GETTING READY FOR FALL: Hal's Tips on the Essential Prep for Hunting Season
GETTING READY FOR FALL
When the summer doldrums roll around and it’s too warm to be running around in the woods, what is a Buck Hunting fanatic supposed to do? This is the time of year when the bucks are just lying around, getting fat and happy. I’m content just enjoying the summer and biding my time until once again the autumn leaves will fall, transforming the landscape from lush green to stark gray.
I don’t know about anyone else but, it seems like the older I get, the faster the years go by. When I was younger, time seemed to stand still. It seemed as though deer season would never get here. Now the deer seasons come and go so fast, it seems like I’m a time traveler! What I’ve been learning from this though is, to take one day at a time and enjoy every minute of it. When a day is gone, all we have is the memories, so we should all try and make those memories count.
CHECK YOUR HUNTING GEAR
Summer is a great time to go over your hunting equipment. I get so busy in the fall, that I don’t have the time to do it. I really enjoy kicking back on rainy summer day with a coffee and going through all my hunting gear. Doing it gets me reminiscing about all the places I went and things I saw in the woods the past season.
In the past, I would be digging out my hunting gear a few days before the season, only to find out that my wool socks were worn out or that I really did need that new pair of wool pants. Then when I went to order new ones, I would find that they are back ordered or didn’t have my size. Needless to say, that was pretty dumb. Nowadays I check all my clothing and gear in the summer, so if I need something it’s not a fire drill to try and get it. There is also a heck of a lot better selection when those new catalogs first come out.
I look over my wool outer clothes to see how worn they are. If they are getting thin, I buy new ones. I like to keep two sets going. I’ll wear the thinner stuff on the warm or dry days. When it turns cold or snowy, I switch to my newer wools. This works out good, because by the time the thin ones wear out completely, the newer ones have worn thin. Our own Big Woods Bucks wool clothes are the highest quality you can buy. I wear clothes out faster than most hunters, but still get years of use out of them. I check all my long underwear for holes. Mine generally wear out in the knees first.
STOCK UP ON SOCKS
One of the most important pieces of clothing to me is wool socks. I try to keep a half dozen pairs of wool socks on hand going into the fall. Usually, the heels will wear out first and once they start to get thin I don’t wear them. I like the ones with at least 85% wool and look like towel material inside. They cushion my feet really well. The best ones I’ve found for comfort and durability are Minus 33. I wear a pair of sock liners and a pair of expedition weight over them. If you’re walking all day, it is vitally important to take care of your feet. I wear out a pair of rubber boots every year as I wear them year-round whenever I’m in the woods. I like the lacrosse grange un-insulated with chevron soles. They are light ankle fit and are not slippery on the ice like some of the other rubber boots.
I also go through my Big Woods Bucks belt pack and make sure everything is in good shape. I’ll check my matches and lighter to make sure they work. I change the batteries in my mini flashlight light. I then put everything I take with me deer hunting and put it in my pack so when the time comes, I’m not searching for anything at the last minute.
CHECK YOUR GUN
Summer is also a great time to check your gun. Maybe it needs to be refinished or maybe you didn’t clean it very good after last season. Maybe you’ll decide that it might just be time to buy another rifle. If that’s the case, you will want to spend some time at the range getting familiar with it.
Sighting in a gun is the easy part, getting the gun to be an extension of your arms is a little harder. Practice taking off the safety and putting the gun to your shoulder until it becomes automatic function. Pick an object to point at, close your eyes and pull up your gun. Open your eyes and see how close to the object you are. Practice this until you are reasonably close to where you want to hit. I’ve heard way too many stories from hunters, saying they couldn’t get the buck in the scope. The reason they couldn’t is that they were not pointing their gun in the right spot. If you practice pointing your gun, it will become second nature and be just like pointing your finger at something. There are usually too few opportunities to shoot a buck in the Big Woods to not be prepared.
