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Last Updated on September 12, 2024 by Paul Clayton
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How to Optimize Your Hunting Gear
Hunting has been a favorite pastime for people since time immemorial. It is a challenging and thrilling activity that requires the participants to have some skills to make the most of it. But even if it isn’t about catching prey, it is still a great way of spending time in nature.
Key Takeaways:
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- Regular Gear Maintenance: Keeping your rifle barrel clean, sharpening knives when needed, and ensuring proper accessory mounting can significantly improve hunting performance.
- Appropriate Clothing: Wearing breathable, layered clothing ensures comfort and mobility, especially in cold weather conditions.
- Upgrade Where Necessary: Upgrading key components like rifle stocks, optics, triggers, and muzzle brakes can enhance comfort and performance.
- Night Hunting Preparation: Use polarized glasses and night vision tools to improve visibility during night hunts.
- Bug and Predator Protection: Use insect repellents and carry bear spray to protect yourself from wildlife and insects.
- Know Your Gear: Thoroughly understand how to operate your hunting equipment, and don’t hesitate to make modifications for better results.
You probably want to have the best hunting equipment to make it even more enjoyable and successful. After all, you want to avoid being in a situation where your target escapes because of some malfunction or inferior quality of your gear.
Surprisingly enough, it isn’t always about getting top-of-the-line hardware. Most of the time, it’s about making some small tweaks to make your hunting gear work better for you. Here are a few tips on how to do it:
Clean Your Rifle’s Barrel Regularly
One of the most important things you can do for your hunting rifle is to keep its barrel clean. This will not only improve the accuracy of your shots but also extend the lifespan of your weapon. Ideally, you should clean it after every hunting session, but if that’s impossible, do it at least once a month.
Remove all the dirt and debris from the outside to clean the barrel. Then, disassemble your rifle and use a cleaning rod to push a patch soaked in solvent through the barrel. Repeat this process a few times until the patch comes out clean.
Once done with that, push a dry patch through the barrel and apply a thin layer of oil to the inside. This will protect the metal from rusting. While at it, you should also check the trigger mechanism and clean it if necessary.
Match the Right Accessories
When preparing your perfect hunting set, you must ensure that all the accessories you use are a good match for your firearm. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the best scope for 6.5 Creedmoor won’t work on a .308 rifle, but you have to ensure that it’s properly mounted and that the eye relief is correct.
The same goes for other elements of your outfit. For instance, if you’re using a sling to carry your rifle, ensure that it’s properly adjusted and won’t slip off your shoulder during the hunt – a padded one is always a good idea.
Stating the obvious, it’s important to note that every piece of your hunting gear adds to your overall weight. Look at your bag and see if you can leave anything at home or find a lightweight alternative.
Sharpen Your Knife
Your knife is the second most crucial gear part next to your firearm. If you’re out in the woods and suddenly realize that your blade is too dull to get past some bushes, you’re in great trouble. You can try to sharpen it on the go, but that’s not exactly convenient or practical.
Some hunting tutorials suggest that you should sharpen your knife regularly, but the truth is that you shouldn’t do it too often. Otherwise, you’ll wear out the blade and make it useless. Ideally, you should only sharpen it when the edge starts to feel dull or if there’s a noticeable change in the shape of the blade.
Protect Your Eyesight While Hunting at Night
You probably have some protective sunglasses to wear during the day. But what about when you’re hunting at night? The lack of light can affect your eyesight, and even a simple yellow or orange lens can increase the contrast between the target and the surrounding environment.
Furthermore, polarized glasses with blue light filters can further reduce the glare from moonlight. While you don’t typically stare directly at the moon, it can still impact your vision if there’s a lot of light reflecting off water or other surfaces, and cheap glasses can only worsen it.
Wear the Right Clothes for Cold Weather
Regarding hunting performance, your suit is just as crucial as your carrying equipment. In fact, comfortable, breathable, weather-appropriate, and properly fitting clothes are often the key to a successful hunt in cold weather.
Think about how inconvenient it is to use your rifle in a thick coat. It’s hard to move your arms, you get too sweaty, and the coat makes it difficult to aim. A soft shell paired with some good layers is always a better choice.
Know Your Gear
You’d be surprised how many hunters don’t know how to properly use their gear, especially since modern equipment has many more adjustment options than the range or the scope.
The standard procedure for you should be to review the manuals and complementary materials that came with your gear. If you need clarification on how something works, don’t hesitate to ask a professional or a more experienced hunter for advice.
Make Necessary Upgrades
Proper maintenance is only a part of the story. At some point, you’ll need to make upgrades to maximize your hunting performance – and your rifle is the best place to start. Considering how modular most rifles are, the third-party market for upgrades is huge.
If you want, you can go as far as to replace every single bit of your firearm. But the more reasonable thing to do is upgrade the parts that need it – such as:
Stock
Something in the design of classic wooden stocks, like those used on old lever action rifles, makes them look awesome. Unfortunately, they aren’t the most ergonomic, practical, or durable. This is why many hunters decide to upgrade them and get something with more personalization options, as mentioned above.
Optics
You sure can use the stock iron sights, but why not upgrade them to something with a higher magnification power? Most of the time, it’s just about getting a better scope for your rifle, but you can also install night vision or thermal sights if you’re planning to hunt at night – although they may cost a lot more.
Muzzle Brake or Compensator
Larger caliber rifles often produce a lot of recoil, which can be difficult for inexperienced shooters. You can always learn how to counter the recoil, but if you want a more practical solution, consider installing a muzzle brake or a compensator.
Although no federal laws are against them, some states prohibit using muzzle brakes or compensators on semi-automatic rifles or pistols. Make sure to check your local regulations before buying one.
Trigger
Regarding weapon upgrades, the trigger mechanism is often overlooked since modern rifles usually come with decent triggers.
However, if you’re using an old model or a more specialized firearm, it might be worth looking for aftermarket options that would allow you to minimize the trigger pull weight and shorten the reset.
Ammunition
Lastly, the ammo you’re using is also crucial to your hunting performance – it should be appropriate for the game you want to hunt and the terrain you’re hunting in. For instance, consider using ammo with a high ballistic coefficient if you’re going to shoot from long distances.
High-quality ammunition will give you more power or accuracy and extend your firearm’s lifespan. Poorly made casings can be dangerous as they may break inside your gun or crease when feeding from the magazine, which may cause jams.
Protect Yourself from Bugs
Mosquitoes, ticks, and other insects can ruin a hunting session, and they’re also vectors of some nasty diseases. The good news is that you can choose from plenty of options regarding insect repellents.
A standard option is a DEET-based spray. It’s affordable and does the job, but it’s also pretty harsh on your skin and clothing. To help you with that, some outdoor clothing brands offer insect-proof underwear and shirts, which may be a more comfortable solution.
While on it, don’t forget about bear spray. Those huge animals tend to get aggressive when surprised, so it’s always better to be safe than sorry. Bear spray is a great way of keeping them at bay and will also work on other large predators, such as mountain lions or wolves.
Final Thoughts
Once you enter the hunting world, you realize there’s much more to it than just picking up a weapon and going outside. You need the right skills and knowledge, but optimal equipment is just as necessary.
Fortunately, there are plenty of ways you can maximize your hunting performance by making just a few small tweaks to your setup. The tips above cover some essential things you can do to make your hunting more successful.
For the more significant upgrades, remember that you don’t need to invest in all of them at once. Instead, think about what you’ll need—your wallet will thank you. Good luck!
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