I would say skip all the bs,it’s overwhelming with all the new gear.I still shoot a switchback xt because I want to,no other reason.All good advice above.Safety is paramount.If your not comfortable yet just buy a blind and ground hunt.Or a couple cheap ladder stands.
Any cheap pack works.
Wear some good backpacking clothes and buy a asat leafy suit to go over it.That way you can also utilize the clothes in off season.
Harness
Phone charger
onx and compass
Range finder
Boots
Headlamp
I agree completely. This is a new hunter and it's whitetail. There is very little you need to kill whitetail. 99% of the junk you see out there is for specialization going after that 1% biggest buck out there where no mistakes can be made.
You honestly don't "need" anything but something lethal, in this case a bow, whatever you need to be legal, probably an orange vest, and the rest you likely already have.
You don't need a fancy meat hauling backpack. It is possible you can find public land big enough to justify such a thing, for your first time you can get by with almost nothing. I own a good pack, and I don't remember the last time I've ever used it for whitetails. If you are within a half mile of a road, the best thing is a sled. One of those cheap kids sleds work. I use a Jet sled. A lot of people just get a buddy and drag them out.
You don't need any of that scent junk. Nothing works better for clothes than washing with water and baking soda, then air drying outside for a couple day. I'm not convinced that scent elimination spray does anything at all. When I take a shower, I just don't use soap. Same with wind direction checkers. Great things to use. Not super important for beginners. Lots of free options you can use in the wild.
Unless you are really getting in somewhere deep, which I would not recommend a novice do, you don't need a map and compass. Most people couldn't use them if they had to anyway. Keeping track of good topo maps is a PITA. I use them for huge tracts of lands, measured in millions of acres. I'm not using them to hunt a 300 acre section of public WIA. You don't need OnX, but I highly suggest you do get that. I'm sure Huntstand or whatever others are out there are good too. I've only used OnX. I would be really nerfed without it.
Rangefinder, you probably want. Not a lot of reasons to not have one with a bow. A reliable headlamp is a very great thing to have, I'll actually put that in a must have. Not a $10 store thing. Get something that will work when you need it. My favorite is the Princetontec Vizz. Great cheaper option that punches well above its cost.
Clothes, unless you plan on bow hunting late season, I wouldn't worry about it. Whitetails can't see for squat. If you don't move, they cant see you if you are dressed in 100% solid blaze orange from 10 yards away. They use their noses, a little of their ears, eyes are almost useless besides you moving. In the early season you are going to be just fine with what you already have. Basic cotton pants and shirt, cheap long underwear helps regulate temp. Cotton hoodies are fine. You will probably want some insulated boots if you don't have them.
Once you shoot a deer, some people bring out the kitchen sink, I don't. Rubber gloves are fine if you feel you want them. I never use any. Don't waste money on those garbage knife kits. Buy one good knife. A Buck 110 is as good as it ever was, it's all I use. I even got the drop point blade version which I prefer. You probably have a kitchen knife at home that is good enough for cutting them up the rest of the way. There is no need for saws for gutting deer. A single knife will gut and quarter a deer with no issues. Splitting a pelvic bone seems so pointless to me. No need to split rib cages, just reach in there. No need for winches or any of that other stuff. You don't even need to hang the deer if you don't want to, but it can be helpful if you have a garage. When I was living in an apartment, and even when I just rented a basement, I quartered my deer on the ground and carried them to the kitchen. I still don't own a winch, although it's not a bad thing to have. I just use a gambrel I made, and a ratchet strap. You are giving up a lot if you don't have a meat grinder. There's a lot of trim meat that is simply better ground up and used for other things. A jerky cutting board is cheap and works great for slicing jerky too.
That's about all you need to buy, everything else can be worked out.
in the tree
