Gear you couldn’t hunt without

[Fred Gunner]

my wife and i kinda like it.

Ditto 110% My bride makes our adventures so much better than hunting alone.
The Travel time is even fun. I'm happier when she make a kill than when I do.

 

[Eric Anderson]

what gear do you find impossible to hunt without? What do you bring with you whenever and wherever you hunt?

2 canteens on a cartridge belt with USGI canteen covers. They have a little pouch on them that is perfect for water purification tablets.
A high quality pocket knife.
A new in wrapper BIC lighter with an empty snuff can of tinder/steel wool.

If things go pear shaped, fire and clean water buys you a lot of time to figure things out.

 

[MikeDeltaFoxtrot]

I never go in the woods without:

1) something to make a fire (lighter, matches, fire steel, or some combination thereof);
2) at least one knife. Minimum is a Spyderco or benchmade pocket knife. When hunting, I have at least one more;
3) a few lengths of paracord;
4) at least one and maybe as many as three Nalgene bottles of clean water;
5) at least one flashlight, and usually a headlamp as well.

I can survive for several days with just that stuff in case I am lost or injured. If I am in unfamilar territory, I also bring a GPS receiver. I will mark my truck as a waypoint, then turn the thing off and drop it in my pack. Cheap insurance. I recently purchased a Lifestraw filter, and I am going to add that to my basic kit for emergency use.

I also carry a handgun at all times. In my home area of Virginia, my favorite woods gun is a Glock 20 in 10mm Auto. The biggest animal threat is a black bear, so that is sufficient, and the 15 round capacity makes it suitable for social use if necessary. Out west, I will carry my Ruger SRH Alsakan or S&W 629. I don't generally carry a rifle unless it is hunting season.

 

[Trail Rated]

Maybe not necessary on a guided hunt, but on DIY walk-in hunts I bring a few pairs of latex gloves for gutting/skinning work. I carry limited amounts of water, and the gloves make cleanup easier.

And of course, all the other stuff mentioned above.

 

[Whiskey1]

Water, compass, I-phone, lighter, small bag with rich pine tinder slivers, headlamp, small high-quality flashlight, wet wipes, 4" fixed blade knife, 10 spare rounds of ammo, drag rope, dry socks, binos, jerky, dried fruit. This is what I take for a half/full day hunting plus layered clothes and a rifle. I carry a handgun every time I go to town but rarely in the woods because Town is much more dangerous than anywhere else I go...

 

[siutis]

Comfortable light weight hunting bots, I walk a lot.

 

[oldhoward]

Rifle,ammo,knife,1/2 gallon Bourbon and sometimes my wife. Sometimes diet coke to mix with Bourbon.

 

[HWL]

Whenever I hunt, the most important gear is my credit card....

Don' t leave home without it....

HWL

 

[Hogpatrol]

Anymore, and I hate to say it, but the most important item I carry is my smartphone. I don't want to be hurt and need to wait hours before I don't show up and someone realizes I'm in a bad way.

 

[JakeH]

Anymore, and I hate to say it, but the most important item I carry is my smartphone. I don't want to be hurt and need to wait hours before I don't show up and someone realizes I'm in a bad way.

It really is impressive the number of items our smartphones have replaced. Phone, camera, camcorder, notepad, phone book, personal computer, map, compass, GPS....and I sure I’m missing some things.

 

[Hogpatrol]

It really is impressive the number of items our smartphones have replaced. Phone, camera, camcorder, notepad, phone book, personal computer, map, compass, GPS....and I sure I’m missing some things.

Bubble level, credit card, calculator, flashlight, and boarding pass to name a few.

 

[BobT]

It really is impressive the number of items our smartphones have replaced. Phone, camera, camcorder, notepad, phone book, personal computer, map, compass, GPS....and I sure I’m missing some things.

I have no phone signal where I hunt so any service that requires a signal is useless most of the time. There are a couple of high spots that I can get enough signal to send a text or on occasion make a call but otherwise my phone is basically a compact camera.

 

[ZG47]

I have no phone signal where I hunt so any service that requires a signal is useless most of the time. There are a couple of high spots that I can get enough signal to send a text or on occasion make a call but otherwise my phone is basically a compact camera.

Which is why, in our country. we have a volunteer-run Mountain Radio Service which hires out radios, gives weather info and runs a schedule for each registered party to confirm that they are still ok and/or request assistance. Our club hires out PLBs and and makes a point of advising members whenever a hunter/tramper has been rescued via one of the modern GPS enabled beacons being set off.

Our biggest problem, actually, in regard to people placing too much trust in cellphone technology, is when several idiots (typically Aucklanders) jump into a ‘tinny’, i.e. an aluminium boat without a cabin structure, with no charts, flares, life jackets, marine radio or even a marine distress beacon and then hope to be rescued when their ill-maintained and probably overworked outboard motor ‘gives up the ghost’!

 

[Hogpatrol]

Anymore, and I hate to say it, but the most important item I carry is my smartphone. I don't want to be hurt and need to wait hours before I don't show up and someone realizes I'm in a bad way.

If I am out of a service area or hunting or fishing by myself in a remote area, I carry a GPS enabled PLB.

 

[MS 9x56]

Gun, correct ammo and a knife. Everything else is superfluous BS.

 

[MS 9x56]

It is an actual bag of ash to see where the wind is coming from.

My dad showed me old Indian trick. Tie a piece of thread to a small breast feather of your choice and then fasten it to your gun barrel. Never again have to wonder which way the wind is blowing. I use same OIT on my bows. Has helped me kill more big game than anything other than bullet and arrow. PS my great grandmother was an Onondaga Indian.

 

[MS 9x56]

A friend and I drove for two days and then flew into the mountains for 45 minutes for a caribou hunt, where he found he had forgotten his clip....

Now he is a real hunter, one shot one kill.