Deer Hunting Season Preparation Checklist

23 items · Lifestyle · Medium difficulty · 1 weekend

Get ready for deer season: licenses and tags, sighting in, tree stand and harness checks, a plan someone at home knows, and what to do after the shot.

• Read this year's hunting regulations for your state

  Season dates, bag limits and legal hours can differ between zones in the same state.

• Buy your license and deer tags
• Carry your hunter education card if your state asks for one

  Many states require it for hunters born after a set year.

• Get written permission to hunt private land

  Walk the boundaries and ask about the landowner's rules, such as where to park.

• Scout for trails, rubs and scrapes
• Hang trail cameras only where they are allowed

  Some states and some public land restrict them.

• Check your rifle or shotgun zero at the range

  Shoot the same ammunition you will hunt with.

• If you bowhunt, practice from a raised platform

  Shooting down from a stand changes your form. Check that your broadheads hit where your field points do.

• Inspect every tree stand, ladder section and strap

  Straps and ropes left out in sun and weather can weaken without looking worn. Replace them instead of trusting how they look.

• Check your full-body harness and its replacement date

  Retire any harness that has caught a fall.

• Set up a lifeline so you stay clipped in while you climb
• Raise and lower your gun or bow on a haul rope, unloaded
• Pack blaze orange if your state requires it
• Wash hunting clothes in scent-free detergent and store them sealed
• Pack layers for sitting still before dawn

  Hours without moving feel far colder than the walk in.

• Pack a knife, gloves, game bags and a drag rope
• Pack a headlamp, a charged phone and a small first aid kit
• Leave a written plan with someone at home

  Note where you will park, which stand you will sit in and when you expect to be back.

• Learn how your state wants a deer tagged and reported

  Your state sets when the tag goes on and how and when you report the harvest.

• Check whether you will hunt in a chronic wasting disease zone

  Some states require testing in these zones or limit moving carcasses out of them.

• Line up a meat processor, or get set up to butcher at home

  Processors can be busy around opening weekend.

• Bring a cooler and ice for warm early-season days

  Meat spoils if the carcass is not cooled quickly on a warm afternoon.

• Go over firearm safety with everyone in your party

  Treat every gun as loaded, and be sure of your target and what is beyond it.

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