What’s Your Most Reliable Piece of Hunting Gear?

[Ross]

2003 7mag I like the Wallop factor

 

[CascadeHunter180]

Honestly it seems like almost all of my gear has been pretty unreliable regardless of price point and alleged quality.

Montana Black Gold slider. Un reliable and fragile.

Kenetreks. Heal seams blown out on both boots, soles worn down to slicks in 2 seasons.

Zoleo. Unreliable, sometimes takes hours to transmit messages.

Seek Unaweep 4800. Needed constant adjustment never fit correctly. (I ditched it and got a K4 last year)

Kuiu Guide Jacket. Love it but the draw string broke the first time I used it.

Havalon Piranta. Blades break and slip out of the knife.

Trekking poles. I break them every year.

Kenetrek gaitors. Broke 2 pairs in one season.

Maven binos. Eye cups always coming loose.

AGC Bino harness. Always came loose and sloppy.

I have since upgraded a lot of this stuff but only have 1 season on alot of it.


So far my Exo K4 has worked flawless.

FHF Bino harness stays put.

OR Crocadile Gaitors. Bombproof.

My cheap $69 Amazon Manfroto knock off tripod has been chugging along for 8 years.

Steripen. Just works.

Cheap $12 Amazon iso butane stove with the orange ignitor lasted me 6 seasons of hard use before my Pard lost it. I replaced it with the same one.

Sent from my SM-G990U using Tapatalk

That K4 will never do you wrong.They last a lifetime.

 

[119bowhunter]

My MSR dragonfly with a repair kit, I’ve had partners rely on it when their canister stoves wouldn’t work in the cold…little bit heavier but worth the piece of mind on backcountry trips

And my Nalgene bottles…never had one fail, unlike bladders

 

[atmat]

This will be year 13 for my favorite pair of Zamberlan boots.

I love Zamberlans and have several pair still hanging around. But 13 years old?

At least share which model.

 

[goodglass]

Myself.....I just keep plugging along, sometimes filling a tag sometimes not. I trust in myself and can count that I'll piss my wife off every season.... I leave on the 4th for a week of antelope. Wish me luck

Great luck!! Get after them!

 

[satchamo]

Marsupial bino harness by a lot. I wear that thing all fall and spring then it lives in my truck and gets sun baked. It’s sweat soaked and fading color but no holes, tears, rips or issues.

 

[5MilesBack]

I love Zamberlans and have several pair still hanging around. But 13 years old?

At least share which model.

Their discontinued Dakota's. That was why I bought them, clearance price and last pair of 13's.....$89 on Amazon. Stock photo from online. My boots are wearing real thin on tread. They made the same boots in a 10" model, I bought a pair of those too after getting this pair. But I much prefer the 6-7" high boots, especially for bow season.

 

[Mish-pop]

Cabelas heavy duty bibs and parka. Had them about 20 years and I have hunted in snow, rain, wind, cold, and ice fished with it. Ripped the bibs on some barbed wire and just did a quick sew myself with no further tearing. Still warm, material is holding up and no issues on the seams. This of course was before the Bass Pro takeover when their brand went downhill

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

My MSR dragonfly with a repair kit, I’ve had partners rely on it when their canister stoves wouldn’t work in the cold…little bit heavier but worth the piece of mind on backcountry trips

And my Nalgene bottles…never had one fail, unlike bladders

Have to agree, and maybe I’ve just had good luck, but my MSR stove just keeps on going when others have gone through multiple of other brands on the same time span.

 

[TaperPin]

Well, if I look at what my backcountry gear looked like in this old 1990 picture compared to more recent years about 1/4 of the stuff is the same - the survivors were well vetted back then and have survived fads, marketing bs, changes in personal taste, and some were traded out for other models and returned to the more reliable version. I don’t consider a fragile product a good idea for hunting gear, regardless of how much weight it saves.

- Forschner boning knife and ultra light Gerber folder.
- Nalgene bottles.
- Remington 700 7 mag, fixed scope.
- MSR Whisperlite white gas stove.
- Military surplus match holder.
- Medium size compass with mirror.
- Asolo boots.
- Military poly pro long johns and 1/4 zip top.
- Pategonia fleece jackets.
- Knit wool fingerless gloves, basic heavy wool socks.
- Fleece beenie.
- Elk inc cow call.
- Leica compact 7x binos for timber hunting.

 

[Ozzy841]

Swarovski SLC 10x42 binos. 15 years old and just as good as the day I bought them. In reach mini. Has never let me down and been nice to update family and I really like the weather forecast feature

 

[darkwoods]

Victorinox 5" Lamb Skinning Knife.

After decades of using a variety of handmade knives, some costing $100's, heavy buck folders, Gerber knives with the zipper on the back ... I thought, what do professional butchers use? So I researched a little and bought a lamb skinning knife for something like $10. It's lightweight, has a big grip and a blunt tip. My hand doesn't cramp up so much skinning out a deer, and I don't have to worry so much about dropping it and breaking an expensive knife. I ended up getting a couple more from the same series for processing after skinning, a long blade similar to a beefy filet knife and a short paring knife style.

 

[sniper61]

My compass and a bix lighter. The lighter is used to tell me the direction of even the slightest of wind drifts. I carry spares in case I would loose one but they never fail.

 

[TradLife406]

My mini cigar humidor. An old iron will broadhead case. Pulled for foam out I can cram up to three sticks in that bad boy. Plus a carbon cigar stand/craddle.


My mom took Tylenol when she was pregnant with me, but only when she was hung over

 

[SuperDUECE22]

EXO MTN K2 3500

 

[RockAndSage]

one piece of gear other than a properly set up first aid kit, that can save your life out there

Hands-down, one of the best and most reliable pieces of kit I've ever put together is one I built for some overseas work in austere/remote environments, with the bag itself being an absolute rockstar for almost 20 years now. ThomasEMS Aeromed bag. These days, if I'm on a dirt road, it's in my truck as a kind of medical basecamp for the smaller IFAK I keep on me. The size and design is particularly well thought-out and useful - bigger and more capable than most civilian "first aid kit" bags, which makes it great for a custom medical build, but not some behemoth ALS bag, either. Just right, and supremely rugged.

 

[Idaboy]

Boots

 

[NealS02]

The most reliable one piece of gear for me are my Darn Tough socks. I have abused them for years and they have never worn out (and if they do are replaced for free). Honorable mention to my OR Crocs.

 

[cal30_sniper]

The meat wagon.

 

[codym]

Kifaru em2 packed in lots of camps and lots of different meat. No broken buckels or straps

Beretta sp2. Killed lots of birds over lots of special dogs