Trevon Stoltzfus

Real Preparation Breeds Real Success

            You can sense spring coming as the crisp coolness of the morning air is giving rise to warmer days. The mountains are getting the last of their winter snowfall, and in many western states, we can see green shoots of grass starting to pop up across the dormant brown landscape. Soon summer will be upon us and hunters everywhere will be praying for the right amount of winter runoff and summer showers to produce the quality nutrients that the wildlife we dream about need for good horn growth.
            Our minds whirl with daydreams of upcoming hunts in the fall, wondering if we will be lucky enough this year to draw the coveted tag we are applying for, and how this year we can be more prepared for that split second chance at taking a trophy animal.
            Believe it or not, now really is the time to start preparing for the hunts that will begin as the aspens turn yellow in September and continue into snowy December. I suggest, rather than waiting until two weeks before your hunt, you begin to plan now for the preparation necessary to successfully harvest the big game you will spend so much time and energy hunting.
            My Granddad always told me, “plan your work and work your plan,” and now is the time to layout a strategy to get ready for our upcoming hunt’s opening morning sunrise that we will dream about throughout this summer.
            There are four categories of preparation I want to touch on:

Equipment

Upgrading Equipment

            Now is a great time to reflect back on last year’s hunting season and evaluate your equipment and its performance or lack thereof. If you were smart enough to have kept a detailed journal of last year’s hunts you can review that to refresh your memory. Did you have a backpack or pair of boots that daily caused you agony and made your hunt more painful than it had to be? Did glassing for hours give you a pounding headache? Perhaps your raingear was more water “resistant” than “water-proof.”
            We, as humans, tend to only remember the positive things that happen to us and that can be a good thing, but here you must be honest with yourself. Make a list of equipment that NEEDS to be replaced, a list of equipment that SHOULD be replaced, and a list of equipment that you just WANT to replace. By prioritizing your equipment replacement and upgrade list, you can get a feel for what your equipment hunting budget will need to be. Remember, the more comfortable you are out in the field, the more time and energy you will have to focus on harvesting your trophy.
            Perhaps fellow hunters introduced you to new products that you were unaware existed before last hunting season. Now you have the time to research more about these products and evaluate if these new “gadgets” will make your upcoming hunting season more productive.
            This does not mean that you have to take out a second mortgage on the house and purchase everything on your list at once. However, knowing what equipment you will be purchasing or replacing gives you the opportunity to get these necessities at cheaper, off-season, prices and pick them up in the order of importance (example: hiking boots take longer to break in than binoculars).

Testing Your Equipment

            As you start to replace and gather new hunting gear, now and throughout the summer months is the time to put it to the test. There is nothing more frustrating than paying a premium price for good gear and then finding out that “when the rubber hits the road,” your new equipment isn’t all that you thought it was.
            The method by which you test your equipment will be determined by the type of equipment you will be using. However, here are some ideas that will put you in situations that will allow you to get the kind of feedback on your gear to be able to know quickly whether it is a hit or a bust.
            Visiting Winter Ranges – Depending on what part of the country you live in, visiting winter ranges allows you to test your equipment and yourself.  Taking January and February trips to the winter range will provide you an opportunity to view congregated animals, even though they will not necessarily be the same animals you will be hunting.  It is also a great time to work on your “Rack Bracketing” skills, and it can give you an opportunity to test your cold weather gear, optics, backpacks, and photographic equipment.
            Shed Hunting – Shed hunting is another excellent way to test and break in new equipment. Taking day trips into new country to look for antler sheds will provide you a chance to break in your new hiking boots and other wearable gear. It also opens up new prospective hunting areas as you uncover country that was unfamiliar to you before. You can refer to shed hunting as pre-scouting for scouting. Not only will you get to discover new drainages, seeps, wallows, rub areas, and escape routes, but this can also be great exercise done with family and friends with minimal “away” time.
            Camping / Backpacking – Camping provides another chance for you to get out into your hunting area and become more familiar with the topography. Simple day hikes can begin to test gear that you will depend on during your hunts. Like shed hunting, camping can also be a great opportunity to share the outdoor experience with friends and family, where you can exercise and evaluate hunting gear at the same time.
            Backpacking is one of the best hardcore ways to test your hunting gear. If you are a backcountry bowhunter, that packs your camp on your shoulders, this is a great way to work on lightening your load. While backpacking you can find the right combination of gear to weight ratio that will work much better for you in the field once hunting season opens. Remember, there could be some temperature differences depending on what time of year you will be backpacking compared to when your season starts, so make the necessary changes in clothing in order to be prepared for your hunting conditions.
            Scouting – Scouting allows you to make the final tweaks and changes to your hunting gear prior to your hunt. This usually takes place anywhere from two months to two weeks before season. This trip becomes more serious as you start to focus on formulating a plan for your actual hunt, whereas your shed hunting, camping, and backpacking trips were concentrated on testing gear and getting to know the country you will be hunting.

Practice

            The cliché, “practice makes perfect,” is familiar to every hunter, but the truth of that phrase can mean the difference between making or missing the shot of a lifetime on a trophy animal. One difference between good and great hunters is the amount of time they spend on the practice range. Whether hunting with a bow, muzzleloader, or rifle, sometimes a split-second is all you have to make the shot.
            For many hunters, the only time they practice with their rifle or muzzleloader all year is the two or three shots they fire the day before hunting season starts. Use the spring and summer months to increase your confidence with your firearm. Shoot from many varying positions such as prone, kneeling, and off hand. Be familiar with your ammunition and its performance and shoot the same bullets you will use when hunting. Use a steady rest or bench to properly sight in your rifle. This can add a great deal of confidence to any hunter when squeezing the trigger on a big buck or bull. Prairie dog and predator hunting is also a great way to practice short and long distant accuracy.
            Bowhunters can also spend these warm weather months working on their consistency. Competing in local 3-D tournaments is a great way to do this, as you have many different shooting opportunities, positions, and conditions to try making quality shots on life-like targets. In my opinion, just being able to consistently practice at a twenty-yard target will greatly increase your confidence and accuracy.

Research

            This time of year also gives you a great head start on researching your hunting area, especially if you have never hunted it before. By making a few phone calls, you can start to highlight a few key areas where you will need to concentrate your hunting efforts.
            You can start by calling the local Game and Fish department. Talk to the field officer or officers who patrol that area and find out if there are any trends or any “hot spots” where big trophies have been taken in the past few years. The Game and Fish Biologist is also a valuable asset, as he or she will have access to herd information, migration habits, and areas of animal concentration. The answers you receive from these resources can help you to form an overview of your hunting unit, which will in turn give you specific areas of the unit to scrutinize and scout more closely.
            Another great resource is networking with other hunters. Attending sports shows, banquets, and seminars, puts you in contact with other hunters in an environment that is much more conducive for sharing information.
            The next step is to purchase the maps of the area you will be hunting. This is very important when researching a new hunting unit. I prefer the BLM 1:100,000 Topographic maps because it shows me public and private land status. These can be ordered or purchased from the local BLM office very affordably. If you are familiar with computers, a mapping program might be for you. Also with the aid of satellite imagery and black and white photography you can start to see timber stands, open parks, bluffs, and drainages that on a flat paper map would be impossible to distinguish. The BLM maps identify the public access and private land boundaries, and Topo gives us quality road information.
            Once you have formed a plan for your hunting area the last phase of your research begins, which is in field scouting. Now that you have three to five different “hot spots” you have identified, you can load up the truck and head out into these areas to get a closer look. This ties in with what I shared before about testing your equipment. Use this time to familiarize yourself with the terrain and look for possible bedding areas, water, saddles, well-traveled trails, and escape routes. Knowing the “lay of the land” will go a long way in second guessing the movements of trophy animals when the hunting season opens, and human pressure increases.

Getting into Shape

Cool summer mornings and evenings present the perfect time to start getting your body into the kind of shape that can withstand the drastic elevation changes of the rugged country that trophy animals call home. Each hunter must approach this differently basing his or her workouts on their beginning physical condition and the elevation they are accustomed to living in. Great exercises for getting your cardiovascular conditioning increased for hunting are walking, jogging, biking, and climbing stairs. Lifting weights is also a great help, and should be balanced with a cardiovascular workout. Shed hunting, day hikes, backpacking, and scouting, are by far the most useful exercise for getting into top hunting shape. In all of these activities be sure to simulate actual hunting conditions as close as possible for the best results. This includes the weight of your pack, as well as the gear that you utilize. Needless to say, the better shape you can get yourself into before arriving to hunting camp, the more enjoyable the hunt will be.
            To me, hunting embodies much more than the actual killing of a trophy buck or bull. It encompasses a yearlong process. From filling out your license application all the way to cleaning up and putting away your gear at the end of the season, there is plenty to do all year long that will greatly increase the productivity of those golden moments out in the field during hunting season. Remember they say that 10% of the hunters kill 90% of the game, are you a “10 percenter?”