Pro Tips and Hacks thread

[Maddog58]

Do not bury your first aid kit down in your pack. Have it labeled and easy to get to. Someone having to sift through your pack after you cracked your skull open and are unconscious and need immediate aid sucks. Ask me how I know.

I keep my tourniquet strapped to my pack strap. No time to waste if needed

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

I keep my tourniquet strapped to my pack strap. No time to waste if needed

Yep. In bino harness for me.

 

[Poser]

Wow I've never seen any such thing before. You carry a whole extra water bottle for this purpose, then?

I do, yes. I carry a small, 6 oz bottle that’s crushed up. Been using it for ~5 years. A lot of hardcore bidet users just use their drinking bottle. I’m good on that.

 

[satchamo]

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

I hear stuff like this all the time…. Are there really people out looking for stickers and following people to the trailhead? Seems a bit paranoid but I’m open to changing my mind

 

[Poser]

I hear stuff like this all the time…. Are there really people out looking for stickers and following people to the trailhead? Seems a bit paranoid but I’m open to changing my mind

I certainly take a mental note when I see vehicle with hunting stickers parked somewhere unusual.

 

[Tony Nile]

I hear stuff like this all the time…. Are there really people out looking for stickers and following people to the trailhead? Seems a bit paranoid but I’m open to changing my mind

It's also a good way to advertise:

"Hey, scumbag!!! there is probably expensive stuff in this truck or the house it's sometimes parked in front of."

 

[Chris in TN]

I'm going to share a shoe-tying tip. This may seem elementary to you guys but it has helped me a lot. I figured it out when I had an outside job that involved a lot of brush-walking.

Most people tie their shoes in a manner similar to this. Either this knot or a variant thereof, and of course there are better knots, but let's go with this:



No matter what knot you might use to tie your shoes, I figured out that the laces being exposed was still a weakness.

So I started tying like this:

Same knot, but now the knot is aligned with the seam between boot and tongue. Note that it's on the inner gap, not the outer gap. So it's on the right side of a left boot in this picture, but would be on the left side of a right boot. The boot laces themselves are fairly loose (which is more of a shoe-fit and break-in thing) but the knot is still pretty tight. Again, you can do this with other knots. I took the photos for illustration only. It isn't about the knot. It's about the extra knot and loop ends of the laces:


Take the entire loose ball of stuff and stuff it deep into the boot. You'll never feel it with decently broke-in shoes, and even in heavier brush, most of us will tend to step in such a way that most brush rubs against the outside of our legs as we sidestep it, and not much actually slides between our legs, so this whole knot and loops assembly is largely protected from being ripped apart by brush because the brush is usually hitting the left side of your left boot and this is hiding over on the right side. My boots almost always stay tied all day this way. Again, I know this is the internet and someone will critique the knot. It's not about the knot, it's about tucking the laces out of the way. Knots would be a separate, worthy discussion.

 

[UKwildcatfan]

I tie a double knot, never had a boot come untied.

 

[SonnyDay]

I think I posted this once in one of the other tips threads… But that white powder on the south side of aspen bark can be used as sunscreen if you end up without some and you’re out in the sun all day…

 

[HDwild]

Instead of jumping on every new piece of gear, elk bugles, newfangled gadget, etc- work on improving your hunter skillset and being a better woodsman.

That's not as exciting as a shiny new sleeping bag that will guarantee that I'm able to spend 69 days in the back-est backcountry, enabling me to kill a slammer every season... haha

 

[IdahoHntr]

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.

Used to do this. One better for me is freezing cases of water, if you have the room. Fill your cooler with as many water bottles as can fit and they stay froze just as long, and when you have meat in there it’s super easy to pack the frozen bottles around the meat and get it cold quickly. Also has the benefit of not getting your meat all wet like normal ice.