Pennsylvania’s archery season is less than a month away, meaning it’s time to make sure you have everything you need when you head to the woods.
The statewide early archery season begins Oct. 5 and runs through Nov. 22. It includes one Sunday, Nov. 17. For those hunting in Wildlife Management Units 2B, 5C and 5D near Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, your early archery season starts on Sept. 15 and runs through Nov. 29.
With seven weeks of opportunity, it’s a great time to be in the woods. If you are prepared.
Archery hunting requires a little more gear than the gun-hunter may assume. It’s easy to forget something small, but vital, like the release for your bow or a rope to get your bow up to your tree stand.
Hopefully, you’ve been practicing with your bow or crossbow to make sure you and your equipment are ready when that buck walks out. While we’ve been shooting field points over the summer months, it’s important to try out your broadheads, too. Now is the time to find out if they fly a little differently than your field tips.
In addition to your bow, you also need to make sure your pack has everything you need as well.
After spending more than 20 years hunting from a tree stand, here’s a checklist of the things I want to have ready to go by the first day.
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Archery gear checklist
Tree stands and saddles: If you hunt from a stand or prefer a saddle, you may want to study the parts and connecting steps before you climb a tree. I’ve seen straps and cloth materials deteriorate and metal parts become worn. Make sure your stand and your physical condition are up to the task of climbing a tree. If you use a portable stand, you may want to document the adjustments you make for each tree you use on your phone. Having a quick reference page like that may help prevent you from having to climb a tree a second time just to adjust the length of the cables.
Safety gear: If you are climbing a tree, you will want to have a safety strap or harness. It’s the best protection you can have to avoid falling out of a tree and becoming injured. Check your straps and seams to make sure it’s still strong enough to hold you if something bad happens when you are 15 to 20 feet off the ground.
Electronics: Today’s hunters have a lot of resources at their fingertips. A smartphone can be a lifesaver. From using it as a flashlight to find your way in the dark to accessing apps like Onyx that show your waypoints, your phone is good for everything including making that call after your shot at that trophy buck. Also, remember to take many photos of your time in the woods. Photos of the changing leaves or that curious squirrel that climbed your tree are good memories to review when the action is slow. The only thing I have found that I can’t do yet with my phone is range finding. Make sure your range finder has fresh batteries and remember to pre-range a few landmarks to help you determine how far that deer is before you draw your string.
Deer calls: Take a few minutes to practice your calls and make sure you have them in your backpack. Early season fawn bleats to doe calls and buck grunts, you need to make sure you have what each encounter requires.
Tree hooks: If you hunt on public land, you should make sure you have straps with hooks to hold your bow, quiver and bag. Screw-in hooks work well on private land, but the key is making sure you have plenty in case you drop one while trying to get it into a tree.
Pull ropes: I always carry extra ropes along to raise my bow and sometimes gun. The early muzzleloader season overlaps with archery the week of Oct. 19-26 and you can carry your bow and muzzleloader at the same time.
Marking tape: A cheap roll of orange surveyor tape is a good investment. It’s great for marking everything from where you hit a deer to the general area you want to return to on a future hunt. Just remember to remove the tape after hunting season.
Miscellaneous: Other things to keep in mind are a hunting license with archery privileges, a flashlight, knife, field dressing gloves, drag rope, rain gear, and a few of your favorite snacks. Just make sure your candy wrappers aren’t too loud to scare off the deer.
This may seem like a long list of things to have in order, but we didn’t even mention making sure you have the right clothing, gloves, face covering and boots.
The good thing to remember is that Pennsylvania hunters have a long season to make up for those times we leave something important at home. Hopefully, this checklist will help you stay safe and give you what you need when it’s time to take that ethical shot at the deer you’ve been thinking about all summer.
Happy hunting.
Brian Whipkey is the outdoors columnist for USA TODAY Network sites in Pennsylvania. Contact him at bwhipkey@gannett.com and sign up for our weekly Go Outdoors PA newsletter email on this website's homepage under your login name. Follow him on Facebook @whipkeyoutdoors .
This article originally appeared on The Daily American: With Pa.'s archery season approaching, here's your checklist to be ready for that buck
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