You spend nine months preparing for your hunting seasons. You shoot, you train, you scout, you sharpen every skill the field demands. Then the season finally arrives.
That’s when time gets tight. Work obligations, family obligations, and the hunts themselves compete for every spare minute.
Without careful attention, the standard you spent nine months building starts to slip. By the time your target animal steps out, you’re not the hunter you were a few weeks earlier.
The fix is simple but demanding: keep honing your edge throughout the season rather than letting it dull.
Why Your In-Season Standard Matters
I rarely take down my target deer or elk until the last day or the last couple of days of a season. That season could run a couple of weeks. It could run a couple of months.
The hunter who stays sharp through every day of the season is the one who capitalizes when the moment finally comes. The hunter who lets the standard slip after week one watches that opportunity walk away.
If you’ve put in months of preparation, maintain that work all the way through to closing day.
Maintain Your Shooting Standard With the Cold Bore Shot
When you go to the range during hunting season, focus on the one shot that matters in the field: the cold bore shot.
For rifle hunters, that first shot from a cold barrel is the one that counts. You don’t get a warm-up shot in the field. Train how you’ll perform.
For archery hunters, the same rule applies. If you only shoot one arrow at the range, that one arrow has to count. By this point in the year, you’re dialed in.
The goal in season is refining your edge, not diminishing it. If you shoot every day leading up to opening day, then go two, three, or four weeks without shooting once the season starts, your standard will drop. Stay in front of your bow or rifle on a consistent schedule.
Maintain Your Physical Standard With Maintenance Workouts
The physical side gets harder as you get older. I’ve worked hard. I’ve done my workouts.
But coming back from a hunt, I’m a little diminished. Maybe my nutrition has been off. Maybe I’m dehydrated and haven’t trained in a week.
That’s where maintenance workouts come in. Don’t try to set personal records in the gym between hunts. You don’t want to hurt yourself the week before your next hunt.
The recovery block isn’t for peak performance. Hold the line on the standard you already built.
If you’ve got a two-week block of time before your next hunt, use it well:
- Do maintenance workouts that hold your fitness without risking injury
- Stretch to recover from days of hiking and packing
- Catch up on sleep
- Catch up on hydration
- Catch up on nutrition
These habits compound. Skip them for a week and you’ll feel it on the mountain.
The Cost of Letting Your Standard Slip
When that target animal finally appears late in the season, are you the hunter you were when the season opened? Or have you let your preparation erode through poor in-season habits?
The hunters who fill their tags on the toughest hunts are the ones who refused to let the standard slip. They shot the cold bore shot. They held the line on fitness, sleep, hydration, and nutrition.
That discipline pays off in the moment that matters most.
Final Thoughts on Maintaining Your Hunting Standard
Maintaining your standard through a long season takes the same discipline that built your standard in the first place. The work doesn’t stop when the season opens. It changes shape.
Refine your shooting. Hold your fitness. Recover hard between hunts.
When that one target animal steps out on the last day, you’ll be ready to capitalize.
by John Barklow, a Special Operations Survival Instructor and consultant who has spent decades teaching military personnel and civilians survival techniques in extreme environments.
