With hunting less is more IMHO. I am also an amateur photographer and some of my best images have been where I had 1 camera, light meter, and maybe 1 or 2 lenses. I found when I had a backpack loaded with a camera body, 2/3 film backs, 3-4 lenses and an array of filters I would spend more time screwing around with the equipment rather than using the tools I had on hand to take the best possible image.
Hunting is been transformed to a gadget oriented sport. Just look at some of the packs some hunters are using for an afternoon hunt and I am floored - looks like they are running away from home for F sakes. Stop buying all that crap stuff just to have stuff that is crap. In most cases you are better off not having it to begin with. Buy what you really need and buy quality the first time - boots, clothing, scope, gun, knife, flashlight, ect.... Remember that post about the BPS employee? He hit the nail on the head because you cannot hunt unless you have a camo phone holder and wallet combo - LOL.
I chalk it up to hunting being largely a "failure dominated" sport (like golf, full of gadgets to make you more successful). That, and short attention spans. People would rather buy success now than achieve it the long way by learning how and enjoying the journey.
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"where a man feels at home, outside of where he's born, is where he's meant to go" - Ernest Hemingway
Sitka or other expensive "designer" hunting clothing. I know these will make you "look good" to your buddies LOL, but will they make you a better hunter? The people wearing them think they do LOL.
I fell for that tripod chair as well - what a bad purchase (now in a landfill). Cant imagine anyone comfortable sitting on one - "nut cruncher" indeed!!
ahhh the tape doesnt always help, i hunt in a dense forest but its VERY EASY to get lost especially in the dark even tho the path is not far at all from the open fields but stil, i bought a nice head lamp so i can have both hands free.
countless times ive looked around for my stand and im standing right beside it thinking im lost lol
My useless list:
- chair blind
- tripod
- many collapsable turkey decoys
- big camo backpacks
- gobbler decoy
Necessary items:
- turkey lounger, Avian-x hen decoy, thermacell in late spring, old 2-piece camo rainsuit sprayed w permethrin for ticks, fanny pack, hot packs in cold weather, high rubber camo boots
Questionable items:
- hub blind (dont find it of much use)
- 3 point chair - I do use it, but keep intending to buy swivel chair
- rangefinder (never time to use it in most situations)
There is a young lad that hunts the property next to me so I run into him quite often. I get a chuckle because he always has something new to show me. One day it was a new range finder with some kind of fancy angle compensator. Next trip it was a fancy new Scent Lock suit with some kind of a charcoal lining. Late in the season he bought some kind of Ozonics box that mounts to the tree. I'm not saying that this equipment is useless but let's just say I ended up sharing my venison with him.
One of the magazines that I subscribe to is Deer and Deer Hunting. I’ve been collecting them for 25 years and, every now and then, I’ll go through some of the older issues and laugh at some of the advertisements. Here’s an example from an issue from 1995: polarized scope covers, swivel limb tree seat, tree seat, hunting software, trail timers, scent shield soaps, tree lounge tree stand, cough suppressor/muffler, ATV handle bar mitts, just to name a few,
useless hunting equipment is a function of hind sight being 20/20. Most of the purchases at the time I think was based on "well it seems like a good ideal at the time."
Its only experience that enable us to determine wants needed or not unfortunately the novice is in short supply and easy pickings for slick advertising promos.
Entertaining thread lol, I have a "nut cruncher" chair too. I strap it on the front of my atv at the start of the hunt and it stays there until the hunt is over. Never use it or...... flashlight, binoculars, hot packs, scent free soap, gut hook
Collapsible deer decoy (took too long to set up), plastic resealable gong target (rounds went right through and it didn't even move to let me know if I hit it or not), range finder (only use it cutting lanes for stands but never actually hunting), owl/crow call (nothing ever gobbled back), leafy cover that went over you when sitting at the base of a tree and then rolled up into a pack behind your head, but got caught on every twig and stick in the forest, are the most regrettable ones, but if any newbies want a good deal on this stuff, just PM me! lol