I was just wondering for how many of the hunters here is it enjoyable to spend an entire hunt, day in day out, be it from a treestand or a tower waiting for game? I'm not talking about your own personal spots, I mean a paid hunt, where you do not participate in the scouting, you dont know the area or the various animals that frequent it.
I am not a stand hunter myself, although sometimes I will spend the last hours of daylight sometimes waiting on the of a field where I my quarry may present itself, but I prefer to get there late, and spend time stalking up to and around the final resting spot. I love stalking and covering ground, spotting and following up, I suppose you might call it dynamic hunting.
This is just a personal reflection I had when thinking about how much time(I am led to believe) American hunters, possibly moreso bowhunters spend in tree stands.
What are the prefered techniques and tastes here?

Since I have mobility problems stand hunting is the only kind of hunting I can do, be it on my own property or yours. When I settle in it is for the duration of my stay. I usually only hunt mornings but if I do plan to stay all day I also make sure that I have enough of what I need to spend the night if I should get caught. I would have to say that since I have had to modify the way I hunt I have spent more nights out than before. Spending the night out on my farm isn't a "roughing" experence at all. ALL of my shoouting houses are provisioned for me for just such a case. To tell the truth I really never have to spend the night out always have my cell phone and can call the house to have one of my workers to come out to get me but sometimes I just like to hear the woods.

Express-- Fortunately, your impressions of hunting in the US relate more to the Eastern side of the country. I live in the Pacific Northwest, and have never seen or known anyone to use a treestand. I personally do what I call "sneak and peek" hunting all on public land. This area is sort of rain forest, but not quite. Lots of timber and lots of brush. My method involves driving my pick-up in the woods to areas that I believe the deer will be in, hiking into them for a look-see, maybe working a ridge or draw, then returning to the truck and moving on to the next area. This level of mobility is necessary in order to access areas where you can actually see the deer that are there. Much of western Oregon holds sizeable quantities of deer, but they are so well hidden by the brush that you can pass within 25 yds. and never see them! I hunt VERY slowly with lots of stops to listen--good ears are as important as good eyes. Frequently, when a deer is spotted, it is only spotted by a small piece of a leg, an ear, and so on, as the rest is fully hidden. If the deer are "kegged up", seeing any deer is questionable. As a result, I learned many years ago that deer move more when the weather is stormy. I now hunt mostly during muzzleloader hunts in November, when the weather is lousy. This is when I cover ground, as wind and rain cover sounds I make in the brush. Do I get wet? Do I get really cold? YES! Is it worth it? Oh, yeah... So that, then, is how one hunter is successful in the far west US. Have fun, Chuck

EXPRESS
I am not your typical Midwest Bowhunter, I don't spend excessive time in treestands. Most will spend the day in a stand, or at least the first 2-3 hours and the last 2-3. I spend more of my time stalking and spotting much like ChuckD said except I will work an area all day and generally not hop area to area. Ohio forests and brush are in areas very think and in others open in the underbrush so it jsut depends where I am hunting the type of cover avaliable. Public land will generally have quite a bit of pressure on it.

When the treestand became popular in the east and midwest, the deer populations were low and the stand served to get the hunter above the deer's natural sight pattern. This help the hunters to harvest some very Wary animals. Now days it is not unusual for deer to look up into trees to see if there is a stand hunter around.

I own and use a stand but for me I prefer gound hunting and stalking.

Greg