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.

 

[dtrkyman]

TSS, load my own 20ga turkey loads, stuff is amazing but I kill most of my turkeys at dove load range!

 

[EastHumboldt]

I have found that my uber-light titanium long handled spoons is great for stirring tag soup.
Hasnt changed my success rate but at least its it's useful.

My long titanium spork is one of my fave pieces of gear. It gets used every day on a hunting trip, and because it’s so useful and expensive I tend to keep track of it, so I’m less likely to lose it.

 

[Weldor]

I'm getting to the age, that I'm sure I have to much gear in general. Don't draw tags here in AZ every year, so I've become a storage facility . Seems like I could open a store at times. LOL.

 

[Boar]

Yeti coolers. Not worth the price over a cheap Coleman

 

[JGood]

First Lite puffy vest....ive never in my life felt so cold that i needed to put on a puffy while simultaniouly not feeling cold enough to need sleeves.

Leica spotter. The glass might be as good as the sworo, but not being able to seemlessly switch between angled, straight, and btx is a HUGE bummer.

Purchased a 1 man tarp and had a stove jack hole put in it for late season spike outs...Except 1 man tarps are too small for stoves..... just added a pound to a light weight set up for something i would never be able to use.

 

[need4sneed]

Duck loads! if you spend any amount of time with lights-out shooters, It becomes very clear very quickly that there is virtually zero added killing capacity to any of the premium shells. An ace shooter with federal blue box will run circles around any decent shooter and whatever bismuth/gimmicky load they could possibly spend money on.

 

[need4sneed]

Kuiu is kind of cheap compared to other brands. So eh.....

Custom rifles are a BS problem. I have custom rifles and I have Blasers that cost the same.

Buy a mid-grade rifle that shoots, and put a decent scope on it and be done. You can easily spend $1500-2200 and have everything you would ever need for 99% of the hunting you will ever do in your life. $750 Tikka and a $750 Leupold VX-III 30mm 4.5-14. Get a flat shooting caliber like 280, 270, 7mm, 30-06 or 300 and go kill stuff. If you are recoil sensitive get a 7mm-08, 308, 6.5 creedmoor and do the same.

Binos are more important than anything else and I still see dudes with cheap opera glasses in the woods. These blister pack Tasco 7x25 or 8x32. Sell all your guns and get a pair of binos in the $1000 range plus.

Boots are the second most important thing. You don't need a $600 pair, but you need a pair that works for you.

Rangefinder just needs to be accurate $250 Leupold or similar 1000 yard model, 1600 is nicer.

Spend the rest on tags and gas.

Taxidermy is also BS, use the rotting method to clean your skulls in the backyard in a $15 plastic tub.

Or buy a souvide machine and dunk it into an old plastic tub to speed things up $80.

You’ve had good experience with souvide machine and skulls?
That would be potentially life changing for cold weather skull boiling where propane stoves have to be babysat and pressure washer is NA

 

[Mojave]

You’ve had good experience with souvide machine and skulls?
That would be potentially life changing for cold weather skull boiling where propane stoves have to be babysat and pressure washer is NA

If you don't live in town or at least in the suburbs you can use a horse trough heater and a big plastic tub. Sous vide in the garage on an elk or red deer in a big plastic tub would do really well.

 

[NuclearTsunami]

Anything from yeti, I got one of those catergators and they are very solid for a lot less cost.

 

[limpet]

You’ve had good experience with souvide machine and skulls?
That would be potentially life changing for cold weather skull boiling where propane stoves have to be babysat and pressure washer is NA

No experience with souvide machines but I used a big crockpot recently on a skull and it worked great just took awhile but it just slowly simmered all day and a garden hose was all I needed to clean up. A thrift store would be worth a look or even find one on sale later this year.

 

[flyfisher117]

It's knives for me... spent way to much money on knives. I love them, they are fun to collect what ever else justification I can dream. At the end of the day my $300 MKC isn't 20x better than my $15 Buck.