2011 hunting gear review

Rocky Boots: Despite what everyone else said here, I've had a set for 2 years now and I've yet to have my feet get wet (except when I fell into the creek/swamp) They keep me nice and warm.

Winchester SX3: Great waterfowl gun! Thousands of shells through it in the 3 years I've owned it and not a single failure. I have the upland model with a 3" chamber. The only problem I have with it, is that the upland doesn't come with any sling swivels, and it's really annoying that you can't put it on your shoulders when you also have to haul a bag of decoys.

Kent FastSteel: Great waterfowl load and probably one of the cheapest too.

Kent SilverSteel: Billed as around 50fps faster than the FastSteel. Same price as the FS. Patterned like s**t out of my gun and everyone else's gun in my "crew". Left some gaping wide holes in the pattern.

Cabela's Advantage Max4 camo pants and jacket: I bought this jacket from Cabelas hoping not to break the bank. It keeps me very warm, the camo pattern is great. I would recommend the Cabelas brand clothing to anyone.

Fred Zink PC-1 Calls: I don't like the sound of these calls at all. I haven't been able to call anything in with them at all. They are hard to blow in IMO.

Amish hand crafted goose call bought on Ebay: I was very sceptical about this call, and so were the rest of the guys I hunt with. I bought it because it looked very nice. I was pleasantly surprised, I've called so many geese in with it this year it's unreal.

Savage Model 25 Varminter .223: Sold my Ruger M77 target because it was way too heavy to haul in the bush and picked up the Savage. I am very happy with this gun. It shoots great with my Nolser BT handloads.

TRIX tick remover: Bought this at MEC, works great. I've pulled 7 or 8 ticks off of people with this and countless off my dog. Removes entire tick without leaving the head behind.

Sawyer Tick Spray: Sprayed this stuff on all of my hunting clothing, it's supposed to last 6 weeks. I had it on for over 8 weeks and never had a tick on me, everyone else who used the spray got ticks.

That's it for now!
 
Sitka mountain mothering gloves. 3/10. If it is just a cold windy day they are okay. However yesterday night on sat in the stand for 3 hours in the rain, and needless to say I almost lost my fingers. This morning is just cool and snowy and they seem alright. Brought a backup incase liquid falls from the sky again.

Scarpa escape boots. 10/10. They are more like light mountaineering boots but they're great and very well made. Extremely waterproof and breath well thanks to the gortex membrane. Definitely have a look into this brand, price is worth it.
 
For the most part, the only new stuff I used was clothing/apparel. Picked up a new Yukon Gear orange 3-in-1 hunting jacket, actually I got 2 since they were on sale for $50. A XL and XXL (for really cold weather, more room to layer up). Not a high end jacket, but it kept me warm and was comfortable, easy to access pockets and removeable liner.

After years of searching around for a good day pack that is orange, I finally found one, Yukon Gear again I think. It has a curved metal frame and mesh system that helps keep the pack pushed away from your back and allows airflow between, nice padded straps, good padded waist belt system, enough pockets to carry stuff for a day trip and a bladder of water. As with the jacket, this is not a high end pack, but it is very comfortable and easy to wear once you have it on and adjusted. I have a bad back and have a hard time wearing most smaller packs with weight in them, even 20 lbs can get difficult to carry for 30 minutes or more with most packs for me, but this one I can wear all day and be comfortable. I will probably pick up a couple more of them so I have some when they are no longer available.

Mossy Oak boots. A medium insulated waterproof boot good for spring and fall when the temperature is not much below freezing, good tread for climbimg hills.

The only new gun for this year is a Mossberg 500. Nice and light for carrying through the bush even with the 28" field barrel, nice easy to see beads.
 
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the baron's post made me remember something.

Kent fastlead 7 1/2 worked awesome in my 1100. I was having trouble getting anything to cycle it as its a 3" gun but these performed very well out of it. Not one hiccup in about 4 boxes.
 
I tried my Bog-Pod for the first time this year. Rock solid rest. Can't wait to try it for some long range shooting. Very versatile can be set up on any uneven ground. This was the tri-pod.
 
Sitka Gear, head to toe. Been wearing it year round for 2 years, can't beat it.

Sitka Ascent 14 backpack- OK, not an awesome fit for myself, but I think I just need to keep tweaking its adjustments.

Interbonds- Failed to penetrate shoulder bone of moose, YMMV, back to TTSX for me.

Interlocks- Worked fine on a runt black bear. But a runt is a runt, and isnt hard to poke holes in.

Sako 85- not new, but did the killing

Kimber 8400 Montana- Awesome balancing, carrying, shooting, and operating gun, probably gonna sell my Sako and buy another Kimber.
 
Had the chance to test out a Cabelas Outfitter Bighorn tent with all the bells and whistles- woodstove and interlocking foam panel floor. It rained every day of our moose hunt this year. Two thumbs up for this product.
Light, waterproof, roomy, comfy, and it packs up into 1 duffel bag.

Wish list for 2012 - a Lewis winch to take some of the work out of moose extraction.
 
Custom 700 Remington in 308 Norma Mag. [Thanks, Bill Leeper]
VX-III 3.5-10 x 40 B&C.
180 grain TTSX, 74 grains of IMR 7828
Bull Moose at 80 yards...1 shot, DRT

Custom Lightweight rifle, 600 Remington action, 6mm BR
90 grain Scirroco II, 31 grains of Varget, Muley at 340 yards...1 shot, DRT.
Doesn't get much better!
Eagleye.
 
Limbsaver Gun sling, best I've used

Spypoint game Cams , Best cam I've used

Helly Hanson - Base layer , better then UA Cold gear

Helly Hanson - Rain Gear, never had the chance to use it proper.

remington Acu Tip 20 gauge slugs -Awesome
 
I used a Winchester M70 Extreme Weather in .30-06 this year. It digested a handful of handloads nicely. The bullet I ended up using was a cheapo 180 gr. Winchester Power Point on top of a dose of H4350. High shoulder shot on a mature whitetail buck at 125 yards put him down...then another through the skull/spine juncture from closer range to stop the wiggling.

Predator Camo fleece pants with windproof lining. I have been looking for a good pair of warm fleece hunting pants for awhile and these are it. I highly recommend them.

Cabelas Wooltimate pull-over sweater with Windshear lining. I like this alot as well.
 
I put a pair of Irish Setter Elk Tracker Boots through their paces. Really nice boots, well worth the money. 200G Thinsulate insulation wasn't as cold as I thought it would be. I wore a pair of merino wool ice socks over regular socks. Sat for hours in 0* weather just fine.
 
Managed to Kill a pair of Columbia Upland Pants this year, bought them at the same time as my Irish Setter Boots. The Setters are great boots, mine have 200 Gram thinsulate linings and are waterproof so far.

A couple of buddies bought three dozen Final Approach Canada goose shells, they are crap steer clear of them. The head attachment is the stupidest design I have ever seen and the poor quality moulding means that the head to body linkage breaks very easily.
 
Rocky rubber boots. Bought new last year. Hunted for 10 days with them and 2 weeks this year. Started leaking along one of the seams. Very disappointed as I spent a lot on them.
 
Ameristep Tom Taker: Camo faded and ripped easily, not the most durable blind I've used

FA goose shells: I'm one of the guys turkeyslayer is referring to. SAIL took them back no questions. Some were fine (though not a very robust design) others broke the first time out. Took them back and bought GHG FFD shells and full bodies, yet to use them.

Spypoint IR-6: Grainy pictures, annoying having to adjust sensitivity, otherwise OK

Moultrie M-100: Lots of motion blur when using the IR flash, otherwise quite good.

Plano soft case: Saved my beretta from an incident with a Jimmy, but the cap came off the end and the strap broke.
 
savagelh said:
As this years seasons come to a close, I thought I should start a thread about the new gear that everyone tried out for the first time this year and what your initial impressions were. Lets give honest opinions about the good and the bad.

Stuff I used this year:

-Sierra pro-hunter 150 gr .308 bullets. I've used these year after year and deer after deer. They're accurate, they hit hard and they don't cost $1 a piece.

-Spyderco Paramilitary 2. So far this is my favorite hunting knife. No more need for a gut hook. This blade opens them up like a zipper. Field dressed and skinned a buck and doe and will still shave arm hair.

- Leatherman wave. I've used one for many seasons and I won't go afield without it. This and a sturdy folder are all anyone really needs for game dressing requirements. The saw is great for splitting ribe cages and the scissors are awesome for notching tags. They also offer some piece of mind as a survival knife.

- Bowtech Assassin. Awesome bow. Didn't kill anything with it but it is fast and compact. Glad I bought this one.

- Nockturnal lighted nocks. They work everytime but they raise my poi over 8 inches so I opted not to use them.

- North Face Hedgehog hiking boots. I was very impressed with these. I put on a lot of foot miles this year and never had to worry about sore feet. Only thing I didn't like is they do fill up with leaves and such.

So what is everyone elses favorite or not so favorite pieces of equipment this year?
Click to expand...

Thought I would reply to this thread in hopes that it would be resurrected.
I decided to save my back and I did pick up a Lewis Winch. For those of us who do not own a quad, this is a piece of gear worth considering IMO. Powered by a chainsaw and will pull up to 8000 pounds. A friend and I winched a nice bull over 400 yards through heavy timber and brush a few years back. Right onto a road and then into our truck.

So I fill my wish list in early September and pick up a shiny new Lewis winch. And wouldn't you know it, this year's moose was the first moose we ever got that I could back my pickup right up to it. No cross country moose extraction needed. We used the winch to pull the critter into the truck in 1 large furry piece. Very slick.

Any body else get some great gear this year???
 
Sitka Ascent Pants: Really warm for their thickness and they helped stay dry moving in wet bush....cant say enough good things about them...Ill work on a matching jacket next year....Pricey but worth it.
 
knives of alaska bone saw and elk hunter knife. 5x4 bull moose from start to finish. had these last year but used another fellows knife as mine were in the truck.

also irish setter boots. cant rember the exact model but i tromped in a moose swamp day in and day out with my foot going under water many times. still bone dry and warm.
 
Summit viper climbing tree stand
Absolutely love it, shot my deer from it this year. Most comfortable stand ever.

Kershaw Alaskan blade trader
Good knife, blades stay sharp, saw works great.

Rack stacker Fixation
The deer just did not like it. They preferred corn.
 
coyote1664 said:
Summit viper climbing tree stand
Absolutely love it, shot my deer from it this year. Most comfortable stand ever.

Kershaw Alaskan blade trader
Good knife, blades stay sharp, saw works great.

Rack stacker Fixation
The deer just did not like it. They preferred corn.
Click to expand...

I tried the rackstacker, Absolute sh!t. the stuff stayed out for six weeks and the piles didn't get any smaller, the birds wouldn't even eat it. I emailed them asking if I was using it wrong, Got no reply what ever.
 
I did buy an ameristep "covert" 16' ladder stand. I am happy with it. Depending on finances I would buy another. You need two people two put it up but thats no big deal.
 
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