Gear List: Continual Improvement

Gear list planning isn't rocket science….. but it does come with experience.

I can still remember arriving at our 2019 deer camp in Wisconsin on a late Sunday morning in November.  We had all agreed to leave early enough from home in Michigan so we would arrive on location with enough time to set up camp and eventually head out to conduct some scouting in preparation for the following morning hunt and the days following.  When we arrived the weather couldn’t have been more perfect. Sunshine, clear skies, calm winds and temperatures hovering around 55 degrees. As hunters, we know the weather can have a major impact on animal movement and is one of the metrics we tend to monitor the most.  Our initial weather forecasting projected a cold front to move in during mid-week so we expected colder weather than what we arrived at. But on that Wednesday morning, we woke up to a blunt surprise.  

In our 8-man tipi, we have a wood-burning stove that sits in the middle of the tent and while it is a complete game-changer for late-season camping, it has one downfall.  Someone usually needs to be designated as “fire guy” to stoke the fire with fresh wood, or to relight the fire if it burns out. Since I was the designated fire guy for the night, I wanted to have the tipi roaring hot for when the alarm sounded for everyone to wake up.  Its always a lot easier to roll out of your sleeping bag to a 70-degree tipi than a 30 degree one. I decided to grab some of the fresh dry firewood, which I had stored under the truck outside. As I unzipped the tipi, I was greeted with a fresh, white, fridged slap in the face. 

How to Aim a Traditional Bow

The temperature had plummeted into the single digits, and we had a fresh blanket of white fluffy snow covering everything. Up until this point in the hunting trip, we were getting by with only wearing our midseason hunting clothing. Clothing that was comfortable from 60F degrees maybe down to 30F degrees.  But now all of sudden, we needed to deploy our late-season clothing. Only thing was, none of us even had our warmer gear unpacked yet and we were left scrambling around in the snow getting everything ready. It made for an interesting and humors morning.

Luckily for us, we had done our proper research and planning for the trip and made sure we had our gear list locked down prior to the trip making sure everything was at least accounted for. But apparently our organization still needs some tweaking.

What makes a Great gear list?

Having a proper gear list is a lot more than simply listing everything you have packing everything up and heading out the door.  It requires careful planning and preparation. Visualization is one way of preparing, but there are many other ways of ensuring your gear list is ready to go without (hopefully) any shortcomings or flaws.

Here are three main components of a gear list that everyone should consider when establishing and maintaining a proper gear list. 

Ultra-light

Nothing screams a bad time like lugging around excessive amounts of weight when your hunting.  Your primary focus and intent need to be around hunting that animal, not recovering from the heavy hike into camp. A proper gear list of any sort should focus on ultralight gear with a minimum amount of items needed to survive.  Think multipurpose items. Like sporks (combining multiple utensils) and multipurpose clothing. Gear that serves multiple purposes far out weight the others. Durable ultra-light weights will most likely cost more than other items, but it might be a price your willing to pay for a little extra freedom.

There are a ton of different methods of cutting ounces off your total weight out there. From cutting the handle off of your toothbrush to only packing a single pair of undies……(James). We’ve heard a lot of creative ideas from people, so have fun with it and be creative!

Semper-Gumby

An old saying we used to say back in the Marine Corps, Semper-Gumby “Always Flexible”, meaning no matter what happens, be flexible and learn to work around things. Don’t get too attached to the items on your gear list. The worst thing you can do is set your list and then never try to improve on it. Learn to document everything you have so that you can continually improve. A great idea is to keep a living list of your items on a Word document, Excel Sheet, a simple note pad, or for you technologically advanced hunters, a Cloud Document that you can share and edit with others at the same time! Have it list the items’ descriptions and their weights. You can even get really detailed by assigning categories and color-coding your heaviest items.

However you see yourself keeping track of your list, make one, and try to improve on it every time you go out.

Dry-Runs: “Practice how you play”

There’s nothing worse than being miles out in the backcountry and hours away from civilization when you realize you’ve forgotten something, or you brought the wrong item. This is where conducting one or two “dry runs” before your big adventure helps tremendously when planning your gear list. Here are a few tips to follow if it’s your first time ever trying something like this before:

• Pick a place close to home. You’ll want to be someplace that tests your gear list for “completion” and you’ll also want to have ample daylight hours to reach camp before dark. It doesn’t have to be hours away from home either, it can even be in your back yard. Local “walk-in” campgrounds are perfect for this type of scenario.

• Consider bringing another hunting trip member along:  Though it could be an awesome time, it can also be an eye-opening experience. If and when you decide to have them join you on the dry run or for your next hunting trip, check out our article first.

• Seek summer weather:  Obviously, you’ll want to try and mimic the climate of your destination, but try to go in mid-summer to maximize daylight hours and your odds of comfortable conditions. Always check weather forecasts and don’t hesitate to cancel or turn back if a storm moves in.

• Take Notes

  Now is the time to start figuring out what works and what doesn’t work. Are you short on tent stakes? Does my water filtration system work? Do I need a lower temperature rated sleeping system? Do I really need to bring x? Take notes on what works, and what you still need or don’t need.