Prep work, readying up for a successful hunt

Prep work is an important part of any hunting season. Successful hunts rarely happen by pure luck. You need to put in the time and effort if you want to be rewarded by the end of the season, and in particular, if you want to do so in a responsible manner. With my particular bad luck, I am sure to never skip out on that work as fall time rolls in.

Like most anything in life, gotta put in the time to prepare properly if you want to be successful in hunting.#truenorthwilds #hunting #huntcanada #outside #outdoors #canadianwilderness

Posted by True North Wilds on Friday, August 25, 2017

Stands and safety

One of the main things that I need to do each year is to make sure my various tree stands are still in place. More importantly, I need to make sure they are still in a safe condition. The last thing I want is to head out on a hunting day and waste time fixing my equipment, or worse yet, having something break while I’m sitting on it.

To that end, I always spend a day or two at the end of summer checking on my stands, or moving them around. This year was no exception, and took even more time since I had a new stand to put up. The new stand was a different type than I’m used to, and had screw-in pegs rather than a fixed ladder. It took me a full afternoon to properly space out the pegs and get them secured into the tree in a way that I could actually climb. Testing it out along the way, I finally had a complete ladder that I could climb all the way up and into my stand with.

prep work

And a nice view once in it

This new stand overlooks my bear bait station. Garry and I put it up on my property while doing some prep work in the spring. Overall it is a very nice location and a very good setup for bear hunting. I’ve been very much looking forward to making use of it and potentially bagging a nice black bear.

Signs are good…

 

 

Scouting, scouting, and more scouting

By far one of the most time consuming activities in preparing for the hunting season is scouting. Scouting is something that, for me, never really stops. Whenever I am outside my house, I am scouting in some way. Whether I am at work, driving, fishing, or any other outdoor location, I watch and I learn. Deer have patterns, and they don’t often change those patterns, so I watch. Paying attention to them all throughout the year gives you a good idea of where you can find them during the fall. You can see what kind of foods they are eating, where they are sleeping, where they are finding their water, and what type of bush and cover they prefer.

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While watching the animals is a year-long form of scouting, I also set some time aside to focus on specific areas. Either on the quad or on foot, I check trails, cut lines, fields, anywhere that I expect to actually go and hunt. What I look for is game trails, tracks, scat, or any other sign that will tell me specifically where animals are moving through. Obviously, this is important information when choosing to set up a tree stand, or choosing whether or not to move a tree stand.

The scouting is pretty fun itself, what better way to spend a day?

Lastly, a type of prep work that has become invaluable to me over the last couple years is Google Maps. Using the satellite view and searching around my local hunting zones has often led me to new and better areas that I would never have found otherwise. Any time I’m heading to a new area, my first step is always to look at the satellite picture and see what I’m getting myself into.

 

Gearing up, dialing it in

The final component in finishing up my prep work for the season is of course to make sure I have the right gear. Gear includes everything from the tree stands, to guns, to quality socks. It’s important to plan ahead and have the right equipment for the area you will be in and the animal you are hunting. The last thing you want to happen is to find yourself missing some key piece of gear from your pack when you are 2 miles deep in the bush.

Its a long walk back to the truck…

 

 

Equipping myself this year was relatively painless, as I have gathered a pretty good collection of gear for a variety of terrain and weather. Two main things that I had to purchase were new boots and a new muzzle loader rifle. Quality boots are one of those key pieces of equipment you simply must have. Miserable feet make for a miserable hunt, always.

Of course, there is also the matter of dialing in the equipment we already have. Morgan and I took our bows to the gravel pit awhile back to sight in. It quickly became apparent to both of us that we need a lot more practice than we’ve been getting. Repeating last year’s mistakes is something I absolutely want to avoid, and proper sight-in is part of that. Luckily, both of our bows remain in good working order and we are mostly on target.

 

Prep work done, ready to rock

Hunting is fun, and putting in the prep work for it is also fun for me. As fall sets in this year, I think I’m about as ready as ever to dive right into the hunting season. Success is earned, I know that, and I do my best to earn it every year.

 

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