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Originally Posted by breakingtime91
Paging... @Cdub_NW
“There is no growth in the comfort zone.”--Jocko Willink
"You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
One more thing about knives. The blade design matters, especially the tip. I prefer a drop point. Really sharp points like a spear tip or a clip style (I forget the exact name, whatever a Buck 110 uses) are easier to nick things you don’t want nicked. One other thing I’ll do a lot is use my pointer finger to cover the tip of the knife while I’m opening the abdominal cavity or working inside there. Thats the reason I won’t use a knife with anything longer than a 4 inch blade and prefer something between 3.5” - 4”. I would rather go shorter than longer (like the havalon). Most important thing is that the blade is sharp. You’re basically doing surgery at that point. It’s already dead you don’t need a large knife for field dressing or butchering.
Some good input on knives here already; I'll second the emphasis on sharpness and size. I'd rather dress a deer with a knife that's "too small" than one that's too big. You'll be working blind with your arm up in the body cavity for some of this so a smaller knife that can function as an extension of your fingers is a lot better than something big and clunky.
For packs, I use an old mid-sized lumbar pack from a local maker who's long gone, but every year I find myself appreciating the design. Not too bulky, doesn't get in the way, and the combination of waist and shoulder straps do a nice job of distributing the load. Carries what I need for a day's hunt but not something to pack out meat. I'll have to pass on that one (and the game bags) as my field dressed deer gets dragged out with a rope and the heart and liver go into a trash bag and carried out.
For binoculars I like Steiner 8x30s. They're as big as I want to carry with me, pretty lightweight for their size, kind of a happy medium for me. More useful than any smaller ones I've tried but compact and light enough to actually take with me rather than find an excuse not to carry them.
No experience with rangefinders or tripods.
BOG makes good shooting sticks and tripods and you can get them at Cabelas.
When I gun hunted my shots were 150 yards or less so my situation may be different than yours, but I stopped taking a tripod with me. It wasn’t worth it to carry and I could find something to shoot off (especially if I was hunting from a tree).
I would try without one at first, or at least be open to ditching it to save space and weight unless you find it really necessary. I’m a super minimalist and primarily a bow hunter though so take that with a grain of salt. I’ve also killed a more than a few deer now on public land in a short period of time and every year my pack gets smaller. That’s one of the great things about hunting. Once you get to a point where you can be comfortable for long periods of time, the gear matters FAR less than your woodsmanship. And you can’t buy that with anything other than sweat and time.
Your boots and layering system will matter far more than any of this other stuff.
I really like the Mora knives. Very cheap and very easy to sharpen. I've field dressed and broken down many many whitetails with them.
Depending on the distance it can be simpler to drag the dressed deer so you can then hang it and have a much easier job breaking it down.
Personally I'd also add a tarp to your list. The nature of being a dad with a job, I hunt when I can, not when the weather is good. A simple tarp or large poncho can turn a miserable day into a really pleasant one. The last 3 years my single hunting week/weekend ended up being a total monsoon.
What type of environment/conditions will you be hunting whitetail in? I ask because a good amount of what you're asking about might be superfluous depending on the answer.
Caveat: I wouldn't call myself a very experienced hunter, but I have hunted and killed (archery and rifle) whitetail and mule deer, pigs, elk, and pronghorn in oak woods of North Texas and Central Oklahoma, the plains and canyonlands of NW Texas and Eastern Colorado, and the mountains of Colorado.
1. I like lightweight nylon gamebags. If you're not carrying camp + hunting, most backpacking type packs with a frame will do for whitetail. I've packed out a few pigs and WT deer a few miles in a normal REI type pack, it was fine. I have been very glad to have a true hunting pack (Seek Outside, but there are a lot of very good options) for elk and mule deer + camp situations.
2. I've been fine with a havalon replaceable blade knife + my normal pocket knife on deer and elk. A designated, visible spot to set everything down is a great practice to get into when processing game in the field, there's a nice benchmade folder sitting on the ground somewhere near the CO/WY border I lost while taking care of a deer.
3. Might be needed, might not, and what I'd want for checking on something in dense woods that might be 200yds away is different than what I'd choose for more open terrain. Thinking long term, the ultimate setup for me has been rangefinding binos that give an elevation hold. Carrying in a chest pack has been ideal for me, and if using a separate rangefinder, having that readily available on the chest harness is good too.
4. Probably not needed unless in open terrain and glassing for extended periods. Cane be a useful shooting aid as well, but using a pack + crossed trekking poles is good too. My last animal taken was a pronghorn doe at ~460yds from a seated position off pack + poles, it was very stable and quick to set up relative to a tripod.
5. See 3. Not sure I'd pay for one if hunting in an area where all shots will realistically be very close. Feel free to PM me here if you would like to borrow one, I have a spare Nikon you can use if it's not being lent out to another hunting friend that doesn't have all the gear yet.
Drive by reply: Don't use trash bags as game bags: they hold heat in, and your goal should be to cool meat off fast if possible. May not apply if its real cold, or you are real close to truck/cooler/processing... YMMV. I bought some heavier cloth game bags, sized for elk quarters, that are washable. Worth the investment, IMHO. The "cheesecloth" type cheap ones have a place, but they are disposable, and very much so not durable.
Trash bags also fill up with blood/fluid, that would drain out of a cloth bag.
1-Kifaru
2-benchmade saddle mountain skinner (I processed 2 bull elks in one day this past season)
3-Swaro NL Pures are the best, Maven for best budget option.
@GJM was correct, get a second job. Haha
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Only need a second job if you want everything, all new, top brand stuff, all at once. And don’t want to max a credit card doing it.
A gainfully employed person with a friend or two who hunt should be able to cobble together enough second hand and borrowed gear to hunt this year, and then buy one thing next year, and one thing the following year, and so forth. Upgrade from used or second tier as needed/warranted/desired, one thing a year.
main two items they told me were good binos and a good pack. Anyone know how vortexs binos are? The crossfires are about 150 and have good reviews for a beginner set
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