Alaska

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This fall will be my seventh season of hunting. I came into it really not knowing much, but always having wanted to do it. Every season I learn something new. The more experience I get, the more hunters I talk to, the more gear I use, and the more mistakes I make, the more I learn. Clearly, I’m no hunting expert, but I thought I’d share my experiences in the hopes of helping others have productive and enjoyable hunts.

My husband and I primarily hunt for moose, but these hunting tips, tricks, and lessons aren’t just for moose hunting. These lessons I’ve learned are applicable to many types of hunting, and I hope they help you have success in the field.

In the Field

• Safety first. The last thing anyone wants is to have someone in their hunting party get injured. Follow safety guidelines for all your gear. Bring a first aid kit and know how to use it, and take an inReach. Also, make sure at least a couple people know where you’ll be, when to expect you back, and what to do if they don’t hear from you on the appointed date.
  
• Know your hunting partner(s). Knowing both your and your partners’ abilities in the field really ties into safety. It’s hard to know how someone will do without actually just hunting, but make sure your partner has good outdoor knowledge and hunter’s safety. You have to more or less trust them with your life out there. For example, my husband got his first bear while bear baiting, and we had to go track it. He went ahead with his gun, and I followed behind with mine. It was getting dark, and finding a dark object in the shade of trees isn’t easy. He finally spotted it not far from us on the ground as it was getting darker. Clearly, it wasn’t happy and a little too close for comfort. He shot it again and the bear died. Afterward, my husband told me he was a little worried about how I would react with the bear so close and me following behind him with a gun, but I stayed calm and had his back, and I knew he’d do the same.
  
• Make sure your gun, bow, or weapon of choice is sighted in. Just because it was sighted in last season doesn’t mean it didn’t get a little out of wack between seasons. It’s always good to know your gun will be dead on so you can get a clean and quick kill.
  

• The early bird gets the game. I know this isn’t always the case, but if you get motivated and wake up early to start your hunt, chances are you’ll have less competition from other hunters who are still snoozing. There may also be more animals moving about in those cooler morning hours. We experienced this a couple times. We usually wake up quite early on hunting days. A couple of these times, other hunters were camped around, but still snug in their beds. We were already out hunting and spotted moose. My husband spotted a group of bulls (really surprising!), found a legal one, and got it down before the other hunters were even awake. They woke up to the shots, and came out of their camper looking bewildered. Had they been up early enough, they would have had a moose down like we did.
  

• If you see an animal while glassing and decide to go after it, make sure you bring your safety gear and food with you. We made the mistake of not doing this one time. For the first moose my husband got, he spotted it on the mountain side. We decided to go after it and clearly did not think ahead. We brought barely any gear or food. This was a very poor decision. He ended up shooting the moose, it got very dark, and we had to use the flash from my camera to flag down his uncle and dad when they came on four wheelers to pick us up. This mistake definitely falls in the lesson category of the hunting trips, tricks, and lessons. Learn from our mistake, and pack gear with you even if you think you’re going a short distance and won’t be gone long.
  
• Patience is key. I especially learned this when calling for moose. Our most recent season of moose hunting was the first season we did much calling, and my husband called multiple moose in. It takes longer than expected sometimes for them to call back. In-between that time it takes a lot of patience to wait. It also takes a lot of patience to sit in stands, field dress animals, glass for animals in the rain, and more, but it is 100% worth it to have the experiences that you will have while out hunting.
  
• Take note of the shooting light. If you get an animal down, will you have time to safely track it if necessary? Will you have enough light to field dress it? Are you going to be able to pack it out before dark? If not, will it be protected from the elements and predators until you can get back to it?
  
• Learn how to field dress your kill. If you are going with a group of hunters who haven’t done that before or going with a seasoned hunter, it is always good to know how to do it yourself. Check out the resources below for some information on where you can learn processing tips and techniques.
  
• Check out blogs (like this one!), books, YouTube, DVDs, and other resources for calling techniques, field dressing tips, processing how-tos and more. Also, talking to other hunters and joining groups like GoWild is a great way to answer questions you may have.

Gear

• Take a copy of the hunting regulations with you. It’s better to have it with you then to have questions and not be able to look them up. Make sure you have them laminated and/or in a waterproof bag to keep them dry.

• Spend the money. Good gear is invaluable in the field. I’m not saying you should go into debt and buy all of the coolest and most updated camo, gear, and products out there, but quality gear really makes a difference. My husband and I built our collection of good gear throughout the seasons. For example, our first hunt I started out with ill-fitting military surplus rain gear, regular black rain pants, and a cheap jacket I bought in high school. As we continued to hunt, I got gear that was waterproof, warmer, quieter (a big advantage!) and fit me better. We slowly but surely started getting more warm and weatherproof camo, better binoculars and spotting scopes, tastier dehydrated meals, and more. This isn’t to say you can’t be successful without higher quality things, but it will make your hunt more enjoyable and likely lead to a more successful hunt.
  
• Know your gear. Know the ins and outs of all your gear, and how to troubleshoot it if necessary. Test it, look it over, and know how to use it properly. If you’ve got new gear, don’t assume it’ll work fine right out of the box. That may not be the case. You don’t want to find out things don’t work when you’re out in the field and it’s too late to fix it.
  
• Plan for inclement weather. Make sure you have gear for all types of weather for yourself, and gear that will take care of the meat whether it is rainy or hot out, such as tarps.
  
• Dull knives are more harm than good in the field. Make sure you can sharpen your knife while you are out hunting or get one with replaceable blades.
  
• Good glass makes a big difference. If you’re like us and need to see specific antler sizes and/or antler configurations from long distances, you want to have high quality binoculars and spotting scopes. We found that our Vortex binoculars and spotting scope serve us well. They help us determine whether a moose in the distance is worth going after, or if we should pass on it and need to look for something larger. They also help us save time on moose that we shouldn’t be going after, and help us figure out if a moose is worth trekking miles to get.

• Plan for bugs. Obviously, this will depend on the season and area you’ll be hunting, but you’ll likely run into some bugs on your hunt. I was unprepared last season, not wearing my bug net, and got bit by my eye. My whole eye swelled shut. This really made glassing with binoculars a little frustrating, and it took out my dominate eye for shooting. Use a bug net, spray, or whatever necessary to prevent bug bits, stings, and swelling from interrupting your hunt.
  
• Batteries and chargers. If any of your gear runs on batteries (e.g. headlamps, inReach, camera, phone, etc), and you run out of juice, you’re just carrying dead weight. Make sure everything to charged up before you go, and bring extra batteries and a portable solar charger to keep your gear going.
  
• Another thing to add to the list of hunting tips, tricks, and lessons is meal planning. Meal planning for your hunt is very beneficial. If you will be hunting a distance from any type of store, this is an essential thing to do. It also may help to plan out your daily snacks. By doing that you won’t end up using all of your snacks in the first few days of hunting.
  
• Check out my hunting checklist for more recommend gear.
  

Field Dressing, Processing, and Meat Care

• We use these game bags, and have really had good luck with them. The sizing works great, the material fits snug, it has coverage for whole quarters, and is made in America. You can even reuse these bags. As soon as you have your meat out of the game bags and no longer need to use the bags to store your meat for that hunt, take your game bags and rinse them in cold water. Try to get as much blood and any pieces of meat off as possible. I would suggest soaking them for a short time and then hosing them down to rinse the blood out. After that, you can launder them, and they will be almost as good as new! This is a great way to save some money and get more uses out of your bags.

• You can never have enough tarps. If you have the room and are able to, I’d bring at least two tarps just for the meat. We use one tarp for laying meat on as it is being processed, before it goes into the game bag. This allows us an area to set quarters of meat on and clean it before we spray and bag it. The tarp definitely helps keep the meat cleaner, and you end up with a better product if you keep the meat clean through the whole process. I would also have another tarp to go over the meat and act as a tent if any inclement weather comes and you need to cover it from the rain or snow.

• Weather not only plays a big role in what gear you have, but it also makes a difference in meat care as well. As mentioned above, tarps are great for keeping your meat dry. You can also use them to you help shade in your meat from some sun. In addition to a tarp, make sure you have rope and a way to hang your meat on a meat pole for ventilation. If you don’t plan on doing that, be sure to get your meat processed and in the freezer to prevent spoilage.

• Citric acid, water, and a spray bottle. The mixture of the citric acid and water will help with meat preservation and help prevent any issues with flies. Only a small amount of citric acid per ounces of water is needed. You can find the whole scoop on using it for meat care here.
  
• You may hear people suggest dousing your meat with black pepper to keep the flies off. We did this for the first moose, and boy was it a mistake. We were charged extra at the processor for a “cleaning fee” to get the pepper off. Oops. Since the, we’ve just used the critic acid, which has worked very well.
  
• If you’re traveling with your meat in a truck bed for a distance, be sure to allow for proper ventilation under the meat as you travel. If your exhaust heats up the bed too much or there’s just no airflow, your meat can spoil. Using pallets under your meat is a good way to prevent this from happening.

• Speaking of processing, if it’s at all possible, process your game yourself. We took a muskox in for processing and ended up with butcher paper in all of our burger. Needless to say, we started processing our meat at home after that. It’s an investment to get the equipment, but saves you money in the long run. No one will take care of your kill as well as you will. You shot it, you’ll eat it, and if you process it yourself you’re guaranteed to get you’re meat back, unlike some places you may take it. This isn’t a dig on butcher shops or processors, there are many that do a fantastic job, but processing your meat yourself really adds to the experience and is a great skill to learn. Just make sure you allot time to process your game when you get back from your hunt, as it does take some time to do.

After reading all of these, I guess I should key you in on the most important of all hunting tips, tricks, and lessons. You don’t need to kill something to have a successful hunt. Yup, I know its crazy. You can have a successful hunt by just enjoying the outdoors. Your hunting trip may teach you a valuable lesson. Spending time with family and friends while hunting is a success. Learning a new skill is success. If you come back without meat, you’re not necessarily coming back empty handed. Yes, getting meat is definitely the goal, but the experience itself is what you’ll really remember.

I hope this list of hunting tips, tricks, and lessons has helped you feel a little more prepared to go out on your own hunt. I know I will be learning more on every hunt I go on, so I’ll be adding more to this list as I learn. Please feel free to add any of your own tips and lessons in the comments to share with others. Happy hunting, friends!