Hunting on a budget

This will be my second year deer season.
One thing that i found is good and not expensive is insulated coveralls. $80, comfortable, warm, and well made!

Waterfowl and turkey thats what gets expensive!
decoys, blinds, camo etc etc etc
 
apu said:
I was looking for some nice cutlery this season and friend suggested he just uses a box knife and just throws out the blade after skinning a deer. I like to think of myself of being cheap but was a little skeptical until I tried it. I was pleasantly surprised to note these worked really well for the task. Blades cost 10-30 cents and are always super sharp.

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Sounds like a smart idea to me! lol
 
The only top quality hunting gear I have ever bought is my Silva Ranger compass.
Its not as fancy as todays GPS units, but the batteries are never dead and I always know exactly where I am. (with the help of a topo. map of the hunting area of course!)
Eric
 
Great article. I am in the same boat, all the guys I hunt with polish up their Sakos' and tell me continually about how warn their Underarmor jackets and layers are but in the end my old .308 kills those deer just as dead their rifles. I agree, the key is staying warm and layering and my old jacket does that just fine. Just like the old farm truck can haul the deer out just as good as an 09' F-350. You work with what you got.
 
I have lots of good outdoor gear because I work outside all year, but I'm still wearing the orange/red plaid coat that my grandfather had for years and gave to me about 15 years ago, I use an old Midland 30/06 that was my uncle's and a good Grohman skinner that was a gift. I'm lucky enough that most of my hunting area is a 5 minute walk from my front door, so no gas money out. My licenses and my ammo is about the only thing that costs any amount of money.
 
Great post oops! I guess quality is in the eye of the beholder. I wear blue jeans and a fleece jacket, sometimes an old beat up and torn cheap vest over it. It keeps me comfortable and I still get close enough to critters. I never saw the need for camo head to toe except for ducks and geese. Your also right about it being overwhelming for new folks to the sport, scratch that, to the lifestyle. Open a magazine and get bombarded with ad's saying you need this or that. Go into a hunting store and look at isles and isles of stuff. How do you know how to start? And again your right about the basics. You need a good rifle, a good shotgun and a good .22. You need a good knife and good boots. A warm coat and hat and your ready to go. The only thing I might ad to your list of absolute must haves, (other then puddlepointers point of binoculars) is a how to book. I hear of more and more new people who have nobody to show them what to do. I was in that situation myself, and wanted to learn with nobody to show me so I started to read everything I could find. I''m still learning, but that's the fun part. :)
 
Blue jeans are great, until you get wet. Then you freeze...Some stuff is just frills, but I won't hunt without a waterproof suit (you can get these for under $100 if you look around) and warm, dry boots.

I have gathered my gear over the last 25 years, but most of the quality stuff in the last 5-6.

I always buy the best stuff I can afford, and tell others the same. If you have $100 for boots, then spend the whole $100 on boots. You won't regret it. If you have $200 for boots, then spend the $200. And so on...

On the same note, if you have $100 budgeted for boots, don't buy a $200 pair...stick to what you can afford and add gear as the years go buy. If you have $200 extra to spend each year, you can have some great kit in 5 years...

It doesn't take much to add to a hunting-gear budget. If you start putting $5/week away in a jar, you'll have $250 by next season. Most people can afford $5 a week...
 
pharaoh2 said:
The only thing I might ad to your list of absolute must haves, (other then puddlepointers point of binoculars) is a how to book.
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I am going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you have fat fingers or something. ;)

Binoculars are a "must have" item for any big game hunter, and very handy for everyone else.

A couple of people have mentioned hunting in jeans, and while I agree that out in our area I often do, or more often heavy Carharts, because it is so dry. But in many areas of the country, including the wet west coast where I grew up and hunted most of my life, wet cotton can cost you your life. When I hunt the foothills early I wear fleece pants no matter how hot it is cause you never know when the weather will change. Later in the season I wear heavy wool cause they are always warm, wet or dry.

I have had ice form on the outside of my wool pants, but was still warm inside them. BTW, both pairs of heavy wool pants I have found at second hand stores or value village. I think the gray ones were $5 and the dark pair of 'Pioneer' brand, which I just got last summer, were $2.
 
chuck nelson said:
Is it just me or does it always seem to be the guys with the thousand dollar truck payments telling everyone how they hunt on the cheap.
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??? :confused:

I have noticed it is often the guys with the thousand dollar truck payments and two $12,000 quads in the back that ##### about the cost of ammo and do not see the need to spend more then $100 on a pair of binoculars.
 
I guess I'm in the minority. I do have a wack of dedicated hunting gear. I'll admit that I don't need most of it but I typically get out 12-20 days a year, walk as many as 15 km a day in the hills and mtns. There is a point where quality gear extends your hunt. As Blargon pointed out, you need to buy the best you can afford.

But you have to start somewhere and for me it was crappy boots, jeans and a loner 308. Getting my own rifle was less important than getting a good pair of boots after that trip.
 
One of my coworkers was attempting to make fun of me for owning $2000 rifles,$1000 scopes and $2500 binoculars.He thought that it was totally unnecessary and wasteful.My reply was to ask him how much he spent smoking,and drinking and playing vlts at the bar.It turns out that he spends enough at those vices in a single year to pay for two of my scoped rifles,and my binoculars.Of course to him,his spending made more sense than my high quality hunting equipment.:D
 
chuck nelson said:
Is it just me or does it always seem to be the guys with the thousand dollar truck payments telling everyone how they hunt on the cheap.
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The purpose of my post was not mean't to tell folks how to hunt on the cheap, but to show that our lifestyle can be accessable to most folks no matter the budget. Just because today you can afford all the gear and the thousand dollar truck payments doesn't mean that you started out that way, experience is a matter of time and because you've past a certain point in life doesn't mean that you can't pass that experience on to others.

BTW my truck is a 91 Dakota. No payments, and it does the job for me.
 
i own a few buck ,puma,kersha and few other that i forget about,as my favorite game knife is one i picked up at crappy tire years ago..
think i payed 5 bucks for it..


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I don't see anything wrong with someone buying nice kit if they can afford it. If it's your money, you should enjoy it. But there is something wrong if you are telling novices, intentionally or accidentally, that the kit they can't afford is necessary. Discouraging new hunters is, in the long term, shooting yourself in the foot.
 
The funny thing is that once you factor in the cost of the firearms course, hunter safety course, exams, first PAL application, outdoors card with small game, maybe deer and waterfowl licenses, and you're probably forking out over $300. I bet that's more than what most people spent on a single shot shotgun, .22 rifle and accessories at the local Canadian Tire not that many years ago, which at least gave them an opportunity to see if they wanted to get more into the sport.

But to keep things on a positive note, I've come across functionable pump shotguns, numerous .22s and even milsurp rifles (both original and sporterized) for around $100. I sometimes pick us such items when I see them for friends who are entering the hobby, or as loaners and spares. Focusing on the basics, one can still have lots of good hunting on a budget, and I think it's best to buy things incrementally as one learns what's best for their situation.

Membership in a gun club is great to have for those who have access to one, but with a bit of homework, most people should at least be able to find a place where they can regularly shoot a .22 safely and legally without bothering anyone. If they then just fire their centrefire enough to ensure that it's sighted in, and maybe a few shots in offhand hunting positions just to confirm their practical accuracy in the field, that should suffice for most of the hunting one can expect in Ontario. And for shotguns, firing anywhere from four to eight boxes of target shells at hand thrown clays once or twice before the season will at least get the shooter used to hitting running/flying game.

Cheers,

Frank
 
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