If you go to almost any outdoors store a week prior to opening day, all of your senses will tell you the same thing: that a great hunting season is being sold right now.
The smell of hunting scenes is in the air. There are gadgets that beep. Most have camo designs with military-sounding operation names. It can be overwhelming. And it’s loud.
It also all does one thing well: it makes you feel inadequate as a hunter!
But if you’re not quite sure where to start, that’s okay. We’re here to guide you along:
Start With the Things That Keep You Alive and Comfortable
Comfort isn’t a luxury in the field. Comfort is what lets a person sit still for four hours instead of fidgeting out of the stand at hour two.
Cold, wet, blistered hunters are the hunters who go home early. Warm, dry, comfortable hunters, meanwhile, are the ones who fill tags!
Boots Come First, and It Isn’t Close
If you’re going to spend good money anywhere, it should be on boots. A poor-fitting boot can wreck a hunt sooner than either bad weather, bad winds, or bad luck.
Start buying your boots as soon as possible before the next hunting season begins. Take time to break-in boots at home. Wear them to the mailbox. Wear them on long walks or out in the woods.
Go with Layers Instead of Bulk
The method of wearing a heavy coat over an older sweatshirt to trap sweat has been proven to be less effective than a layered clothing system because of one very simple reason: sweat is what causes discomfort!
When you’re using a layered clothing system (the bottom layer is what’s meant to pull moisture away from your body, the middle layer is for insulation, and then the top layer is a good windbreak), you’re going to get better protection from the elements to keep yourself warm and dry. It really is as simple as that.
Also the layering system is adaptable. When walking through the woods, you generate body heat. This isn’t as true when you’re sitting, however. And the ability to remove one layer while sitting at a tree stand and then add that layer back on one hour after is a little detail but can make all the difference in how much you enjoy your hunting experience.
Get A Medical Kit That Matches the Actual Risk!
Most hunting first aid kits are built for paper cuts. That’s fine for a scraped knuckle, but hunting involves firearms, broadheads, chainsaws for shooting lanes, and remote locations where an ambulance is a long way off.
A trauma-capable kit with a tourniquet, a pressure dressing, and hemostatic gauze belongs in the truck at minimum, and ideally in the pack itself. Anyone who wants to understand what actually belongs in a Gunshot Wound Kit should seriously read up before they even think about buying a prepackaged bag off a shelf, and for the simple reason that plenty of them are heavy on bandages and light on the things that stop serious bleeding.
Buy the training that goes with it, too. A tourniquet nobody knows how to apply is just an expensive strap.
The Firearm Conversation
Gun talk gets people worked up, so let’s keep it practical.
One Firearm Known Cold Beats Four That Aren’t
Skill is developed by familiarity. By not having to look at it to find the safety to accurate it. By understanding how the trigger releases. By feeling the recoil when you fire. By knowing where your point of impact is at 200 yards on a cool day after firing several times.
You get the idea.
Most hunting caliber debates have been fun and also somewhat pointless. The truth is that each of the major calibers (.30-30 Winchester, .270 Winchester, .308 Winchester, .30-06 Springfield, 7mm Rem Mag, 6.5 Creedmoor, .300 Win Mag, .338 Win Mag, and so on and so forth) will all get the job for hunting big game in North America and putting meta on the table.
Maintenance and the Parts Nobody Thinks About Until They Break
Firearms are machines, and machines wear. Springs fatigue. Extractors chip. Firing pins do strange things at the worst possible moment.
Keeping a small stash of consumable components on hand is cheap insurance, and purchasing spare pistol parts before something fails is going to beat scrambling for them mid-season when everyone else basically has the same idea.
A basic cleaning routine matters more than an expensive one. Wipe it down, keep the bore clean, keep moving parts lubricated, and then store it dry. That’s most of it right there.
Safes fill up. Tastes change. That shotgun that had been purchased years earlier in a moment of enthusiasm has sat untouched for six seasons and it isn’t getting any younger. There’s no shame in thinning the herd, and selling your firearms through a legitimate dealer can turn idle metal into something useful (like better optics or a season’s worth of ammunition).
A gun that never leaves the safe isn’t a hunting tool. It’s just furniture.
The Pack and the Discipline of Carrying Less
Every hunter has done it: loaded a pack with everything that might possibly be needed, hauled it two miles uphill in the dark, and used exactly four items. Then they do it again the next weekend.
Gear weight compounds. Two ounces here and six ounces there and suddenly there’s twenty-five pounds on a back that has to climb a ridge before daylight. Getting serious about packing light means asking a simple question of every item: has this actually been used in the last three seasons?
The true essentials list is short. Water and a way to carry more of it. Knife and a backup blade. Light source plus a spare, because headlamps die at the least convenient hour. Rope or paracord. Fire-starting materials. Gloves. A game bag. Enough food to stay sharp. Toilet paper, which no one wants to discuss and everyone regrets forgetting.
Everything past that list has to earn its spot on the way in and prove it on the way out.
Optics Are Where the Money Actually Belongs
Cheap glass doesn’t cost you much, but it costs wildlife!
Quality optics are honestly probably far more important to the novice hunter than he or she could ever imagine. Staying still and scanning the area for movement and hunting from the eyes (rather than continuously walking and making noise with the legs) allows for the least amount of movement and noise possible on your part.
If you’re not going to get a scope, at least get binoculars. Mid-price quality binoculars that are used consistently by an amateur hunter beats out a high end spotting scope sitting idle on the tailgate of his truck every time!
Gear That Changes With the Quarry
Different animals demand different kits, and this is where a lot of unnecessary buying happens.
Spring Turkey
Turkey hunting rewards patience, a decent call, and a cushion for sitting on the ground. The gear list is short and the skill list is long. Anyone chasing longbeards is going to learn rather quickly that shooting a turkey has less to do with equipment than with reading a bird’s mood and knowing when to shut up and let curiosity do the work.
A vest with a built-in seat, a couple of calls, and patterned ammunition pretty much covers it!
Deer and Big Game
The biggest concern with big game is making sure that you have the equipment and the strategy necessary to haul the meat out.
A sharp knife (or two), a bone saw (or a quality replaceable blade system, game bags), and a realistic plan to get your meat are all important as well. It’s also a good idea to carry a sidearm (and be trained in its use) for potential close quarters encounters with big game as well.
Waterfowl
Waterfowl gear is its own expensive world of decoys, blinds, and waders. The one non-negotiable is staying dry, because hypothermia doesn’t care how good the shooting or the hunting was!
Hunting Is for More People Than the Catalogs Suggest
The industry has historically pictured one kind of hunter, and that picture has been wrong for a long time.
Adaptive equipment has come a long way, and companies producing recreational equipment for all physical abilities have opened doors that used to stay closed. Think mobility devices that are effectively built for rough terrain, adaptive shooting rests, and mounting systems, These kinds of equipment pieces mean a hunt doesn’t end because a body works differently than it once did.
It also means that if someone has been told they can’t, that information is probably outdated.
The Stuff That Can Wait
You could argue forever over scent elimination sprays but I’ve never seen anything in a bottle that can beat finding your track on the wind. Trail cams help you out and they’re a great way to spend an entire season looking at your phone as opposed to getting into the woods for some scouting.
A rangefinder will earn its money in the wide open spaces but will be much less useful when hunting in heavy timber. The camouflage pattern may have some effect depending on where you’re at, but sitting still without earring any hunting camo can also do much more.
All of this isn’t bad. Just don’t let it take the place of boots, glass, and hard work.
The Bottom Line
Gear doesn’t kill anything. But preparation (or the lack thereof) does. The hunter who spent the summer shooting, scouting, and walking in the boots they’ll wear in November will outperform the one who spent it shopping, every time.
Buy quality where it counts, skip the gimmicks, keep the pack light, and put the savings into ammunition and time in the field.
The best equipment in the world is worthless to someone sitting on the couch, and a modest kit in capable hands fills the freezer just fine.
