Where to invest to improve success?

[TedO]

Buy a mountain bike, dirtbike, something to get you up in the zone you like to scout/hunt quicker and more efficiently, so you can spend more time in the field.

 

[bz_711]

Fuel and more overnights all year round. Being boots on the ground any time of year will make you better. If time is a restriction, just hunt as much as possible on the tags you can get...and make sure to shoot some animals...too many guy start waiting for "trophies" too early in their hunting career and then find out they aren't "killers" when they finally get a couple opportunities...fill tags for years first then hold off for better animals (or don't)

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Gym membership

 

[Bulldawg]

I think it has been said here a few times, but the most obvious, not the most expensive, but sometimes the hardest investment would be scouting. If you had $1200 and spent not even half of that on a plane ticket rental car and food for a 3-4 day weekend of scouting you would more than likely be miles ahead of where you would be if you were to buy a new rifle, bino's, pack, boots, etc. Especially if you were going to be hunting somewhere you have never been before.

Now, to be frank, I haven't done this much either, as to why I said this is sometimes the most difficult thing to do, but I am planning on a scouting weekend this summer into a new place I am going to hunt and haven't been to before.

 

[Cerberus1124]

Just remember, gear is great but people have been taking game for a long time. Our grandparents /parents / maybe great grandparents did it with a wool jacket and old rifles with iron sights. It’s been all the way back to using a stick and a rock. Maybe invest in better knowledge. Knowledge of the area, knowledge of your target, knowledge of different hunting techniques. I say all of this as a devoted gear guy but I even have to remind myself it’s not always the latest greatest thing that gets the job done. Remember the days when you hit the field with a rifle and a knife and you were all set!!