I had a revelation today.  Hunting season is almost here.  Go get your calendar if you don’t believe me.  Dove season starts in two months.  Since it jumped up on me in a hurry I assume it surprised you as well so this is my annual “get your crap ready for hunting season” blog.

When is the last time you saw your shotgun?  If you’re like most of us it was at the end of waterfowl season.  I know a few hunters who haven’t touched theirs since dove season last year.  No matter which one of these best describes you it’s time to drag out the old scattergun and make sure it’s in working condition.  After you are sure it’s in good shape it’s time to start shooting. There’s no need to drop a lot of money at a sporting clays range either.  Clays and a hand thrower are cheap so invest in your own.  Get a few boxes of shells and start breaking targets at your deer lease.  You’ll be able to tell the difference on the opener of dove season.

How about your bow, do you even know where it is?  How does the string look?  Do any of your arrows still have fletching on them?  Are your sites off?  Don’t wait until September to find out because by then all the archery shops will have a backlog of work since everyone else is procrastinating too.  Get your bow out this week and go over it.  Replace parts that need to be replaced and start shooting no later than the first week of August.  Yes, you really do need two months to get ready.

This is also a great time to get out and cut shooting lanes.  If you get out this early in the year you don’t have to worry about spooking deer closer to the opening of bow season.  Plus, you can see where the deer are travelling and start patterning them since early in bow season the deer are still in a summer travel pattern.

It’s not even too early to start thinking about duck hunting.  How do your decoys look?  Do they still have last year’s mud caked on them?  Mine do.  Throw them out in the front yard and get the water hose after them.

The point here is that it’s never too early to start thinking about hunting, even if it is 100 degrees.