Hunting Know-How
Hunting Know-How
The how-to knowledge that makes the gear work: sight-in, deer movement, broadheads, layering and field skills.
How to Sight In a Crossbow, Step by Step
Zero your crossbow scope the right way: safe setup, a 20-yard start, then walking out to 30/40/50 yards — plus fixes for bad groups.
Read more →When Do Deer Move? What the Research Actually Says
GPS-collar research on whitetail movement: why dawn and dusk win, how the rut shifts things, and why weather and moon phase matter far less than hunters think.
Read more →Crossbow Maintenance: What to Do, and How Often
The real crossbow maintenance schedule: string wax, rail lube every 75-100 shots, fastener checks, and string replacement at roughly 2-3 years or 800-1,000 shots - plus the five things never to do.
Read more →How to Cock and De-Cock a Crossbow (Without Losing Accuracy or Fingers)
Rope cockers, crank devices and built-in de-cock systems compared - plus the centering technique that fixes most mystery accuracy problems, and the four safe ways to de-cock.
Read more →Fixed vs Mechanical Broadheads: Which One Should You Shoot?
The honest trade between fixed and mechanical broadheads: penetration vs flight, why 400+ fps crossbows change the calculation, and a decision table by species and setup.
Read more →How Far Can a Crossbow Shoot? Maximum Range vs. Effective Range
Maximum crossbow range runs past 400 yards; the honest ethical hunting range is 40-50 for most hunters. The four factors that set the limit, and a test to find your own.
Read more →Hunting Camo Patterns Explained: What Game Animals Actually See
How deer and turkey vision differ from ours, the two pattern families (mimicry vs breakup), why macro beats micro at real hunting distances, and the UV-brightener problem no pattern fixes.
Read more →How to Read a Crossbow Scope: What Every Line Means
A plain-English breakdown of a crossbow reticle - what the stacked lines, circles and stadia mean, how the speed dial works, and how to verify each holdover.
Read more →How to Layer Hunting Clothes: The Full System
The four-layer hunting clothing system explained - base, mid, insulation and shell - plus how to manage sweat on the walk in and what to change by season.
Read more →How to Pattern Deer Without Burning Your Best Spot
A practical patterning method - reading sign, camera placement that does not burn the spot, building a bed-to-feed picture, and recognizing when the pattern has broken.
Read more →What to Wear Turkey Hunting, Head to Toe
Head-to-toe turkey hunting clothing - why full coverage including face and hands matters, the three colors you must never wear, and dressing for a 30-degree morning swing.
Read more →How to Field Dress a Deer, Step by Step
A step-by-step field dressing guide for deer - the eight steps in order, the tools that actually earn their place, the published CWD handling recommendations that should change how you cut, and when the gutless method is the better choice.
Read more →How to Set Up a Trail Camera So It Actually Catches Deer
A practical setup guide for trail cameras - mounting height and angle, why you face the camera north, trigger and delay settings by location type, battery choice by temperature, and the checks to run before you walk away.
Read more →How to Call Deer: Timing, Volume and Where to Stand
A research-grounded guide to calling whitetails: the three sounds and what each one says, how the calendar changes the response, what Hellickson's three-year rattling study found about volume, timing and downwind approach, and how to call a buck you can see versus calling blind.
Read more →How to Sight In an Air Rifle, Step by Step
A step-by-step air rifle zeroing guide - choosing a zero distance that suits a pellet's arc, why adjustable parallax is non-negotiable, the artillery hold for spring-piston rifles, and how to map your own holdover chart afterwards.
Read more →How to Hang a Treestand By Yourself, Safely
A step-by-step guide to hanging a hang-on treestand alone - the lineman's belt method, how many climbing sticks a given height actually needs, tree diameter and lean limits, the hoist rope rule, and the fall statistics that make a lifeline mandatory.
Read more →The Rifle Deer Season Checklist
A rifle deer season checklist organized as a six-week countdown rather than a shopping list: what to do at six weeks, three weeks, one week and the night before, plus the four gear categories that actually change outcomes in a gun season - optics, warmth, the recovery kit and stand safety. Includes the regulatory items hunters forget, the blaze orange rules that vary by state, and an honest note on what we do and do not cover.
Read more →The Bow Season Gear Checklist
An archery deer season checklist built as an eight-week countdown, covering the equipment verification that prevents lost animals, warm-weather early-season problems that gun hunters never face, the gear specific to hunting inside forty yards, and the quiet-and-close discipline that separates a filled tag from a blown stand. Includes the pre-season shooting progression, broadhead verification, and the stand-safety items bowhunters skip most often.
Read more →The Muzzleloader Season Gear Checklist
A muzzleloader deer season checklist covering what makes this season different: the moisture problem that has no equivalent in other seasons, the late-season cold that defines most muzzleloader hunts, the one-shot mindset and what it means for range discipline and recovery planning, and the equipment and optics that matter. Includes an honest note on what this site does and does not cover for muzzleloader consumables.
Read more →Does Scent Control Actually Work?
An evidence-first look at scent control for deer hunting: what Mississippi State University's research on scent-eliminating sprays actually found, why no peer-reviewed field research on hunting ozone units exists, what the largest independent Ozonics field test reported and what its limits are, where carbon and silver-treated clothing sits, and why wind discipline outranks every product in the aisle. Includes a spending order for hunters who want to buy something, and the free habits that matter more.
Read more →How to Stay Warm in a Tree Stand
How to layer and equip for a sedentary all-day tree stand sit: why arriving dry beats any amount of insulation, the physiological reason your fingers and toes go first, the correct order for treating extremities, a temperature-band system for stand hunting specifically, and the six stand-specific tactics that add hours to a sit. Includes the walk-in protocol that matters more than any single piece of gear.
Read more →How to Layer for Still Hunting
A layering system for active hunting - still hunting, spot-and-stalk and any hunt where you cover ground. Covers the stop-start cycle that defines the problem, why the correct system feels too thin at the truck, venting as a primary tool rather than an afterthought, fabric noise as a hard constraint at close range, the pack-carried insulation that makes glassing stops survivable, and how the whole system changes by temperature band.
Read more →Hunting Boot Insulation: How Many Grams Do You Need?
What boot insulation grams actually mean, why manufacturers describe them by activity level rather than by temperature, and how to choose the right rating for how you hunt. Covers the full ladder from uninsulated to 1,400 grams using Rocky's published guidance, the fit and moisture factors that override the number entirely, why two boots is often the right answer instead of one, and the sock and boot-volume trap that makes heavy insulation backfire.
Read more →How to Choose a Hunting Rangefinder
A buying framework for hunting rangefinders that starts with the specification manufacturers do not advertise: reflective range versus realistic range on a deer-sized target. Covers when angle compensation genuinely matters and when it does not, first versus last target priority, display type in low light, scan mode, ballistic solutions and their limits, tripod compatibility, and a buy-by-hunt-type matrix from a $100 first unit to a rangefinding binocular.
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