All right here's something to think about in the backcountry your rifle or bow if you're hunting during the archery season is your single most critical tool if your tent collapses under a heavy snow load you can probably still gut it out, sleep under your collapse tent, use it like a tarp, whatever.

If your backpacking stove goes south, you can build a fire

and find a way to heat water, boil water, make anything from your freeze-dried mills to coffee or whatever you count on in the

backcountry. But if your rifle or your bow goes south as in non-functional your hunt is over unless you've got a really kind-hearted

hunting partner that loans you their rifle. Transitioning to a different bow is just a bad idea all around and really never works.

So we're going to talk about rifle maintenance and rifle first aid for backcountry catastrophes. We're going to try and throw out some good

information in this episode that will help you avoid problems and then help you solve problems if and when they do occur because

they will occur. I'm Joseph von Benedict and this is the backcountry hunting

podcast.

Now, this topic was prompted by a listener

and I'm going to read his message that I received on Instagram here in just a minute.

But first let me note that this is going to be focused on rifles.

We'll do bow care, bow maintenance and preventive setup and

first aid in another episode.

So this message came from a fellow whose Instagram handle is at Bright Side Pressure Wash.

And he wrote to me and said,

hey, any chance on a podcast episode on rifle and gear maintenance, common repairs,

items or parts with short lifespans, suggested part upgrades, equipment tweaks, etc.

Now I'm taking this and kind of running with it

with a slightly different angle.

We're going to talk about specifically backcountry maintenance and problem prevention because that's

kind of what we're all about here.

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