SoloWilderness
WKR
The question they need to ask, is are they committed to hunting, and have maybe tagged along on enough hunts to decide they want to spend the $$ to set themselves up with lightweight, mid to top of the line gear, or are they just curious. Until that question is answered, they should be borrowing or buying used. Pretty sure my first elk that I killed with a 20 year old hand me down Bear, some aluminum Eastons, that was spotted with my $200 Binos, and stalked in my army surplus jungle greens, then packed out on a thrift shop pack frame didn't know the difference. It may not have been comfortable, but it helped me learn what I actually needed, and what was just fluff, and it helped me learn to hunt, instead of getting bogged down with worrying about expensive gear. I keep a full spare set of older gear, just to loan out to friends who are interested in learning to hunt. Take them on a weekend deer hunt, so they can test the waters. Diving in on a back country, high altitude 10 day+ elk hunt will probably overwhelm most newbies, so something simple, with a relatively high risk/ reward ratio would be a starting point.
Now on the other hand, if they have $$ to burn, and don't mind spending it on a maybe, just make sure they buy gear that you need to upgrade your kit. Maybe you can buy it off them cheap... since it's "used" now...
Now on the other hand, if they have $$ to burn, and don't mind spending it on a maybe, just make sure they buy gear that you need to upgrade your kit. Maybe you can buy it off them cheap... since it's "used" now...
