Getting Your Gear Ready for Deer Season: A Working Checklist

Deer season sneaks up the same way every year — slowly, then all at once. Six weeks out is the sweet spot: enough time to fix what's wrong, not so early you'll undo the work. Here's the checklist we run at our own camp.

1. Wash the camo right

Last season's camo is carrying a year of sweat, campfire, and truck-seat grime — exactly what you don't want announcing you in the woods. Run it through Camo & Field Gear Wash, which cleans thoroughly and rinses out without heavy perfume residue. Line-dry it outside, then store it in a sealed tote instead of the hall closet next to the dryer sheets.

2. Open the cooler. Be brave.

That cooler you closed in February has been marinating all year. Rinse it out with Cooler & Game Gear Rinse, get into the drain channel and lid gasket where the funk headquarters itself, rinse clean, and dry it open in the sun. Do the game totes and hauling gear while you're at it.

3. Boots and waders

Mud from last season holds moisture against stitching and slowly eats your gear. Scrub them down with Boot & Wader Wash, rinse, and dry them slow — stuffed with newspaper, away from direct heat. Check wader seams now, not at 4:45 a.m. on opening morning standing in a creek.

4. The truck and the four-wheeler

Knock the summer's red clay off the machines and grease what needs greasing. A clean rig starts the season right and makes the first blood-trail night a lot less miserable.

5. Stage it all in one place

One tote per hunter: camo, calls, tags, headlamp, spare batteries. Future-you at 4 a.m. will be grateful past-you was organized.

All the wash-day chemistry above gets blended and bottled at our plant in Water Valley, Mississippi — where deer camp is basically a national holiday. Good luck out there.