As I write this, Alabama’s bow season is still more than a month away, so I have to remind myself that many of you are already heading to the woods for the start of your 2026 seasons. Despite the delay here, I’ll soon be facing the same hot conditions you’re dealing with right now.
The early season gets a lot of attention because deer can be relatively predictable, but September and early October bowhunting can also mean hunting in conditions that feel more like summer than deer season. Those conditions aren’t just minor considerations. There are real health concerns, real issues with preserving meat after a harvest, and some pretty serious comfort issues to keep in mind as well.
Head afield unprepared, and your fun start to the season can quickly turn into a miserable evening—or, at worst, a trip to the ER.
I’ve had success in early bow seasons, and I’ve also had some very miserable outings. I’ve thankfully avoided the ER, at least in the early season; we can talk about treestand safety in another article. For now, let’s discuss how to make the most of a great hunting opportunity that you’ll actually look forward to every year.
Early-Season Bowhunting Checklist
- Always carry water, and have more waiting at the vehicle
- Lightweight hunting clothes carried separately when practical
- Mosquito and tick protection
- A shaded stand—or a way to create temporary shade
- A wind checker
- Cooler and ice ready before the hunt
- A deer cart or recovery help available
- A plan for getting venison cooled quickly
Hydration and Electrolytes for Hot-Weather Hunts
The 20-yard shot here is hydration. We all know it’s important to drink water when we’re sweating.
What’s easy to overlook is that hydration should begin before the hunt. Don’t walk into the woods already playing catch-up. Drink before you leave, take water to the stand, and have more chilled water waiting in your vehicle when you get back.
Should you drink Gatorade or another sports drink? There’s nothing wrong with doing so, but you probably don’t need to turn every September sit into an endurance-sports nutrition program. We lose water and electrolytes through sweat, but plain water and a normal diet are generally sufficient for ordinary activity. Electrolyte drinks become more useful when you’re sweating heavily for several hours.
More important is drinking regularly instead of waiting until you’re parched. It’s much easier to stay hydrated than to recover after you’ve allowed yourself to become dehydrated.
I carry a few bottles of frozen water and take sips as they melt. But I also carry a bottle of unfrozen water because I’ve learned the hard way that sometimes the frozen bottles don’t melt fast enough to provide an adequate amount to drink.
Whether you carry disposable bottles or an insulated container is entirely up to you.
Just carry water—and drink it.
Know the Signs of Heat Stress
An uneventful evening sitting motionless in a treestand probably isn’t the most physically demanding thing you’ll do all week. But you’re not going out hoping for an uneventful evening.
The exertion often comes before and after the sit.
Walking to the stand carrying a bow and pack, hanging or climbing into a stand, tracking a deer and dragging or carrying one out can turn an ordinary hot afternoon into something much more physically demanding.
When that hoped-for shot happens, slow down.
Go back to your vehicle if circumstances allow. Shed extra clothing and pack items. Drink something cold. Call somebody to help with the recovery. Use a deer cart if terrain allows it. I don’t always lug mine around, but you can bet it will be in my truck during the early season.
And pay attention to how you feel. Headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea and unusual fatigue are not things to power through just because there’s a deer at the end of the blood trail. Get somewhere cooler, rest and rehydrate.
Know When To Stop
- Headache, dizziness, weakness, nausea or unusual fatigue are signs to get somewhere cooler, rest and rehydrate. Confusion, fainting or other changes in mental status can indicate a medical emergency.
More serious symptoms—especially confusion, fainting or other changes in mental status—can indicate a medical emergency. At that point, we’re no longer talking about being uncomfortable on a deer hunt.
No buck is worth gambling your health over.
Dress for the Walk to Your Stand
I’ve never been afraid to be unconventional with my hunting habits, and one of my quirks is carrying most of my hunting clothing to the stand in a sack. I do it in the early season, mid-season and late-season.
A hike to a stand carrying a load of gear will make you sweat when it’s 22 degrees. When it’s 85, I want as much body heat as possible to dissipate during the walk.
Brush, thorns and ticks permitting, I’m not shy about wearing shorts and a T-shirt on the way in. I also don’t change into my hunting clothes immediately after getting settled. I wait until my heart rate and breathing have returned to normal and give myself a little more time to cool down.
The same water- and scent-resistant roll-top bags I use to carry my hunting clothing also make excellent receptacles for the sweaty clothes I wore on the hike.
Once I’m dressed to hunt, I still prefer long sleeves. Exposed skin gets sunburned and bug-bitten and is more visible.
As for materials, this isn’t the place for another cotton-versus-synthetic debate. There are good hot-weather options in lightweight synthetics, wool and even some cotton garments. The important thing is choosing light, breathable clothing that actually performs well in heat rather than simply buying something because the tag says “performance.”
Choose Early-Season Stands With Afternoon Shade
Some of the most miserable early-season evenings I’ve spent in a deer stand were in setups where direct afternoon sun turned an otherwise good location into an oven.
The problem is that a stand hung at 11 a.m. can feel very different at 5 p.m., when the sun is in a completely different position in the sky.
That taught me a lesson I carried over to my own setups: In the early season, I avoid stands that get direct afternoon sun whenever possible.
Sometimes, though, you get surprised. Maybe you’re hunting an outfitter’s stand, a communal lease setup or a location that was hung earlier in the year when leaf coverage was different.
If you’re suddenly getting blasted by the sun, improvise some shade. An extra shirt or jacket hung from a branch or bow holder can provide surprising relief.
Something else I learned by accident on an outfitter trip is that a hunter’s rain umbrella makes an excellent sun screen. I happened to have one in my pack during an exceptionally hot hunt when the sun was hitting me directly in the face and upper body. I set it up simply because I needed enough relief to stay in the stand.
It completely changed the hunt.
That umbrella has stayed in my pack ever since. As a bonus, I’ve learned it makes a pretty good wind blocker in colder weather, too.
Choose shade whenever possible, but have a backup plan when the sun doesn’t cooperate.
Fight Mosquitoes, Ticks and Other Insects
I hate bugs. And that hatred has only grown since moving to Alabama 25 years ago. I think Satan helped design fire ants and suggested them to God before he switched sides.
Mosquitoes and ticks are probably the bigger concern for early-season bowhunters.
Mosquitoes can easily bite through some of the lightweight clothing we wear in hot weather, so have a plan if they’re a problem where you hunt. And where aren’t they a problem in September?
Options include insect-repellent clothing, bite-resistant fabrics and net-style clothing or head covers that keep bugs from reaching your skin.
I can put up with an occasional bite on an arm or leg, but I simply cannot stand a mosquito buzzing around my ears or landing on my face. My go-to routine is a head net combined with a Thermacell unit in really buggy conditions, or just the Thermacell when the mosquitoes aren’t quite as bad.
Ticks are another matter, and they’re one of the obvious weaknesses of wearing shorts on the walk to a stand. Long pants tucked into boots or socks help limit access to your skin, although that’s not exactly the coolest option in September.
Permethrin-treated clothing is another useful tool. You can buy clothing already treated or use products specifically designed to treat clothing and gear yourself. Just follow the product directions carefully: Permethrin intended for treating clothing and gear should not be applied directly to your skin.
Whatever system you choose, do something. A mosquito bite might ruin your evening. A tick bite has the potential to cause considerably bigger problems.
Forget Perfect Scent Control—Hunt the Wind
Hopefully this one doesn’t get me in hot water, but when it comes to scent control when it’s north of 80 degrees, forget about achieving perfection.
You’re going to sweat. You’re going to produce human odor.
Use scent-free soap. Use sprays or other scent-control products if they’re part of your normal routine. Carrying your hunting clothes separately instead of soaking them with sweat during the hike certainly makes sense.
But don’t confuse reducing your odor with eliminating it.
The best scent-control tool you have in the early season is the same one you have in November: the wind.
And hunting the wind means more than checking a weather app and noting the forecast direction. Terrain and thermals can create currents, eddies and swirls at an individual stand that bear little resemblance to what the forecast says should be happening.
Know what the wind actually does at your stand and hunt it only when conditions are in your favor. At an unfamiliar setup, use a puffer or floating fibers to see where your scent stream is really going.
If the wind is wrong, get out.
Don’t force a bad stand unless you don’t mind ruining it.
After the Shot: Heat Changes the Recovery Clock
I already touched on what happens after a successful early-season hunt, but this subject is important enough to stand on its own.
What I do immediately after shooting a deer in hot weather can be different from what I do once cool weather arrives.
I’ve developed a good recovery record with archery deer largely because I learned fairly early not to become impatient after the shot. I pay close attention to where the arrow hit, how the deer reacted and where I last saw it. Then I resist the temptation to immediately climb down and start stomping around looking for an arrow and the first drops of blood.
A wounded deer that is allowed to bed undisturbed is generally much easier to recover than one that gets pushed.
How long I wait depends on what I saw at the shot.
That becomes especially important in the early season because two responsibilities can suddenly work against each other. You don’t want to push a wounded animal, but you also don’t want a dead deer lying in 85-degree weather any longer than necessary.
If I’m confident I made a vital hit and expect the deer to expire quickly, I’m going to begin the recovery sooner in hot weather than I might on a cold November evening.
A questionable hit is different.
Heat shortens the clock for taking care of the meat, but it doesn’t make a marginal hit become fatal any faster. If the evidence says the deer needs more time, give it the time it needs. Pushing the animal and never recovering it certainly doesn’t save the venison.
After The Shot
- Confident vital hit: Hot weather may justify beginning the recovery sooner than you would in cold conditions.
- Questionable hit: Heat doesn’t make a marginal hit fatal any faster. Give the deer the time the evidence says it needs.
- Once recovered: Field dress the deer promptly and begin cooling it as quickly as practical.
The key is making the recovery decision based first on what happened at the shot and then, when you have good reason to believe the deer is dead, getting to it without unnecessary delay.
Once you find it, the next clock is already running.
Cool Venison as Quickly as Possible
The takeaway here is simple: Prepare for success.
You’re heading to the woods hoping to shoot a deer, so have a plan for what happens when you do.
In hot weather, the goal is to remove body heat and get the meat cold as quickly as practical. Field dress the deer promptly and get it out of direct sunlight.
If you’re equipped and willing to skin and quarter the deer in the field, doing so allows the meat to cool much more quickly. I also realize that’s not how most whitetail hunters handle a deer when they’re reasonably close to a vehicle, home or processor.
For that more typical situation, field dress the animal promptly and get it to refrigeration as quickly as possible.
If you’re stopping near a convenience store, buy several bags of ice and put the sealed bags in the body cavity. If you aren’t likely to pass a store, have ice waiting in a cooler before you hunt.
If that means wasting a few dollars’ worth of ice after an unsuccessful evening, so be it.
In hot weather, none of this is something to figure out after you walk up to your deer.
Have the ice. Have the cooler. Know where you’re taking the animal. Have somebody you can call if you need help.
Prepare as though you’re going to be successful.
Early Season Should Still Be Fun
When I started working for a national hunting magazine 25 years ago, I put so much pressure on myself to perform that it came as a shock a couple years later when I realized I wasn’t having fun anymore.
I decided to cut myself a break, stop taking everything so seriously and start enjoying hunting again.
It was one of the better decisions I ever made.
That same philosophy applies to early-season bowhunting in 80-plus-degree temperatures.
The idea is to have fun and, if everything works out, bring home some great venison.
Why spend an evening on the verge of heat exhaustion or constantly slapping mosquitoes from your face and hands just to kill a deer?
With a little preparation and planning, you can hunt relatively comfortably—and safely—during one of the most predictable periods of the year for whitetail movement.
Early season is too good an opportunity to spend it wishing you were somewhere else.
