I'll be honest. I don't read many blogs. I simply do not have time. One blog that I do read on a consistent basis is The Flying Kayak. Alex has some wild outdoor adventures and does a great job of writing about them. I always look forward to his next post! I was thrilled when he asked to write a guest post for me. Enjoy!
I was inspired a few weeks back by Tim at The Unlucky Hunter to do a post on what I carry in my pack. After reading his post, I decided to
clean out my big hunting pack (the one I carry for all-day hunts), and limit it
to –just- the things I need.
The following picture is everything that I carry with me
into the woods for an all day hunt minus food and water (those get added before
each hunt). It’s important to note that my definition of an all day hunt isn’t:
Climb into the stand in the morning, get down around 10, go to the truck, drive
around, eat lunch, get gas, stall until 2:30, then climb back into the tree.
This pack is what I carry if I plan to enter the woods in the dark, and not
leave until it’s dark again. You will
see redundancy in the pack and I feel that’s important…Especially with things
you can’t afford to lose.
In this picture you can see:
- Swedish Army Stove
- GPS (no one likes getting lost)
- Hand Warmers
- A roll of Tarred Net Twine
- A box of reflective tacks (Seriously, getting lost is terrible)
- Orange marking tape (Not joking about the getting lost thing)
- 2 knives
- An emergency whistle (sacrifice hearing loss for rescue)
- A survival kit (details later)
- A 3-in-1 deer call
- Clippers
- Bug repellent (Ever bow hunted in Florida?)
In addition to carrying these things in the pack, I take binoculars:
Some toilet paper, and a travel sized first aid kit are
carried as well (not shown). I’m relatively extremely accident prone, so the first aid kit
travels from hunting pack to tackle box quite often.
1. The Swedish Army Stove is something I carry with me
primarily because I think it’s kind of cool, and it serves a purpose. Yes there
are –plenty- of stoves out there that are smaller/lighter than this one. If I
had to guess, I’d say that this stove weighs somewhere between a microwave oven
and a small anchor. But it works for me. It has enough room inside of it to
carry:
-
The alcohol burner
-
A bottle of alcohol fuel
-
A C.R.K.T “Eat’N Tool” (It’s like the spork you
never had)
Additionally, there’s enough room to put a lunch inside such
as instant rice and a can of Vienna sausages (the lunch of champions…I know).
One thing I like about this stove is that one doesn’t have
to use alcohol to cook food. It’s been designed so that it can be used to cook
food over an open flame:
Or even feed a small fire directly underneath it:
2. My GPS is something I like to carry with me, especially
during scouting season. It’s very nice to be able to enter a waypoint for a
good looking deer trail or rub line, and then cross reference the coordinates
back home on google earth. One –vitally- important thing to note about GPS’s in
general is that they lose satellite signal relatively easily. All it takes is
for one to walk into a very thick area of woods, or be surrounded by a lot of
big trees and the next thing you know: No Satellite Reception. A GPS can be a
valuable tool in the woods, but it certainly isn’t one to be relied on heavily.
Always carry some other tool for navigation.
3. Handwarmers are something I enjoy having during Florida’s
brutally harsh winters. It’s nice to keep the fingers toasty. Always remember
that they have an expiration date. Practically willing a hand warmer to heat up
isn’t a fun way to spend a morning in a tree stand.
4. The roll of tarred net twine is something I began
carrying with me fairly recently. I substituted it for para-cord. I won’t be
going into details for all the different ways one can use this material simply
because there are too many. As a general rule: If a situation requires a form
of twine, the tarred net twine will work.
5. The box of reflective tacks is useful just about every
deer season. I carry the tacks in a box because…well…Imagine carrying them in a
plastic bag. Stick them on a tree to mark your trail into and out of the woods
in the dark. When you shine a flashlight, ‘ta-da’, you now have a glowing
trail. I like to stick them on both sides of a tree. In addition, I like to use
something similar to driving hand signals with the tacks when marking a trail
that twists and turns. For a left hand turn on the trail, place two tacks
directly next to one another horizontally. For a right turn, place one directly
above another.
6. The marking tape serves the same purpose as the tacks
do…just in the daylight hours. One can also pace out distances around a stand
and hang a little tape if you don’t have a fancy range-finder.
7. I like to carry two knives with me in my pack. Each knife
serves its own purpose. I carry a pilot’s knife and a Puma skinning knife:
The pilot’s knife comes with a sharpening stone and is used
as a sort of “do-all” knife. The Puma skinning knife is used just for skinning
animals.
8. I carry an emergency whistle with me because…well…If it
could be useful on a boat for rescue, I figured it would work well in the woods
too.
9. Something that I –always- have with me in my hunting pack
is a survival kit:
My dad made it for me a few years back. Inside there are
three items: A compass, emergency blanket, and the actual ‘kit’ in a waterproof
bag.
Inside this kit there are:
-
Vasoline soaked cotton balls (for fire)
-
Safety pins and 100lbs Power Pro gel spun
polyethylene (for practically anything)
-
Seven strand stainless steel wire (for snares)
-
Water purification tablets
-
A fishing kit with hooks, splitshot, and
monofilament line
-
A diamond hone (for sharpening)
-
Bug repellent
-
Signaling mirror
-
Magnifying glass
-
Duct tape
-
A firesteel striker
-
A Swiss army knife
Carrying the survival kit in my hunting pack gives me quite
a sense of security. I know that if something were to happen, I have a means to
make fire, secure food, and be rescued.
10. The 3-in-1 deer call is something that I actually use a
lot. I’ve called several deer right to the stand in the past with this call. It
has settings for a buck grunt, doe bleat, and fawn in distress. I think it’s
getting to be time for a new call though. The fawn in distress call no longer
sounds like a fawn in distress. It sounds more like a fawn being choked to
death…which I guess is still distress, just not the right kind of distress.
11. Clippers are a valuable tool in my hunting pack. I use
them to clear the trail to and from the tree stand so that I can enter it more
quietly. It’s also very nice when stalking because you can silently clear out
brush that would otherwise be the noisiest thing ever encountered during a
stalk.
12. Bug repellent in the final thing I carry with me in the
woods. Now I’ve forgotten nearly every piece of hunting equipment that needs to
be carried from time to time. Ammo, food, water, compass, hunting license…You
name it, it’s been forgotten before. But bug repellent in the only item that
has caused me to wish for a swift death if forgotten. It’s practically a
necessity.
Overall, I’m happy with what I carry in my hunting pack. It
has evolved over the years, and I’m constantly adding/subtracting things that I
think I need/don’t need. There are plenty of things that get added right before
I leave for the woods that are just situational. In archery season, I’ll often
just go out in short sleeves. But in the dead of winter, I make sure to throw
an extra sweater or sock hat into the pack before I leave. Additionally,
ammunition will often make its way into the pack depending on the season. Other
things that I find necessary for the woods are not carried in the pack, but
rather, on myself. Things such as a multi-tool or flashlights are carried on me
much like my wallet or keys. You never know all the things you’re going to need
when you enter the woods, but I think my pack has me pretty well covered.
This was my first attempt at a guest post, so big thanks has to go out to Tim for trusting
me enough to write something good enough for his site. For more of my writings
and reports, please visit http://theflyingkayak.blogspot.com/
Tweet