Get Set

Prepare Equipment

After hunters scout their locations, they select the proper equipment and techniques to successfully harvest their animals. Some equipment choice is established by season, such as the early archery season or late muzzleloading seasons. During the general season, hunters have the most flexibility to use a wide variety of legal equipment, primarily rifles for big game and shotguns for turkeys and wing shooting.

Each hunter is responsible for knowing and practicing with their selected equipment and accessories. Practice shooting at a safe target range, well ahead of the seasons, to become familiar with your selected equipment and to determine what types of ammunition (or arrows) are best matched with the species you plan to hunt. Getting recommendations from experienced hunters (such as during a Hunting 101 course) is a good way to start.

“Sighting-in” your rifle is a process of adjusting the sights to hit a target at a specific range. Save yourself time and expense at the range by using your shots as efficiently as possible as you calibrate your rifle instead of going through a box of 20 rounds. Practice effectively.

“Practice makes perfect ... practice” is a saying used by hunter education instructors.

Hunting techniques vary in Texas, but most hunters choose enclosed box blinds, typically elevated, on both public and private land hunts. Beyond shooting from inside box stands, many put up pop-up stands, which have the advantage of being placed anywhere, enabling easier adaptation to wind, active trails and other seasonal/daily conditions. Some erect their own tripods and tree stands and either leave them up indefinitely or bring them just for the hunts, as on public lands.

Stalking, roaming, still hunting and driving are other techniques, most used on open ground public hunts (within assigned “pastures” at times), on upland game hunts (pheasant, quail) and on private land deer hunts where the landowners or guides have authorized such techniques. Many landowners want you to stick to a specific area, so a ground or elevated stand becomes their preferred hunting method or assignment.

With waterfowl and sandhill crane hunts, the preferred techniques are typically blinds or camouflaged seats next to a decoy set in sloughs, ponds, lakes or grain fields.