Pre-Season Hunting Prep: 5 Things Smart Hunters Are Doing Right Now

When most people think about hunting season, they picture cool fall mornings, changing leaves, and opening day excitement. But experienced hunters know that success in the field isn’t built in September or October — it’s built months earlier.

The off-season isn’t really an off-season at all. It’s an opportunity to prepare, improve, and gain an advantage before the rush begins. While others are waiting for hunting season to arrive, smart hunters are already putting in the work.

Here are five things successful hunters are doing right now to make sure they’re ready when the season opens.

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1. Dialing In Rifles and Optics

The worst time to discover an issue with your rifle setup is a week before opening day.

While it feels more like barbecue season than hunting season, it’s never too early to inspect firearms, confirm zero, and make adjustments to optics. Whether you’ve upgraded equipment, changed ammunition, or simply haven’t been to the range in several months, now is the time to verify that everything is performing as expected.

This is also a great time to experiment with new gear, optics, ammo, and even a new hunting rifle (if you were lucky enough to get one for the holidays!). Also, experimenting in different conditions – distances, climate, weather, various elevations or types of cover – ALL of these matter in the field.

A few consistent hours at the range in the summer months can prevent a missed opportunity — or a missed shot — later in the year.

Pro Tip:

Keep notes on ammunition performance, sight adjustments, and group sizes so you’re not starting from scratch each season. Details about gear performance in different conditions are also very helpful for when it’s game time – literally.

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2. It’s all about the gear

Every hunter has experienced it: opening a gear bag before a trip and realizing something important is missing, damaged, or buried under months of accumulated clutter and granola bar crumbs.

If you want to give yourself a competitive edge in the field, maintain and organize gear now. Having everything in place and in working order gives you confidence that rookies and last-minute-men (or women) won’t have when it’s time to pull the trigger.

Find and inspect all of your favorite hunting outerwear. Ten paces into the trail is not an ideal time to realize your jacket is mildewy, your wool hunting performance socks are no longer performing, or that you only have one – not two – hunting gloves.

Inspect packs and straps. Check batteries in radios, cameras, optics, and other battery-operated or battery-backed-up equipment. Restock first aid and emergency supplies. Too many hunters get so excited about bagging the Boone and Crockett that they make preparedness secondary, when it should be a primary task.

The other advantage to doing this type of preparation early is that you won’t run into inventory issues during the peak hunting season, and pre-season prices may be a bit more reasonable.

3. Scouting Before Everyone Else

One of the biggest advantages hunters can gain long before opening day is scouting, and the sooner you start, the better. It takes longer than the week before hunting season to map out animal behavior.

Spring scouting allows hunters to learn the terrain, identify travel corridors, locate bedding areas, and understand how wildlife use a property before hunting pressure changes their behavior.

Trail cameras can provide valuable insight, but even old-fashioned boots-on-the-ground scouting can reveal opportunities that aren’t visible on satellite maps.

Also, regarding scouting, be sure to clear hunting trails in the spring or summer. If you hunt your own property, this will be easier. If you plan to hunt on someone else’s property, volunteer to clean up trails before hunting season. If you have a favorite hunting ground on public property, walk it several times before hunting season. Removing fallen branches, thick underbrush, and noisy ground cover from private property may be the difference between getting a clear shot and scaring something off well before you even see it.

4. Getting Vehicles and UTVs Ready

Hunters spend countless hours preparing firearms and gear, but sometimes overlook the vehicle that gets them to the hunt.

Whether you’re driving a truck, an ATV, or a side-by-side, now is the time to inspect your tires, batteries, lights, winches, and recovery equipment. A breakdown deep in the backcountry can quickly turn an exciting hunt into a frustrating experience.

It’s also worth evaluating how gear and firearms are transported.

Loose firearms sliding around a vehicle pose unnecessary risks and can damage equipment. At a minimum, it can negate all that time and energy you spent on the rifle range sighting in your favorite hunting rifle. Secure storage and mounting solutions help protect valuable gear while keeping it readily accessible when needed.

For hunters who regularly travel rough terrain, a dedicated mounting system like an XFrames Weapon Mount can help keep rifles secure, protected, and out of the way until they’re needed. And with six-second extraction times, your rifle can travel in secure style while remaining readily accessible.

5. Improving Physical Readiness

There is a good chance, as a dedicated hunter, you’ve heard this before. Yet this may be the most overlooked part of hunting preparation.

Many hunts involve long hikes, uneven terrain, elevation changes, and carrying equipment over significant distances. Even hunters who aren’t pursuing backcountry adventures can benefit from improving strength, mobility, and endurance before the season arrives.

The goal isn’t necessarily to become an elite athlete. It’s simply to make sure your body is ready for the demands of the hunt.

A little preparation now can help you get where you are going, move more efficiently, and perhaps most importantly – avoid injury! The most logical way to do this ties in with the scouting tip. Start hitting those hunting trails now, remembering that you may shoot something you have to track, which could take you miles away from your hunting rig. Now you’ve got double the terrain to cross, AND you may have the added weight of a quartered deer or elk to haul out. Give yourself the spring and summer to get in shape for hunting season.

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Pre-season facts

Hunting is like everything else – the more you put into it, the more you get out. In this case, the early bird may not get the worm, but it definitely has a better chance of filling your tags.

Author bio:

Kat Hobza, daughter of nationally acclaimed gunsmith, Andy Cannon, grew up in the mountains of Western Montana, where Andy taught his girls to hunt, fish, and shoot handguns competitively. Still a resident of Western Montana, Kat continues to enjoy all the outdoor recreation her dad shared with her in her youth. When Kat isn’t helping her clients with their marketing, she can be found fly-fishing, golfing, on a riverbank, or enjoying some dirt church on the backroads of Montana.