7 Critical Pieces of Hunting Gear You Need This Whitetail Season
|
|
Time to read 9 min
Whitetail deer hunting requires a lot of gear. Watch any hunting channel on television, and you will see dozens of advertisements for all sorts of products that you probably do not need to be a successful hunter. However, there are a select number of products that you do need. With a few basic pieces of gear, you will be ready to take on nearly any whitetail hunt. Some of the extras may make the hunt easier, but they certainly are not required.
Hunting gear is also expensive. It feels like it keeps getting more and more expensive every year too. Clothing is where a lot of your money will go, but your weapon and knives can also be big ticket items. Some expensive hunting gear is really nice and can make your experience better, but you can get by with cheaper gear, and any hunter who didn’t grow up with a silver spoon will tell you the same thing. Let’s start by looking at one of the most important pieces of gear you can buy, your weapon.
An Appropriate Weapon
Before you pick out a specific weapon, you have to choose a type of weapon. If you plan to hunt during the archery season, you will likely want a compound bow or crossbow. A rifle will be easier to hunt with, but if you want to hunt with a rifle, you will not be able to hunt during the archery season, and some states have much longer archery seasons than they do rifle seasons. On the flip side, you can absolutely use a bow during rifle season in every state.
The cheapest option would be a budget rifle, maybe a used one from a second-hand gun store. You can get a rifle that shoots straight for less than $400, and sometimes they include a scope, but you can get a solid scope for less than $100. You will not be shooting deer hundreds of yards away, but you can be highly effective within 100 yards.
A compound bow is going to be more expensive. You can get a bow for around $500, but it is going to be very basic. Plus, you need other gear like arrows, broadheads, and a release to even use the bow. If you are starting from scratch, and you want a bare-bones build, you can expect to spend $750 on new gear. You can spend $2,000 on new archery gear without trying too hard.
Used archery gear is also a possibility, but bows can be damaged and may blow up in your face. Buying them second-hand is a little scary if you do not know exactly what to look for, so I would not recommend it for a beginner.
Dress For The Weather
The next thing you are going to need is clothing. For me down here in Georgia, during the earliest parts of the season, it can be over 90 degrees when I am in the stand. Of course, during those times of year, I dress lightly. I like to wear short sleeves with a light leafy suit over top. This is super breathable and keeps me concealed.
Although most of the season is going to be cold. Base layers will be the biggest game changer if you have not used those before. They are tight to the body and can keep you very warm. Next is your middle layer, and that is usually made up of a couple of sweaters or pullovers. Generally, the colder it is, the more middle layers I have. Lastly, you will need an outer layer jacket, and this can be a game changer. A big jacket will keep you warmer than anything else, and it will keep the wind and rain off of you.
To complete your clothing, you will need a warm pair of socks and a pair of boots. Boots can get expensive, but you can get by with a cheaper pair. If you are not hunting somewhere that requires a lot of traveling back and forth to your tree stand, you can get away with a pair of tennis shoes, just make sure they do not have a strong odor to them.
A Treestand or Blind
Next, you need something to hunt out of. Usually, hunters will use either a treestand or a blind. A treestand, as the name suggests, goes into a tree and allows you to have a height advantage and see a bit more. There are dozens of types of treestands, and they can get pretty expensive, but I use a lightweight climber stand. I can take this from tree to tree if I want to move, and I do not need climbing sticks or anything else to climb the tree like you would with a hang-on stand or tree saddle.
If you plan to hunt out of a tree, you need to use a safety harness no matter what type of tree stand you use. The vast majority of injuries that hunters sustain are from falling out of their tree. You usually climb over 20 feet with a tree stand, and a fall from that distance can do some real damage if you survive it.
Hunting blinds are a bit easier to work with by comparison, but they are not nearly as mobile. When you set up a deer blind, you usually brush it in (add local brush around it). This camouflages you a bit better than the plain walls of the blind. Breaking up that flatness is crucial. This is the same reason that they are harder to move around. It takes some time to properly set up a blind, but they can be very comfy inside and are on the ground level, so they are inherently safer to use.
The Right Size Backpack
A weapon, clothes, and a treestand were the big things, now you will need some gear that you are going to carry on your person. To carry that gear, a backpack is usually used. You can shove your gear in your pockets if you travel light enough, but you will quickly find that limits you and a backpack would be easier and let you carry more.
What you do not want to do is buy a giant backpack that you are not going to utilize. When I hunt close to home, I usually have my stand set up beforehand and if I need to process a deer, I will bring it back 15 minutes home. So on those trips, I take a very small hunting backpack to just hold the essentials. These little packs are very affordable and there is no need to lug around a massive pack if you are not going to use it.
Now when I go hunting out of state or into a new area, I bring a day pack. Day packs are much bigger, big enough to stay a day and night. You can pack all sorts of things in them and if you are staying out overnight, or need to make sure you have everything you could need in a new area, a day pack is the way to go. Although they can get quite expensive.
Three Knives For Processing
If you are successful in your hunt, you will take down a whitetail. But then what? You need to start processing it and get it ready to be butchered. If you take your deer to a professional processor, you can still gut and quarter your deer and save a bit of money instead of having them do that. My local processor charges $40 to gut a deer and gives a good discount if you quarter your deer before bringing them in. So you can save over $100 doing only a small part of it yourself if you do not want to do the entire process on your own.
The first knife you are going to need for processing is something with a clip point that can be used for gutting. I like longer straight knives for this instead of something like a fat drop point. Flatter drop-point knives are your second knife, and I keep those for skinning. No matter the design of your knives, you want to use a different knife for gutting and skinning. This keeps you from cross-contaminating the meat you are going to eat with the organs you removed while gutting or field dressing the deer.
The last knife you need is not really a knife at all, but a saw. When you quarter your own deer, you are going to need to use a saw to cut through the pelvis that holds together the back two quarters. A saw will also help disconnect the spine from above the pelvis. I keep a foldable saw in my pack for this, and it doubles as a limb saw when I climb into a new tree if I need it.
A Solid Flashlight
Next, you will need a good flashlight or two. Obviously, you are going to need some kind of light to get to your stand early in the morning, and get back from your stand after the sun goes down. For this, I like to use a clip-on headlamp that goes on my hat bill. Although you can also buy a headlamp with a strap, and, those are usually bigger and more powerful.
A headlamp is easy enough to pick up, but you should also carry a quality handheld flashlight. There will be times when you need more light than what a headlamp can offer, and a powerful handheld flashlight is a game changer. One situation where I often find this useful is when I shoot a deer just before dark. I do not love to do that unless it is a nice buck because I know the tracking is going to be tough. Having a strong flashlight that can stay on for hours is crucial for those situations.
If you want to be extra prepared, you should also bring an extra set of batteries for both of your flashlights. There has been more than one time when my flashlight was fully charged and working one morning, and died by the evening because I left it on in my backpack. No matter if you leave it on, have to track a deer for more hours than the light can handle, or your flashlight just dies after months of use, having backup batteries is crucial.
A Charged Cell Phone
Safety is extremely important in the woods. There are plenty of accidents that could happen, and we can never be sure that nothing is going to go wrong. So you need to make sure that you have a charged cell phone or other communication device. If it takes you a while to hike into your hunting area, you may not be able to get out if you are injured, and it could take a while to find you. Your only link to the outside world is that cellphone. The newest phones come with emergency satellite features, where you can call for help without regular cell phone service, so if you are worried about that, maybe it is time for an upgrade.
You may also want to bring a portable charger for your phone. Phones are good and bad in the woods. They are crucial for safety, but we all have a tendency to play on them or scroll facebook while we should be hunting. There is nothing wrong with looking at your phone once in a while, but if you know you are going to use it a lot, you should bring a portable power bank so that it is charged if you need it for an emergency.
Two is One, One is None
Before you head out on your next hunt, make sure you have these basic items we went over today. Ensure your weapon is in good condition. Look at the weather ahead of time and dress accordingly. Ideally, you hang your tree stand ahead of time, but if not, make sure it has all the connectors or ropes that it needs. Then dump out your backpack and make sure you have everything else you may need. Remember the age-old adage for being prepared, “two is one, and one is none”. You should have a backup for everything, especially the basics!
Author
Patrick Long
I am a writer and current engineering student at The Georgia Institute of Technology. I have been writing for four years now and mainly write for myself on my own hunting blog. I specialize in writing about the outdoors ( hunting, hiking, camping, firearms, etc), and engineering. As for hunting, I harvested my first deer at the age of 5 and have not stopped since. I hunt every year and write about it often. I mainly hunt whitetail, duck, and turkey.
