As I’ve gone down the road of this blog, one of the things that I’ve gotten asked the most is “what are you bringing on your backpack hunts?”  In light of that, I have decided to post up my current backcountry gear list for 2017.  My gear list is forever growing and shrinking, but hopefully you can get the gist of what is usually in my backpack.  This list is going to be for an archery hunt in the early fall.  If it were later in the year, I would just be bringing some extra layers along.  I am by no means an ounce junkie, so I can’t tell you the EXACT weight of my pack and all of the contents in it.  For most hunts, I am sitting in the 35 pound range though, depending on how much water I am packing in.  That number will increase with the amount of days I am planning to be out, simply because of food.  Each one of my food bags is in the realm of 2 pounds per day containing about 2500-3000 calories in each one.  Besides food and water, everything else pretty much stays the same.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask below in the comments.

I don’t know about you, but whenever I miss an animal and lose an arrow, I start hoping I don’t run out of arrows.  I know that might sound hilarious, but it’s the truth for me.  Probably just a mental thing really.  This is especially true when I am backpacked into an area and have only the arrows that are in my quiver.  Like a lot of folks, I have been carrying a 5 arrow quiver for quite some time and as of a few years ago, that quiver has always been a TightSpot.  I loved the idea of the quiver being so much more closer to the riser, which would make it a lot easier to lay my bow in my lap while crab crawling my way down to a bedded mule deer.  Just this past December, I was able to do just that and brought home my first archery buck.  It was a day to remember for sure.

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.  Teach a man to fish and you feed him for life.”  This quote encompasses the very gift that comes from the struggle one may experience when learning how to hunt.  It mentions fish, but I think this translates quite nicely into hunting, as well as into everyday life.  While the natural instinct to hunt might swim through our DNA, we are not born knowing all things hunting.  What many of us are born with though, is the desire to learn how to hunt, along with feasting on our harvest when the hunt comes to a close.  Whether we choose to act on those desires is another story entirely.

It seems that every backpack hunt or backpacking trip I go on, I am trying to figure out how to lighten the weight of my pack.  There was a time when I would bring things just to bring them, and quite honestly, I probably still do it some.  Over the years though, I’ve gotten more comfortable and in tune with my gear to really start realizing what I need and what I don’t need.  I quiver when I hear guys carrying 70-80 pounds of gear into the backcountry.  If you want to do that, that is totally fine, but I just don’t, especially when I am planning on hauling out loads of fresh meat.  Now, I am by no means a backcountry minimalist and for sure enjoy some creature comforts.  Here are some things though that I have learned and ways that I have been able to cut down the weight of my pack.

I am sure we have all heard about the threats facing our beloved public lands.  These are the places you and I have been making precious memories for years.  That first time you heard a bull bugling during the month of September and how it sent shivers down your spine.  How you watched a black bear meticulously pick acorns off of a tree or bush.  The first time you watched an arrow sail into the vitals of your quarry.  These are just examples of some of the things that you might have witnessed while out and about on public land.  If we didn’t have public lands or access to them, I seriously question if I would even be telling you this.

My first year ever really hitting this hunting thing hard was about 4 years ago.  Of all things that I could hunt, I chose to chase black bears here in Arizona.  One of the primary general seasons here lands right in the middle of August.  For people in Arizona, that means 2 things.  It’s deathly hot out and it’s monsoon season.  Yes, it does in fact rain here, unlike what most people think.  We aren’t all sand and cacti.  This posed a potential problem for me on my hunt.  My problem being, I could get rained out.  I know.  What a wimp right?  I was a noob, what can I say!?

If I had a dollar for every time that I vented to my wife about how I didn’t know what weapon I wanted to use on a certain hunt, I’d have a lot of dollars.  For some reason, I get into these modes where my indecisiveness takes over and trying to get myself to agree on using either a rifle or a bow is like pulling teeth.  I have these internal struggles, because of 2 things.  The first is, at heart, I am no doubt a bowhunter.  The thrill of trying to get close to an unaware animal and having to deal with the adrenaline dump that comes with trying to execute your shot, is something that one can only know if they’ve done it before.

If you’ve spent any great deal of time looking into new gear for your backpack hunting endeavors, I’d be hard pressed if you didn’t cringe a little bit every now and again at the prices of some of these items.  I know I used to do it a ton, when I was first looking into this stuff.  Why in the world would someone spend $500 on a sleeping bag?!  That’s more than my truck payment!  $800 on a tent?  “NO FRIGGIN WAY,” I’d tell myself.  The fact of the matter is though, if you want to be an ultralight backpack hunter and have good reliable gear, you are eventually gonna pony up the dough here and there on certain items.   The more we get into something, the more we care about the gear that goes along with said something.  When I started, anything was “good enough.”  Now, that I’ve had more experience, I care a lot more about the functionality of my gear, because of previous gear failures as well as knowing what I need out of that gear.  I don’t want to be 5 miles + into a wilderness, only to realize that my tent broke or that my rain gear isn’t quite as “waterproof” as it was advertised to be.  With that being said, I think that there are some areas where you can definitely avoid the huge price tags and still have an enjoyable experience, especially if you’re new to all of this.

Now, sure, some folks might think that all hunting gives us is big antlers, tanned hides, and the opportunity to kill, but we all know that is hogwash.  We all know that this lifestyle is so much more than blood and bone.  If it weren’t, I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this.  If it weren’t, a grown man wouldn’t shed a tear at the sight of a downed animal.  We wouldn’t put so much effort into getting in shape, studying maps, and making sure our equipment is as dialed in as it can be if hunting didn’t mean what it does to a lot of us.  So, what has hunting given me personally?

The first word that comes to mind when I ask this to myself is, “tradition.”  When I was younger, it was tradition for my dad and I to go on our annual rifle deer hunt.  I looked forward to that every year and still do.  From that, came the bond my dad and I shared through hunting and the outdoors in general.  That’s really always been our thing, and that’s that.  As we trickle down further through time, we come to my brother.  If there is one thing that has brought my little brother and I closer, it is our love of hunting and bowhunting in particular.  I’m not saying we wouldn’t be close without those things, but I question how our relationship would be if they were absent of it.  It seems like every time we see one another, the upcoming seasons are brought up, and with it, everything that revolves around them.  I look forward to those little chit chats and seem to engage in them every chance I get.  Jake went from being my annoying little brother to my most loyal and driven hunting partner.

with great sacrifice, comes great reward

– Unknown

Aside from family, hunting has shined light on the quote “with great sacrifice, comes great reward.”  I knew what that meant, but had never been slammed in the face with it until I started hunting.  The more effort I put into a hunt, the more rewarding it is in the end.  That doesn’t mean that as long as I put in hard work, I’m gonna fill my tag.  For me, it means that I will come out of that experience with way more than I went in with.  Not all rewards on a hunt have a trail of blood that is linked to them.

Lastly, I cannot ask myself this question without talking about the meat.  The organic protein that we acquire in the field is what made me make the decision to really dive head first into hunting and look at it as more than the annual deer hunts I was going on.  I had the goal of providing myself and future children, should they decide to eat meat, with the most free range, organic protein on the planet.  For me, with age has come more concern for my overall health.  Every year that goes by, I care more and more about what I put into my body and physical fitness.  I am by no means a professional athlete, but am someone who has started to train regularly and cares more and more about nutrition.  If you have never experienced what it’s like to sit down and eat something that you put so much effort into harvesting, you are indeed missing out.  It really brings everything full circle and makes you appreciate that animal and those experiences even more.

Now, that I’ve gone through all of that, I want to change the first word that comes to my mind, when asked this question, from “tradition” to “GRATEFUL.”  I am truly grateful for all of these things that hunting has given me to this point.  From life lessons to a healthier lifestyle, I look forward to what the future holds.  Remember though, that there is no future of hunting without us.  Use the things that hunting has given you as a driving force to keep it alive and well.  Speak out when needed, and educate others when you can.  Now, it’s your turn.  What has hunting given you?

Last September I decided to do something that I had been dreaming about for years, but never had the nerve to pull the trigger on.  I went on my first out of state hunt for elk in the backcountry of Colorado.  That might not seem like a big deal to a lot of you, but for me it was.  It made me leave the comforts of my home state in Arizona and the hunting grounds that I’ve grown so familiar with.  These are the spots that have helped me grow as a hunter.  Within them, I’ve had more “firsts” than I can recall at this moment, which is probably why I’ve become so attached.  They’ve also beaten me into the dirt more times than I can count.  My decision to “fly the coop” was an intimidating one, but one that I don’t regret a single bit.  Being a new elk hunter, on top of being new to backpack hunting, weighed heavily in the back of my mind.  Would I even be able to find elk?  Did I have what it takes to stay over a week in Colorado’s backcountry?  After getting over the hullabaloo and actually making this hunt happen, I came away with way more than I thought.  The accomplishment I felt once I got back to my truck, knowing that I just did what I did was incredible.