Terry,
Fwiw, IR D told me that turning the scope on and off at the rate of a couple of times an hour was more of a drain on the battery than just leaving it on the whole hunt because boot up is power intensive. Since you have a Patrol as well, maybe comparing the battery life of the Patrol left on and the REAP-IR cycled on and off will confirm this.
Also, if your REAP-IR stays on your rifle through a hunt, I can highly recommend Ultimate Night Vision's remote, rechargeable battery pack. It comes with a pouch which can be easily mounted to the off side of the stock or forward of the scope. The Anker battery can be charged in the pouch or it can be removed from the pouch for charging. The charging cable has a USB connection, so you can charge the battery via 12v or 110v. The pack provides all night power and then some. And, as I am sure you know, the IR D units become pretty stable and require less and less frequent NUCing the longer they are on.
JPK