I was reading through the buy once cry once thread and it made me think of all of the awesome gear I've wasted money on that really has given me zero advantage over my older cheaper gear.
Here is the list for me;
Seek outside floorless shelter with lite outdoors stove. Haven't used it or needed any more than my regular $50 lightweight backpacking tent with seam sealer and silicon spray.
Custom 280AI, it's fun to hit steel at 1K but even though it's killed a dozen animals in the last 6 years none have been much over 200 and it isn't any more effective at those ranges than the hand me down 30-06 I got from my father.
Hoyt RX4 / Carbon Spyder, I spent as much on my last two bows as a custom rifle costs, they are awesome bows and I love shooting them but they are no more accurate than the $200, 8-year-old Strothers I bought for my son.
Custom high FOC $300/Doz arrows, I love to build myself new arrow each year, custom fletch, IW collars and inserts, fancy wraps and fletching, but, they don't kill any better than my factory fletch easton arrows I bought for years.
First lite / Sitka / Kuiu gear, I don't even know how many thousands I've got tied up in my clothing, I do love my light merino wool cloths but I hunt in archery season and I was perfectly comfortable wearing my old walmart max 1 vented camo that I wore for years before I got a decent job.
Yeti- I love my Yeti and actually received it as a gift a few years ago, I definitely feel like they are way too much for what you get, you can buy a lot of ice for that couple hundred dollar difference.
Benchmade - Man I love my Benchmade!! I'm getting ready to buy the newest hidden canyon for the kill kit. However, I still have the hunting knife my dad gave me when I was 12, an old-timer sharp finger that has broken down dozens of animals and still holds an edge almost as well. I still keep that old-timer in my truck and use it, I still love to bust out the Benchmade every chance I get.
I took my family on a trip to ID for a late archery hunt over Thanksgiving we stayed at a motel since it was super cold and I had the wife and kids. I packed everything in out of the vehicle each day and was sitting in the room estimating how much money in gear I had with me for that one hunt. Between my bow, arrow, broadheads, releases, base layers - cold weather gear, two pairs of boots, my pack and all of my optics and other gear in my pack I figured I had about 12K worth of gear with me, that didn't even count all my warm weather gear at home or my wife and kids bows and gear.
Hunting is my main hobby and I don't smoke or drink, all of my spare time is spent in the woods so I enjoy having nice things when I'm out there. Sometimes I step back and look at all the costs and feel like Fred Bear would probably roll over in his grave if he knew what a lot of hunters spend nowadays. I know some people have way more gear than me, I defiantly don't consider myself a gear nut by any means and most of my optics are Vortex which is why there not on the list above
Here is the list for me;
Seek outside floorless shelter with lite outdoors stove. Haven't used it or needed any more than my regular $50 lightweight backpacking tent with seam sealer and silicon spray.
Custom 280AI, it's fun to hit steel at 1K but even though it's killed a dozen animals in the last 6 years none have been much over 200 and it isn't any more effective at those ranges than the hand me down 30-06 I got from my father.
Hoyt RX4 / Carbon Spyder, I spent as much on my last two bows as a custom rifle costs, they are awesome bows and I love shooting them but they are no more accurate than the $200, 8-year-old Strothers I bought for my son.
Custom high FOC $300/Doz arrows, I love to build myself new arrow each year, custom fletch, IW collars and inserts, fancy wraps and fletching, but, they don't kill any better than my factory fletch easton arrows I bought for years.
First lite / Sitka / Kuiu gear, I don't even know how many thousands I've got tied up in my clothing, I do love my light merino wool cloths but I hunt in archery season and I was perfectly comfortable wearing my old walmart max 1 vented camo that I wore for years before I got a decent job.
Yeti- I love my Yeti and actually received it as a gift a few years ago, I definitely feel like they are way too much for what you get, you can buy a lot of ice for that couple hundred dollar difference.
Benchmade - Man I love my Benchmade!! I'm getting ready to buy the newest hidden canyon for the kill kit. However, I still have the hunting knife my dad gave me when I was 12, an old-timer sharp finger that has broken down dozens of animals and still holds an edge almost as well. I still keep that old-timer in my truck and use it, I still love to bust out the Benchmade every chance I get.
I took my family on a trip to ID for a late archery hunt over Thanksgiving we stayed at a motel since it was super cold and I had the wife and kids. I packed everything in out of the vehicle each day and was sitting in the room estimating how much money in gear I had with me for that one hunt. Between my bow, arrow, broadheads, releases, base layers - cold weather gear, two pairs of boots, my pack and all of my optics and other gear in my pack I figured I had about 12K worth of gear with me, that didn't even count all my warm weather gear at home or my wife and kids bows and gear.
Hunting is my main hobby and I don't smoke or drink, all of my spare time is spent in the woods so I enjoy having nice things when I'm out there. Sometimes I step back and look at all the costs and feel like Fred Bear would probably roll over in his grave if he knew what a lot of hunters spend nowadays. I know some people have way more gear than me, I defiantly don't consider myself a gear nut by any means and most of my optics are Vortex which is why there not on the list above
