Take care of your feet to succeed on your hunt!
Most people believe hunting is about good aiming and great tracking skills, and even when that's true, there are too many keys behind success, and one of them is taking proper care of your feet.
After all, how can you track a big game if your feet hurt? Is it possible an accurate shot when your feet are injured and you are not able to move fast and gently enough?
So, being your feet the base of all your gear and the support of many other skills, taking proper care of them becomes paramount not only to succeed on your hunt but also to keep you safe.
Remember, you are away in remote lands, many times with a few hunter fellows, and if your feet hurt, it might take a while for help to arrive, or worse, you will have to find your own way out despite your feet injuries.
Thus, to avoid undesired problems, take care of your feet, it's simple, easy, and critical to enjoying a good hunting expedition without any problem.
Most of the care is about common sense, but it's always useful to remember some basic tips:
1. Keep your feet warm
Frostbite is your enemy, it's not only painful but risky with the worst cases leading to toes and even foot amputation. When you are hunting during the winter season or very cold days, avoiding frostbite is critical, otherwise what begun as a funny hunting raid might end in disaster.
The best way to prevent frostbite is proper insulation. Besides well-insulated boots, it's important to wear hot socks, moreover, two or three layers of light material insulation socks are better than just one heavy, thick one.
2. Don't let your feet get wet
Wet and cold are your feet' worst enemies, so it's important not only to keep them warm but also dry.
To achieve this goal there's not a single strategy but a mix of them. The first thing to do is find a good pair of insulated, waterproof boots since they are the first line of defense against external physical factors, but not the only one.
Besides your boots, a combination of a respirable, waterproof stock layer is a good way to keep wet away from your skin.
But that's not always enough, in fact, no matters what you do, your feet will get wet sooner or later, well because of external water, well because of your own sweat, so it's critical to have replacement socks to change the wet ones when required.
3. Choose proper insulated, waterproof, cushioned boots.
Easier to say than to do! The proper mix of insulation, waterproof, and cushion is not easy to find, furthermore, what works for someone might not be the best fit for another person due to anatomic differences.
The key here is to try several boots and choose the one that best fits your feet. A good way to know if the boot is good for you is to try it at the end of the day and wear them for around 10 minutes in the store. Once removed check for skin marks.
A good quality, properly cushioned boot must not leave marks on your skin. Marks are signals of excessive pressure on a given contact point, so if there are marks, once in the field, under stressful conditions, they will become wounds, and that means problems.
Regarding insulation and waterproof, multilayer boots are the best choice. In this regard, it's important to buy high-quality brands with a guaranty because there's not a good way to evaluate insulation and waterproof in the field.
Finally, keep your eyes wide open and avoid contact with dangerous things such as rocks cutting edges, sharp branches, or any other element that might cut your boots and hurt your feet.
