With the end of the year and a fresh start ahead, many hardcore hunters throughout the country are also lamenting the passing of another year’s big game seasons. 

Except for a few late-season big game opportunities, what can hunters do to not only pass the time, but improve their gear and keep their field skills sharp for next year? Read on and make these plans part of your New Hunting Year Resolutions. 
 

Resolutions for Hunters

Super Clean that Gun
Pursue Small Game
Upgrade Your Optic & Mounts
Up Your Scouting Game
Whip Up Wild Game Recipes
Happy Hunting Off-Season!

Super Clean that Gun

With another season in the books, successful or not, it’s time to address the wellness of that firearm. Inside and out, your hunting companion deserves attention before tucking it away in the gun safe. Exterior surfaces need a wipe-down, with metalwork oiling. Rifling gets fouled. Even when it may look clean at a glance, using products formulated specifically to remove copper, lead, and powder fouling can yield major gains in accuracy. 

If you’ve fired the gun extensively, or especially if you’ve been in adverse weather, the entire rig should be disassembled and properly cleaned. Though time-consuming, proper maintenance will save you loads of money and frustration when the next season rolls around. 

Pursue Small Game

Nothing keeps a hunter’s marksmanship and woodsman skills sharper than pursuing small game like squirrels and rabbits on the stalk. Getting into rimfire range means minding every bootstep, keeping eyes peeled for the slightest movement, and shooting from sometimes awkward field positions. 

If you can place a .22 LR projectile into the head of a squirrel with regularity, imagine how well you’ll make that heart shot on deer next season where so many of the same factors come into play, just on a larger scale. As a bonus, hunting small game yields some oft overlooked and delectable wintertime meat for the crock pot. 

Upgrade Your Optic & Mounts

Do you adore your rifle, yet struggle to keep those groups tight on the range? Perhaps you have difficulty seeing those iron sights, especially with aging eyes? Is your riflescope difficult to see through at dusk and dawn, or worse, a little blurry? If your answer is “yes” to any of those questions, the offseason is the prime time to for a resolution to upgrade your optical picture. 

For some that might mean shifting from factory irons to a peep like Skinner Sights. For more hunters, that will indicate a move from a decades-old low-end scope to a newer one with clearer glass, impressive warranties, and notably improved performance at low-light hours. 

Still others who already find themselves with stellar glass might take a good, long gander at their scope mounts. If you’ve attached the optic to the rifle with a $5 set of rings, ’tis the season for a serious upgrade. Your range time groups, and next hunting season’s tag, will thank you. 

Up Your Scouting Game

Most of us hunters start getting pumped about the pre-hunting and preparation process in mid- to-late summer as food plots are planted, trail cams installed, and tree stands placed with fall opening days nearing. However, there’s no reason to be a stranger to your hunting grounds the rest of the year. Though we don’t run as many trail cams, land maintenance from tree trimming to planning shooting lanes can happen through the winter. 

With the rise of cellular-based trail cams, you can monitor game movement year-round with minimal disturbance, even in areas that might be snowed in. Did the big buck that gave you the slip survive the season? How’s the density of does in the winter months? If cams are not an option, map study might be, from paper charts to apps. Could you better place a hunting stand to take advantage of the terrain? Savvy hunters will take advantage of any time they can spend on, or at least think about, their hunting grounds. 
 

Whip Up Wild Game Recipes

For any hunters who experienced success in the woods and fields, there’s likely some delicious organic protein waiting in the freezer. Whether using grandma’s old standby recipes or seeking something new, there’s no shortage of recipes for preparing those backstraps, chops, roasts, and ground meat. 

Resolve to try something new like sous vide or pressure canning. From quick and easy grilling to day-long smoking to fine dining presentations, wild game can impress even the pickiest eaters. Plus, you the hunter will be reliving those successful hunting memories and simultaneously freeing up freezer space for next year’s much-anticipated harvest. 

Happy Hunting Offseason!

Whether you’re cooking or scouting, pursuing small game, or cleaning that arsenal, we’re confident your skills will be on point when the moment of truth arrives next season. We wish you a happy new year, joyous hunting memories, and preparations for another year filled with adventures afield.