Where to invest to improve success?

[TedO]

Buy a mountain bike, dirtbike, something to get you up in the zone you like to scout/hunt quicker and more efficiently, so you can spend more time in the field.

 

[bz_711]

Fuel and more overnights all year round. Being boots on the ground any time of year will make you better. If time is a restriction, just hunt as much as possible on the tags you can get...and make sure to shoot some animals...too many guy start waiting for "trophies" too early in their hunting career and then find out they aren't "killers" when they finally get a couple opportunities...fill tags for years first then hold off for better animals (or don't)

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Gym membership

 

[Bulldawg]

I think it has been said here a few times, but the most obvious, not the most expensive, but sometimes the hardest investment would be scouting. If you had $1200 and spent not even half of that on a plane ticket rental car and food for a 3-4 day weekend of scouting you would more than likely be miles ahead of where you would be if you were to buy a new rifle, bino's, pack, boots, etc. Especially if you were going to be hunting somewhere you have never been before.

Now, to be frank, I haven't done this much either, as to why I said this is sometimes the most difficult thing to do, but I am planning on a scouting weekend this summer into a new place I am going to hunt and haven't been to before.

 

[Cerberus1124]

Just remember, gear is great but people have been taking game for a long time. Our grandparents /parents / maybe great grandparents did it with a wool jacket and old rifles with iron sights. It’s been all the way back to using a stick and a rock. Maybe invest in better knowledge. Knowledge of the area, knowledge of your target, knowledge of different hunting techniques. I say all of this as a devoted gear guy but I even have to remind myself it’s not always the latest greatest thing that gets the job done. Remember the days when you hit the field with a rifle and a knife and you were all set!!

 

[thinhorn_AK]

If you were coming out west and you had an accurate rifle and usable glass, I’d say spend that money on good boots and a good pack. Next to those upgrading glass would be high in my list. Since your not coming west, I’d say pick your 2 weakest gear categories and upgrade those.

That is true. I’m not convinced expensive rifles make a difference, it’s the bullet that kills, it don’t mattering it comes out of a cheap Ruger American or a custom gun works. High end guns are awesome but the bang for the buck isn’t there if you’re looking for g for big improvements. I’m not even really convinced that glass is the way to go either, of course guys with swaro scopes and binos will say it is (they have to justify it to themselves) but I’ve used an old pair of vortex vipers and they have never been the reason I didn’t get an animal.

I have a buddy who dropped like 7k on swaro stuff a few months before our hunt one year. He kept a being like “I’m finding more animas”….i mean i could see the same animals with my vipers….did he have better glass? Yes. To the extent where he was seeing stuff I couldn’t see??? No.

Boots though are such an individual thing that it really does make sense to invest in a pair that works well for you and your uses. Bad boots can absolutely wreck a hunt. Backpacks too but probably to a lesser extent. It is important to have a backpack that works for you though. I don’t know that any are comfortable with 100lbs in them but some absolutely haul weight better.

I know lots of guys who use the. Barney’s frames and packs not because they are the best at everything but these guys think they are the best when you have real weight in them. I’d tend to agree, hauling a moose quarter on a barnyard frame is better than putting one on my stone glacier x-curve frame.

I’d still look at opportunities to improve fitness, I’ve seen lots of guys crumble on hunts because they are gassed and tired, I’ve never heard anybody say they worked out or trained less….

 

[Ajsomp]

Any items which will keep you out in the elements longer are a plus to me. So if it’s rain gear you need, that would be my first.

I’m also probably buying a new garmin inreach, but that’s probably it personally for me.