Share your "Hunting Items I've overspent on with no advantage"

[_S_R_]

I spend a lot hopping I’ll gain something or just impulse purchases.
Overpriced clothes
Overpriced rain gear
Custom/semi custom guns and knives
Alpha class optic
AR10/15 for hunting

 

[Headwatermike]

It sounds like your spotter has been one of the best pieces of equipment you have. I’m curious what kind of spotter you use? Is it a “mini” spotter, 65mm, 85mm, etc.? Also, what price tier? Is it high end alpha glass, mid-tier, or low end?

The scope isn't special, but I how I hunt requires one. I use a 65mm Pentax with HD glass and a fixed power eyepiece, I think it is about 20 power. I use it from a truck window often or from a Vanguard cf tripod, depending on where I have to glass from. I've wanted to get an 80mm for the truck glassing or a 50mm for the pack for some time but my little Pentax keeps getting the job done. I had an older swaro (non-hd glass) and it just wasn't any better so I sold it.

 

[Weldor]

optics for sure
knives (way to many)
rifles
reloading gear.
Geez I need to have a yard sale.

 

[TaperPin]

Everyone enjoys the look and feel of a new hunting stock, but in 4 decades I’ve never run across a single person that had a good quality well bedded stock with proper height cheek rest, replaced it with another well bedded stock of a different design, and had the new one shoot measurably better. Everyone talks about how quicker or better they feel shooting their fancy new stock, how it’s changed their life, made them feel and look 10 years younger, eliminated bad breath, reduced dandruff, and whatnot, but nobody has actual measurable improvement - placebo effect doesn’t seem to help as much as I would have thought.

Well, almost nobody. Silhouette shooters have changed stocks and if it increases scores 1 out of 40, it’s worth it and easy to see the improvement.

I still own carbon fiber stocks, will get more of them, even something aluminum is on my list, but I’ve also picked up some old classic stocks just to show the kids technology from the 1960’s can outshoot their newfangled rifles. Lol

 

[HandgunHTR]

For me, over the years, I would say the "biggest" item(s) that I have overspent on was all the "premium" bullets I have bought. I am confident I am in the thousands in regards to money spent on them for the various rifles and handguns I have owned and hunted with over the years with no appreciable difference in terminal performance over standard cup and core or match bullets.

 

[stooxie]

Unquestionably rifles. No telling what time and money I’ve spent trading in and out of rifles, buying ammo,etc. Every animal I’ve taken, with exception of one, could have been taken with the first 7mm I bought in 1995. I would be upset about it if I hadn’t had so much fun doing it.

Ha, this right here, for me. I've built so many "this is my last, ultimate deer rifle" over the years it's hilarious. Calibers that I've fallen in love with, built rifles around, then fallen out of love with and sold for parts. I need a bolty. Wait no, I need a semi auto. I need a shorter barrel. Wait, no, I need more velocity.

The end result? I seem to be a pretty good gun maker by now! Of course it's fun, and I thank God for privilege of having any number of sub-MOA deer slayers to choose from. But yes, it's nothing that my first 30-06 Tikka T3 stainless couldn't have harvested equally well.

-Stooxie

 

[RockAndSage]

I literally have 4x the number of buttstocks for ARs than I do actual ARs...each promising some sort of perceived advantage that just doesn't seem to work out somehow.