Pro Tips and Hacks thread

[Poser]

Here's my latest and greatest:

1. Pork Rinds. Pour a bunch into a ziplock bag, go ahead and crush them up because they are going to get crushed anyway. If you don't crunch them all up, guaranteed you'll end up eating them ALL while waiting for your meal to rehydrate and then you won't have any left. Ask me how I know.
Just before you eat, pour the pork rind crumbs into your dehydrated/freeze dried meal. Enjoy. Its like having croutons on a salad with a great texture plus extra fat and extra calories. Super lightweight.

2. Can't believe it took me until recently to figure this out. When you get back to your vehicle after days, weeks, miles, thousands of feet of whatever you've been doing, and you have a 1,2,3+ hour drive home where you are invariably going to step out of your vehicle all tight with achy feet, joints, muscles and not feel like dealing with your gear, just go ahead and take your regular dose of IB Proffen before you start driving. No aches, pains and tightness once you get home and much more motivated to put your gear away and deal with whatever else you need to deal with.


What do you have?

 

[stank.243]

I might be slow, but I read this one on here and was shocked how well it worked.
If you're going to load up coolers with bags of ice buy them a couple days early and put them in your freezer at home. They last so much longer than if you just buy them at the gas station and put them in the cooler.

 

[vladkgb]

Some things that improved my camp experience last year:

Boil food in a bag - take food from home like taco meat, chilli, eggs, lasagna etc put 1 serving into freezer bags (important), bring a 2qt pot, boil enough water to cover the contents of the bag, once its boiling, put the bag in for 10 minutes, and you're done. A lot less mess to clean up. My favorite was 3 egg omlete in a bag, with feta, bacon bits, pre-cooked peppers and onions and Mexican seasoning.

Turn your tent into a bed roll - I used a BA copper spur UL2 for camping by the jeep last year, and just rolled up the sleeping bag, pad, pillow into the inner fly, and used some bungees to hold it together. I can just get to a spot, put on the tent poles and inflate the pad and i'm ready for bed.

Make a dehydrated meal cozy out of reflectix material - pretty easy to do, many youtubes on this, and it works well.

 

[FlyGuy]

I added a Mountain Stick to my kit a few years ago, it replaced one of my trekking poles. It’s a little weight penalty, but worth it IMO.

I don’t typically use poles for walking except for small sections of very tricky terrain or when packing in/out heavy. The 1 mtn stick 1 trekking pole combo does this equally as well as two trekking poles. I do use them for pitching my tarp each night.

But the greatest thing about the Mountain stick is how easy it is to level out a sleeping area. Like - Very level. Completely Free of any & all rocks, roots, Plant root wads, etc. I sleep soooooo much better since I started taking this in with me.

It’s also a great little tool for resting your binos on for quick glassing stops (I don’t typically carry a tripod or spotter when elk hunting), for adding a quick and shallow water trench on the uphill side of the shelter in a bad storm, and as a decent impromptu bear defense tool (not really, but it makes me feel better at night having it in arms reach since I don’t carry a sidearm).

 

[TripleJ]

I vacuum seal my game bags into a compact watertight package. I have one I pack for elk hunting and a smaller one for deer hunting, with enough bags in each for quarters and loose meat. It's amazing how small and compact they will shrink down, and it's also nice to not worry about them getting wet in my pack if I'm hunting in wet weather.

 

[HuntHarder]

Frozen 2 litre jugs And 16oz waterbottles trump bagged ice after the kill. I typically fill up my "kill" ice chest with both. They keep your meat dry, cold and are easily able to be stuffed inside cape to cool.

Alot of guys do this, but I usually hit a QT gas station on my way out town and grab lots of little hot sauce packets for my freeze dried meals. Makes then exponentially better imo.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

I might be slow, but I read this one on here and was shocked how well it worked.
If you're going to load up coolers with bags of ice buy them a couple days early and put them in your freezer at home. They last so much longer than if you just buy them at the gas station and put them in the cooler.

Even better.

Freeze one gallon water jugs after you’ve poured the top 10% out of them. Fill the cooler all the way up with jugs even if you don’t have room for them once the meat is in there.

They last WAY longer than bagged ice, don’t make a watery mess, and you don’t have to buy ice anymore.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

I added a Mountain Stick to my kit a few years ago, it replaced one of my trekking poles. It’s a little weight penalty, but worth it IMO.

I don’t typically use poles for walking except for small sections of very tricky terrain or when packing in/out heavy. The 1 mtn stick 1 trekking pole combo does this equally as well as two trekking poles. I do use them for pitching my tarp each night.

But the greatest thing about the Mountain stick is how easy it is to level out a sleeping area. Like - Very level. Completely Free of any & all rocks, roots, Plant root wads, etc. I sleep soooooo much better since I started taking this in with me.

It’s also a great little tool for resting your binos on for quick glassing stops (I don’t typically carry a tripod or spotter when elk hunting), for adding a quick and shallow water trench on the uphill side of the shelter in a bad storm, and as a decent impromptu bear defense tool (not really, but it makes me feel better at night having it in arms reach since I don’t carry a sidearm).

I also don’t use trekking poles. If I’m going up or down something steep enough that I need the assistance I’ve always been able to find a @robby denning patented “walking stick”.



I use a quick attach/detach Spartan bipod with my guns that stays strapped to my pack for quick access. I can build seated or kneeling shot positions with it quicker than trekking poles or shooting sticks. They use a 3 tiered carbon long leg for each side. They unscrew from the Spartan “head” and become my two tarp or tent poles at night when using a tarp or shelter. My wife sewed in a female threaded reinforced codura slot into the inside ends of my Kifaru Aegis and other shelters to receive the poles.

Preset to my seated off pack shot height…





Fully extended for beet high kneeling or squatted standing shots, or super steep terrain needs for downhill shots. One leg unscrewed with no tool needed.



Threaded end that screws into shelter pockets to make a frame or teepee style shelters.

 

[judders87]

Apply seam seal silicone to the bottom of your sleeping pad to keep it from slipping around on the floor of your tent.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

I vacuum seal a lot of stuff. One of them that is great is to vacuum seal clorox wipes to clean up after gutting/butchering. DO NOT use them to wipe your butt though. You will only do that once.

 

[svivian]

Frozen 2 litre jugs And 16oz waterbottles trump bagged ice after the kill. I typically fill up my "kill" ice chest with both. They keep your meat dry, cold and are easily able to be stuffed inside cape to cool.

Alot of guys do this, but I usually hit a QT gas station on my way out town and grab lots of little hot sauce packets for my freeze dried meals. Makes then exponentially better imo.

Throw in some salt and shake before freezing if you want them to be even colder. We used to freeze beer on rafting trips in college this way.

 

[cnelk]

If you’re going to seam seal your tent or tipi, set it up inside out.

That way the outside seams will be on the inside and easy to reach.

 

[Jimmy]

Don't cover your hunting vehicle in hunting bumper stickers. It's like putting up a huge sign, DECENT BUCKS RIGHT OVER THIS HILL COME JOIN ME

 

[robby denning]

I also don’t use trekking poles. If I’m going up or down something steep enough that I need the assistance I’ve always been able to find a @robby denning patented “walking stick”.

View attachment 906963

......

and they're free! lol

 

[robby denning]

If you’re going to seam seal your tent or tipi, set it up inside out.

That way the outside seams will be on the inside and easy to reach.

I wish I would have seen this 10 years ago

 

[vladkgb]

Another hack i ran last year was the beast adapter behind my FHF FOB bino harness. I mounted my holster and ran my Glock 20, and my knife behind the bino harness. Easy access right in front of you and out of the way. I used to run a drop leg holster which sucked.

 

[Hunt eat repeat]

Stop using tape to attach tags to an animal. Use vet wrap. You can actually remove it without destroying your tag.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Stop using tape to attach tags to an animal. Use vet wrap. You can actually remove it without destroying your tag.

I now take reusable zip ties.

 

[paulgibbs01]

Some things that improved my camp experience last year:

Boil food in a bag - take food from home like taco meat, chilli, eggs, lasagna etc put 1 serving into freezer bags (important), bring a 2qt pot, boil enough water to cover the contents of the bag, once its boiling, put the bag in for 10 minutes, and you're done. A lot less mess to clean up. My favorite was 3 egg omlete in a bag, with feta, bacon bits, pre-cooked peppers and onions and Mexican seasoning.

Turn your tent into a bed roll - I used a BA copper spur UL2 for camping by the jeep last year, and just rolled up the sleeping bag, pad, pillow into the inner fly, and used some bungees to hold it together. I can just get to a spot, put on the tent poles and inflate the pad and i'm ready for bed.

Make a dehydrated meal cozy out of reflectix material - pretty easy to do, many youtubes on this, and it works well.

That’s a great meal tip. I am absolutely going to try this for a hunt or more this fall!

 

[KBC]

I had a squeaky boot and puffed some wind checker in between the tongue and the overlap where the laces went through in the squeaky spot and it didn’t squeak anymore.