Top 3 Areas to Focus on this Hunting Offseason

Now that the hunting season is over there should be a fair amount of maintenance that every hunter should practice. Maintenance is probably the last thing people usually want to think about, it should be the first thing on the to-do list.  With all of the many things to accomplish, it's hard to pinpoint what exactly to focus on so it helps to have something short and easy to remember. 

In Marine Corps Recruit Training amongst the chaos, stress, and sensory overload, recruits are required to learn and retain a fair amount of knowledge. For this reason, the Drill Instructors teach certain “ditty’s” or combinations of short phrases that recruits can easily remember and help get the point across. For example, a Drill Instructor would yell out, “The 4-Life Saving Steps!”, and recruits would respond, “Stop the bleeding, Start the breathing, Protect the wound, Treat for shock”. Quick, easy, and to the point right?  We resighted dozens of these little phrases, and most I can still remember to this day.

One particular ditty we learned was for when we were either on patrols or when resting during a long hump (full equipment hike):  “Weapon.Horse.Rider.”  Your weapon should be the first and most important item to maintain because it’s going to keep you alive. Next is Horse.  Not an actual horse, but more or less your transportation item.  It's going to be putting the miles just as much as you are and you don’t want to be stranded with a broken-down ride.  Lastly, Rider.  Your concerns are last, as in you eat last, and you take care of yourself only after your weapon and horse are fully operational.  After remembering this ditty a few weeks ago, it struck me as something easy to remember for hunting as well.

 After a long hard hunting season, gear is either ruined, broken, and most definitely shuffled all over the place and unorganized.  Hunting equipment isn’t supposed to perfectly tuned indefinitely either. It requires a little love from time to time and the offseason is the perfect time to correct those things.

 Here’s how you can use this little ditty to better your direction this offseason:

Weapon

I primarily hunt with a bow during hunting season, so I need to be 100% confident that it is tuned and running smooth.  Confidence is paramount and nothing gets my confidence up like making sure my bow is paper tuned. Paper tuning involves shooting an arrow through paper and adjusting variables to create the perfect arrow flight when released from the bow.  Check out this video on How to Paper Tune a Compound Bow for more information.

 Another great area to check are your cables and strings.  Over time, strings and cables lose their shape from stretching, start to fray, and even the serving can start to unravel.  These issues can lead to other issues, like performance. 

How to Aim a Traditional Bow

Stretched strings and cables can affect your bows’ cam timing which will leave you banging your head against the wall when you are trying to sight your bow in. They are not meant to last forever and usually should be replaced every 2-3 years.  A great way of prolonging their life is to use string wax.  Scrape some wax onto your string and cables, and use a piece of leather to rub it into the string and cables.  The leather helps to create friction, which will help heat the wax to penetrate deeper into the fibers.

Lastly is edge honing and edge sharpening.  This of course applies to both knives and broadheads.  I’ve always liked solid-bladed knives as opposed to replaceable blade knives.  I found it to be a nuisance carrying around extra blades and seeing the waste stream associated with them.  They aren’t worth my time.  I’d rather just resharpen an existing blade.  There are a ton of great methods and variations and “how-to” content for sharpening both knives and broadheads.  So don’t be that guy or gal heading out for a hunt with dull blades. 

Horse

Having quality hunting gear like packs, boots, and clothing can make or break a hunt.  This is why your hunting gear falls under the Horse category. Gear that has been cared for and maintained can make the entire experience more enjoyable. I do most of my hunting on public land and this requires that my gear be not only in good condition, but also packed in a way that’s readily accessible, lightweight, and organized.

Start by looking at the major items on your pack list (pack, boots, clothing, ect.).  Have they been damaged? Does anything need replacing? Now is when you will have the time to make those repairs and have everything back to full operations. 

This is also a great time to start looking at how to improve your gear.  You might have found that your current pack list is much too heavy, or that you are taking a lot of items you don’t even need.  Research what others are doing as a baseline if you need one.  One awesome thing about the hunting community is that everyone has a way of doing things.  You may find that you like one person’s way of doing something over another, or that you want to combine the two together.  One thing I like doing, especially when we get a newer pack, is breaking down the pack all the way to the frame (if possible), and then reassembling it back together to provide the best possible way of carrying out our sticks, platform, outer garment(s), etc.

Rider

Now that the first two sections are formally addressed, it’s time to focus on something a little more psychological.  Here is where you focus on yourself. Your successes, failures, mistakes, and lessons.

 Try to remember those early mornings during the season.  Maybe it was that first morning waking up excited and ready to take on the day, or maybe it was waking up and barely crawling out of bed (maybe even sleeping in) after a month of hunting hard.  Try and remember how you felt in that moment and where was your mindset? What got you out of bed?  What was your motivation?

Reflection is a strong asset to any offseason program.  By reflecting on what happened, we can provide an opportunity to sort through the observations and experiences and create meaning. Meaning becomes learning, and learning creates growth and development into something better. Peter Drucker, a well-known Austrian consulate who help form the foundations of the modern business corporation once said: “Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection, will come even more effective action.”

Hopefully, you’re now ready to make the most out of the offseason now that you have some time on your hands. Now is the perfect time to focus on these areas and hopefully this steers you in the right direction, to not only increase your readiness but also to reflect on the season and be a better hunter than you were yesterday!