The Best Early Season Hunting Clothes

Note the coverage row. Both seasons want your arms and neck covered — for completely different reasons. That is why a lightweight long-sleeve beats a t-shirt in September even when it is warm.

Around $30 (verify current pricing) for a long-sleeve camo hoodie with UPF 50+ sun protection and a built-in face mask. It is the single most useful early-season garment because it addresses three of the four problems at once.

The built-in mask is the detail that matters. Pulled up, it covers your face against both insects and a deer’s eyes; pulled down, it sits out of the way. That saves you carrying a separate head net and means you actually have it when the mosquitoes find you at last light.

Honest cons: the light synthetic face fabric is quieter than nylon but not as quiet as fleece, and a hood adds a little bulk near the string path for archers — see our bowhunting clothing guide for why that matters.

Around $25 for the long-sleeve version and $23for the short-sleeve (verify current pricing), in a lightweight fused-cotton construction with ScentBlocker’s odor-control treatment.

The reason to pick this over a pure synthetic is noise. Cotton-blend fabrics are quieter than most light synthetics, which matters on an early archery sit where the deer is at fifteen yards and the air is dead still.

Honest cons: cotton content means slower drying than a full synthetic, so this is the better choice for a short walk to a stand than for a long hot hike. Treat the odor-control claim as a margin, not as a substitute for hunting the right wind — our honest assessment of scent control clothing covers what these treatments do and do not do.

Around $27 for the long-sleeve and $22for the four-way-stretch short-sleeve (verify current pricing). Mossy Oak’s lightweight line is the sensible answer for a hunter who needs two or three shirts rather than one.

Owning multiples matters more in early season than in any other. You will sweat through a shirt on a warm walk, and having a dry one in the pack to change into once you are settled is genuinely more effective than any odor-control treatment.

Honest cons: basic construction and no UPF rating on the standard versions. Check the specific listing if sun protection is what you are after.

If you want early-season pieces that will layer correctly with the rest of your season rather than being a standalone purchase, Kings’ XKG line covers the lightweight end of a designed system — and the same system carries you through to late season.

That is the argument for buying into a system: the early-season top is cut to sit under the mid-layer, which is cut to sit under the insulation. Pieces bought individually from four brands stack badly and add bulk in the same places.

Detail in our Kings XKG review and the value argument in Kings Camo vs Sitka.

• Full coverage first. Long sleeves, a hood or neck gaiter, and a face covering. Fabric is the most reliable barrier there is.
• Thin gloves. Hands are the most-bitten surface after your face. A pair of lightweight camo gloves at around $20 solves insects and concealment at the same time.
• Check for ticks properly. Early season overlaps peak tick activity in much of the country. Treat clothing with a permethrin product per label directions before the season, and do a full check after every hunt.

Warm, still early-season evenings are the worst scent conditions of the year: thermals are unpredictable, air movement is minimal, and you have just walked in producing far more odor than you would in December.

Three things help more than any garment:

1. Walk in slowly, in less clothing than feels right. The same discipline as our layering guide, applied to heat rather than cold.
2. Change your shirt at the stand. Carry a dry one in a sealed bag. This is more effective than any odor-adsorbing fabric and costs almost nothing.
3. Hunt the wind, always. Early season is when hunters are most tempted to rationalize a marginal wind because a stand is producing. It is also when scent carries most unpredictably.

September archery elk and high-country mule deer are early season by date and a completely different clothing problem by nature. You are hiking hard at altitude in strong sun, then sitting still and cold on a glassing knob, sometimes within the same hour.

• UPF matters much more. Sun at altitude in open country is punishing, and a hooded sun shirt is the standard western solution.
• Carry a packable insulating layer regardless of the forecast. Glassing at 10,000 feet at dawn is cold even in September.
• Boots become the critical item. See our mountain hunting boot guide— and the uninsulated versions, because insulated boots will cook you on a September climb.
• Pattern selection differs.Open western terrain rewards different camo from eastern timber — see best camo for elk hunting.

The BASSDASH UPF 50+ hoodie is the single most useful early-season garment because it handles sun, insects and concealment in one $30 piece. Add the ScentBlocker Fused Cotton long-sleeve if you hunt archery in dead-still eastern timber and want the quietest option, and buy two or three Mossy Oak lightweight shirts so you always have a dry one to change into.

Then spend the rest of your budget on thin gloves and a face covering. Those two items do more for an early-season sit than a more expensive shirt will.

Check the BASSDASH UPF 50+ hoodie price on Amazon.