It may seem obvious to some and impossible for others, hunting all year round, or close to. September 1^st is considered New Year’s Day for hunters, but if you don’t take all the opportunities your state offers, you are seriously limiting your hunting and outdoor opportunities. Additionally, knowing your areas season dates and huntable species is not enough either, adding certain activities and redefining what you see as hunting will greatly add to your knowledge, experience, success, and yields.

Knowing season dates and huntable species

Beginning with the obvious, knowing what you can hunt in your area and when is paramount to making a hunting season successful. It is also helpful to know deadlines for applying for tags and special lottery hunts your state may offer. Getting organized and marking the calendar for seasons you want to participate in and hunts you want to apply for is a helpful way to keep things straight.

Expanding your arsenal, literally

Perhaps you consider yourself strictly an upland bird hunter, specialize in whitetail deer or maybe you would never consider giving up a day in the field with your shotgun to sit in a tree stand with a bow and arrow. There’s nothing wrong with having a favorite hunting pastime but it would be beneficial to consider adding these experiences to your repertoire and these tools to your arsenal. A cold, rainy October morning may be better spent in the marsh shooting ducks than shot-gunning ruffed grouse in heavy cover. Shotguns, rifles, bows, crossbows, muzzleloaders, and handguns, depending on your location can offer you extra opportunities to get in the woods.

Heading out of your state, or even out of the country in some instances could be another way to augment your hunting opportunities. Seasons that are closed in your state may be open in another part of the country, travel could also provide opportunities to chase game that is not native to your home state or that has no huntable population. Many states also have opportunities to help with invasive species such as feral hogs or nutria.

There are traditional seasons, there is travel and there is even targeting unprotected species that have no specified season. There are also numerous other activities that can keep you in the woods that have great overlap with hunting, meaning that you use many of the same skills you use when hunting and will bolster your outdoorsmanship ability.

Fishing– this one is obvious when there is no hunting season open, there is likely a fishing season open. Utilizing many of the same skills when hunting, such as scouting, reading terrain (or structure in this case) and knowing what you need to know to harvest your targeted species. This could include numerous types of fishing aside from the traditional hook and line such as ice fishing, spear fishing, dip netting for crawfish or smelt, frog gigging, etc.

Trapping– trapping will make use of all the skills you use when hunting, in fact, it is dependent on it. Knowing how to track, to read where an animal has been, they type of area your target species seeks out, to camouflage your sets, utilizing scents and other attractants are all apart of trapping.

Shed hunting– you look for sheds the same way you scout for deer, you look for tracks, rubs, scat, etc. It is a great way to spend some time in the woods when the deer are not as pressured, and you can make use of all the skills you use when deer hunting.

There are several other activities that you can utilize that will enhance your hunting abilities and keep you in the woods as well. Mushroom hunting, harvesting wild rice, hiking, rough camping and even birdwatching will all have carryover to your hunting abilities.

Preparation– hunting is preparation, the harvesting of an animal is a minute aspect in comparison, tending hunting land, scouting, prepping gear and improving skills are a much bigger part of hunting overall. Improving marksmanship across all weapon platforms, improving land navigation and even improving your physical health should be considered when preparing for a hunt.