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Deer Hunting Essentials: ONLY the gear you need!
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May 22, 2024
This video is about essential deer hunting gear. Simon has been hunting deer for some time, and has tested all kinds of gear. Whether you're new to hunting or have been hunting for a long time and are looking to trim down your gear weight, here is Simon's list of the bare essential gear you need. In this video: 0:00 - Simon's Experience 0:32 - The best pack for deer hunting 3:30 - Morning pre-hunt routine and gear 7:25 - Ammo Pouch 8:25 - Did you say "pillow case"? 9:17 - Kill Pockets 17:41 - Face Black 19:00 - Main Pocket
View Video Transcript
0:00
What's up everybody it's Simon from Lake Ebb. It is hunting season and it's time
0:04
to talk about what to put in your deer hunting pack. This is a gear video. First
0:12
off I want to tell you I've been hunting white-tail deer for about 12 years now
0:17
and I've tried it all. I've tried small packs, I've tried big packs, I've tried
0:23
backpacks, small backpacks, big backpacks, and I'm here to tell you that there is
0:29
nothing that beats going really lightweight with a waist pack. Now this
0:34
is a heavy-duty waist pack right. Some might call it a fanny pack but it's
0:43
useful. It's really practical. Here's why. When I say heavy-duty what I mean is
0:50
really big. So this is padded and when I hike this thing sits on my lower back. So
0:58
I have it cinched around my waist like your actual waist, like belly button
1:03
your waist, not riding on your hips. Now when I'm sitting I loosen it, flip it
1:09
around, and everything sits right here like this. And this is why waist packs
1:15
are better than backpacks. Unless you're gonna be in the field from dawn to dusk
1:19
and you need food and you need changes of clothes and all that kind of stuff
1:23
unless you need all that gear, this is the way to go. Public land, private land
1:31
archery, rifle, muzzleloader, doesn't matter if you're hunting deer. This is the way to go. Everything sits right here and this is like your workstation
1:42
You can sit with your hands like this. Of course you're gonna be camoed out
1:47
right. You can have sleeves and gloves and this thing's all camoed out and
1:51
you're gonna be head to toe, you're gonna be camoed out. Sit like this, minimal
1:55
movements to get things you need. So what I do is in the morning, this is kind of
2:01
my prep side, except for I've got my face paint over here, but this is
2:07
this is my morning prep right. This is my ammo. I've got this kind of half cracked
2:11
open. I've got this main compartment is open and then all my stuff that I might
2:18
need to grab in a pinch is right here. Now I arrange it in such a way that
2:22
doesn't rattle. You can kind of hear things are kind of rattling a little bit
2:26
That's not normally the way it is when I'm sitting down hunting. You know
2:30
whether you're spot and stalking or you just post up on a tree for a little while
2:36
you're in a tree stand, you're in a box blind, whatever the case, you're gonna be
2:40
sitting still for some period of time if you're deer hunting. So everything is
2:45
right here. If I need a grunt call, it's right here. If I need to rattle, it's
2:52
right here. If I need to throw a little scent, I think I'm about to get winded
2:55
that's all right here. Right? So this is like your workstation. This is why it
3:01
turns out so great to use these waist packs rather than a big clunky backpack
3:06
full of stuff. There's something in the very bottom of which, you know, which
3:11
pocket is it. It's all the way in the bottom. You're fishing around, you can't find it, you're making a lot of motion, making a lot of noise. No good. Right? So I'll
3:21
kind of go through, I'm gonna go through chronologically how I use this pack. So
3:29
put it back up here so you can see. Step one, usually I'm doing this in the dark
3:36
right? If it's a morning hunt, it's some face paint. So I'm gonna put on some
3:42
eye black, but I'm also gonna show you a new technique I used that I'm
3:47
going to be using this upcoming season. I have a couple different methods here
3:51
I've got this one which is like your military style, right? Your OD
3:55
green, your brown, and your kind of tan. The tan, it's like almost the same
4:00
value, you know, as my skin here. And so that doesn't really do me a lot of good
4:05
And there's not enough contrast in here. This is good for turkey hunting if you're
4:09
trying to really blend in, you know, you're really trying to blend in. But for
4:13
deer, I just need to, I just need to break up my pale cheeks and my nose, my giant
4:22
Welsh nose. Like that's all I really need to do. So when I'm settling in, usually in
4:27
the dark, I'm going like this, like that. And that's how I do it. Sometimes I go like this, depending on what I'm wearing
4:38
If I'm wearing a hat with a lobe, you know, the reason why I do flat
4:42
brims is because I've got a really wide head and I wear glasses and all my
4:47
glasses are wide and a curved bill sits on top of my glasses and drives me crazy
4:51
right? So I wear a flat bill, then I can wear my glasses and they all, they kind of
4:57
just fit really well together. But if you're in a shadowed place and
5:02
you've got your bill down low, you don't really need to mark this spot. Otherwise
5:05
maybe you do. And sometimes I'll do this, you know, it depends on how intense I'm feeling today. So there we go. I'll paint it up. This gets zipped up. Done for the day
5:17
I have my headlamp in here. Right now it's in my fishing gear because I haven't
5:22
been hunting yet. But I'm actually gonna be upgrading and so I'm gonna be on the
5:28
market. If you guys have a headlamp that you love, I'm looking for a red and a
5:34
white light, high beam, low beam on both red and white. And just something really
5:40
dependable. My last one was really good but the battery cover clip broke and it
5:45
drives me crazy when something is perfectly good but something dumb like a little clip breaks and then renders it unusable. Almost. I'm using it
5:56
with a rubber band right now. It's really janky. It works but it's like I'm gonna
6:01
put in some hard hours this year hunting and I want to make sure that my
6:05
light is really really dialed. Especially because I jumped some hogs in the dark
6:10
last year. Thankfully it was a full moon and no clouds and I saw them before they
6:15
saw me. So yeah I'm really gonna make sure I've got some good light this year
6:20
Alright so this is my face coverings right. So I've got all my face stuff in
6:26
here. So it really depends situationally whether I use this or not. Most of the
6:34
time I'm gonna go hat and maybe I'll have a bandana around my neck. My beard's
6:39
getting long and kind of covering my neck now and I've got some nice camo on my
6:43
beard already anyway right. So it's all good. But sometimes I'll go tie a bandana
6:49
around my neck and just depends. I've got my gloves. I've got some black gloves. I
6:55
keep a couple pairs now because my kids and I don't have my camo gloves in here
7:00
That's whoo. I better prep. Better prep up. So these are kid sized gloves. Black
7:06
camo gloves. Like it's all good either way. Got some teepee because it's deer
7:15
hunting you know. That happens. More face coverings. So this is my, these are my
7:24
face and glove bags right here. Alright moving on. This is always my ammo pouch
7:30
So this gets emptied and filled back up again depending on whether I'm hunting
7:37
this type of land or that type of land. If it needs to be shotgun or if it needs
7:40
to be rifle. You don't, if you're hunting public land with a shotgun and it's very
7:46
restrictive you don't want to be caught with with any any centerfire rifle ammo
7:52
at all. So this this stays it stays empty because all my gear lives in my
7:58
garage and I don't want my ammo to be that hot and that cold. As hot as it gets
8:04
in Texas that's where I live. My ammo does not live in my garage with you know
8:09
125 degrees or whatever it ends up being in the middle of the day inside my
8:14
garage. So this bag lives empty and it gets supplied and then and then put away
8:21
with each and every trip. Okay these two, alright I'll go I'm gonna go back up to
8:28
this one right here. So this is a pillowcase. I've found this to be handy
8:33
situationally if I'm hunting blind and I need to block out the Sun or I need to
8:38
block out my silhouette of my head. Again this is very situational. It's just a
8:43
black pillowcase. We used to have black sheets and you know they were worn out
8:49
whatever so they went into the garage for drop cloths. Black pillowcase went
8:53
into my bag and I use trail tags because I keep trail tags in here so I use trail
8:57
tags if I need it. So it's there if I need it. This this one hardly ever gets
9:01
used but it's there if I need it. And then all my while I'm hunting stuff is
9:06
here in this main compartment. There's a couple pockets in here so there's this
9:10
kind of mesh stitched up to make you know two pockets full of all my small
9:14
stuff. And then these are my kill bags. So if I bag something everything I need
9:24
is in here or in here. So I have here's here's my trail tags. These are super
9:31
handy for if you've marked a spot out being able to put these in spots so that
9:38
usually I put them down low not to give away all my secrets but usually I put
9:43
them down low on the base of the tree because when I'm walking I'm trying to keep my light out of the woods. You don't want you don't want to be blasting the
9:49
woods with your with your headlamp right? So you put it red light low low beam
9:54
straight down so I'll tack the bottom of a tree if I need to turn here and cut
10:00
this way going to the woods or whatever. So I've got my trail tags. Got some
10:05
bigger trail tags. I really don't I don't use these as much. In fact I might just
10:09
lighten my load here or combine these two into one case. I think I'm gonna do
10:14
that this year. Alright so what do we need? We kill what do we need? First
10:19
thing we need to do is tag it right? Tag it and bag it. So I don't I put these
10:26
gloves in here and then I never use them. I don't use gloves I just I just get
10:30
bloody it's fine. So I've got I've got a pen here right so I'm actually gonna put
10:40
that no I I'm gonna keep it in here because sometimes I use it for notes and
10:44
stuff so I keep it handy. I have zip ties several sizes for tagging to antlers or
10:53
it's a doe. What I do is tag either either cut a hole in the ear and then
11:03
zip tie it into the ear or just put the tag inside and zip tie it really tight
11:07
and then tape it. So this is a q-tip right it's just q-tip with duct tape
11:13
This is a really really hander handy prepper technique. So you can throw these
11:19
in every single glove box that you have. That's what I've done and I have a
11:24
couple different sizes here a couple different types of tape. Oh and some foil
11:34
look at me look at me go. Alright so I've got a lot of duct tape here this is in
11:40
my kill bag here and then I've got my all my backup stuff here. So more duct
11:44
tape on q-tips just take it off the roll roll it up now you've got a couple
11:50
feet of duct tape. You never know what you can use that for right that's always
11:54
gonna be handy and it takes up so little space this is this is like probably like
12:00
five or six feet of duct tape right a little tiny space. So that's super handy
12:05
same thing with tinfoil you never knew know what you might need to use tinfoil
12:10
for. You might even just need to make something reflective to get somebody's
12:15
attention if you need help right. So this this it's packs down so small you might as
12:23
well throw some in your pack. Might need to fashion a little bowl and make some water
12:27
and like an extreme extreme you know emergency situation if you're on the way
12:32
out in the boonies which a whistle is also good for. Okay so we've tagged I've
12:42
also got a measuring tape this is for sewing right so it's a fabric measuring
12:51
tape got this at an estate sale I'm not gonna totally unravel it because it's
12:55
like I have it like all nice and tidy but you get the idea right it's a sewing
12:59
measuring tape so if you have some kind of size restriction in Texas there's a
13:05
very common 13 inch spread roll inside the main beam and so you know tag it
13:11
because that's first thing you gotta do then measure it find out how much trouble
13:16
you're about to be in but honestly make sure you know what you're shooting at
13:20
before you before you pull that trigger anyway. So that lives in here takes up
13:26
little tiny bit of space before I found this because this is these are like
13:30
dime a dozen it at estate sales just because not as many people are into
13:35
sewing you know and so old folks pass away we sell their stuff to the state
13:39
sales all the high dollar stuff gets all the attention and then like little
13:43
sewing kits and stuff like that just don't you know so I mean you can literally you can give a nickel for this at an estate sale you can buy it online
13:50
too. So I've got my gloves I've got you know some more toilet paper because why
13:58
not and then my sharpening stone so on my body I'm going to have a belt
14:05
on my pants I'm on that belt I'm gonna have my buck 110 model in a sheath
14:13
because that requires a sheath there's no pocket clip and then that's gonna be
14:18
only for cleaning I only clean with that I don't touch anything else with it
14:22
which keeps the blade really nice and sharp I still give it a couple passes on
14:25
this fine fine ceramic side right here so one two three four five and then I
14:33
have another pocket knife that's a little bit more of like a utility kind
14:37
of beater you know tough knife folding knife that goes into my hip pocket right
14:42
here if I'm bushwhacking I've got a machete hanging off of that belt and
14:47
then this goes over top of it like a gun well like a gun belt you know like
14:51
John Wayne style all right so after after it's tagged then it's dragged
15:04
right tag it bag it and drag it so this is just a very simple deer drag and I
15:11
mean you could do the same thing with with like a tie-down strap like a like
15:15
a spare tie-down strap or something like that but it's just got a loop on
15:19
each end and you know you can basically you can throw this I think there's a why
15:23
actually let's find out I can't remember having to use this in a while nope just
15:29
a loop so one thing you can do is feed it through like that I think this is
15:39
what I did last time I use this just throw it over your shoulder and then
15:45
this loop you know you can kind of do the same thing or tie it off or go over
15:50
one of the antlers or whatever and basically just you know drag the deer by
15:57
the head so that's if you need to get it out of the gully if you have a long way
16:05
to go before you get back to the trail to a vehicle or ATV or whatever your
16:10
situation is depending on you know where you're at and and what the kill is what
16:18
the kill situation is you might be inclined to just clean it right there on
16:23
the spot you know some people would rather do that and and save a little bit
16:27
of effort you do risk getting your meat dirty if you have a good way to clean
16:33
wherever you get back then that could save a lot of effort if you have to go you know a long ways if you have to pack this animal out it might be the way to
16:41
go clean it in the field so it's you know it's not as easy as hanging it but
16:48
it's not too bad I have a really kind of simple inexpensive hoist and gambrel
16:54
system it's a basically like a metal coat hanger with a pulley you know you
16:59
can throw that in any tree and hang them up and clean them so that might be
17:04
something to wear run back to the truck grab your hoist and gambrel and go out clean them drag it all right let's look inside here so I've got my headlamp I
17:15
also have a backup flashlight this one is really good this has got a high beam
17:19
low beam white and it also has a red light which the reason why I use red is
17:25
because four-legged critters they can't see the red light as near as well as
17:30
white light so red light green light are both you know almost like a camel light
17:36
like a mysterious weird I'm not exactly sure how it works but that's what they
17:42
say forgot to mention my new face black tech technique so again if you're pale
17:50
like me you need to kind of darken it up a little bit get a little contrast in
17:54
there so you're not just blasting white face and then in the woods learn this
17:58
from a duck guy last winter real cork it's got to be real cork light it on
18:03
fire and then it turns to ash you just brush that on your face light it again
18:08
do it again good to go you don't have this messy you know messy cleanup that
18:15
you have with with grease based you know this is what I normally use it's just
18:19
you know football player you know get it in the athletic department kind of deal
18:24
baseball player regular old-school greasy I black that's what normally is I've been using it for years but yeah it's really hard to wipe off doesn't
18:34
always wipe off you know and then you could just tell that you had it on you
18:38
know all day so this ash from cork it's just you can almost brush all of it off
18:45
you know of course the downside is if you sit there messing with your face all day then eventually it's gonna go away but that happens with the grease anyway
18:53
except you get grease all over everything so there's a little tip for
18:58
you all right back to the main compartment so got a flashlight also
19:03
keep these good because this soft glasses case with a microfiber inside
19:09
two reasons one I know my microfiber is in there to our glasses so I'm either
19:15
wearing my regular glasses or my sunglasses whichever one's not on my face goes in here that way it's not clinging around making noise or
19:23
flashing a you know reflections or anything like that hanging off me so
19:27
lives in my pack even if you don't wear regular glasses you can have sunglasses
19:31
ready to go in your pack and I use the soft case because quite open quite
19:38
close doesn't take up a lot of space when I'm don't have any glasses there
19:41
anyway all right I've got some other goodies so of course I I shared my
19:46
grunt call you know rattling these are a couple there's a shed and then you
19:54
know from a spike shot a couple years ago but you know you can get something
19:58
bigger if you want to fit it in your pack or like those rattling bags if you
20:02
want to try to stir up a book got a snort wheeze I've been snorted at and
20:10
you know we use that haven't really got anyone's attention with this one yet but
20:16
I'm gonna keep trying I have a dough bleat right other kind of random stuff
20:25
I've got in here and this is this has just kind of been adding up over time
20:29
you know I've got a turkey call I don't know just in case or maybe to try to
20:36
sound like part of the woods you know it's just kind of in there was an extra
20:41
and so I had it in there I've got some spare batteries for my flashlight my
20:44
headlamp I've got a spirit carabiner this is the old one I had on here but
20:53
it's too shiny so I found this one at a dollar store three pack of plastic ones
21:00
OD brown and then forest green and this is what I think my water bottle on my
21:06
Nalgene bottle y'all been watching for a while you know I love my Nalgene and so
21:10
this hangs off my pack right off the side and that's how I carry my water got
21:16
32 ounces that's usually more than enough again if you're out there all day
21:20
all night I'm gonna be backpacking it right but if you're just hunting morning
21:26
you're having a session you're hunting you know evening or whatever clip the
21:30
water bottle on right here all good on the other side I've got my rangefinder
21:34
now this is not velcro this is a snap which is nice because you can open it
21:38
quietly but that said you you don't want to be range finding a deer you want to
21:46
have done all your range finding before you see deer so have your landmarks you
21:52
know called out your mind like yes I can hit that no I can cannot hit that yes I
21:57
can hit that that tree that Ridge that rock whatever it is have it all mapped
22:03
out in your head know your limitations and know your range so that you can just
22:08
focus on is that a legal buck or is that a legal deer is it a good deer do I want
22:15
that deer can I hit that deer right those are the only questions that should
22:19
be in your mind not how far away is it okay so take one variable out of the
22:24
whole equation because sometimes you really only do have seconds of opportunity literally seconds so don't eat up your seconds trying to sit there
22:34
and wait for your rangefinder to compute okay don't do that I've got another pen
22:40
because sometimes you know one type of pen or another will freeze depending on
22:45
how cold it is so I like having a felt tip and then a ballpoint both because
22:51
you got to be able to fill that tag out I've got some ear protection I'm firing
22:57
one shot I'm not wearing ears but if I'm firing I'm planning on firing several
23:02
then yeah I've got ears I've got a little spare you know kind of freebie
23:06
Swiss Army knockoff knife that's another just-in-case item this is a dental mirror
23:13
now this is one of those things where now you're probably gonna go what
23:17
because so far I'm the only hunter I know who uses a dental mirror and no it's
23:24
not to age score the deer on their teeth which is a thing you can do if
23:31
you know how to do it that's not what this is for this is my rearview mirror
23:34
so most often I'm gonna be hunting a box blind and I have a blind spot pun
23:41
intended very much so and so I got a cheap little dental mirror and then just
23:47
kind of you know hit it with some spray paint sharpie or whatever and just to
23:51
make sure it's not like a it's not blasting me from the front you know I
23:55
only use it if there's no deer in front of me anyway but here's what I do I put
24:00
it up if there's if I hear a crack of a branch or I think there's a deer behind
24:04
me then I kind of back it up a little bit I hold it close to me I put it up to
24:09
my eye and then you go like this the closer to your eye the less movement you
24:14
have to do the more field of vision you get from it you just and then maybe a
24:20
little bit more if you need to that away you can see all the way behind you
24:25
without turning your head without moving a muscle from here on up right so I keep
24:33
that handy I just fold it like this and it's right here in my pack if I ever
24:37
need it it really wasn't that expensive all right I also carry a backup skinning knife just in case for some reason you
24:52
know I don't I forgot to put you know my buck knife on my hip or something like
24:57
that so at least I know I have a lightweight skinning knife in my pack
25:03
and then finally I have this little tiny bungee cord and the reason why I have
25:10
this here is because I wear my binoculars with shoulder straps and
25:15
they're big heavy binoculars they're great binoculars they're Nikon's 10 to 22 zoom 50 millimeter downrange lens and they're great but you know I'm six foot
25:30
four and I have like you know a stride that's like eight feet long or whatever
25:34
and they just bounce and they bounce and they bounce and they bounce and they
25:38
bounce so when I'm hiking let's take this take that clip clip and it stops
25:44
bouncing so if you're wondering what the bungee cords for that's what it's for
25:48
this is my hunting pack and this is everything you need for a successful deer
25:53
hunt and that's it I'm Simon with Lake Hub we'll catch you next time
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