6 Ways to Prep Your Gear for Bow Season

Archery deer season is a few months out, which means right now is a great time to start preparing. Photo by Tony Campbell.

Perhaps you can relate to the feeling of scrambling to get everything ready the week before bow season opens. Summer is a time that’s often filled with family vacations, backyard cookouts, and plenty of fishing — but all of that fun can lead to procrastination, and then suddenly, deer season is here.

That’s why a small percentage of hunters are truly prepared for opening day, with many of us wishing we had just one more week to dot our i’s and cross our t’s. But you can make this season different and resolve to prepare early and diligently, starting with checking these simple tasks off the list.

1. DO SOME LAUNDRY, SORT YOUR CLOTHES

Admittedly, this one usually gets away from me until a week or two before my first bowhunt of the fall, which is funny because it’s about the easiest task on the list. Good on you if you washed your hunting clothes at the end of last season and stored them in scent-free totes, but if you didn’t, it’s time to visit the laundry room. I like to spray the inside of the washer and dryer with a scent-eliminating spray before washing and drying my clothes. I also like to use a scent-eliminating dryer sheet to minimize static.

Some hunters washed their hunting apparel after deer season 2024, but the rest of us had best get on laundry duty ASAP. Photo courtesy of Wildlife Research Center.

When the drying cycle is complete, I dowse my hands with a scent-eliminating spray, then transfer the apparel from the dryer to a scent-free tote. I take the tote outdoors and dump the clothing onto the ground (make sure the ground isn’t wet beforehand). Then, I sort out my clothing by type and organize my totes so that I don't have to dig around to find specific garments while dressing to go hunting. Pants go in one spot, tops in another, and base layers in another. Socks, gloves, and hats all go in another spot. Organized totes simplify everything, and I find that garments don’t go missing when I stay organized.

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Another idea is to treat your clothing with ozone, which is sometimes called “dry-washing.” There are some ins and outs to this, and the best system is either a dedicated closet at hunting camp or a commercially sold wardrobe and ozone generator combo.

2. THINK SAFETY

The importance of treestand safety cannot be overemphasized. There is no buck in the timber worth falling out of a tree for, so diligently check over all of your treestands or saddles and associated gear, especially if you had items in the woods for the entire season last year or if you didn’t take them down and they’ve been subject to the elements. Inspect all of the hardware, cables, stitching, straps, and anything susceptible to failure. Replace failing or failed components, and if a stand or stick is unrepairable, do the right thing and replace it with a new one.

Some treestand accidents are the result of equipment oversights, such as worn straps or loose hardware. Inspect all of your treestand gear and replace unsafe stands, sticks, saddles, or their associated components. Realtree photo.

3. GET THE EDGE

Dull broadhead blades don’t yield a nice clean slice, and if you hunted all season with your broadheads and had them in and out of your quiver or shot them into targets a time or two, the blades probably aren’t as sharp as they should be. Run the blades across the edge of a taught piece of paper. If the paper bends or tears rather than slicing clean, the broadhead blades probably need sharpening or replacing. Some broadheads have replaceable blades, but some are fixed and will need to be sharpened with a broadhead sharpener.

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4. SWAP STRINGS, GET TUNED

My family used to own an archery pro shop, and customers had a propensity for bringing their bows in to get a “once over” right before the archery deer opener. Often, bows needed new string-and-cable sets because they weren’t suitable for the season ahead. We stocked all of the common string and cable lengths, but we didn’t have sets for every bow under the sun.

Tune that bow! Even if your bow is shooting accurately, it’s important to make sure that your arrows are leaving the bow flawlessly so that your broadheads fly true. Photo by Becca McDougal.

Archery shops often get backed up, but bowstring companies are also slammed during that time, and it’s not always possible to get a bowstring within a few days. Consequently, some of our customers had to miss the opener, and some of them were even frustrated with us, even though the problem was their fault. They should have brought in their equipment weeks or months earlier.

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Once those strings are installed or inspected, it’s time for a tune-up. Even though your bow may be grouping OK and hitting where you aim, many broadhead flight issues can be traced to poor tuning. It’s how your arrow leaves the bow that counts. Some of today’s high-end compound bows have features that make DIY tuning easy for at-home bow mechanics, without a press. But if your bow isn’t outfitted with those features, or you don’t understand the ins and outs of tuning, take it to a pro shop and have a technician make sure it is tuned up, even if it isn’t time for new strings.

5. SWAP BATTERIES

By late July, it will be time to take inventory of the bucks in your hunting area as they grow their final inches of headgear. Some of you already have your trail cameras out, which is great. For those of us who don’t, it’s time to hit the hardware or department store and drop a bunch of money on batteries. Install new ones and make sure your cameras are working. Alternatively, if your cameras are compatible with solar and you plan to leave them in static locations all fall, consider purchasing solar panels. There are several new cameras on the market with integrated solar technology, so if you’re upgrading to new cameras, consider these as options.

Before you put your cameras out for the summer and fall, replace the batteries and make sure they are operating properly. While you’re at it, replace your rangefinder’s battery, too. Realtree photo.

Trail cameras aren’t the only gear that needs batteries. Imagine raising your rangefinder on a big September buck only to find that the battery is dead, and you can’t tell if he’s 35 yards or 26. Always install new rangefinder batteries before a new season — and take a moment to clean the lenses of all your optics while you’re at it.

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6. BUY A BACKUP RELEASE

Once, during an out-of-state bowhunt, the weather was -20 degrees, and I perspired a little bit on the way to my blind. Fortunately, I decided to try a practice draw after settling in. To my surprise, my release fired mid-draw and sent my arrow to parts unknown! Thinking the trigger somehow bumped something, I tried a second time and sent another arrow flying. Flustered, I took a closer look, which revealed that my perspiration had entered the release mechanism and then froze, which was inhibiting the jaw from working properly.

Your release is awesome until it malfunctions, goes missing, or you forget it at home. This summer, buy a backup release and keep it in your pack or truck so that when desperate times come calling, you’ll be able to put on your backup release and go hunting anyway. Photo courtesy of Morrell Targets.

Fortunately, I travel with a backup release, always the same make and model as my primary one. I hustled 600 yards back to my truck to retrieve it, and kept it out of my sleeve on the way back to the blind so I didn’t sweat on it. I made a few practice draws, and it worked great — and two hours later, I shot a bruiser buck. You won’t catch me without a backup release, but if you don’t have one, now is the time to invest.