• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

Why carry so much crap?

Jason Wandling

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2018
Messages
418
Location
Scott Depot West Virginia
I’m the type of person that doesn’t carry anything that isn’t used every hunt. My bag has a pruner and saw, gloves, flashlight, pull rope, screw in steps for a ring and to hang my bow and some water. My rangefinder is on my side. A few snacks and a knife and grunt call. Unused items take up space and add weight. I bet most of you can lose a few pounds with unused gear.
 
It seems a lot of people that gravitate to saddle hunting are youtubers, that camera gear sure is a lot of crap to lug around.

Yeah, I agree. I go back and forth on some items. I hate lugging around binoculars but I do enjoy having them on stand. Often I have a trail camera or two if I want to set it somewhere. Generally though everything else is basics. The bulkiest items I pack in are my heavy clothes.
 
I also carry a trail camera almost every hunt. I hem and haw every time I get ready for a hunt on whether to take it or not but end up taking it anyway because I have the space and it really isn’t all that much weight.

For me it’s mostly the essentials, but I don’t worry about weight as much as packability and fine tuning my processes at the tree.
 
Watched one of Dan Infalt's YouTube videos a couple days ago where he said essentially the same thing. Motivated me to take a hard look at all the stuff I was carrying in my Badlands backpack. Ended up ditching the backpack for a small Kathy Kelly fleece fanny pack, with hunting license, headlamp, amsteel gear hanger, Hero clip, release, and rangefinder. Also added a lift rope for my bow which I keep in a @DanO dump pouch with my tether and a couple SS.

First hunt yesterday morning with the lighter setup and really like it. I'll take the backpack for all-day hunts, but anything short of that I don't need it.
 
My backpack full weighed 17 lbs. I switched to a very small backpack and it weighed 10.5 lbs full. The small one was stuffed so I could not fit extra clothes. It also did not have a waist strap so the weight was all on my shoulders. I decided to go back to the bigger pack for the waist strap.
 
Really depends on where you're hunting.
  • Out back behind the house? No pack needed - pockets work for everything.
  • Several hours away at a remote property I have permission to hunt on? I'll be sitting most of the day so I bring a backpack for all my food and water.
  • Public land canoe trip or scouting/hunting all day? I'll have a backpack with food, water, survival stuff, clothes, field dressing stuff, etc.
  • Out West hiking all day in the mountains? I'll have a whole lot more with me - all of the above plus everything needed to quarter/de-bone and pack out. Additional survival stuff to be able to spend the night if needed.
 
Oh yeah, gamebags. I hate messing around with my pack before every hunt. I like to pretty much put my stuff together and be able to pick up and go, otherwise I inevitably forget stuff. Even though I don't quarter deer every place I hunt, the gamebags are pretty much always in my pack. Same with gloves and a warm hat. Even when it's 70 degrees out, my gloves are typically in there. I don't know why people are virtuous about it, I'm not gonna die carrying around an extra pound or two.
 
, I'm not gonna die carrying around an extra pound or two.
Me neither. I just don't like managing gear, and I like the "walking through the woods" part of hunting too much to want to tote anything that won't be used.

Too much gear and I get that feeling of dread and frustration I feel when my wife asks me to get her chapstick out of her purse.
 
Me neither. I just don't like managing gear, and I like the "walking through the woods" part of hunting too much to want to tote anything that won't be used.

Too much gear and I get that feeling of dread and frustration I feel when my wife asks me to get her chapstick out of her purse.
This is why I got into Saddle Hunting over hunting out of my wind walker. I wanted to be able to go for a hunt, not sure if I was going to get in a tree or not--but have the stuff with me to do so. The caveat was, I really wanted to forget I Was even carrying gear to get in a tree in case I decided not to use it. So far, a saddle, 14 bolts, and a woopecker drill pretty much disapears in my day pack. Everthing else I carry I would have with me for a hike or hunt anyway.
 
The Vortex solo monocular is a nice compromise to binos... shave a couple lbs there. I think I’m getting old because camera gear is like pressing a button for +7 lbs, and I’m doing it less often.
 
Everything I have fits in a fanny pack. Probably 3/4 of one. I like the fanny pack b/c I strap it around the tree at heights and all my stuff is there. Pockets aren't quite enough for me. I'm always shooting deer at last light so I really like to have tracking stuff with me. 1,000 lumen light and some of those clip on glow in the dark trail markers. Even if I plan to go back to the truck and get a sled to drag out, I like to track right from the tree I'm hunting from (after waiting the appropriate time) so I don't lose my sense of where the deer went.
 
The Vortex solo monocular is a nice compromise to binos... shave a couple lbs there. I think I’m getting old because camera gear is like pressing a button for +7 lbs, and I’m doing it less often.
7 lbs is one thing @ but fiddle factor is another. So is bulk.

If only it was easier to streamline cold weather gear. That crap outweighs and outbulks saddle, climbing method, etc. and pretty much dictates pack composition as the days get colder.
 
7 lbs is one thing @ but fiddle factor is another. So is bulk.

If only it was easier to streamline cold weather gear. That crap outweighs and outbulks saddle, climbing method, etc. and pretty much dictates pack composition as the days get colder.

I try to take as little as possible, but I don't stress over it. Bulk is the most important thing for me as well. Nothing I love more than getting caught on branches and brush while trying to sneak in quietly through the thick stuff.
 
I recently picked up the big vortex bino harness and it's let me strip down to carrying only what fits in my pockets and the harness for short hunts. The only things I miss are carrying water and the ability to shed layers.
 
My pack is heavier than I would like, but I have gone through it at least a dozen times and would not feel good about leaving anything out at this point. I have several items that I rarely use, but would not want to be without. As someone said earlier a big part of the decision on what to leave or bring depends on where you hunt, and how far from the truck. I am usually anywhere from 1 to 3 miles in on national forest. Often times in wilderness areas where there is no wheeled traffic allowed. My kill kit with a couple of knives and several game bags weighs more than I would like, but you have to have it when you need it. Also my water purifier is rarely used but again glad I had it at times. My goal is to only make one trip out of the Woods with a critter skinned and deboned on my back. A second round trip back into some of these areas would be brutal.
 
Back
Top