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Pre and Post Hunting Prep and “Finished For The Day” Details We Seldom Discuss

woodsdog2

woodsdog2

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2019
Messages
8,130
It occurred to me yesterday, what things does everyone else do when they get back to their vehicle and/or home after a hunt? I’m talking about the mundane but potentially important activities you do to keep primed and ready for the next hunt. Topics like hunting clothes management, gear organization, drying gear, cleaning gear, hanging out your clothes, hunting implementncare and maintenance, to name a few.

How do you manage your after hunt clothing? Do you hang it back out? Wash it again and again? Ozone It? what about base layers next to the skin stuff? Do you worry about it? Does it matter?

Does your gear go back in a tote each day? What if it’s wet?

Here’s my routine: I typically never wash my external garments unlesss I got them really bloody or dirty. I hang everything outside on the clothesline to air out or on a hanging rack in our covered porch in f it’s raining etc. My base layers I’ll wash in unscented detergent like Atsko’s Sport Wash every third time or so. Boots no
Matter what go on the dryer. Gear stays in my sled in the back of my truck unless it got soaked.
 
Unless everything is wet, as you mentioned, the clothing goes back in the tote it lives in after a wash from the beginning of the season until the end. Depending on how much I sweated in it, the Scentlok gets deabsorbed as needed, then back in the tote. Wet clothes go in a garbage bag and are dried out as soon as I get in. Thermal base layers get washer in scent free detergent every 2 or 3 uses.

Boots go on a dryer at home if they got wet.

Consumables such as food, water, bug spray, Thermacell etc. are replaced at home after the hunt as needed.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
Unless everything is wet, as you mentioned, the clothing goes back in the tote it lives in after a wash from the beginning of the season until the end. Depending on how much I sweated in it, the Scentlok gets deabsorbed as needed, then back in the tote. Wet clothes go in a garbage bag and are dried out as soon as I get in. Thermal base layers get washer in scent free detergent every 2 or 3 uses.

Boots go on a dryer at home if they got wet.

Consumables such as food, water, bug spray, Thermacell etc. are replaced at home after the hunt as needed.
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What he said. I also recharge batteries for headlamps, flashlights, cameras, etc
 
Full Disclosure: I am a Scent Lok Slut, so my regiment is a bit nuanced for clothes. If my external SL layer isn't bloody or muddy, it goes in an airtight bag and will live there until I deadsorb it. Base Layers will either be stored separately from clean ones and worn again or washed. I unload my sticks, platform, and saddle from my backpack and return all to their respective airtight bins. Discard whatever trash I may have shoved in my backpack. I'll pull out my headlamp and GPS to recharge them. I replace anything I may have used from my medkit or snack baggy. My boots typically live in the back of my Suburban. I try to keep my vehicle "hunt-ready" so when I get a window during the week, I just have to throw my bow and maybe some water in the car and head out.

Unfortunately, none of my post-hunt activities have included "processing a deer" yet..... :expressionless:
 
I'm not a very organized person, unfortunately. But, I'm at my most organizes/put-together as a hunter.

My post-hunt routine basically consists of putting everything back to how I had it the night before the hunt. Charge headlamp, replenish TP, bug spray, granola bar, water bottle, etc. Wash (if necessary) clothes and rehang in closet. Process deer. Clean arrow. Replace or clean up arrow/broadhead/spent casing. Hook the boat up to the trickle charger.

No real scent control program anymore. The big thing is just to make sure consumables are replenished and everything is in a place where I can find it easily again. I'm sure that last part will get harder once munchkin starts helping my wife to move my stuff.
 
Ckwilli said:
Lol, I got busy this week and my car looked just like that! I put my jet sled in the back to accumulate everything. I had to give in to the OCD and clean it last night. My skin was starting to crawl a little.
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I just picked up a Jet Sled today. Already like that it pulls double duty. Put all of my hunting stuff in it until it has a deer and blood in it. Bed of my truck is a lot more organized.
 
Crawdaddy4 said:
Full Disclosure: I am a Scent Lok Slut, so my regiment is a bit nuanced for clothes. If my external SL layer isn't bloody or muddy, it goes in an airtight bag and will live there until I deadsorb it. Base Layers will either be stored separately from clean ones and worn again or washed. I unload my sticks, platform, and saddle from my backpack and return all to their respective airtight bins. Discard whatever trash I may have shoved in my backpack. I'll pull out my headlamp and GPS to recharge them. I replace anything I may have used from my medkit or snack baggy. My boots typically live in the back of my Suburban. I try to keep my vehicle "hunt-ready" so when I get a window during the week, I just have to throw my bow and maybe some water in the car and head out.

Unfortunately, none of my post-hunt activities have included "processing a deer" yet..... :expressionless:
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IMG_1109.jpeg

My regiment is close. Years with Uncle Sam pounding a system into my brain I can’t not follow it now.
Outer layers go back into the tote unless soiled, then they get laundered, reactivated and retoted. Base layers if sweaty are ozoned and stored. I run two containers. One houses all my outer layers and extra accessories, that stays in my truck. My bag houses my saddle, pack, boots and baselayers. That goes back and forth with me into the house. After hunt all gear is checked and stowed, weapons are checked, stripped and cleaned or sharped if necessary, relubed and stowed. Any consumables are restocked such as gloves, bags, etc. Bag gets ozoned in transit to my hunting areas.
 
Two different regimens depending on whether the hunt was wet or dry, for gear. My pack down/up organization starts at the tree! If it's dry, it goes in how and where it needs to be for next time. If it's wet, I try to do the same, but then it comes out once I'm home to get aired out and dried in the basement. The basement is "my" space lol. If my clothing is wet, it gets hung to dry. If the clothing is dry; it gets hung in the closet, draped, or into a sealed tub. If it stinks, I'll run my ozone generator in my hunting closet. If it's bloody or muddy it gets washed with Atsko Sport Wash, otherwise I won't typically wash outer layers until post season. Base and mid-layers will be washed once I can start smelling the funk a little (maybe every 3 to 4 hunts (wool obviously can go longer than synthetic). Electronic(s) charging, batteries, kill kit replenishing, knife sharpening, water, etc. get topped off. No food lives in my gear, that will be added the morning/evening of if needed.

Pre-hunt organization and packing is always fully completed one to two days in advance, so auto-pilot can't take over and let you forget stuff.

Successful harvests, extended hunting trips, etc., all add another aspect to everything!
 
My scent control regimen is "clean" which includes some scent killer spray/Nose Jammer/etc., some ozone periods to "dry-wash", and sealed heavy duty tubs. Wind and location matter more to me, because rarely do I go somewhere that doesn't require a certain level of physical exertion (and therefore sweat) lol.
 
I have 2 sheds on my property. A 10 x 20 workshop and a 10 x 14 hunting shed. I store all my hunting gear in my hunting shed and nothing else. My hunting clothes are hung in there, my saddle, my bow, my boots, backpack, one stick, everything is stored in there. I wash the clothing as needed. Reactivate my SL every 3 or 4 hunts and hit all of it with ozone once or twice a week. I'm within walking distance from some of my spots and use my ebike to get to most of my other spots. I do have a couple of spots that I have to drive to so I have a large trash bag that I sit on driving to those spots in my hunting clothes but put my boots on when I get there. I also clean and ozone the inside of my truck before the season and try to use it only for hunting during the season.
 
Wow, I suck I also feel nasty now. My stuff hardly ever gets washed. Merino I guess idk.

After hunt I’d say I’m halfway organized. I usually put everything in the same spot so I don’t spent a ton of time needing to organize. I might need to figure 8 my pull-up line because it’s usually ticked me off and gets pushed into a pocket of some kind.

Clothes go back in duffle bag, bow back in case, saddle and pack go in tote. Stand and sticks stay tied together.
 
Biggest hole in my game.

I am much more effective when out of state. I have less stuff, and more time to have it all dealt with and ready to go so I’m focused on killin critters.

At home, my office is a mess. I just want to get home and hang with the ladies or do something else useful. The next morning I’m unprepared and it impacts my success.
 
BuffaloBill said:
I just picked up a Jet Sled today. Already like that it pulls double duty. Put all of my hunting stuff in it until it has a deer and blood in it. Bed of my truck is a lot more organized.
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One of the best investments I have ever made both for hunting and fire wood work in the winter. Best thing is everything lives in that sled in the back of my truck during season taking up half of the bed lengthwise. If I need to quickly clear
My bed. I lift the whole
Sled out at once, stow it in my garage or shed and then put it back when I’m done using the truck bed for whatever. It’s also a make shift organizer. When you shoot a deer it goes in the sled and with a couple of 2x4’s or a super light atv ramp, the sled and deer slide right up into the back of the truck. My gear goes on the other side everything stays relatively clean that way.
 
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I keep all my outer layers, saddle, and pack, and various boots in my truck bed so I can basically grab and go. Obviously have to dry wet things. I don’t have a meticulous scent control routine, just spray myself and everything down before I go in each time and hunt the wind as best I can. I replenish things in the pack that I used and are important (to me) such as batteries, tp, protein bar if I ate it, and water right away so I don’t forget. Sharpen any knife or broadhead I used and plan to again. Bow and release come inside so I can shoot a bit, it’s just habit and a comfort I guess. I’ll oil my broadheads if it was damp out at all to avoid rust. Other than that I put inner layers on the deck or back in the tote and make a sandwich or toss some deer sticks and a cheese stick in a ziplock in the fridge and hope I remember them if it’s going to be a longer sit.
I take it seriously enough that I try to mitigate things and know I’m not serious enough to not give my pup some love on the way out the door. I’ll probably never be YouTube famous but my kids and dog think I’m neat. Haha
 
I have a big rectangular bag that all my gear goes in when it's in the back of the truck. I think it's 5.11 or some other similar brand, I got it for free from an old job. Makes it easy to throw my gear all in this bag and move it into the passenger seat of my truck to keep it separate from a deer/blood/melting bags of ice when I do shoot one (last time was 80 degrees so i threw quite a few bags of ice in/around the deer for the drive home). I do my best to pack up at the bottom of the tree as if I'm going to set up in another one ASAP, so most of my gear stays in a ready to go mode. Clothes I don't really do anything specific with. Sometimes they get taken off and left in the truck, sometimes they come inside the house. I wash everything with free and clear detergent but don't do a lot of scent control measures, I'm more of a hunt the wind hunter. Generally the gear bag, my bow (in a too-big Plano hard case) and my deer cart live in the bed of my truck (I have a cap) throughout hunting season, unless I need my truck for something else.
.this plan has let me sneak out after work a few times this year, one of those hunts resulted in my biggest buck to date, so the "stay ready" mentality is working. That said I still have a bunch of work to do on the details, particularly when I shoot a deer and don't clean off/resharpen the broadheads right away or stuff like that. Always room for improvement.
 
DroptineKrazy said:
Killin deers is serious stuff! ;)
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I chuckle
Because it is serious stuff but is it, really? I think this is somewhat the point of this thread. I’m trying to figure out if I spend too much time on stupid stuff. I really try to keep things efficient but it still seems to take seconds, which turns to minutes, which turns to hours, etc. I’m always trying to refine things…… happy so many are responding.
 
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