was probably close to true.





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[Jape]

Some of y’all have it made! That’s code for jealousy. When I lived in Wyoming I got this guy in the backyard. He deserved a better picture.

 

[Western Traveler1]

Backyard

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That A5 takes me back a long ways. An old man from the “Old Country” hunted with one when my dad let me start hunting rabbits with them when I was around 10. That was the mid 50’s and way West of you.
I have killed a truckload of Gambel’s quail, doves, pheasant, ducks and geese in your backyard, all over the Valley and the River. Great times and great memories!

 

[TexanSam]

Having grown up near the Texas Coast, I got spoiled on the day trips we would make on the weekends. It usually consisted of loading up my Ford ranger with a couple buddies (one of them having to sit in the sideways jump seat in the back) and all of our gear hanging off the bed, and everyone scraping quarters to pitch in for gas. But the fishing was worth it.
Then after high school I moved to North Texas for college, and stayed in the general area for the first few years post grad. The opportunities that yielded there were also pretty nice.


Now I recently moved to NE KS, where I'm excited to learn about the local opportunities here.

 

[JustinsDad]

I live a quarter mile from Lake Casitas which is one of the best bass fishing lakes in California. I grew up fishing there but I spend more time hunting out of my cabin in Los Padres National Forest. Limits of dove and quail thrre

 

[JLS]

Wait, have you ever hunted turkeys in the spring? I'm just having a hard time wrapping my brain around your statement. Too sedentary for you?

Yeah, I’ve killed a spring turkey. I think a lot of it was trying to fit it in around spring sports for my kids. Maybe I’ll give it another try here soon.

 

[Irrelevant]

I killed a buck every year for a decade, 14-23, leaving from my parents house and walking up on the hill behind their house. In a story that is all too familiar, the property was private but allowed us to access. It has since changed hands, no trespassing signs went up, and my Mom reports they's blasting a road up to make million dollar vacation home sites.

Now the closest thing I get to "home hunts" are chukar about 10 minutes across town.

(same general area earlier in the year)

 

[gouch]

I do all my hunting and fishing close to home. In a less than a two hour drive I hunt Blacktail deer, Roosevelt elk, black bear, coyote, cougar, squirrel, Jack rabbit, snow shoe hare, Pheasant, two types of quail, two types of grouse, any number of ducks as well as White front and Canada geese. Got several types of trout, King and Silver salmon, steelhead, large and small mouth bass, crappie, yellow perch, bluegill and cat fish. Add one to three hours of travel time and I can add Rocky mountain elk, mule deer, antelope, mountain cottontail, snow geese and with a miracle draw, desert bighorns or Columbia Whitetail. I can fish, crab and gather clams at the ocean or fish for sturgeon and stripers in coastal streams. Heck, on my two mile morning dog walk today I saw seven blacktail, wild turkey, a coyote, mallard and wood ducks as well as Canada geese while listening to the rooster pheasant and valley quail crowing. So I am perfectly content to hunt and fish without burning a lot of gasoline.

 

[Ppartin4570]

If the city wouldn't get on my case I'd have some real backyard hunts with Eurasian collared doves.

I live in the country and they’re a blast. Wife says dove for dinner-pop a few in the noggin with a suppressed.22-all is good

 

[2rocky]

20 years ago a backyard hunt was jumpshooting the farm pond. I was middle aged before I ever got to sit in a blind for ducks.

 

[JShane]

just a few highlights from the "backyard" here in central FLA.

 

[pre6422hornet]

Since I live in the western Burbs of Chicago... no hunting of any kind remotely near me... unless you count hunting for big fish.

This is literally 30 yards behind our house. It is an almost daily ritual for me and all 4 daughters to go wet a line right before dinner or after. We have 2 small row boats now and hold family tournaments as well on the 2-3 acre lake. Good Times. Biggest bass to date is an 8-9 pounder.