Speaker 1: As a guide and hunter, I've spent thousands of days
Speaker 1: in the field. This show is about translating my hard
Speaker 1: won experiences into tips and tactics they'll get you closer
Speaker 1: to your ultimate goal success in the field. I'm Remy Warren.
Speaker 1: This is cutting the distance. It's pretty hard as a
Speaker 1: hunter to have a conversation about hunting and not talk
Speaker 1: about gear. It's because gear is such an integral part
Speaker 1: of what we do and can really make or break
Speaker 1: a trip. Having the right gear might mean the difference
Speaker 1: between being successful consistently or just looking into something. There's
Speaker 1: so much new and awesome gear out there, but there's
Speaker 1: also some really great, tried and true pieces. The trouble
Speaker 1: is what do you take? What don't you take? You're
Speaker 1: always balanced seeing this carrying the weight of something or
Speaker 1: lightning your load a little bit. So this week on
Speaker 1: the podcast, what I want to do is a pack dump.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about my kit and what I
Speaker 1: carry for both a day hunt and a backcountry trip.
Speaker 1: Then I also want to give you some tips on
Speaker 1: refining a kit for yourself. But before we go into that,
Speaker 1: I want to share a story of a hunt I
Speaker 1: took with my dad in Montana, and let's just say
Speaker 1: one of us had way too much stuff. This story
Speaker 1: takes place during the general rifle season in Montana. Now
Speaker 1: I just got done guiding some hunters for the week,
Speaker 1: and of course it's the weekend. So what do I do?
Speaker 1: I go hunting. I like to get out and stay out. Now,
Speaker 1: maybe most people would reset and recuperate for the next
Speaker 1: group of guys coming in, but me, it's like, all right,
Speaker 1: I've got a few days off, just like anybody else
Speaker 1: that works Monday through Friday. It's the weekend. Now I
Speaker 1: can get out and do some hunting myself. My dad
Speaker 1: happened to be up for that time, and so I figured, Hey,
Speaker 1: I'll just ask Dad, you want to go elk hunting
Speaker 1: with me today. He's like, yeah, that sounds great. So
Speaker 1: the next morning, we load up the truck and just
Speaker 1: head out way before daylight, get to a spot and
Speaker 1: start hiking in. You know, sun starts coming up and
Speaker 1: we're looking and we spot some milk up higher on
Speaker 1: the mountain and decide, all right, let's go make a move.
Speaker 1: It's just some cows and spikes, but we could tell
Speaker 1: there's a lot of ilk, and we weren't really sure
Speaker 1: if there was any bulls in there, So if let's
Speaker 1: go get in there close and see if we can't
Speaker 1: pick out a bowl. So we started walking up the
Speaker 1: mountain and it's a ways away. We get in there,
Speaker 1: and by this point it was one of those deals
Speaker 1: where they're kind of in the open, but if you're
Speaker 1: there right then you could probably see into that timber.
Speaker 1: But who knows where they disperse you once they get
Speaker 1: into that timber. Most of the time they go a
Speaker 1: couple of canyons back and bed in some thick timber.
Speaker 1: So we get up there, but by the time we
Speaker 1: get there, the elk had really disappeared. We spotted a
Speaker 1: few cows, and now we just kind of gotta keep
Speaker 1: hunting around the rest of the day. So we keep
Speaker 1: working our way up the mountain and not really seeing much,
Speaker 1: and my dad's doing pretty good. But I noticed we
Speaker 1: kind of stopped it about that time in the morning,
Speaker 1: about ten thirty eleven or so. It's not quite lunchtime,
Speaker 1: but we're sitting down having a snack, drink some water, talking,
Speaker 1: just having a good time, really enjoying the day. And
Speaker 1: I kind of noticed that my dad seemed like he
Speaker 1: was a little more tired than normal, but also he
Speaker 1: hadn't been out a lot, because it's kind of the
Speaker 1: first couple of times he'd been out for a few weeks.
Speaker 1: So now that yeah, you know, sometimes just he's a
Speaker 1: little bit slower some days. So he's sitting down, He's like, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I was just kind of tired today. It just seems
Speaker 1: like I'm dragging a little bit. I was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know, that just happens. And we decided to
Speaker 1: get up and maybe go check over the next ridge,
Speaker 1: keep going, and I pick up his pack to hand
Speaker 1: to him, and I'm like, this thing is just way
Speaker 1: too heavy, and we just kind of have this kind
Speaker 1: of between us back and forth where I'm always trying
Speaker 1: to get him to light in his pack. But he's
Speaker 1: the type of guy. There's there's two types of guys.
Speaker 1: There's always the guy that takes way too much stuff,
Speaker 1: and then there's the guy that doesn't take enough stuff,
Speaker 1: and then you try to find that happy middle. So
Speaker 1: my dad always takes too much stuff, and I always
Speaker 1: try to lighten his load, but inevitably when I do,
Speaker 1: a scenario will happen. It just happens every time, a
Speaker 1: scenario will happen where there was something that I happened
Speaker 1: to take out that now he needs. Maybe he didn't
Speaker 1: use it for years, but as soon as I take
Speaker 1: it out, then he needs it. I can remember a
Speaker 1: few years before this particular instance, we were hunting sheep
Speaker 1: and you know, he had all this water, just tons
Speaker 1: of water bottles, and I was like, you don't need
Speaker 1: this much water, dad, So he took some of the
Speaker 1: waters out of his pack, and sure enough, we ended
Speaker 1: up way further than we thought. The water source that
Speaker 1: I thought was gonna be there was dry, and we
Speaker 1: were severely dehydrated, hiking all the way through the night
Speaker 1: back and it's just one of those that you know,
Speaker 1: he keeps bringing it up, like, yeah, I remember when
Speaker 1: you took all my water. So I'm giving him a
Speaker 1: hard time saying like, what do you have in this pack? Is?
Speaker 1: I was like, I guarantee I can go through this
Speaker 1: pack and light in your load. There's just things you
Speaker 1: don't need, and he's like, no, it's just all all
Speaker 1: stuff I need. I'm like, okay, well let me look. No,
Speaker 1: no, no no, And I'm like what this is? So I'm like,
Speaker 1: come on, let me look, what's I guarantee you've got
Speaker 1: stuff in here that you don't need. And he looks
Speaker 1: at me. He's like no, He's like, everything in there
Speaker 1: I need, don't mess with my pack. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: So before I give him his pack, I just have
Speaker 1: to say, I mean this thing, I'm picked it up
Speaker 1: and we're day hunting, and it feels like he's got
Speaker 1: stuff for ten days worth of hunting in here. And
Speaker 1: I opened up the pack and I just have to
Speaker 1: laugh because in the pack is a bunch of just
Speaker 1: random stuff. I'm not talking hunting stuff, I'm talking random stuff.
Speaker 1: There is a full ratchet set with all the bits.
Speaker 1: There is a dualt saws all, and there is five
Speaker 1: Mokita batteries, none which go to the saws. All the
Speaker 1: it's in there. There is a cordless drill, a packet
Speaker 1: of ratchet straps, and there are five to six full
Speaker 1: like hardcover books. And I'm like laughing, Okay, do you
Speaker 1: really need this ratchet set you And obviously these are
Speaker 1: not hunting items. I couldn't figure it out, and we
Speaker 1: just started laughing because what had happened. My dad a
Speaker 1: week earlier was flying to the airport and he had
Speaker 1: his hunting pack in the back of a truck, but
Speaker 1: he also had some tools and stuff sitting in there.
Speaker 1: So he threw all the stuff from inside of his
Speaker 1: truck and the tools into the backpack, thinking he was
Speaker 1: gonna clean it out, and then completely forgot that he
Speaker 1: put it in there before he left. Then in the morning,
Speaker 1: he just grabbed his pack and he realized he hadn't
Speaker 1: even looked in the main compartment until I opened it
Speaker 1: up and we got on the top of the mountain.
Speaker 1: So he had all this construction stuff, like work stuff,
Speaker 1: some just random stuff that was sitting in his truck
Speaker 1: because he was playing on putting it in his backpack
Speaker 1: and then moving vehicles and cleaning it all up. Yet
Speaker 1: we're here at the top of an elk com out
Speaker 1: in the middle of the day, and he's got not
Speaker 1: only a saws all, but no battery for it. But
Speaker 1: he has a pile of other batteries for different drills
Speaker 1: and different things. So he's got this big pack full
Speaker 1: of non essential stuff huffing up the mountain chasing after elk.
Speaker 1: While the story of my dad having way too much
Speaker 1: stuff is just on the extreme side, I think we're
Speaker 1: all guilty of it. In some ways where we've got
Speaker 1: a lot of things in our pack that we haven't
Speaker 1: really scrutinized, and we're carrying a lot of extra weight
Speaker 1: or extra things that we probably don't use, probably won't use,
Speaker 1: or have completely forgotten that we've got in there. So
Speaker 1: I want to just talk about some of the g
Speaker 1: that I take and kind of my basic kit and
Speaker 1: what my KID is. I refer to my kit as
Speaker 1: just the basic things that I take pretty much on
Speaker 1: every hunt, and then I kind of adjust from there
Speaker 1: depending on the hunt. So if I'm hunting elk, it
Speaker 1: my kit will just slightly adjust for elk, or if
Speaker 1: I'm hunting meal deer, antelope, it kind of adjusts from there.
Speaker 1: Whether I'm doing a day hunt or a backcountry hunt,
Speaker 1: a few things will change. But overall, I figured out
Speaker 1: a system to help refine my kit to make sure
Speaker 1: that the things I have are very useful. I know
Speaker 1: what's in there, so I I use what I have,
Speaker 1: and it kind of cuts the weight of just some
Speaker 1: of the extra stuff that you can accumulate. There's so
Speaker 1: many times where you'll be on a day hunt or
Speaker 1: whatever and you just kind of you're lugging up the
Speaker 1: mount and chasing after something like why is my pack
Speaker 1: so heavy? I haven't even started the pack out yet,
Speaker 1: and I've got way too much stuff. So just refining
Speaker 1: your kit really helps you streamlined the process and use
Speaker 1: what you have. So let's start out with a day hunt.
Speaker 1: What I want to do is I want to kind
Speaker 1: of do what I would call it pack them. So
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna essentially grab my pack, dump it out,
Speaker 1: and let you know what's in it, and then how
Speaker 1: I modify it from there. It's taken me years to
Speaker 1: decide what I need to carry in what I don't
Speaker 1: need to carry, And how I've done that is I'll
Speaker 1: go out on a hunt and there will be things
Speaker 1: in my backpack that I've kind of always taken, and
Speaker 1: I'll take it on a trip. And after a couple
Speaker 1: of times, I realized, Man, this thing that's sitting in here,
Speaker 1: whatever it is, this extra water bottle, I've never really
Speaker 1: used it, Or this, you know, this survival type kit
Speaker 1: with a bunch of extra heavy, redundant things that I
Speaker 1: already have two of, Or this old flashlight where I've
Speaker 1: got my two good flashlights, but I've got this other
Speaker 1: one that I just never use and somehow it sat
Speaker 1: in the bottom of my pack for years. So what
Speaker 1: I do as I go on trips and I really
Speaker 1: scrutinize the things that I use a lot and prioritize
Speaker 1: those and the things that maybe have multiple uses for
Speaker 1: other things, and just kind of refine it that way.
Speaker 1: So let's get into the pack dump and this is
Speaker 1: gonna be for a day hunt. So what a day
Speaker 1: hunt is, I'm just gonna just so everybody's on the
Speaker 1: same page, same terms. A day hunt essentially where you're
Speaker 1: going out from a base camp. Could be vehicle based,
Speaker 1: could be it could even be from the back country
Speaker 1: or whatever. But you're just you're going back to some
Speaker 1: form of camp at night and you're hiking out from
Speaker 1: the day from there. So it's normally you're maybe you've
Speaker 1: parked your vehicles and you're camping, or maybe you're hunting
Speaker 1: from your house or a cabin somewhere, and then you
Speaker 1: go out and come back to that spot and you're
Speaker 1: hunting for the day. Actually, I would say on day hunts,
Speaker 1: you're probably covering a lot more ground than many back
Speaker 1: country hunts. So they can be physical, they can be hard,
Speaker 1: you can get a long ways away from roads in
Speaker 1: a day, and honestly, day hunting is probably the way
Speaker 1: that the majority of Western hunts go. There are the
Speaker 1: back country, you know, week long type trips into one area,
Speaker 1: but if there's nothing in that area, day hunting is
Speaker 1: a great way to be flexible, to move around and
Speaker 1: then kind of centralize in one spot and go out
Speaker 1: different places each day, hiking into new areas or checking
Speaker 1: different spots. So it's highly mobile. You're moving a lot um.
Speaker 1: Your pack is going to be lighter because you don't
Speaker 1: have certain items that you need to carry for overnight
Speaker 1: type trips, but you also want to be ready to
Speaker 1: pack something out in the case that you get something
Speaker 1: while you're out there, because you're probably gonna be a
Speaker 1: long ways away from a road. You can travel a
Speaker 1: lot of distance even before the sun comes up. You
Speaker 1: want to have everything you need for the day, maybe
Speaker 1: some ability to carry out some meat if you are successful,
Speaker 1: and not have too much weight that slows you down,
Speaker 1: so you can cover the most amount of ground the
Speaker 1: most efficiently. Now, if I'm going to talk about gear,
Speaker 1: I first just want to you know, obviously mentioned that
Speaker 1: I am sponsored by a lot of companies and so
Speaker 1: most of the gear is companies that I am sponsored with,
Speaker 1: not all of it. However, the companies that I do
Speaker 1: work with, I only work with companies that I really
Speaker 1: like their gears. So for me, I'm always just want
Speaker 1: to clarify that that there are some companies that I
Speaker 1: work with very closely, but it's mostly because it's gear
Speaker 1: that I really like. So I just think that that's
Speaker 1: a caveat to talking about any kind of gear knowing
Speaker 1: where I'm coming from, and it is good because I've
Speaker 1: I've got to sample of a lot of gear within
Speaker 1: certain companies product lines, so I've had experience with from
Speaker 1: top their top end stuff to a little bit of everything.
Speaker 1: It would be hard pressed to find too many individuals
Speaker 1: that have tried as much of different stuff from different
Speaker 1: companies in different places and than I have. So I
Speaker 1: I really have a lot of opinions on gear, but
Speaker 1: for the most part, I just like to tell you
Speaker 1: about the type of things that you need, and then
Speaker 1: I can even suggest some of my favorites as well.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of different things that work, but I
Speaker 1: just figure I throw that out there before we get
Speaker 1: too deep into this when I'm talking about gear, when
Speaker 1: I think about what gear I like. You know, there's
Speaker 1: certain gear that specialized for a task at hand, but
Speaker 1: I like to balance lightweight, durable, and practical. So if
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about what's in my pack, what am I taking,
Speaker 1: it generally checks one of those boxes or all three.
Speaker 1: You know, if if it's debating between certain things, it's
Speaker 1: going to try to check all three boxes for me.
Speaker 1: So here's a rundown of a typical day hunt pack.
Speaker 1: We're gonna just pick a hunt and then we'll talk
Speaker 1: about this the gear that I would take for that hunt,
Speaker 1: and then kind of how to tweak it and how
Speaker 1: you can adjust the kit for the things that you
Speaker 1: think you might need. So my typical day hunt, I'm
Speaker 1: grabbing my my pack, and I tend to like a
Speaker 1: little bit larger cubic inch pack. I have a stone glacier.
Speaker 1: Either use the solo or the Sky. So we'll just
Speaker 1: use the Sky for this because it does work really
Speaker 1: good for backcountry and more day hunt. Use a little
Speaker 1: bit of everything, a little bit bigger bag. So that's
Speaker 1: the pack that I'm choosing. When it comes to packs,
Speaker 1: whatever pack it is, here's the three things that you
Speaker 1: must have. You you need A belt, you need the
Speaker 1: pack to be adjustable to your torso and you need
Speaker 1: a sturdy frame. It could be an external frame, which
Speaker 1: would be like an old school backpacking pack. Some really
Speaker 1: good ones for external frames, or like Barney's pack of
Speaker 1: Alaska Keelty Freighter Pack Outdoorsman Pack those are all external frames,
Speaker 1: and then internal frame pack would be like Stone Glacier.
Speaker 1: Um there's a lot of other ones kafar Rou. I
Speaker 1: mean there's some even that I've used that maybe necessarily
Speaker 1: don't like, but I see a lot of other guys used.
Speaker 1: I don't have to mention them, but like, just the
Speaker 1: frame is inside the bag, and so there's pros and
Speaker 1: cons to both types of packs. But you have to
Speaker 1: have that frame, you need that adjustable belt, and you're
Speaker 1: gonna want some adjustability in sizing the pack. Not everybody's
Speaker 1: the same, so pack fit and being comfortable is key.
Speaker 1: I really like the Stone Glacier because it's super durable,
Speaker 1: but it's also really light and I can carry a
Speaker 1: lot of weight out in it and that's key to me.
Speaker 1: And it's also very customizable to my size and torso
Speaker 1: and body, so it fits good, especially when I loaded
Speaker 1: down with lot of weight. You know, I think that
Speaker 1: some of the gear items that most people struggle with
Speaker 1: are gonna be packs and boots, and the reason is
Speaker 1: because those are the things that are the most like
Speaker 1: put the most uncomfort on someone because you're walking a lot,
Speaker 1: so that goes into boots and then packs. You're carrying
Speaker 1: a lot of weight. It's already an uncomfortable task, so
Speaker 1: you need to recognize that it's something that's uncomfortable and
Speaker 1: you want a piece of gear that makes it more comfortable.
Speaker 1: I've really landed with the Stone Glacier packs. I really
Speaker 1: really enjoy it. So that's the pack that I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna be talking about. So now inside that pack, you know,
Speaker 1: really I'm pretty bare bones when it comes to what
Speaker 1: I consider my essentials. It's gonna be a water bottle.
Speaker 1: Some guys use bladders. You know. There's so much of
Speaker 1: this gear stuff that's always say you could take two
Speaker 1: hunters that do this a lot. There's gonna be some
Speaker 1: things that line up. Me and my guide friends or
Speaker 1: other outfitters that I know, when we get together and talk,
Speaker 1: we pretty much just talk about gear and the things
Speaker 1: we love and the things we hate, and we can
Speaker 1: do that for hours. Because we've spent so much time
Speaker 1: with gear and everybody's got their own little nuances of
Speaker 1: the things they like and or bad experience with something,
Speaker 1: and and you just kind of learn and and see
Speaker 1: everybody's things that they like. So for me, I'm a
Speaker 1: water bottle guy. There's guys that are bladder use the
Speaker 1: bladder tubes and hoses. I don't like those because I've
Speaker 1: had trouble with them in the past. When it's cold,
Speaker 1: they freeze. I've seen him pop, or you sit on
Speaker 1: the hose and it starts to leak, or if you're
Speaker 1: out for a long time, the hose gets dirty and
Speaker 1: then you get bacteria and I feel like they're in
Speaker 1: his clean so I don't really like it. It's not
Speaker 1: as easy to fill up in water sources. My dad,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, he's the kind of guy that
Speaker 1: wants water easily accessible, so he uses the bladder, and
Speaker 1: no matter how many times I try to convince him,
Speaker 1: he tries to convince me the other way. So that's
Speaker 1: just one of those things. But I'm I'm a bottle guy. Now.
Speaker 1: After that, we've got our knife, and then I always
Speaker 1: have a knife sharpener. I just used one of those
Speaker 1: I think they're called Smith's knife sharpeners. It's these yellow ones.
Speaker 1: You can buy it pretty much every gas station or
Speaker 1: grocery store in America. It's a pull through kind. It's
Speaker 1: got a ceramic on one side and a steel on
Speaker 1: the other. There's plenty of great knife sharpeners out there.
Speaker 1: This just happens to be one that I think is simple,
Speaker 1: easy to use, fairly light fast, does what it needs
Speaker 1: to do, and you can get on working or cutting
Speaker 1: or whatever. For knife, you know, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: options out there. You can do the replaceable blade I got,
Speaker 1: like the replaceable blade gerber Um Vital series. I don't
Speaker 1: really I wouldn't really use bring the knife sharpener. If
Speaker 1: I choose that knife for a hunt or just like
Speaker 1: a stout, you know, standard pocket folding blade, pocket knife,
Speaker 1: fixed blade or whatever. Then in your daypack you're gonna
Speaker 1: have your lunch. You know, this will consist of pretty
Speaker 1: much snacks throughout the day, breakfasts, even something for if
Speaker 1: you get in late. I throw in a lot of
Speaker 1: extra food on my day hunts and eat as much
Speaker 1: as I can, because when you're day hunting, you're burning
Speaker 1: probably as many if not more calories than you might
Speaker 1: in the backcountry, you're covering a lot more ground. You're
Speaker 1: you've got a lighter load, so you can move a
Speaker 1: little bit more agile and cover a lot you can
Speaker 1: get into some places that's a little bit harder with
Speaker 1: a heavy pack. So having just that high energy level,
Speaker 1: bringing extra food because you know that at night you're
Speaker 1: going back to your base camp, you can resupply and
Speaker 1: keep going the next day. Then I've got in here.
Speaker 1: I've got some firestarter. There's so many different kinds out there,
Speaker 1: you know. I use like these different cubes or it's
Speaker 1: kind of like this cotton wax, cotton stuff just depends.
Speaker 1: I've got different kinds, but I put the fire starter.
Speaker 1: I've always got it in my backpack, something that always
Speaker 1: stays in there. And then game bags I generally carry
Speaker 1: about four. It adds a little bit of weight. I
Speaker 1: like the reusable kind. I use the Caribou gear ones.
Speaker 1: Alan also makes some very similar I just like something
Speaker 1: that's durable. They're more like a pillow, like a calm
Speaker 1: pillow case style with the draw cord, and I'll use
Speaker 1: those for not only game bags, but also just other
Speaker 1: things as well, Like kind of you can separate out
Speaker 1: your gear are in these bags. You can do whatever
Speaker 1: you want, you know in the back country, which we'll
Speaker 1: talk about later. You can use them for a bunch
Speaker 1: of different purposes. Game bags. I always have some cordage,
Speaker 1: whether it's like pcord something that I've used a lot,
Speaker 1: as mule tape. It's like a little bit more tensile strength,
Speaker 1: not round, a little bit more grip, the not slip
Speaker 1: a little bit easier in it. That's really good stuff. Actually,
Speaker 1: on a Christmas special talked about some of that. I
Speaker 1: wasn't sure if it was around anymore, and it actually is.
Speaker 1: I saw it on a shark tank. Is the rapid rope.
Speaker 1: It's like rope that comes out of a can. So
Speaker 1: that stuff works pretty good. Just pull out some good
Speaker 1: length of that because I'll use that cordage for so
Speaker 1: many different things, but especially on a day hunt. You're
Speaker 1: going out, You're gonna pack some of the back of
Speaker 1: your elk hunting or whatever, but you might need to
Speaker 1: hang quarters and stuff in a tree, so it works
Speaker 1: great for that as well. Then I've got what I
Speaker 1: think the most underrated piece of year in my kit.
Speaker 1: Have talked about it all my social media a lot
Speaker 1: and written many articles upon this topic. But the black
Speaker 1: contractor garbage bag, if it's not in your pack, it
Speaker 1: needs to be. It works great as a pack liner,
Speaker 1: especially when you're packing stuff out. Keeps the blood and
Speaker 1: everything out of your pack, but also has so many
Speaker 1: other uses. I generally keep two of them in my
Speaker 1: bag because I've used them as makeshift waiters to cross
Speaker 1: a river, you know, use them as emergency shelters, or
Speaker 1: making sleeping pads, and all all different kinds of things.
Speaker 1: Gathering water if there's no water where you go and
Speaker 1: you can put some snow on it, melt some snow
Speaker 1: into water. Outside of that, a couple of the other
Speaker 1: what I would consider small items or just stuff that's
Speaker 1: always in my bag, would be a small first aid kit.
Speaker 1: I kind of specialize it. There's, um, you know, one
Speaker 1: of those small made for backpacking type first aid kits,
Speaker 1: and I put some extra ad vill or things that
Speaker 1: I might need in it. And then I always have
Speaker 1: some duct tape, and I generally wrapped that duct tape
Speaker 1: around my water bottle so it's easy to find. I
Speaker 1: know exactly where it is. And honestly, that duct tape
Speaker 1: is mostly for first aid type stuff. If you cut
Speaker 1: yourself or whatever, you can just use that duck tape,
Speaker 1: or if you start to get blisters on your feet,
Speaker 1: it's just right there on your bottle. You don't have
Speaker 1: to dig around, and you always know you've got it.
Speaker 1: Then another item that I always have in my pack
Speaker 1: is I have a small flashlight. I always have my headlamp,
Speaker 1: but I also carry this small other flashlight that's a
Speaker 1: lot brighter. I don't use it as like constant on,
Speaker 1: but when I'm navigating night, maybe in some more treacherous
Speaker 1: country or whatever, it helps really identify, okay, you see
Speaker 1: a little bit further than where my head lamp goes.
Speaker 1: And it's nice to have a backup light because I
Speaker 1: have been in scenarios where my light batteries have died,
Speaker 1: haven't had extra batteries, or something's gone wrong, and it's
Speaker 1: just nice to have that that flashlight for navigation and
Speaker 1: just light things up a little bit brighter. Now, let's
Speaker 1: talk about optics. We've talked about using optics, and we've
Speaker 1: talked about the types of different optics and past podcasts,
Speaker 1: but I think optics are one of the key pieces
Speaker 1: of gear that you're gonna have with you, and each
Speaker 1: hunt is a little bit different. So this is where
Speaker 1: we start to get into the type of year that
Speaker 1: starts to shift based on how we're hunting, what we're hunting,
Speaker 1: what our goals are, and what we're gonna need. I
Speaker 1: always have my binoculars on me. My two top suggestions
Speaker 1: for binoculars for Western hunting are gonna be a little
Speaker 1: bit higher magnification, So I I either go my standard
Speaker 1: ten power or I also really like the twelve power,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to do for me personally like a
Speaker 1: by fifth, So ten by fifties or ten by fifty
Speaker 1: two s or twelve by fifty twelve by fifty two
Speaker 1: something like that. Uh. That bigger objective lens is nice
Speaker 1: because it lets in a little bit more like gives
Speaker 1: you bigger field of view. So when I'm looking at binoculars,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at something with a good magnification and a
Speaker 1: good field of view. There's guys that hunt with eight powers.
Speaker 1: I think they're fine for a lot of things, but
Speaker 1: you know, most of the hunting I do us in
Speaker 1: big open country, and as well, is the twelve power
Speaker 1: too much for when you get in the timber. But
Speaker 1: you can still use it. I just like having that
Speaker 1: extra bit of kick out at some range. So tens
Speaker 1: or twelve power binoculars are my go to, and this
Speaker 1: would be something that I'm always wearing anyways, and then
Speaker 1: I've got my range finder there. Range Finders just another
Speaker 1: thing that just makes you that much more successful. I
Speaker 1: remember hunting without a range finder, not knowing how far
Speaker 1: to shoot, and just judging range and mountains is really hard.
Speaker 1: I think the skill that you need to have to
Speaker 1: be able to judge distance, especially as a bow hunter,
Speaker 1: but it's nice to have that verification. And I think
Speaker 1: as really accessible as range finders are, I don't even
Speaker 1: know if I need to mention having that, but if
Speaker 1: you're new to it, those are things that you should
Speaker 1: have because you're gonna need them. Now. One of the
Speaker 1: pieces that could be the variable piece is going to
Speaker 1: be the spotting scope. You know, there's all this gear
Speaker 1: and you kind of got to decide, well, what kind
Speaker 1: of hunting do I do? What kind of pieces are
Speaker 1: going to be essential. Here's how I decide, like what
Speaker 1: spotting scope I'm gonna take, or if I'm taking a
Speaker 1: spotting scope, it's going to depend on the type of
Speaker 1: country i'm hunting, how big and vast is it? How
Speaker 1: far am I going to be looking most the hunting
Speaker 1: I do, I'm looking pretty far, So it's nice to
Speaker 1: have a spotting scope for verification. Then you're also going
Speaker 1: to have to decide, well, what type of hunt is it?
Speaker 1: Is it a type of hunt where you're really scrutinizing
Speaker 1: what you're hunting, so you know it might be a mule,
Speaker 1: your tag in a really good unit, and you're looking
Speaker 1: for a certain sized buck. That means you're going to
Speaker 1: really scrutinize the deer. So you're gonna want that big magnification,
Speaker 1: a really high quality scope to be able to really
Speaker 1: scrutinize what you're looking at. Maybe you're in Alaska and
Speaker 1: you're hunting doll sheep and you need to make sure
Speaker 1: that it's a full curl ram, really scrutinizing. Maybe you're
Speaker 1: on a bow hunt and you're just like, hey, any
Speaker 1: buck is fine. You just need to know if what
Speaker 1: you're looking at is a buck or a bull or
Speaker 1: maybe a brow time bowl. And if you're hunting general
Speaker 1: area Montana and you're just you're looking for the bare minimums,
Speaker 1: you aren't really scrutinizing, then you can kind of go
Speaker 1: a little bit less on the spotting scope, say, less magnification,
Speaker 1: less clarity, and as you go less magnification, less subjective lens,
Speaker 1: everything it gets lighter. So the type of hunting and
Speaker 1: the type of optic you're gonna buy for spotting scope
Speaker 1: is really can depend on the type of hunting you
Speaker 1: do the most. Honestly, I think that something in the
Speaker 1: middle is probably the best for everything you know you've got.
Speaker 1: I would say the best type of optic spotting scope
Speaker 1: for long range really scrutinizing would be a large objective lens,
Speaker 1: high magnification, So I'll probably be, you know, a up
Speaker 1: to sixty power spotting scope with a large objective lens
Speaker 1: and the eight to nine millimeter range. A mid range
Speaker 1: optic would be something like a sixty five millimeter that's
Speaker 1: the objective the out of the furthest lens away from
Speaker 1: your eye, and then something in the say fifteen to
Speaker 1: forty power is generally with that type of objective lens.
Speaker 1: So what happens is you get a larger objective lens,
Speaker 1: you can get a little bit more magnification out of it,
Speaker 1: and a lot more clarity and light gathering. But if
Speaker 1: you know that, hey, you're you're mostly the hunting your
Speaker 1: due is kind of truck based. You're doing a lot
Speaker 1: of long range glassing, and then you aren't hiking as
Speaker 1: far and you're going to be scrutinizing trophy quality or legality.
Speaker 1: That bigger, heavier spotting scope is great, and maybe that's
Speaker 1: the one you invest in because that's the type of
Speaker 1: hunting you're doing the most. Uh, if you're doing a
Speaker 1: lot more backcountry hunting, man, just look at not as
Speaker 1: much magnification, lighter, but still able to just verify what
Speaker 1: you're looking at. That might be your go to. You know,
Speaker 1: if I'm doing a back country hunt, I've got like
Speaker 1: a small Vortex razor goes small objective lens thirty three
Speaker 1: power max. But it's super light and I can verify
Speaker 1: what I'm looking at legal or what I'm going to
Speaker 1: chase super lightweight. That's a great scope to have, but
Speaker 1: something in the middle is the best for kind of
Speaker 1: every scenario, balancing lightweight but also varying from being able
Speaker 1: to judge quality to not being so big and cumbersome. Now,
Speaker 1: one piece of gear that I also find essential in
Speaker 1: just having used so many things, I like to be
Speaker 1: able to put my binoculars onto my tripod, so I
Speaker 1: use a binocular adapter. I use the Outdoorsman Adapter. I
Speaker 1: think it's kind of the gold standard for binocular adapters.
Speaker 1: It's got a nice post, you put your base plate
Speaker 1: on it, and then just it's super easy. You don't
Speaker 1: have to you don't have the post on all the time.
Speaker 1: You just slide that on your tripod, click your binoculars in,
Speaker 1: good to go. Adding that really adds some stability and
Speaker 1: now you can kind of decide, well, what kind of
Speaker 1: hunting do you do? And having that extra stability and
Speaker 1: the binocular helps you kind of see what you're looking
Speaker 1: at in a clearer picture. It could also mean maybe
Speaker 1: just carrying like a higher magnification binocular. Maybe you just
Speaker 1: go twelve power binocular and you won't really need the
Speaker 1: spotting skille possibly. Um. So that's just something to think
Speaker 1: about as well when you're refining the type of hunting
Speaker 1: you're doing and what you're gonna need now. In my
Speaker 1: day pack or any pack, I also always kind of
Speaker 1: have a dry bag, and in that dry bag i'll
Speaker 1: stuff my puffer or insulation layer maybe my extra jacket,
Speaker 1: whatever I'm You know, as you're hiking, you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to have room for your clothes because you're gonna hike
Speaker 1: with your jacket off, so you're gonna stop and maybe
Speaker 1: need some extra ins elation. I'd like to keep stuff
Speaker 1: in that dry bag because then I can put anything
Speaker 1: in there that I might need later on. That bag
Speaker 1: also helps me kind of keep things organized, and then
Speaker 1: depending on the hunt, I'll have some rain gear, whether
Speaker 1: it's just a jacket or pants or the whole set
Speaker 1: that day. Hunting is nice because you can kind of
Speaker 1: decide each day whether you're going to take it. Most
Speaker 1: of the time I end up just carrying it because
Speaker 1: it doesn't hurt, and if I do carry it, then
Speaker 1: I know it probably won't rain. Just a strange, superstitious thing.
Speaker 1: But most of the time I've got it. Now, if
Speaker 1: I'm an early season archery Nevada hunt, probably not going
Speaker 1: to get it. Keep it in there, or I'll just
Speaker 1: do a jacket because if it does rain, it's pretty
Speaker 1: fast and furious and then let's up pretty quick. So
Speaker 1: that's what's in my daypack. Then there's a couple other
Speaker 1: pieces that vary, but if I'm bow hunting, I've got
Speaker 1: my extra socks for stalking. You might remember the old
Speaker 1: shoes off situation early in the podcast if you've listened
Speaker 1: to them all my extra stocking socks. And then one
Speaker 1: other thing that I really like is a small water
Speaker 1: bottle for my drink mix. So I I've talked about
Speaker 1: it before. It's like my hydrate recover drink mixed stuff.
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily always like to put it in my
Speaker 1: water bottle because I like to keep that for water
Speaker 1: and then I'll fill up just like a you know,
Speaker 1: you just get like a plastic single use that I
Speaker 1: end up using for the whole season, like the sawny
Speaker 1: water bottle where you can scrunch it down, put the
Speaker 1: cap on, and then when you want drink mix, you
Speaker 1: can pour your water in it, mix it up and
Speaker 1: you can kind of keep the two separate. That's just
Speaker 1: that's personal preference for me. And then you've got your electronics.
Speaker 1: So one thing that I've found handy I use the
Speaker 1: inn Reach Garment makes it. There's also the other one
Speaker 1: spot um satellite messenger thing or there's different kinds of
Speaker 1: eprubs out there. And now that we have this technology.
Speaker 1: I used to not carry something like that, but man
Speaker 1: to just have that peace of mind of knowing you
Speaker 1: can reach someone if you need to in an emergency,
Speaker 1: especially because I hunt alone a lot, it's great to have.
Speaker 1: And then I take my phone and I use my
Speaker 1: phone for my mapping apps on x whatever. I always
Speaker 1: download the maps and then put it into airplane mode.
Speaker 1: And this might turn you off from my podcast, or
Speaker 1: it might just reinfigure you for your podcast. But I
Speaker 1: have a Samsung type phone and there's actually a sweet
Speaker 1: battery saving mode when I put it in that it
Speaker 1: lasts like seven days, so I don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about it, and then I can just jump into the
Speaker 1: app whenever I need. For me, I carry my camera
Speaker 1: and batteries, but I'm also doing like a lot of
Speaker 1: extra filming stuff. So my pack is generally heavier than
Speaker 1: most because I've got all my camera stuff, but something
Speaker 1: that probably most people will take as well as maybe
Speaker 1: an extra better camera or you just use your phone.
Speaker 1: And then the last thing that you cannot forget toilet paper.
Speaker 1: I almost forgot it in my little packing list right here.
Speaker 1: That would be in the always in my pack bag.
Speaker 1: You know, you look at that and you think, okay,
Speaker 1: that's probably pretty similar to what you're carrying. But I know,
Speaker 1: you know, just having been a guide for so long,
Speaker 1: you look in people's packs and there's just I don't
Speaker 1: even know, like there's full I've seen full size saws
Speaker 1: and all this other stuff, and just you know, it
Speaker 1: just depends on the hunt. The only reason that I
Speaker 1: take a saw if I know I want to take
Speaker 1: like the loin with the rib attached, then I cut
Speaker 1: the ribs off halfway through, and I just use a
Speaker 1: small I've got like this Exo mod that has a
Speaker 1: fixed blade knife and it's got this like little safts
Speaker 1: about four inches long. I'll use that little soft for that.
Speaker 1: I can break down an entire elk with two inch
Speaker 1: razor blade or even just like a regular you know,
Speaker 1: razor blade fairly easy. So you don't need a saw
Speaker 1: for any cut on a deer except for maybe cutting
Speaker 1: the skull plate off, and if you wanted to make
Speaker 1: that rib roast thing. So I will carry that on
Speaker 1: certain hunts if I know I'm going to take the
Speaker 1: ribs bone in like that or not just the whole
Speaker 1: rack but haven't attached to the loin outside of that
Speaker 1: that's pretty much it. And then one thing I always
Speaker 1: have is I kind of have like my pocket gear,
Speaker 1: where it's stuff that's in my pants pockets or jacket pockets.
Speaker 1: I always keep a head lamp in my pocket and
Speaker 1: just make sure to hit the button so it doesn't
Speaker 1: go off while crawling around or whatever. I always have
Speaker 1: a lighter in my pocket. I generally the of the
Speaker 1: thing that I do take that's redundant, I take a
Speaker 1: multitool because I like having the pliers and the other
Speaker 1: tools if necessary. And it also has a knife as
Speaker 1: a backup. I know a lot of guys take way
Speaker 1: too many knife into the back country you're out hunting,
Speaker 1: but it's nice to just have that in my pocket
Speaker 1: for just things that I need to cut or whatever
Speaker 1: without having to get my processing knife out of my pack.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I won't take that, though, I'll just have my
Speaker 1: pocket knife in my pocket and that will be my
Speaker 1: knife for everything. So that just depends. And then I'll
Speaker 1: take a wind checker if I'm bow hunting. I just
Speaker 1: recently started adding that back in. For a long time,
Speaker 1: I just use dirt and sticks and leaves and feathers
Speaker 1: that I found. But I've just decided that sometimes having
Speaker 1: just one of those puff bottle wind checkers is nice
Speaker 1: to have depending on where you're at tripod. So I
Speaker 1: do always have my tripod, which will be used for
Speaker 1: my spotting scope, my camera, and my binoculars. That's my
Speaker 1: kit in a nutshell, and that works for day hunts.
Speaker 1: But you know, my backcountry pack is very similar. It's
Speaker 1: just adding more food, cooking, a shelter, in a sleep system.
Speaker 1: And so let's talk about a little bit of the
Speaker 1: things you're gonna need for the back country, and then
Speaker 1: you should be able to kind of understand, Okay, this
Speaker 1: is what I need. Really anything outside of that could
Speaker 1: be redundant or unneeded. But one thing that I'm going
Speaker 1: to suggest is as you start hunting, as you start
Speaker 1: doing more of this, or maybe you've done this your
Speaker 1: whole life, but you look at your pack and what
Speaker 1: are you taking. There's something that you haven't used for years.
Speaker 1: Honest to god, I've had things in my back I
Speaker 1: can't remember what they are right now, but I know
Speaker 1: like when I started out, there was just things that
Speaker 1: I'd have in my pack for years and I realized
Speaker 1: I never touched them. Okay, let's talk about the back
Speaker 1: country kit. Now, a lot of people I get question
Speaker 1: asked like, how much does your gonna, say, five day hunt?
Speaker 1: How much does your packway? You know, at the low end,
Speaker 1: probably thirty pounds, At the high end about forty two pounds.
Speaker 1: Were probably probably averaging about thirty five pounds. I have
Speaker 1: a lot of really specialized lightweight gear. Lightweight gear. As
Speaker 1: you get lighter, the cost gets greater. So it's one
Speaker 1: of those things you're like, when I started out, I
Speaker 1: was just the heck of a lot tougher and most
Speaker 1: of my gear was super bulky, super heavy, and I
Speaker 1: just didn't really care. Um, I didn't need to shave
Speaker 1: off the ounces. But as time has gone on, I've
Speaker 1: invested in better gear, more lightweight, durable, and you know,
Speaker 1: things things change. My kids constantly changing with what kind
Speaker 1: of gears in it, but the basics are always there.
Speaker 1: The weight really depends on whether you're solo or not.
Speaker 1: So if you're doing a five day trip, I think
Speaker 1: most people probably go with a friend or something. I
Speaker 1: do a lot of hunting by myself, so I kind
Speaker 1: of tailored my kit toward being lightweight, but also trying
Speaker 1: to not be so bulky and knowing that I'm going
Speaker 1: to be by myself. There's certain items if you are
Speaker 1: traveling with someone else that is going to be awesome
Speaker 1: to split because you can split the tent weight, and
Speaker 1: you can split the cooking type stuff, so you can
Speaker 1: split your fuel and your stove. You can pull out
Speaker 1: some some guy can carry the polls, another guy can
Speaker 1: carry the tent. When I'm hunting with my brother, that's
Speaker 1: what we do. We take one stove. We one guy
Speaker 1: will carry the stove and the fuel. The other guy
Speaker 1: might carry the tent. We just kind of split the
Speaker 1: weight up that way, and that'll shave off a few
Speaker 1: pounds off of some major items. Let's start with our shelter.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be the one that that's your tent or
Speaker 1: whatever you're sleeping in. There's three options that I use,
Speaker 1: so I use You've got I mean, there's a lot options,
Speaker 1: but these are the basics. So what I would consider
Speaker 1: a bivy camp that's just literally like a bag that
Speaker 1: goes over your sleeping bag. I have baby hunted a lot,
Speaker 1: and it's probably one that I use mostly up through September,
Speaker 1: especially because when I'm by myself, there's a lot of lightweight.
Speaker 1: Now The second option would be like a lightweight, one
Speaker 1: man type tent, and then you've got your two man
Speaker 1: later like three or four season tent. So the three
Speaker 1: or four season tent is gonna be the heaviest, but
Speaker 1: it can fit more people, has more room. If you're
Speaker 1: going with a couple of people, that's probably your best option.
Speaker 1: You can share to the space and split the weight.
Speaker 1: The baby is just like a bagliner often gore text
Speaker 1: or whatever, and you can combine that as well with
Speaker 1: either a ground tarp or just like a lightweight tarp.
Speaker 1: You can either hang over, put on the ground, do
Speaker 1: whatever with um if it's raining, and kind of keep
Speaker 1: the rain off your face and everything else. I've used
Speaker 1: the baby sack a lot in the past, but there's
Speaker 1: also what I call biby hunting. So that's where instead
Speaker 1: of setting up a base camp, you just kind of
Speaker 1: every day you have everything on your back and you
Speaker 1: keep moving. So you might be on like a five
Speaker 1: day hunt. Wherever you happen to stop that night is
Speaker 1: where you camp. The bavy sacks great for that. Recently,
Speaker 1: I just got I've been using some of the stone
Speaker 1: glacier tents. So the um was it the sky Air
Speaker 1: is just a small, lightweight tent that uses checking polls
Speaker 1: and then you stake it out and it's just nice
Speaker 1: to actually have that little bit of extra room and
Speaker 1: someplace to maybe stash gear if you want. You can
Speaker 1: also you cut sticks or tie it off. I've done
Speaker 1: multiple different setups with it. You know, in the past,
Speaker 1: I've done a lot of baby hunting, but now I'm
Speaker 1: kind of transitioning to kind of setting up a base
Speaker 1: camp and then spiking out from there. I do that
Speaker 1: a lot as well, so it just depends on the
Speaker 1: style of hunting you're gonna do. And then for like
Speaker 1: a later season, I've just used the same Stone Glacier,
Speaker 1: but the Skyscraper two person tent. It's probably the best
Speaker 1: tent I've ever used. And I'm not just saying that
Speaker 1: because I work with them. That's it's honestly the best
Speaker 1: tent I've ever used. It's super durable, it's got the room,
Speaker 1: but it's super light for what you get out of it.
Speaker 1: And that's been the hardest thing to find, is like
Speaker 1: a really good tent that has the durability the lightweight factor.
Speaker 1: You always sacrifice something that seems to be the best
Speaker 1: balance of everything. Now inside that tent, you're gonna need
Speaker 1: a sleeping pad, you know. It's one of those things.
Speaker 1: The pad is not only good for comfort, but also
Speaker 1: really great for just insulation. If you're gonna get cold,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be from the ground up, so having that
Speaker 1: that air acts as an insulator between you and the ground.
Speaker 1: So some form of sleeping pad is super key to
Speaker 1: being comfortable and keeping you warm. There's so many different
Speaker 1: kinds out there. I've used all of them, you know.
Speaker 1: Now I've actually got a therm arrest, the thermal Light Pro,
Speaker 1: super expensive and really lightweight. I've just bought it last year.
Speaker 1: I like it, but I also think that there's other
Speaker 1: options out there that are cheaper and probably just as good.
Speaker 1: And like, there's a bunch of different kinds. There's I
Speaker 1: used to really run the kind that had some form
Speaker 1: of padding in it that you didn't really have to
Speaker 1: blow up, so you're just you always know it's good.
Speaker 1: And then I kind of opted switched fully over to
Speaker 1: the more like air mattress inflatable style. There's one that
Speaker 1: I used for a long time, still really like. It's Alps.
Speaker 1: It was fairly cheap. I gotta Sierra trading post just
Speaker 1: fills up with air, easy to blow up. Yeah, if
Speaker 1: you pop it, it's gonna suck. But you know, I
Speaker 1: think back and I'm honestly never popped a sleeping pad.
Speaker 1: And you can keep a little patch kit with you too,
Speaker 1: so that's not a problem. I will say this though,
Speaker 1: I did land a sleeping pad to a friend two
Speaker 1: years ago, and then I grabbed my sleeping pad. Went
Speaker 1: out in the back country on a Nevada hunt last
Speaker 1: year and I didn't have my other, my regular sleeping pag.
Speaker 1: I don't know why I grabbed this one, and I
Speaker 1: go to blow up my air mattress and there's just
Speaker 1: the thousand holes in it. The thing was shredded and
Speaker 1: did not pump up. But I'm like, how does somebody
Speaker 1: shred a sleeping pad like that? And I think is
Speaker 1: because he had it strapped to the bottom, probably kept
Speaker 1: sitting down doing all that. I always keep my sleeping
Speaker 1: pad rolled up inside my pack bag when I'm hiking,
Speaker 1: and honestly, I've never had any major issues with them.
Speaker 1: So the air style or just more lightweight, and that's
Speaker 1: great option to go with sleeping bags. That's another thing
Speaker 1: that a ton of people ask about. For me, I
Speaker 1: used to be a synthetic guy, thinking down gets wet,
Speaker 1: then it loses loft and it's not as good. That
Speaker 1: is true, synthetic will keep you warm if it does
Speaker 1: get wet. However, synthetic is heavier. There are some lightweight
Speaker 1: synthetic bags. But I honestly think down has come so far.
Speaker 1: And I realized over the years I was another one
Speaker 1: of those things. I looked at the way I used it.
Speaker 1: I looked at what's happened knock on wood. I've never
Speaker 1: really got my sleeping bag wet, so I just switched
Speaker 1: it down because it's stuffs up, smaller, it's lighter weight,
Speaker 1: and it's super warm and comfortable, and there's coatings on
Speaker 1: the down. Now, I will say, if they were to
Speaker 1: get really wet, I don't think you should fully commit
Speaker 1: to that waterproof. I mean it's like the downs waterproof, yes,
Speaker 1: but I don't know if it works like synthetic in
Speaker 1: my opinion, So I take a fifteen degree bag on
Speaker 1: almost all my hunts. A zero degree bag is just
Speaker 1: for like late season hunts, And honestly it depends how
Speaker 1: you sleep too. So some people are colder, some people
Speaker 1: are warmer. But if you want some more late season
Speaker 1: camping tips, go back to I think it was episode
Speaker 1: nin nineteen, ton of ton of gear suggestions in there
Speaker 1: for for late season. But my standard bag is a
Speaker 1: fifteen degree bag. I think it works really good for
Speaker 1: kind of a combination of everything and I go down.
Speaker 1: I also have, like I have the stuff sacked. But then,
Speaker 1: like I said in the day pack, that same waterproof
Speaker 1: bag that I sometimes keep extra closing or whatever. When
Speaker 1: I'm hiking around, I keep my sleeping bag in that
Speaker 1: just in case I did cross the river and dump
Speaker 1: and at least like it'll keep the bag dry and
Speaker 1: you don't have to worry about it. Now. Camp kitchen stuff,
Speaker 1: We've got our stove, our fuel couple that I really
Speaker 1: like for some reason. I don't know. It's I've been
Speaker 1: looking at my list here. It's like MSR. They're mostly
Speaker 1: MSR products, but there's a lot of other brands out there.
Speaker 1: I'm just the MSR guy. So if I'm by myself,
Speaker 1: the pocket Rocket's just like a little stove that goes
Speaker 1: onto a bottle. Otherwise, I generally take my reactor, which
Speaker 1: is just super fast. It's kind of like a jet
Speaker 1: boiled jet boils are great too. This one I just
Speaker 1: like it's a little bit faster and seems a little
Speaker 1: more durable. I've had some jet boils failing cold weather,
Speaker 1: so I just started using the reactor. Contraveling by air,
Speaker 1: what have you. You might want to look at something
Speaker 1: like the Optimists. They've got like mixed fuel ones or
Speaker 1: the Whisper Light MSR Whisper Light. You can mix fuel canisters.
Speaker 1: You pump them yourself, so you're traveling, you can just
Speaker 1: fill it up with diesel or whatever you can find,
Speaker 1: depending on where you're going, pump it up and go.
Speaker 1: I kind of like just having the regular canisters if
Speaker 1: I can, so even if I travel, I just make
Speaker 1: sure there's somewhere I can buy one of those canisters
Speaker 1: and not have to work with the mixed fuel. It
Speaker 1: can be kind of a little bit leaky and messy sometimes,
Speaker 1: but that's the route I go. One thing you want
Speaker 1: to think about two is you can and I don't
Speaker 1: know how many people know this. I think most of
Speaker 1: the little fuel canisters have it, like a jet boil
Speaker 1: canister or regular fuel canisters. You can set those in
Speaker 1: water and see how full they are, because you might
Speaker 1: use one on a trip, and then I've had that
Speaker 1: problem where I've got ten canisters that are like varying
Speaker 1: from maybe a quarter empty to three quarters empty. You
Speaker 1: just don't know. So you can drop it in water
Speaker 1: and see where it floats. If it floats halfway, then
Speaker 1: it's like halfway full. There's normally most of the cans
Speaker 1: have some kind of indicator on it, and those indicators
Speaker 1: are to show you how full it is once it's
Speaker 1: sitting in water. So that's a good thing to remember
Speaker 1: before you go out, check and see how much fuel
Speaker 1: you got. Now for back country, another item that I
Speaker 1: take is a dromedary. It's just like a collapsible water
Speaker 1: bag or whatever, something lightweight where you can put a
Speaker 1: lot of water in for camp water, so in case
Speaker 1: the water sources of ways away, you can have it
Speaker 1: there for cooking and filling up your bottles and whatever
Speaker 1: water purification. I've been using a starry pen lately. Actually,
Speaker 1: the guys, the meat eater guys turned me onto it
Speaker 1: when we're in a fog neck because I'm just kind
Speaker 1: of a little loosey goosey when it comes to water,
Speaker 1: and they just seeing how easy it was, they kind
Speaker 1: of kept them in their pockets the whole time. Um,
Speaker 1: it's nice even on day hunts to have that because
Speaker 1: you don't have to carry as much water. I hate
Speaker 1: carrying water. It's just a lot of weight. But I
Speaker 1: like drinking water. So if I have something where every
Speaker 1: time I cross the creek, I can just fill up,
Speaker 1: drink and if I know I'm going up this creek bottom,
Speaker 1: I'll almost just walk around with an empty water bottle,
Speaker 1: fill up, drink, pour out whatever, keep going. And then
Speaker 1: when I'm going to get away from the water source,
Speaker 1: I fill up sanitized and then head out for the day.
Speaker 1: Then you can constantly drink water and constantly have some
Speaker 1: more santit a water. This podcast kind of bringing together
Speaker 1: a lot of ones I recently did about water purification.
Speaker 1: It was episode thirty for water purification. So overnight, you've
Speaker 1: got my toilet trees, which would be a toothbrush, travel toothpaste,
Speaker 1: and I take some antibacterial wipes. Since the pandemic, those
Speaker 1: are pretty hard to find, but I think they're coming
Speaker 1: back online now. I had a bunch because I just
Speaker 1: use them for like what I call wipe e bath
Speaker 1: day three or whatever. You just wipe them down kill
Speaker 1: some bacteria, try to smell a little better, clean up
Speaker 1: a little bit. And then as far as clothing or
Speaker 1: extra clothes, I don't really bring a lot. I bring
Speaker 1: a couple of extra socks. It's mostly what I'm wearing.
Speaker 1: What I have is my bass layer, so some kind
Speaker 1: of thermal. I have an outer layer, which would be
Speaker 1: like my soft shell or my pants whatever saftra jacket,
Speaker 1: and then I have an insulation layer. Normally, I just
Speaker 1: bring an upper insulation layer, which would be like a
Speaker 1: down puffer, and then beanie and gloves and that kind
Speaker 1: of stuff. But as far as extra stuff, I don't
Speaker 1: bring any extra shirts or anything like that. I just
Speaker 1: bring if I'm like a five day hunt, maybe two
Speaker 1: extra pairs of socks. It's nice to change. I generally
Speaker 1: where my if I'm going to wear the socks multiple times,
Speaker 1: I've kind of just sleep in them something most of
Speaker 1: the time. Let him dry out. You should let your
Speaker 1: feet breathe a little bit sometimes too, But and then
Speaker 1: maybe an extra change of underwear or whatever, and then
Speaker 1: I've got my rain gear overnight, like multi day trip,
Speaker 1: I'll definitely keep my ring gear with me, and then
Speaker 1: outside of that, your electronics would be the same. But
Speaker 1: you know, now I've started carrying one of those phone
Speaker 1: battery backup chargers just because I use my phone for
Speaker 1: navigation and so many other things. And then a large
Speaker 1: dry bag to keep everything in. I kind of mentioned
Speaker 1: it before. Um, using your game bags is a great
Speaker 1: like if you're in barer country, you can use your
Speaker 1: game bag to hoist food up or store food. Also
Speaker 1: use the game bag to just separate out some gear
Speaker 1: and food and other stuff. And then one last tip
Speaker 1: is you want to sleep comfortable pillow. What I do
Speaker 1: is I take my down puffer and I just stuff
Speaker 1: it in my stuff sacked for the sleeping bag. Then
Speaker 1: I put that in the hood of the sleeping bag,
Speaker 1: and I generally just wear a beanie when I'm leaping
Speaker 1: and that's super comfortable. Great use of something multiple different ways.
Speaker 1: And that really is just the basics of my day
Speaker 1: hunt kit and the gear that I take into the
Speaker 1: back country. I mean, there might be a few things
Speaker 1: that I'm forgetting that you know, when I'm actually packing
Speaker 1: up for it, I see it and bring, But for
Speaker 1: the most part, that's what you need, and you know,
Speaker 1: the thing that's going to vary on your your day
Speaker 1: hunt in your backpacking is going to be the food
Speaker 1: that you're taking. There's a past episode that I did
Speaker 1: already on food, and there's just I mean, like I'm
Speaker 1: looking at this just talking about two different types of gear,
Speaker 1: and I'm at way longer than I normally go. So
Speaker 1: I hope that that helped. There's a lot of different
Speaker 1: gear options out there, but that's just the basics of
Speaker 1: what I do. Gives you kind of a rough outline
Speaker 1: of what you're gonna need for a multi day trip
Speaker 1: or a day hunt, and then, like I said, make
Speaker 1: the kit to something where you're comfortable. You've got what
Speaker 1: you think you need, and if you've got something that
Speaker 1: you never use, you know, start thinning it out and
Speaker 1: just getting down to the basics of the things that
Speaker 1: you need to be comfortable. Everybody's kids going to be
Speaker 1: slightly different. Some guys take more than other guys, some
Speaker 1: guys take less than me. I found the happy medium
Speaker 1: for myself, and I think that just kind of tweaking
Speaker 1: and adjusting your gear and the things that you take,
Speaker 1: you can do the same. If you haven't realized that
Speaker 1: by now, I could probably talk gear for days. Honestly,
Speaker 1: It's just an integral part of what we do, and
Speaker 1: I do enjoy talking about Gear. I also enjoy, you know,
Speaker 1: answering specific questions about Gear because I've had a lot
Speaker 1: of experience with different stuff, so I don't mind it.
Speaker 1: I get I get a lot of questions about it,
Speaker 1: and I enjoy sharing some of my thoughts on some
Speaker 1: of that. Talking about sharing thoughts, next week, we're gonna
Speaker 1: be doing a Q and A, So share your thoughts,
Speaker 1: send me your questions. You can do that either through
Speaker 1: Instagram at Remy Warren or through Remy at the meat
Speaker 1: Eater dot com, and I'll try to get to as
Speaker 1: many as possible. I love the Q and A portions
Speaker 1: that we do. It's your chance to reach out and
Speaker 1: kind of make this podcast two ways, and a lot
Speaker 1: of the topics that I talked about or because of
Speaker 1: the things that you guys write in about. So if
Speaker 1: there's a topic that isn't being covered, be the guy
Speaker 1: that jumps on and says, hey, let's talk about this.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll answer it in that podcast, or maybe I'll
Speaker 1: just answer it in the future one. And then before
Speaker 1: we close, if you liked this and what more I
Speaker 1: mentioned him throughout the podcast, but episode thirty two is
Speaker 1: about backcountry food, Episode thirty was about water. Episode nineteen
Speaker 1: late season camping. Combining all this knowledge together, you can
Speaker 1: go back and relsten to some of those I think
Speaker 1: it's going to paint a really good picture of kind
Speaker 1: of what your kids gonna look like as you go
Speaker 1: out for different hunts, and you'll be more prepared. So
Speaker 1: until next time, carry just the right amount of stuff
Speaker 1: and don't weigh yourself down.