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

Dave_S

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Dec 17, 2022
Messages
137
Another knife addict here. Was thrilled when I bought my bench made knives. Yet always find myself using a 30 dollar havalon and a 30 dollar fillet knife.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

stan_wa

WKR
Joined
Aug 6, 2020
Messages
331
Location
Washington
4 mm arrow and iron will components to outfit em it’s just so much more expensive than the 5 mm arrow when using the Easton hit in system

Like it’s top quality, but I just feel like it’s triple the price for a very small improvement

And I quiver dumped this year and was really sad about it
 
Joined
Dec 29, 2024
Messages
11
I haven’t done it yet, but a new bow. I have Mathew’s triax, I don’t have any issues shooting it but seeing the new bows coming out this time of the year always has me wanting to try a few of the new flagships.
 

wyosam

WKR
Joined
Aug 5, 2019
Messages
1,379
100% rifles. I’ve got a few and love them all, but I never have and never will kill an animal that wouldn’t be just as dead with the sporterized o3a3 I started with. With modern optics, at least. Many of those the model 94 30-30 would have also worked just fine on, too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Joined
Feb 19, 2020
Messages
991
Location
Wyoming
Depends on use, but there are definitely better values in highly insulated rotomolded coolers than Yeti.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
As someone else mentioned a few pages back, look at catorgator. You can get a 110qt roto molded cooler for under $200 with free shipping if you catch them on sale and don't really care about the color.
 

dsotm

WKR
Joined
Nov 5, 2018
Messages
332
Location
Arizona
100% rifles. I’ve got a few and love them all, but I never have and never will kill an animal that wouldn’t be just as dead with the sporterized o3a3 I started with. With modern optics, at least. Many of those the model 94 30-30 would have also worked just fine on, too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Delete this before my wife sees it!
 
Joined
Nov 28, 2023
Messages
97
I bought the sitka stratus set. I got it on discount 40% off. I really don't think it's great. Little embarrassed to wear it out, i still do, but I feel like an idiot walking around in $400 clothes that don't seem to do anything better than jeans.
 

Mikey_B79

FNG
Joined
Jul 28, 2023
Messages
32
Location
Manitoba
Expensive camo clothing. Ended up being no better than Cabela's clearance rack UA gear. Slap some cheap merino base clothing under it and get some. It's usually covered in blaze Orange anyways during general rifle season.

Custom rifles. 100% of what I do can easily be done with off the shelf guns for half the cost or less. Bergara B-14, Tikka T3X, Browning X-Bolt, Weatherby Vanguard, none are perfect but whatever is missing isn't essential to my hunting success. Every one I've had has been sub-MOA with decent hunting loads and had the sh!t kicked out of them in the field and still look new for the most part. Even worse, the old push-feed Model 70 my dad gave me 20 years ago is right up there. Plain old .30-06, it's killed several moose, an elk, at least a dozen whitetails, and my last black bear. If it wasn't so fun to tinker I'd probably have just the one.

Yeti coolers. I sold mine to my neighbour while we were out camping. My wife picked up a much cheaper, "lesser" brand cooler for that same trip and on day 4 when I opened the lids and saw the same amount of ice in both I made something happen to ditch the Yeti. They work very well, but not worth the money.

EDIT: both overpriced and underpriced knives. There is definitely a sweet spot for knives that take and hold an edge well and stand up to field use without feeling like making an additional car payment.
 

Tlwebb15

FNG
Joined
Dec 29, 2024
Messages
10
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:)
I totally agree. Every time I put on all of my Sitka clothes it feels like I have over spent on something I didn’t need to over spend on. Not sure I will replace with more Sitka gear when it needs to be replaced.
 

TaperPin

WKR
Joined
Jul 12, 2023
Messages
3,638
I am about to buy a 1950s Remington action that won’t shoot any better than my 1962 Remington, and costs $175 more. It’s definitely a first-world issue to want a second rifle no better than the first, and almost twice the price. *chuckle*
 
Joined
Aug 25, 2021
Messages
32
First Lite, Sitka, Kuiu clothing. I grew up climbing mountains with down jackets and fleece pants, rain shells and base layers. For some reason I thought hunting clothing was different…it’s not, it just costs more.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

bene-201

FNG
Joined
Jan 2, 2025
Messages
9
Yeah
One of my really poor friend kill every years in a pair of jeans and an old jacket and a beanie with holes in it...he laughed at me when I don't kill anything with all my expensive gear...

Envoyé de mon Pixel 4 XL en utilisant Tapatalk
Who looked better sitting in the stand tho?
 
Top