what's in your gear bag?

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ALLS London

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I'm sure this has been done before, but I went in a few pages and couldn't find a thread, so I thought I'd start:

Here's the scenario: I'm a new hunter. I have been camping, fishing and hiking my whole life, but I'm new to hunting.

Assume the following: White tail season, camp is taken care of. I have my rifle, scope, ammo obviously and a backpack. I always carry into the field:

- first aid kit
- water
- MRE/food
- space blanket
- emergency kit to get me through a night, should I get turned around. That includes a decent belt knife, some fire starting material, some cordage, a deck of cards, extra space blankets, extra whistle and extra compass.

What should I be carrying that's specifically HUNTING related? I'm sure a skinning knife, some kind of saw that I could use for bones etc, but I'm looking for input.

Please be specific- what gear do you carry, what brand and why?

Thanks guys!

AL
 
An awful lot depends on how you hunt, and how far in you're going to be.
If you hunt farm country, you can pretty much dispense with all the survival gear. Roads in farm country Ontario are rarely even a mile apart, and visibility is excellent except for the woodlots, and most of those have trails you can follow out.
But do take the fire starting stuff, you can get cold, seriously so, and a fire is a bonus even if your not lost when you are closing on hypothermia.

Central and Northern Ontario is a whole different game, some places you can walk for days without crossing a road. If you hunt in a place where that is the case, the emergency gear could save your life. I know of one instance where a gent without a compass spent the night in the bush. That section is only three miles square, is bounded by a big hydro line, an excellent highly visible trail, a highway, and a lake. I know it like the back of my hand, but he'd never been there before, and wandered in by himself, looking for a wounded deer.
His camp didn't miss him until he didn't show for chow. They went out in the dark, blew horns, and yelled half the night, but he didn't come out 'till dawn.

However, regardless of where you hunt, a compass is lightweight insurance, even if you use a GPS. Learn how to use it properly, and know the compass direction out before you go in.
Most guys that hunt in this province do not carry any sort of saw. They drag it out before butchering. If you do want a saw, something to cut branches will probably be more useful.
As to a skinning knife, again, most guys don't skin in the field, they really only need something to gut the deer, cut cord, and that sort of thing.
I've done that with a cheap 2" folding pocket knife, worked quite well actually. But I now carry a Buck Alpha Hunter.
Some skin and butcher back at camp, we do. So having that stuff along is useful.
I keep a first aid kit in my vehicle, and that's not to far away. Bandaids is all I carry with me, and I've used them only once.
Water is a plus always, and a good drag rope, even if you use an ATV. They don't go everywhere, and a length of rope can get you out of sticky situations.
 
thanks Johnny,

Generally, I won't be going farther than farm country. I still don't go out of town without planning to spend the night- stay warm, dry, be able to walk out in the morning (again, I assume I'm never going to need it, but better to have and not need, right?)

So the basics are that I should be field dressing, drag it out, do the rest in camp?
 
yep.... but as JC said... always have the survival basics... firestarter... compass... even just 1 bottle of water etc... you never know when you are a mile away and break your leg etc.... I always carry fire starter stuff and basic first aid.... as far as game, assuming we are talking big game, if far from camp or car I carry enough to gut and quarter... essentially a good hunting knife and a meat saw....
 
Good advise so far. A few things I carry and why:
- Small cordage enough to build a sledge. My buddy and I drug a 175lb doe 4km this season, the sledge we built made it way easier.
- Stout rope enough to hang and skin a deer. I do skin in the field, generally I gut at the shoot site, drag and skin at the car. It has many benefits, the 2 mains for me are quick cooling and preventing tick infestation around the province, NS recommends this for tick ridden areas. Prudent.
-That said, have Industrial garbage bags, or a tarp in the car.
- General gutting supplies I like to have in my pockets or pack; 2 pairs surgical gloves. I have eczema on my hands and avoid foreign blood. 2 or 3 rags; 1 for wiping hair and junk from the carcass, 1 clean for personal cleanup , and a spare. rags are really handy to get a good grip on the hide when skinning.
- Hand sanitizer or a little bar of soap. I take the latter.
- A small saw or hatchet. I found the saw on my swiss army knife really handy this year. I cut out all the ribs around the wound tract and left them in the woods. I took the legs off with it too.
-Take a 10 or 20 foot length of flagging tape, use it to mark blood while tracking. If you lose the trail, you can look back and easily find it again.

In your kit I would ditch the cards and add a flashlight. Headlamps work a treat when you have to carry a rifle.


Hope this helps.
 
VERY important point...... ALWAYS carry rope or heavy cord no matter how far you travel... ALWAYS..... I left that out... good on you for mentioning that easterner....
 
I used to carry a 2 litre pop bottle full of water with my hunting kit in the truck to wash the carcass out when I got it back to the vehicle. Accidentally poking the bladder is not a good thing and it doesn't hurt to wash it out even if you don't.
 
I always make sure I have tape to flag the blood trail.... It's saved me more than a few times when i've gotten turned around or had to back out..
 
I hunt out of a camp so heres what I take. I use this vest which has a backpack compartment built into the back

https://shop.primos.com/pc-933-84-gunhunters-vest.aspx

-Small survival kit with lighter, needle, thread, safety pins, nitrile gloves, matches, elastics, bandaids, mini mutltiool (tweezers, toothpick, pliers, file, drivers, knife blade)
- About 8 feet of rope with about 2 feet of paracord wrapped around it
-Dragging harness (nylon webbing, O-ring, attach aforementioned rope, weighs about a pound and bundles up nicely). Really beats a rope by itself for dragging
-bottle of water, something to snack on
-compass
-knife
-lens cloth
-TP
-Flagging tape
-2 way radio

During moose season I use an actual backpack and carry a small saw and hatchet as well.
 
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Not really hunting related but as two people have said... toilet paper, in a zip lock bag. The other thing I carry is a bunch of disposable handwarmers. They are cheap and thin and light and are great for a little bit of instant warm.
 
Not really survival gear, but in ontario, you are going to want to throw a gunsock in your pack.

If for whatever reason you end up out after dark, an unencased firearm makes you a poacher in this province.

A gunsock makes the legal requirement of a case, and helps protect you against tree cops with itchy writing hands....
 
sketts said:
Not really survival gear, but in ontario, you are going to want to throw a gunsock in your pack.

If for whatever reason you end up out after dark, an unencased firearm makes you a poacher in this province.

A gunsock makes the legal requirement of a case, and helps protect you against tree cops with itchy writing hands....
Click to expand...

Great idea!.... keep 'em coming guys... I almost have an excuse to buy that badlands I have been hankering..... :)
 
I have an orange garbage bag in my kit already as part of shelter-making material, I figured I could use that in place of a gunsock and wouldn't have to carry separate items.

great suggestions everyone!

Saber- do you have a pic of the harness in use? I'm intrigued :)
 
Tweezers are something I keep forgetting to put in the pack.
I suffered a sliver one day and ended up picking it out with
my pocket knife.
Something so small and yet effective.
 
kamlooky said:
Tweezers are something I keep forgetting to put in the pack.
I suffered a sliver one day and ended up picking it out with
my pocket knife.
Something so small and yet effective.
Click to expand...

I was handed down a swiss army knife by my grandpa.... it has a little pair of tweezers that slide in and out of the knife's body.... I scoffed at them until I actually needed to use them.... (was falling down and grabbed a hawthorne to break my fall).... good call looky
 
ALLS London said:
I have an orange garbage bag in my kit already as part of shelter-making material, I figured I could use that in place of a gunsock and wouldn't have to carry separate items.

great suggestions everyone!

Saber- do you have a pic of the harness in use? I'm intrigued :)
Click to expand...

Garbage bag is usefull for a lot of things... stores meats you won't eat from field dressing that you may want to feed your dog... if you hunt yote like me you can use it to carry yote over shoulder without getting blood on your outfit.... great choice.... building my pack here boys....
 
ALLS London said:
I'm sure this has been done before, but I went in a few pages and couldn't find a thread, so I thought I'd start:

Here's the scenario: I'm a new hunter. I have been camping, fishing and hiking my whole life, but I'm new to hunting.

Assume the following: White tail season, camp is taken care of. I have my rifle, scope, ammo obviously and a backpack. I always carry into the field:

- first aid kit
- water
- MRE/food
- space blanket
- emergency kit to get me through a night, should I get turned around. That includes a decent belt knife, some fire starting material, some cordage, a deck of cards, extra space blankets, extra whistle and extra compass.

What should I be carrying that's specifically HUNTING related? I'm sure a skinning knife, some kind of saw that I could use for bones etc, but I'm looking for input.

Please be specific- what gear do you carry, what brand and why?

Thanks guys!

AL
Click to expand...

You seem to have a pretty good handle on the most important stuff but if I could add....

SPACE BLANKET - Get a good one , foil on one side, blaze orange on the other. Looks like a tarp NOT the little tin foil one. MEC and CT carry them.

HEADLAMP(Petzel, uses same battery as my GPS for redundancy) - Gives you hands free whether skinning game after dark or setting up and gathering fire wood for an unexpected night in the woods.

AXE - is the #1 survival tool(Fact!) but sometimes not practical for hunting. I have a Gerber Machete that straps to my Knapsack webbing.

BIC Lighter(x3) Vacuum sealed or in ziplock bags and distributed to various parts of me...Coat pocket, Pants, Knapsack. You can't have too many!:)

Google Earth/Location notification - Obviously you don't carry it hunting but I always use the path tracer on GE to show where I will be and an alternate location(In case my plan changes) I save it with the date I will be Hunting then make a hard copy. My Wench knows how to access the GE file and if I am not home at the agreed time she has my complete hunting area along will Lat and Long and a printed copy to pass along to RCMP/RCC/SAR.

and specifically HUNTING related - A paper copy of the Hunting Regulations, to check info if I'm not sure or to use as fire starter if required!

Last but not least - Make sure you have a pressure bandage in your FA kit, not just some gauze and wrap but a large thick pressure bandage for big wounds. Several Womens menstrual pads could also be used as an substitution.

Good luck, Happy trails!
 
thanks Gunny,

especially about the hatchet, that's one thing I hadn't thought of.

I also like the idea of the hunting regs- just like the firearms regs right, can't be too careful. I have a nasty habit of filing 'flight plans' with both my wife and my neighbour, just to be safe and redundant.

MY FA kit is pretty basic: 2 shell dressings, some non-stick sterile gauze, a few rolls of coban (it's a bandage material, sticks to itself not your skin/leg hair and is waterproof), an ice pack (although for fall hunting, probably not necessary), a couple of triangular bandages (they're good for everything), crash shears, waterproof tape and a few pairs of gloves. The shell dressings live on top- one in an outside pocket usually, and one in the kit)
 
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