Before heading to the stand, practice shooting with your cold-weather gear on, including gloves, to get a feel for the difference. (Photo courtesy of Bear Archery)
December 31, 2025
By Tony Hansen
Late-season bowhunting is an entirely different game compared to early-season archery forays. The deer are jumpy after weeks of bullets zinging around them, cover is greatly reduced and the air is bitter. Everything is a touch more difficult for deer and bowhunters alike in the depths of winter.
Most hunters reconsider their apparel choices and stand setups when the mercury drops. But few think about one of the most overlooked adjustments you can make for success when the snow flies: changing your bow setup for cold weather. The late season isn’t just about endurance, it’s about adaptation. And that starts with your gear .
THE GRIPS AND GLOVES The first thing to address is your grip. I wear thin, brown jersey gloves throughout most of October and November. When December and January arrive, the big gloves come out. Thick gloves and trigger releases rarely get along. You either can’t feel the trigger, or you feel it too soon. For that reason, I shift to a hand muff and a thin glove system once temperatures dip. My release hand stays tucked inside a muff with a chemical warmer until it’s time to shoot.
If you prefer to wear thick gloves, you must practice with them. You’ll quickly find out if your anchor point changes or your trigger control suffers. If it does, don’t try to “fight through it.” Either switch releases or change your gloves.
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DRAW WEIGHT: PRIDE VS. PRACTICALITY Many bowhunters like to announce how much poundage their bow is set at, but there’s no medal for struggling through a draw cycle when you’re half-frozen and wearing three layers. Cold muscles simply don’t work the same as warm ones. If you can’t draw your bow smoothly and quietly in a treestand with stiff shoulders and a puffy jacket, your draw weight is too high.
For me, dropping 5 to 10 pounds in draw weight for the late season has zero downside. Modern bows are efficient. At 60 pounds with a heavy arrow, you’ll still punch through both lungs at 25 yards. Plus, you’ll draw smoother, aim steadier and stay quieter—all critical advantages when deer are spooky and the air is still.
There’s a mental hurdle for many hunters here. They think lowering draw weight somehow makes them “less of a hunter.” Forget that nonsense. Late-season bowhunting isn’t a test of strength. It’s a test of control.
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LAYERS, STRINGS AND CLEARANCE Your bow setup may be flawless when you’re wearing a lightweight base layer and a medium-weight jacket. But when you pile on a bib, down vest and parka, everything changes.
Your anchor point changes because your face mask adds thickness. Your string clearance changes because of your sleeve. Even your peep alignment might shift slightly if your hood pulls against the string. The solution is simple, though few hunters actually do it: Shoot in your full late-season hunting outfit.
That means putting on your heaviest late-season layers—face mask, neck gaiter, hat, gloves and anything else you plan to wear while on stand—and shooting several dozen arrows . You’ll immediately notice issues you can fix right then and there instead of at full draw on a December buck.
Common fixes include shortening the draw length a half-inch, adding a bit of D-loop length or simply tucking bulky layers differently. This might seem tedious, but the late season doesn’t allow for mistakes. Deer have been hunted for months by now. One sound, one brush of a sleeve against a string, and they’re gone.
Leave the macho at the door when bowhunting the late season. Bulky clothing and stiff muscles call for turning down your draw weight. (Shutterstock photo) MINDSET AND MUSCLE MEMORY Finally, remember this: Your bow setup isn’t just about hardware—it’s about how you perform when you’re freezing. The late season demands patience and discipline, not adrenaline.
Every adjustment you make to your setup should have one goal: to make your shot process effortless under the worst conditions. When that heavy-bodied buck finally steps into the corn stubble or edges out from the timber to feed, you won’t have time to think about whether your glove will catch the string. You’ll just draw, settle, and release like you do under normal circumstances. That’s the reward for preparation.
THE BOTTOM LINE Changing your bow setup for cold weather isn’t a sign of weakness—it’s a mark of experience. Late-season bowhunting can be surprisingly good in the right situation. But it will almost certainly be cold and the deer will be anything but dumb. You can’t just grit your teeth and hope. You need to adapt.
This article was featured in the December 2025 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe .
