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Why carry so much crap?

lungpuncher1 said:
That won’t help when your rapidly loosing blood. Don’t trade your life for ounces and to prove a point.


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No interest in dying or proving anything, see my above question to @Vtbow.

Advil won't help if I'm bleeding heavily, but pressure and a t shirt will. Or it won't, in which case I'm not sure what would.
 
Nutterbuster said:
No interest in dying or proving anything, see my above question to @Vtbow.

Advil won't help if I'm bleeding heavily, but pressure and a t shirt will. Or it won't, in which case I'm not sure what would.
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Pressure and a tshirt wont help a deep wound but a very light and small Israeli medical bandage would. I don’t want to think about the reality of my families pain from my death all so I can carry a few ounces less. Sounds pretty selfish if you think about it.


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lungpuncher1 said:
Pressure and a tshirt wont help a deep wound but a very light and small Israeli medical bandage would. I don’t want to think about the reality of my families pain from my death all so I can carry a few ounces less. Sounds pretty selfish if you think about it.


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An Israeli bandage is literally a bandage with a bar or handle built in for applying pressure.

I'm not telling people not to carry first aid if they feel they need it and know how to use it. As far as being selfish, I definitely am. Self preservation is in line with my selfish goals, and I take steps towards it every day. I just cant invision a likely scenario where a first aid or trauma kit would be a life or death difference.
 
Well at least me and lungpuncher are on the same page. I take it you have some training and experience?


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Nutterbuster said:
An Israeli bandage is literally a bandage with a bar or handle built in for applying pressure.

I'm not telling people not to carry first aid if they feel they need it and know how to use it. As far as being selfish, I definitely am. Self preservation is in line with my selfish goals, and I take steps towards it every day. I just cant invision a likely scenario where a first aid or trauma kit would be a life or death difference.
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Let me invision it for you. You’re 5 bolts up, you slip and rip open then inside of your thigh. Blood everywhere. You think you’ll be able to get your shirt off, find the perfect stick and make something while not going into shock? Keep in mind you have your shirt off too. So your cold.... from the shock. The 60 seconds you save not having to find that perfect medical stick in the swamp could save your life.

Honestly man not trying to argue, I just realize how quick it can happen. Trying to help out here. There’s a reason special forces carry such things and not rely on some camo and a stick.


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Random thoughts and musings on the topic.

- a properly fitted frame pack makes carrying 10lbs or 30lbs feel about the same. Having that changed how annoying it was to carry weight around. Money can buy joy sometimes. Walking 2,3,5 miles in a hunting day, I don’t care that I have 30lbs of clothes food and water and camera gear with me to make a two hour sit in the evening. When I was carry it all around in a run of the mill shoulder strap pack, I would only walk 1,1.5,2.5 miles, and begrudgingly.

- besides camera gear, which doesn’t go every hunt, I agree with the ‘leave the junk at home’ premise. I don’t see the point in rattlin horns, scent sprays, three foot long bow holders, multiple deer Calls, etc. There seems to be a 5-10lb ‘commercial hunters kit’ that the industry has convinced us will kill us more deer. Really, it’s a pile of stuff that In one scenario, on the perfect day, in the perfect place, at the perfect time, might increase our odds at one deer by 10%.

- make a diddy bag of the ‘essentials’, and it will help cut down on spares for forgotten items. Keys, license, tags, headlamp, release, grunt, tp, thermacel, knife, etc all go in this bag. It goes on kitchen counter at home, to console on truck, to whichever rig im hunting with that day. I can’t hunt without it. And I don’t need spare items for what’s in it because I don’t hunt without it.

- I don’t bring a ton of food, but I hydrate exceptionally well while hunting. Most times you feel hungry you’re just thirsty. And being hydrated helps me focus better on what I’m doing, I feel materially better doing it, and I get more value out of the experience. I hunt to enjoy it. Some parts should suck a little, but the overall experience has improved since I started carrying plenty of water. Waters heavy. I deal with it.

- hunting in the hybrid without a pack didn’t take much of a change for me. I am testing out a little pack system john came up with now, and the only thing that goes in it is water snacks and my ‘essentials’ bag. Can fit camera gear if I wanna bring it. That rig at about 15-20lbs depending on weather sure is nice to settle in to at the end of a long day scouting.

- I’ve found that planning a general scouting route allows me to leave my pack or gear at a start/end point. Then I can take off for a mile or so and make a loop through an area with no gear, stop back at the bag and hydrate grab a snack. I tend to scout in cloverleaf patterns these days. I don’t mind carrying everything all day especially if it’s just one big loop. but sometimes it’s unnecessary if I can plan it right.

- hydrate.

- I swapped to a system that uses the same rechargeable battery for a headlamp, a ‘big gun’ flashlight, and charging brick. This allows me to carry about 12 ounces less weight on an all day scouting tour. I cut both spare light and brick if I’m not doing serious navigation and know where I’m hunting. But when I’m winging it that weight savings is nice.

- drill/bolts is the best climbing method I think.

- hydrate
 
Lft unchecked, crap expands to fill available space. A good, well-fit pack for sure can carry say 30 pounds like 10 - but if you're not mindful of what and how you pack you end up with everything in the wrong place, and a bulky pack that's getting caught on everything.

The real value in paring down your kit - even if you go back to going in heavy - is getting your priorities straight. excise that commercial deer hinters kit garbage. And if you can shrink your kit below say that "pack feels the same" range and go in meaningfully lighter - at least for some hunts - all the better.
 
When we say frame pack do we mean an external frame pack?


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lungpuncher1 said:
Let me invision it for you. You’re 5 bolts up, you slip and rip open then inside of your thigh. Blood everywhere. You think you’ll be able to get your shirt off, find the perfect stick and make something while not going into shock? Keep in mind you have your shirt off too. So your cold.... from the shock. The 60 seconds you save not having to find that perfect medical stick in the swamp could save your life.

Honestly man not trying to argue, I just realize how quick it can happen. Trying to help out here. There’s a reason special forces carry such things and not rely on some camo and a stick.


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Versa strap tourniquet. They're very versatile.
 
I hope folks packing tourniquets know what they’re doing. It’s a good way to lose a limb unnecessarily.
 
kyler1945 said:
I hope folks packing tourniquets know what they’re doing. It’s a good way to lose a limb unnecessarily.
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It takes a very long time to lose a limb from a tourniquet. Fact is most people who are untrained will not have the discipline to get it tight enough and keep it that way to make it work effectively. As far as an israeli bandage goes, is it more effective than an ace wrap or a bandaid? Absolutely. It is a gauze pad, ace wrap, and pressure dressing all in one that is capable of providing a great deal of focused area pressure when applied correctly. Soldiers use them all the time to help control bleeding on severe trauma. All that being said I personally do not carry a first aid kit. The way I see it I will either be able to walk it off, crawl to the trail, or call for help but in most hunting situations a really doubt a first aid kit would be of much use if such an issue did occur. If you want to carry one and it makes you feel better, do it. I do try to save weight where I can but if something will be useful to me I will carry it. That's just not on my list
 
I've cut a bunch of weight the last year by switching to a saddle and changing how I climb. To me, that's the weight savings in my system that seemed necessary. The other major move I made last year was buying a MR Pop Up 28 because I wanted to quarter deer in the field. I've got a wife and kid and I do everything I can to streamline my hunts so that when I do actually find time to get in the woods, I can get back to them as quickly and safely as possible. Since I've started hunting public the last few years, I've found just how badly dragging deer SUCKS, not to mention it takes forever. Even though most of the time I'm in the woods I'm not having to use the pack for quartered deer, it still makes carrying gear easier. I don't really care how heavy it is because it doesn't feel like that heavy of a load. That being said, I don't just go stuffing it full of pointless crap.

I always carry in:
-havalon
-game bags
-first aid
-water
-binos and rangefinder
-climbing method
-game calls
-back up release
-TP
-necessary gear to hang myself and bow/pack in the tree

I sometimes carry in:
-camera gear
-trail cam and batteries

I could fit just about everything from my always list, besides the game bags, in my pockets or carrying if I didn't use the pack. However, I don't want to make a separate trip back to the car to get my pack if I kill something. Why waste the time? Especially when you're a mile or more in and the pack is just better feeling than stuffing your pockets full. Sometimes less is more. Sometimes more makes more feel like less. The only downfall I've found with my system is having some extra (the pack) hanging from the tree. If I was hunting somewhere where I didn't have to drag/quarter deer, I'd ditch the pack or just use a fanny pack.
 
kyler1945 said:
- a properly fitted frame pack makes carrying 10lbs or 30lbs feel about the same.
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^This. I went from a converted Alice pack to a modern, internal frame pack that conforms to my back. I can't imagine worrying about a few pounds one way or the other, at least not for comfort/ease of hiking.
 
Hubby11 said:
^This. I went from a converted Alice pack to a modern, internal frame pack that conforms to my back. I can't imagine worrying about a few pounds one way or the other, at least not for comfort/ease of hiking.
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Couldn’t agree with you two more. Once I got my hands on an Eberlestock X2 I stopped caring about how much stuff I was bringing in. If I might want or need it, in the pack it goes. 30+ lbs, even though I almost never bring that much stuff in, feels like a minimalistic setup in my old bag.
 
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