Share a "simple" tip on hunting/woodsmanship-

[McDave]

When hunting in the high mountains, do these three things:

1.  Mountaineer's rest step.  When walking up a steep hill, don't walk in a continuous motion.  Pause at the end of each step, with all of your weight on your straight rear leg while you rest your bent front leg.  The pause can be as brief or long as you need.

2.  Power breathing.  Rather than just exhaling, puff like you're blowing out a candle.  The back pressure on your lungs is the equivalent of being 1,000' lower.

3.  Never get out of breath.  No matter how slow you have to walk, you will go further if you never let yourself get out of breath.  Maybe not as far as you wanted to go, but further than you would have otherwise.

Do all three things before you think you need to.

[Doc Nock]

If you like to age your meat, have access to a cooler to hang it or it's cool enough in an outbuilding, coat the entire deer, inside and out, with a light coating of--- Crisco!

It seals the moisture inside the meat, being vegetable shortening, it doesn't turn rancid in the freezer and it keeps the meat from getting the hidious brown "crust" on it.

If you've no where to age meat, quarter the meat and put inside high quality plastic trash bags (non scented of course) and place in a cooler with bags of ice.

[robtattoo]

It's easier to stay warm, than get warm. If you layer your clothing in a stand, strip off to the minimum before climbing & add a layer at a time BEFORE you start to feel cold.

Walmart pocket/hand warmers are worth their weight in gold. You can get a full season's worth for about ten bucks, if you buy them in summer    Buy 'em, carry 'em & USE 'em!

[cahaba]

Figure out different routes to your stand according to what the wind is doing. Move in slowly and quietly.

Pay attention to inside corners. They are high percentage many times.

Carry flourescent flag tape. It comes in handy when trying to find the animal.

[Don Stokes]

If you hunt the same area a lot, carry a pair of brush nippers and clear your paths. I have several ladder stands on my property, and each one of them has a path to it with the noise-makers cleared away. When I move a stand, I get the nippers out again. I feel that getting to your stand quietly can be the most important part of the hunt. I've had shots immediately after getting into a stand, and I've gotten shots before even getting to the stand.

[Buckhorn47]

Big Tip: Make sure the quarry is dead!!

[Daz]

Hunting elk or moose? Learn the gutless method, and spend money on the best fitting heavy duty pack you can afford.

[PaddyMac]

Get a full night's sleep.  

Aspirin is an old fart's friend.

Don't push beyond your limits.

Consider some emergency oxygen if it's your first hunt in the Rockies or if you smoke (    )

Parachute cord is light, compact and darn handy stuff.

And remember, deer and elk make mistakes, too.

------

Buckhorn47... that reminds me of a hilarious  Patrick McManus story about tying a "dead" deer on the back of his bicycle, tying its feet to the pedals and its butt on the fender and putting its front legs over his shoulders and then pedaling down the steep mountain...

[Kentucky Jeff]

1.  Don't get discouraged/aggrevated because your peaceful stand has just had a lot of people/dogs/farmer/noise just pass by.  Stay put!!!  I hunt some country that has an active mounted foxhunting club and find they routinely run through my area with a pack of 20 hounds and as many if not more noisy people and horses.  I have literally had them run under my stand at an all out gallop with the hounds bawling!   More often than not the forest critters that get pushed by these folks will circle back in an effort to get back to their AO.   I routinely see MORE game 30-45 minutes after this happens than not.

2. Don't squat with your spurs on...

3. Buy the best quality binos you can afford.  Spend more on your optics than you weapon!  Cheap optics will strain your eyes (even though you are unconcious of this fact) and you will find you don't use them as much as you should.   Sitting on the stand you should be looking through your binos at least half the time.   Also buy lower power binos like 7 or 8X for eastern hunting as the 10 power binos aren't as useful in the woods and the lower power will give you better depth of field allowing you to see farther into the brush than with your plain eyes!  Plus its easier to find game in the cluttered landscape of the east with the lower power optics.  Use the 10X optics in the wide open spaces of the west.  If you don't blink and eye at spending $500 on a bow you shouldn't think twice about spending $800 (or more)on your binos...  You can't hit what you can't see!

[Kentucky Jeff]

The key to warm hands and feet in cold weather is NOT to spend your money on really expensive boots and gloves.  You need to focus on keeping your core body warm FIRST and that means high quality insulated bibbs, a great jacket and some form of keeping your head and neck warm.  

You can have the most effective and expensive boots/socks/gloves you can buy and you will still have cold hands and feet if you fail to protect your body from massive heat lost around your torso/head--even if you don't feel cold in those zones!   This is because your body will automatically shot down blood flow to your hands and feet in order to protect the temp of your vital organs (heart, lungs, brain, kidneys etc).  Once your body senses massive heat loss from the head/neck/chest area you will never regain warmth in your extremities until you protect the core/vital areas and the body restores blood to the fingers/toes.  

I was miserable in the winter until I discovered this simple truth and always was spending gobs of money on boots/socks/gloves trying to find comfort in the cold.   Once I discovered the secret I found I could stay in 15-20 degree weather all day with some pretty average gloves/boots/socks and never feel the sting of cold in my fingers and toes.   Spend your money on a good jacket and bibbs! (not pants--Bibbs!)

[iron_llama]

-Take care of your feet- good boots and good SOCKS!
-Cotton kills in colder climates.  Don't wear it when doing anything outside.
-I've always thought that carrying a second, or third, sharp knife is much more useful than stopping what you're doing to hone a blade.  Good Mora knives can be had for cheap at any number of places.
-I always have a set of good pruning shears on my belt when scouting or hunting.  Good for cutting ribcages and pelvic bones, as well as brush.
-Never step on anything you can step over, never step over anything you can step around.
-A Ziploc with a full roll of toilet paper- I use this instead of flagging tape.  I hunt public land that's surveyed for logging, and there's ancient flagging tape every-damn-where.  The only TP in the tree is mine, and I've got a full roll so I can flag the hell out of every drop of blood.  TP is biodegradable.  So are crepe paper streamers from party stores.
-Two ways to start a fire.  I like the butane 'grill' lighters; I think the bulk is more than made up for by the ease of use with cold, weak, shaking hands.  I also carry a magnesium firestarter on the same neck chain as my knife.
-I scout in the pre-season and build brush blinds.  I also try to have a few caches (ammo cans) buried in strategic locations with an MRE, drinking water, extra tinder, Sterno cans, etc.  I know someone who buys children's toboggans in the springtime and caches them in the woods for hauling out dead animals.
-FRS radio (turned off, bottom of pack) in case you need to call for help.  I actually usually never take this hunting but I do take it canoeing in remote areas.
-2 flashlights that take the same batteries (AA) as my GPS- headlamp in my pack, Mini-Mag on my belt, spare batteries in my pack.
-I use blaze orange, or neon pink, nylon surveyor's twine to wrap handles of anything that I might drop.  This mostly applies to knives and camo accessories.
-I cut up an old safety vest (lime green, reflective stripes) and sewed the material inside my boonie hat, and inside one of my jackets.  If I get lost or injured I can put the hat and jacket on inside-out to make a SAR helo pilot's job easier.  I've also seen duck boats with the bottom painted orange, for the same reason.
-When I'm snowmobiling I take extra socks and gloves (vacuum-packed), as well as a small woodburning stove (coffe can with vent holes drilled in the sides) pre-loaded with fuel, also vacuum-packed.  That way if I go in the drink and need to warm up, I don't need to hunt for dry fuel.  I made up a bunch of stoves once when bored, and they also work great for honey burns when bear hunting.  You'll also want some sort of pot to melt snow and boil water.


-Signcutting and tracking are fungible skills.  Don't funge them.  If the first time you look at the ground all year is when you're trying to find blood drops, you're going to have a hell of a time recovering your animal.  Go walk into the woods and follow the first set of tracks you can find, be they human or animal.  See how far you can follow them. Try to pick them back up when you loose them. This will also allow you to learn how different animals move at different times of year.  Practice at every opportunity and you'll amaze yourself with what you can accomplish.

[NoCams]

I am with Don Stokes.... we trim paths and especially trim heavy around the stand the summer before season. Not only noise factor but more importantly, keeps the scent down when you are not brushing against vegetation near your stand.

[Pon]

Originally posted by TIM B:
 
Hunt while your young and CAN'T afford it- cause when you can afford it, you may not be young

I just can't stop thinking about this   :confused:

[Turkeys Fear Me]

Easy on the black licorice the night before an all day sit.

[BoonRoto]

Most importantly, enjoy it.

Also, breathe through your nose, your mouth is responsible for 70% of your scent.

[Archie]

Don't carry a camouflage phone, knife, or anything else you don't want to drop and lose forever.  Why in the world would a guy buy a camo wallet to take hunting??

[Tom Leemans]

Let me share a story about trusting your compass. Please bear with me for a moment.

My best friend, who is a construction engineer, lives in Florida. He was on a project on an island within the Bermuda Triangle that required him to travel 9 miles one way by boat every day. Now the boat was only about an 18 footer. Well he needed to travel either due east or due west to reach his destination each way. He got caught in a major squall at sea one afternoon on his way back "home" for the night. He was following the compass until the rain went from straight in his face, to now hitting him from the side. He panicked, thinking  "I'm in the Bermuda Triangle! Is my compass even right?" He turned the boat 90 degrees to get the wind back in his face. After a few minutes following his new heading, the wind switched to his back. He turned again. This went on for what seemed like forever to him. He just got done wiping his face off again when he spotted a strip of land and headed at it as fast as he could. He was now back at the island he left before the storm hit. Looking back, the wind was obviously swirling all over the place and he should have just trusted his compass. Don't trust TV and Movies! Trust your compass!!! I've traveled as much as 17 miles in a day on foot with a topo map and a compass and always got there and back. A GPS is great, but a compass doesn't have batteries that run down.  compass lessons  

Other than that, my tip is something I learned in boy scouts. ALWAYS carry a sharp knife, some cordage, and a way to make fire.

[Hit-or-Miss]

Keep your powder dry. And feathers too!

[Steertalker]

When attempting to call elk....ALWAYS make sure you are setup and ready to shoot.

[LimBender]

For stand hunting:

Try to keep the squirrels, coons, and birds around you calm and going about their business.  I can't stand a squirrel-bark-or-whimper-a-thon at primetime.

I agree on moving eyes before head.  Before standing up or making any large movement, scan the area carefully.

Going with clearing trails, try to brush or touch as little vegetation as possible on the way in or out of a stand location.  Your trail doesn't have to be wide or overly clean, but keeping contact with vegetation to a minimum should be a big goal.

Like someone said, be ready right when you get on stand.  I've been busted good a couple times when I'm just getting in the stand and situated.  A curious doe might hear something out of the ordinary and come investigate.