From The Vault 2019: What's In Our Pack

0:00This episode of the Sportsman's Empire is brought to you by Interstate Batteries. Since 1952 Interstate Batteries has been evoking compassion and a trustworthy spirit into the surrounding communities. Interstate Batteries is a mission driven company fueled by purpose and guided by their values. If you need help locating a specific battery, stop into your local Interstate Batteries retail store and speak with a battery specialist. They even offer cell phone repairs. Interstate Batteries out-ragiously dependable. This is the Hunting Gear Podcast and just like the title implies, we cover all things hunting gear and equipment. From discussions with the top manufacturers to product reviews from past hunting experiences, our goal is to provide you with reliable and unbiased product information

1:01in hopes of educating you on new products and assisting in future purchases. I'm your host Dan Johnson and this episode of the Hunting Gear Podcast starts right now. Bob Polanik, how the hell are you man? I'm doing great. I've got a week of work left and headed to Idaho. Yeah, so when this episode launches, just so everybody is clear, we're recording this like two weeks in advance of when we're actually going to launch it. So it's Wednesday, what's the date today? September 4th. Okay, so it's Wednesday, September 4th and you're leaving on your hunt when? We leave September 11th, but we we're driving. So we were actually that September 11th is a Wednesday. We're leaving after work and we'll drive a little bit Wednesday night and then

2:08big day Thursday and we should be to Idaho. Hopefully by one to a clock on Friday and probably do a, I don't know, check out some trailheads. I don't know how much hunting we'll do. Yeah, we'll be there for eight days and my wife's got a tag. I do not. So nice. So you're just going to stand back and view go for her. Yeah, pretty much. I'm going to film it too and hopefully I've always dreamt of submitting a film to the full-drop film tour. And that would be awesome. Yeah, it's been a goal of mine for a long time. I actually had a video from 2016 that probably could have made it, but I didn't even think to I didn't think it was good enough, you know, and then I went to the full-drop film tour and looked at all the films that year and was like, wow, I definitely should have submitted my film. So are you saying all those films sucked horribly or that you feel you could have done a better job, you could have done an equally good of job.

3:15I could have, I think I would have been considered. I don't know if it would have been selected, but I definitely think I would have had a good chance. Yeah, that's awesome. All right, so let's see. I leave today's the fourth. I leave on the sixth and then I start hunting on Sunday morning. It would be my first time. So basically a day to drive out, a day to get acclimated, and then I hunt Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, probably a Saturday morning hunt depending, and then depending on if we stay Saturday night in Colorado just to putts around or if we start heading back. But I'll be back home that following Sunday. And then it's two week hiatus and then it's South Dakota Mildere. Nice man. Nice. You got to be getting pretty, yeah, you got to be getting real pumped. You leave in a couple days. Yeah, I'm getting pumped. My wife, she is not getting pumped because she's running, she's running single parent for a weekend.

4:19That's horrible. It is horrible. I know exactly what she's thinking right now. She wants to probably leave me for a guy who has no hobbies. Yeah, yeah, I can't exactly relate. For two reasons, I don't have any kids and then yeah, taking the wife with me this time. So yeah, on a different note, have you ever kind of noticed that on an elk hunt, it's actually kind of hard to hunt right up to the end because if you do get an elk down, you still need to kind of give yourself 24 hours to get it out of the mountains. Right, right. And both hunts, both elk hunts I've been on in the past, we knew that we had to leave at X time to get back for other engagements. But it was, well, if we shoot an elk this morning, we're going to have to pack it out. It's going to take,

5:21you know, depending on where we shoot it and if it dies in some, you know, mess of a hole, it's going to take us 24 hours to get it out of there and then we're really going to be screwed. So, you know, just we'll be coming back on Monday instead of Sunday. I'm in a position now where that doesn't matter to me because I'm driving out with my retired father and this is my job so I can be late to my own job technically. Right. You know, sort because I run the show here and it's like, I don't know, if I have to, I have to, but you know, if I strike out and don't bring an elk home and I'm late, my wife will be extremely pissed at me. But if I come home with, you know, 200 pounds or whatever, how many pounds of meat off an elk, then she will be happy. So, or she will be less pissed and she'll forget about it in a day in a day. Yeah. Dude, I will say one thing about

6:26pushing it all the way to the end. It's definitely worth it last year. The last morning that we could hunt with giving ourselves, you know, 24 to 36 hours to basically just get back home and I had a flight to catch on a Monday. So, I think the last, our last hunt was Saturday morning. And that morning, I was at full draw on a big six by six. I did not take the shot. But like I said, it can still happen. And 2016, I shot a bull right away on like an eight day trip with my buddy. And then weather got bad and we were, we took care of the bull and I had to get the head clean and stuff like that so I could fly it back home because it's going to be way cheaper to check it at the airport than ship it. Right. Like UPS or whatever. But we were looking at weather and him and and on around and we're like, all right, well, we got one morning that we could actually hunt. So, let's go hunting again and sure enough at 9.30 that morning, my buddy got a bull down and we spent

7:31the next 24 hours getting it out. Got back to his house at like eight o'clock at night and I jumped on a plane at 6am the next morning and flew home. Wow. So, definitely, definitely don't give up hope if it does come to that. Right. That last day can always be some magic. Right. Right. Yeah, dude, I'm jacked. And just about, you know, are you driving or flying out to Idaho? So, it's kind of, I'm doing my wife a salad. Well, in my head, I'm doing my wife a salad. We're driving out together and then we'll hunt Saturday to Saturday. I think the looking at a calendar. So, we'll hunt till the 21st. On the 22nd, I'm flying her home. That way she can hunt all the way as long as possible and then I'm driving home by myself and I'm going to pit stop in Nebraska and hunt for a night or two and try to get a early season and counter with one of

8:34those bucks out there after after what I saw from our scouting trip. Yeah. Well, that's right. Did I'm telling you what are my favorite drives is driving through Wyoming. I don't know what it is about. Now, I haven't been to Arizona. I haven't been to New Mexico. I haven't been to Utah. I've been to Colorado. I've been to Wyoming. I've been to Idaho. You know, and I've been to South Dakota and I've been to Nebraska and Kansas. But I don't know, man. Just driving down, driving through Wyoming is something just right down Interstate 80, I believe, all the way through the southern part of the state. There's analogue literally everywhere, everywhere. And just, you know, you can see the mountains in the distance or you can, you know, see some subtle terrain features and then or it's just flat forever, right? And I don't know what it is, but I just love driving through Wyoming. Dude, I hear you. There's just some beautiful landscapes, some mountain ranges. I'm pretty sure

9:39I've got a dozen pins on Onyx along I-80. Just random like, oh, check this out on Google Maps when you get home type of thing. Never have. But yeah, I definitely have a bunch of random waypoints on Onyx throughout Wyoming. And I think even a couple through like Eastern Montana. Yeah. So. Yep. Wyoming is my next adventure, man. I've been building up points there for quite a few years now. And it's still like, it'll be under seven years. But I think when I turn 40, I'm going to be putting an entire year worth of points for multiple species into Wyoming. And might, might make it a big trip, like where I'm out there two weeks and try to harvest an elk and anilope and potentially either a white tiller mule deer depending on what I want to allocate those points for. But that's, that's my next big adventure is Wyoming. I'm right there with you. I'm saving up points myself and a buddy in IR. And I think we're planning on,

10:45I think 20, 23, we're going to, we're going to cash in on our points. I think we'll have six or seven points by then, which isn't, isn't a ton, but I think she'll get us into a, I don't know, a mid-tier unit. I haven't done enough research yet. And then, yeah, I've actually heard that. Hunting white tails in Wyoming is a very cool experience just because of where you hunt them at. You're still kind of like slightly in the mountains, but you know, you're still in white tail habitat, a white tail country. So I know it's a great mule deer state, but I think, I don't know, being a white tail hunter, I might just try to try to go after white tails. I was to mule deer. Yeah. Who knows, man? I gotta, I gotta think about all that stuff. So we're, we're, we're past the 10 minute mark for the introduction. And in some countries, it's, I guess it's law or deemed, if you don't do it, it's deemed look down upon that before you get into business, you

11:47gotta do 10 minutes of, of BS, basically. So that's up. Now, getting into today's topic. So you texted me earlier this week and you're like, hey, are we still on for Wednesday? And I'm like, yeah, dude, let's do it. And you said, what's the topic? And I said, I have no idea. Last night, have you ever seen the movie seven? Yeah. Yeah. So there's a part where, Brad Pitt, he's like, what's in the box? What's in the box? And that got me like, I was, I was looking at my phone. I was like, hey, that's what today's episode is going to be about. We're going to be talking about what is in our white tail hunting pack. All right. And I know this is, this is going to be a conversation that's more along the lines of walking from your truck to your ground blind or from the truck to the tree stand. And what is

12:50actually in the pack? What accessories, you know, stuff like that. And I think that's what we're going to talk about. You down with that? I am. That should, that should be pretty easy to talk about. Yeah. And I don't, I don't see this being a long episode or hugely drawn out because I, I used to be the guy who back in the day would bring absolutely everything in there in with me. That's when I was having trail camera or that's when I was bringing a camera equipment, you know, into the tree with me as well. I don't do that anymore. So I've shed off of off of that. I've shed, I don't know, the camera arm, the camera base, camera stand base, the camera itself, and anything that went like the boom mic, all the stuff that went along with it. So I don't run that anymore. You do though, right? I do. I do. I am still a white tail filmer and a lot of times

13:55that's just filming a not shooting anything. It's, it gets pretty old, setting up and tearing down camera equipment every hunt and yeah. Yeah. Never, never have it much to shoot. We're going to, and we're going to have another podcast about this, probably, I don't know if we're going to do it later on this year or during the season or whatnot, but talk about camera equipment and stuff because I know that's something that you really want to talk about. But the first year I hunted without a camera, I was like, oh my god, this is awesome. Until, you know, I had like this giant three-year-old that I ended up passing walk by. It was like low 150s, high 140s, 10-year-old, three, uh, 10, or three-year-old 10-pointer. And I was just like, oh my god, this is this buck. I wish I had a camera to record him with. I didn't. So there's a little part of me that misses it, but I don't know. I just, I hate having to set up one more thing when I'm in the tree stand, especially on a

15:01run and gun when you're bringing your tree stand in with you too. Yep. All right. So let's talk about what's in your pack. All right. First, I think the first thing we want to do is just talk about what pack you are going to be running this year. I'll be using the SICKA tool bucket. It's the one that, um, I think they got a toolbox and tool bucket. I think now they even have the fanatic backpack or something like that, but the tool bucket is the one that you can detach the bag from like the, uh, the frame and they can slap a hang on in there. Um, and then it reattached the bag and all that. Yep. So that's the one I'll be using. How about you? Yeah, I, uh, I have that one. I use it, uh, the tool bucket as well. Um, I don't know like I, I don't use the part of it that you zip off anymore. So I keep it zipped up

16:03all the time. I don't ever zip up that pack and then put my tree stand on on it or zip off the pack, strap it in, put the tree stand on. I just don't do that anymore because once you get to the tree stand, it's just like, it's like two or three extra steps to getting that pack hooked up to the stand. You know, you're messing with additional buckles where I just, I just throw everything on and use multiple shoulder harnesses for it. Right. Yeah. I, I, I totally hear you, man. I, if I'm running and gunning with the lone wolf sticks and hang on, I will typically throw the hang on in there. And then I will carry the, I'll carry four sticks in one hand in my bow and the other. Um, and I don't know. A lot of people are kind of just like, well, why wouldn't you just put the sticks and the stand in there? It's just, it's not, I don't have like the, uh, the quick connect, uh, whatever it is that lone wolf made that you're, you're, uh, the stick quiver. Right. I don't have that for a

17:09lone wolf stand. So it's kind of just, it doesn't, it doesn't sit well. And it's a lot more weight on your shoulders. Um, and I just, I've, I mean, four sticks is 10 pounds. It's not that hard to carry that in one hand. And then your bow in the other hand. And if, for whatever reason, you ever had, uh, you had a shot opportunity on the way out to a tree stand or anything like that. It's pretty easy just to set the sticks down and, and knock an arrow, you know, it's not that that's kind of my, my mentality. Um, I never, I never go in in the morning, um, and set up a, uh, do a mobile, like, hang in bangs, what we call them. I never do that in the morning. It's always, um, for an evening hunt. And then maybe I'll, uh, hit it again in the morning and tear it down if I'm like on public land and, and don't want it, you know, worried about it getting stolen or something like that. But, um, yeah. Right. Yeah. I, uh, I've, I use a bow holder that you slip around the cams. I stack my sticks.

18:11And then I'll slip them around that bow holder. So I'm walking to the tree stand with that around my shoulder, uh, the harness on. And the whole point of that is I don't like having to take off my pack in the tree stand and everything else when I get to the tree, just so I can put it back on and climb up. So I'll take the bow holder, right? The, the bow sling, I guess it is, undo it and then start moop, add my sticks because my goal is to only try to go up the tree twice. You know, walk up, and then, uh, basically I have, uh, the bow rope in my pocket. I slap, uh, take the connector, attach it to a cam, start putting my sticks up. Then I slide the, the, I slide the stand off of my back, hang it up, climb up, screw in a screw, uh, a tree hook, hang my pack, pull up my bow, and screw in a, or screw in a tree, uh, some kind of bow holder, hang my bow, and then everything is

19:17up. I don't have to go down any more times. And that, I just, I don't, I hate having to go up and down and up and down and up and down. You're just, it's leading to too much movement in my opinion for the tree. So the goal is to get to the tree, not have to take anything off your pack, off your back and just start going up. Yeah, I totally agree. Um, if I don't, if I'm doing the mobile hunt and I don't have a very long walk, I'll carry the lone wolf and the sticks in, in my right arm and my bow and my left with my backpack on. Um, and if I have a, if I have a very long, if I have a long hike, we're talking half a mile or more, maybe three quarters of a mile. That's when I'll throw the lone wolf stand in my backpack, um, sandwich, you know, in between the frame and the bag and just carry the sticks. But regardless of what I do, I only go up the tree one time. Um, I'll get to the tree and, however I have my stand and sticks, um, I'll get it all

20:19situated. And basically I'll take my backpack off, uh, bows on the ground as well, and I'll have a rope going to my bow and I'll have a rope going to my bag. And then I'll put the, uh, lone wolf on my back and then I go up the tree with the sticks, get up to the top stick, put the hang on up, get in the hang on, get all strapped in with my safety harness and then I just pull my bag up and pull my bow up. Yep. So I just go, because say, just like you're saying, going up and down that many times, not only is it loud, it's exhausting and you just, I mean, being mobile, you can work up a pretty good sweat anyway. So if I only go up one time, uh, I just feel like it's a lot, a lot more stealthy. Yeah. Right now there's all these saddle hunters, uh, basically rolling over or, oh yeah. I have a lot of friends who are saddle hunters now and I have to jab them because, uh, I get a kick out of how, how serious they are about saddle hunting these days. I mean,

21:20these guys are very passionate about saddle hunting is now the only way to hunt. Yeah, I, I, I, I want to give it a try, but I don't have a, I just don't have that big of an issue with, yeah, with the, with the lone wolf, you know, running gun setup. So I don't, I just can't imagine it's that comfortable for like an all day sit either. So I like to be able to, uh, I don't know, to fully stand up and lean against the tree. I guess that's my favorite part about hunting out of a hang on is you can flip the seat up and you can lean right up against the tree and you can stand there for a half hour and it's, I don't know, it's just, I, I think it's very comfortable to hunt out of a lone wolf or really any hang on for that matter. Yeah. My big issue is let's say I draw with my right hand, I hold the bow with my left hand. So you're hanging on a tree and you're facing it. Well, what happens if something's coming to your backside to your

22:25right over your right shoulder? How are you other than making a lot of movement in the tree, swinging all the way around or like twisting all the way to the right, gonna make that shot. Number one, staying comfortable and number two, you're trying to not make so much movement, especially if it happens real fast, right? Right. I don't understand that, but then again, guys are doing it. Right. I'm right there with you. I don't understand how you pull that shot off either. Don't they have, don't they have like a name for it, too? Don't they call it like their weak side or something like that? Probably. Yeah. We'll have to get a saddle hunter on here and talk about it. Yeah. For sure. Yep. All right. So moving on. I just, I got this, I saw this meme on, I saw this meme on on Instagram the other day and it was there's a whole bunch of people at a funeral

23:27and the one the preacher goes, does anybody else have anything to say? And one guy just says, I do CrossFit. So I have, I just in my head, I imagine some guy going, I hung out of a saddle. So there's that. You know, we're just, it's all, it's all good fun here at the hunting gear, at the hunting gear podcast, right? Don't be offended, saddle hunters. It's all good fun. All right. So we talked about our bags, right? Cause I'm running the, the tool bucket as well. And it's kind of funny. I got the residual off interviewing the guy from Sitka, the engineer from Sitka on a previous episode that we've launched and he sent me the new fanatic backpack. Yeah. Can I, can I, can we just take a quick D2 or can I ask you about that? Because I'm very curious about that backpack. Yeah. There's no frame in it, right? It's all soft fleece material and it's

24:28really, really quiet. And, but I haven't used it in the, in the wood yet. Okay. I heard it's super light too, which is one thing I'll say about that tool bucket. It's like a, empty. It's like five pounds. And I think I saw the fanatics like two, two and a half something like that empty. Yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty sweet. Except there's no frame to it. So what that tells me is I'm put it, it's going to flatten down more, which is going to be awesome, I think, for when you put a tree stand over top of it, I know some guys will actually put the stand, they'll probably put the pack on, on the backside of the stand now and not actually wear it. It'll just hang off the stand. But, but yeah, like I said, I haven't used it. It seems light. It seems quiet. I guess I'll just have to report back. Only thing I can see with that is the amount of burrs that that bag's going to pick up. Dude, did I, did I send you the pictures from Oh my goodness, damn those, those I have

25:33three shirts and two pairs of pants. And so does my buddy that are full of burrs. And they're sitting in a paper bag because I don't know what else to do, but to let the burrs die and go back in like a month and a half and like put on a pair of leather gloves and try to like scrape them all off. Yeah. But it's, that was, that was the worst, that was the worst thing I've ever encountered my entire life. And I'm full of poison ivy right now from that scouting trip. So that's nice. I hate poison ivy, by the way. But the, the Sikka fanatic series is known for picking up every single burr in the woods. To the point where they could probably stand up, I have my, my Sikka fanatic pants. It's almost like a joke, right? I walk through to get to my tree stand. I'm loaded in burrs, especially that first 10 yards into the timber. Yeah. It's just real thick and nasty. And, and then I just, I set my tree stand up and then I spend the entire night picking burrs off

26:39of my pants. And they actually, I was at a, at a trade show. I think it was the Iowa deer classic. And they make a glove that you can put on. And all you do is rub it over top of whatever material these burrs are on. And it transfers from the, for something happens, it transfers from your clothing to the burr. And then you can just kind of wipe off, wipe the burrs off of this glove. So, I don't know, I think it costs like 30 bucks for this glove. Almost, it almost looks like something you would pet a dog with. Okay. Well, I'm going to research that company and see if I can buy stock in that company. Yeah. Yep. Yep. All right. So, backpacks. All right. Now, what's, uh, let's talk about what's in your pack. You know, you're, you're getting out of your truck. I don't know, maybe

27:39you changed stuff up through different times of year. But let's just talk about what is in your backpack all year round or part of the year or whatever. Alrighty. So, there is some essentials that are always in my backpack. I've always got a buckenife in there. I've always got my head lamp in there as well, along with three extra lithium AAA batteries, just in case, you know, shoot a deer or track a nap at night and headlamp dies. I don't, I'm not screwed. Tags are typically in my backpack. And then as, see, I have a bow. I use that hawk. I like extendable bow hanger. It screws into the tree. A lot of my hang on, hang on's are set up with bow arms, but it's so light and small that I just keep it right in there. Typically, I guess,

28:45and then for filming for my backpack to keep form and not smash my video camera, I actually took a, it's a serial container, but it's Tupperware. So, it's the Tupperware-shaped serial container. I could throw that in there. And at the very bottom of it, I've got like lens cloth, and then I put my extra batteries on that. So, they don't make any noise. The spare batteries don't make any noise, clanging up against the plastic of the Tupperware. And then my camera goes in that. It fits perfectly nice and snug. I don't have to worry about it getting smashed or the lens hood or anything getting smashed. And then on top of that, I'm trying to think, oh normally my gloves will go on top of that, and like a thick hat will go all on top, like inside the pack. And then I'll close it up.

29:49Then on the outside, I have a screwing step in one of the pockets, because the first thing I do when I get the tree is put a screwing step in, I take my backpack off and hang my backpack from that. And then, see camera arm and camera base and the strap for the camera base are all on the outside. And I use the muddy outfitter arm. I know a lot of guys swear by the, was that fourth arrow camera arm? Yep. I have not tried it, and the only reason I have not tried it is because they do not make a strap for the camera base that is not a ratchet strap. The muddy arm, it's got a like a cinch strap that you can tighten almost like a like a boat buckle that just like cinches and it's silent. There's no ratchet, because that's one of the things when I first started filming, you know, it's an hour before it gets light out and you're trying to, as silently as possible,

30:57ratchet strap the base to a tree and it's clicking and I found a solution to it. And when I was thinking about going to switch it over to the fourth arrow just because, you know, I like to check out different gear and I just never pulled the trigger on it because they don't offer an option that's that's silent for getting the the base strap to the tree. So and then I usually have, if I bring a water bottle in, I won't bring like a water bottle from a gas station, I'll bring like a refillable one because they're much quieter. If I do bring say I bring gatorade or vitamin water or something like that, I always peel the the wrapper off, throw that out so it's not loud. Yeah. And then typically there's a good amount of Reese's pieces and Kit Kat bars. That's your snack, that's your go-to snack. That and Pringles.

31:58Pringles. So you're you're worried about the ratchet strap making noise but you're sitting in the tree slamming pretzels. Oh yeah, Pringles. Pringles. Yeah. Yeah. That's uh yeah. The other thing is the uh the the Reese's and the Kit Kat bars. I mean I can't tell you how many times I've been sitting with my wife or a buddy or a son and filming them and like it's just it's pretty quiet, you know, it's not exactly prime time or it's like later in the in the morning 10 a.m. something like that. And I just start crinkling wrappers and the looks I get from people that I'm filming for. They just shoot me a look like dude are you serious right now? You take all these precautions and then you you'll just sit there and crinkle wrappers. So yeah. That's funny. I had a I had a buddy that I used to film for every once in a while and when I was filming him you could not make a move that he wouldn't turn back and look and be like, Hey, what are you doing? You're making too much noise. Be quiet. And then when you flip the script he's up there eating an apple and chewing with his

33:01mouth wide open and go, go, go, go, go, and I'm just like, dude, what are you doing? No, white tail can't hear that there. But your ears are good, but they're not that good. I'm sorry. Okay, buddy. So uh are you bringing any type of pole saw with you or hand saw or anything like that? Yeah. Occasionally, if it depends on a initial running gun setup. Yes. And then if I'm just making kind of micro moves, you know, like a 20 or 50 yard move and I've like scouted another tree from my current setup, I'll definitely I'll evaluate if I'm going to need to bring that in. But I don't really like to cut branches during during hunting season. I don't like the sound of it. I don't like drop and fresh branches on the ground. Yeah, it's uh I do bring it like I said when it's when it's necessary, but typically I leave that out.

34:10So when you cut your shooting lanes then most of that's done pre-season. Are you a shooting lane guy or are you a shooting pocket guy? I don't I guess I don't know what the are you talking like shooting lane where you just have like a smaller opening or in it. Shooting lane like you could land a plane in it. Like I know some guys I used to be this way. We're from the ground to my tree stand and 30 yards out. There was not a crossing limb. There was not a standing like a sapling. There's nothing. Yeah. There was a deer between my tree and 30 yards out. I had a shot at it. Yeah, I uh yes. I I open it right up. It's uh I the only cover I leave is behind me. So I can't really get silhouetted or anything like that, but I will I'll trim it right out. And even all the way from the ground all the way up to the the tree stand. So when I'm you know raising and lowering my bow it doesn't get snagged on anything, but yeah I trim shooting lanes.

35:16Quite a bit and uh but I also try to hunt about 22 to 24 feet up. Yeah, so I think that the more the higher you are I think you can kind of open up lanes a little bit more. Right, so I don't I don't like pockets because I know what you're talking about now. I don't like pockets because yeah you're shooting your you're trimming out pockets for where you think the deer are going to go, but it's um getting heavier works out that way. Right, so right. Yeah, man, I don't know. I don't hunt near that high. I think the max that I'll hunt of course most of the most of my tree stand placements are like 15 to 18. I don't hunt that high and that just prevents me from having to uh cut a lot of lanes or cut a lot of shooting holes or whatever and at the same time I always like I really try to focus on my backdrop. Like am I am I silhouetted or am I do I have some background to where I can get away with a little bit more. Right, right. All right, so

36:22not necessarily a pole saw with you, but I forgot. Did you say you brought a hand saw with you? Uh oh yeah yeah I guess typically yeah I have a small I have a small hand saw with me just in case. Yeah. All right. What else? Anything else? I'm trying to think usually um for Nebraska for a non-resident is kind of weird. You don't exactly have a tag. You have a piece of paper. Um so I use it. I'll actually have like a pen in there. Um and I have zip ties in there as well to attach the tag. Um I do my my binoculars go in my backpack too and I put those on when I get the tree. I also strap my no matter the time of year I strap my jacket to my backpack when I'm headed out. So when I get in the tree put the jacket on and then I got to put my bino uh my harness on and then

37:22rangefinder and grunt tube. Um I don't pack rattling antlers in Michigan ever and then if I am in the Midwest um which is typically only going to be you know the rut and I'll typically bring rattling rattling antlers with me. I prefer real antlers to like a rattling bag or something like that. Yeah. Oh and and the uh the estrus can. Gotta have that. The bleat call. Yes. Yes sir. Have you ever had that work for you? Uh called in my wife's two and a half year old eight point last year with uh with a bleat. Yeah. So oh yeah I've had it work I've had it work a handful of times. I shot it like a shot a really big six point like a three and a half or four and a half year old six point um I don't know five six years ago and I grounded at him multiple times and he wasn't having it and I hit that can one time and he came in on a rope so. And that's one call I've had a

38:24grunt work. I've had a rattle work. I've had snort weasers work but I've never had a mature buck come in to a bleat can. Yeah it is uh it's last resort I'll tell you that. It's usually usually a grunt first um in depending on the situation I'll grow once or twice if they're not having it I just let it grow um it's kind of that like uh it'll live to fight another day type mentality. Yeah um but there's times where I've hit the horns together and that's brought them in. I don't think it's offered a shot but it brought them in. I think they circled downwind and that's always the danger of rattling and then um yeah I've had a couple scenarios where the bleat can has worked so. Yeah absolutely all right anything else. I cannot think of anything else at the moment. Gotcha. All right so I'll share mine uh like I said I'm using the tool bucket and I always pack my I pack my bag so that

39:32it's in order of how I want to take it out right so what I'm just going to do what I like a typical from the truck to the tree stand uh run and gun scenario right so I'm always having my clothes my heaviest coat that I'm going to put on in the bottom of the pack uh I'm going to have the the insulation layer on top of that and then any additional let's say base layer so I'm pretty much walking to the tree stand with my pants on my uh base layer top I have my safety harness already on most of the time and then I have the the actual uh lineman's belt wrapped on my hip already so that way when I get to the tree I just unbuckle and strap in right yep so that's on me and so in my pack it's ordered by when I take it out so the first thing that's on the top uh I guess before I even open the pack I have a hand saw that's in one of the side pockets I use a

40:38a wicked tree saw because I used to work for that company so I you know I have a wicked tree saw the pending on if it's a tree I've trimmed out before or if it's like a fresh into the nothing run and gun I'll bring a pole saw with me and that is also in my pack and strapped to my pack so that way um I can set my stuff down trim a couple branches and I don't go overboard but you know trim a couple shooting lanes and then set that down at the base of the tree and that's where it's that's where it sits I don't bring it up into the stand with me then uh I always have a can of nose jammer either in my pocket or on the side and uh I'll spray some in my on my boots and then I'll get to the tree and I'll spray some at the bottom of the tree and it's and it's funny because as soon as I get to the tree I set up in my Ozadex which I'm laying down cover set and I'm using a set eliminator product as well so it's I don't know why it's just it's what I'm confident with right

41:43so yeah yeah absolutely put my put my straps up or put my sticks up climb to the top and in my pockets I have a um I always carry like three of them in my pocket and then another six or seven actually in my pack and those are the screwing hangers uh I was I was hoping you're gonna say kick out buyers but so what I'm halfway up the tree I I've flown two steps god I need some I need some energy slam a kickcat bar real quick and then finish that off sorry sorry just imagine you're on public ground and there's some guy with all this equipment and he's halfway up his tree and you walk you walk over this hill and you see this dude just pound in a bag a kickcat bars and his tree stands isn't even set up yet I think that'd be fun to meet so I have the uh I have an abundance of screwing steps and I almost treat those as a disposable item because

42:47I go through so many of them in a year like I'll forget to take them out of the tree or I will leave them up at a set that I leave my tree stand at or I'll drop one it you know in the dark while I'm setting up or I'll drop one while I'm setting up so I don't instead of having to go down just reach in the pocket and grab another one right now pick it up after the hunt so I have a lot of those and then I'll set my tree stand up I'll hang my backpack up I'll get strapped in with my safety harness right my lineman belt then comes off my hip goes around the tree and then I'm I'm set in open up my pack the first thing on top is my ozonics right I'll screw in the base and then I'll put the ozonics up and then I'll turn it on so that I that I know it's running and doing its job while I am you know I'm a sweater by nature so whether it's 30 degrees outside or whether it's 75 degrees outside I sweat walk into my tree stand and so I got the ozonics running

43:54it's blowing downwind then I'll pull up or I will have my actual bow hanger and I use one of those real tree ones I think you can buy them at just about any location anywhere in the United States like if it's if it sells a hunting equipment you're going to find it there you know what I mean yeah yeah screw that in pull my bow up hang it up now I have everything that I need up there right next thing I do is I grab my release which is typically in a side pocket I put it on and in some of the other side pockets I have a grunt tube I have my grunt tube also kind of it's one of those I think it's a pre-mose no actually it's the bone collector series one and I was at a gander mountain when I picked it out and I I'm horrible so all the people must think I'm crazy when I go into a store and I'm blowing on like opening up the packages blowing

44:56like five or six different grunt tubes until I found the right one and the the bone collector one took in my opinion sounding the most realistic so I bought it that's the one I use inside there or on the side like I said on the side pocket I have a handsaw on the other side pocket on the inside is where I keep it's a little pouch where I keep my knife my tags and then like some napkins I don't work gloves when I clean clear deer but I have a couple napkins so after let's say I clean when I can just really quick wipe them off so there's no big chunks I do have I don't bring them until it gets closer to that late October period but I typically bring a pair of rattling horns with me I don't like the the bags as well I prefer I use sheds that I found and I hang those up

46:00on the side and then you know for the most part the rest is just gloves hats and then the rest of my layers depending on how cool it is and of course snacks right gotta talk about snacks like you said yeah I'm not a sugar guy because I used to be a sugar guy where I would go to the gas station spend like 15 bucks before every hunt and buy like the apple pies the mountain dues all that stuff but I found that I was getting extremely tired after that sugar rush would wear off so without sounding like a huge debag I'm I typically just bring water and apples or bananas or carrots like I'm a I'm a baby carrot freak so I'll sit and I'll eat a entire pound at a time and so that's those are typically my snacks but for the most part these days I run pretty lean

47:00um I don't I have and most times if I need to um I'll let's say I shoot a deer right tear everything down go back to the truck and typically I call my stepdad up and I'm like hey just shot a deer and I I have stuff like a pole rope if I need a pole rope I keep that at the truck and any anything else but for the most part I have you know like I said my knife I have two two two different knives I have a big a bigger buck knife that I can use like for splitting the pelvis if I need to or pelvis if I need to and then I have a smaller knife that I use for more precision where you know if I'm kind of peeling back some hide or trying to get it in there and cut the esophagus while I pull everything out and so that's you know oh and depending on time of year

48:01heating the heating units the the heating packs what are they called hot hands hot hands yeah if it's cold like it has been the past couple of ruts man I am I am hot handed up like I got some in my pockets I got some in my boots I got you know I got they have the adhesives now that you can put on different parts of your body so yeah I'm I'll admit it I'm a sissy when it comes to the cold so if it's really cold I may bring a thermos a coffee into the timber but not in the mornings only typically only in the afternoons okay I have not done that I've always thought about doing it sounds amazing yeah yeah I'm right there with you and at truth be told I actually do bring quite a quite a bit of apples and I'm pretty much every hunt with me every morning every night I think it's good cover scent for your breath honestly yeah I think I don't run aozonics just

49:03because a filming and stuff like that it's just one more thing I don't even think I have room for anozonics in my backpack honestly but yeah I think that's a good cover scent for your breath what else was I going to say the screwing steps I don't know what ones you use I personally cannot stand the a mirror step ones no I don't know the gorilla vortex they're black with like the red the red tip those are fantastic those are super sharp and they screw right in I've even I've been had no problem screwing them right into oak trees and stuff like that it's never slowing me down so yeah oh I got a kind of a quick funny story about the hot hands so last year last day I was in Iowa it was super cold and I took I was out I was out of hand warmer so into the gas station bought a bunch I had four hot hands in like the muff of my fanatic jacket yeah and I don't know

50:06two hours into the hunt I pull my phone out see what time it is so like that and I see like all these metal shavings around the speaker or the around the yeah around the speaker of my my phone and I'm looking at my phone like there's my phone so cold that like the speaker blew up or something I'm trying to figure what's going on I pull my I look at my hand in my hand is full of like that dust that's inside those hot hands oh boy dude I had two of them split open on me and I had no idea I was also like my nose always runs when I'm in the tree stand especially when it's cold out and I had been wiping my nose and it smelled like you know like copper almost or metal and I was trying to figure out what it was well I had it all over me and I didn't know it and I come I got I mean I figured out that they split open in my mouth and I got rid of them and dumped them all out and wasn't a big deal but I get to the truck my buddy picked me up at like noon and I get to the truck and he's just laughing and he rolls his window down I'm like what's so funny he's like have you

51:10seen yourself I was like no it's like look at the mirror and dude you would have thought I had face paint on I had so much of that black dust all over my face or my white my nose and stuff like that so now it's just a this is a quick funny story about those but I usually use the the mega ones the I don't go with just a small hand ones I'll use two mega warmers because I same thing I'm pretty big sissy when when it gets cold out so yeah I hear that man I I wonder how much I always think about things like that right during hunting season how much money do you think that company makes in in a in a year just by selling hot hands right that's if I if I put a number out there do you think it's more or less let's say let's say in one year that company makes 10 million dollars do you think it's more or less than that I would I would think less that just

52:11seems aggressive but yeah I don't I don't know I would be willing to bet that I probably spend a hundred to 125 dollars on on high hands a year so yeah but that's I mean I'll I'll use a fresh pack in the morning and then if I go in for lunch or something and come back out I'll use it I'll open up two more so I I mean the only last for seven hours there's guys that say that you can if you use them for a morning hunt and you only use it the only open for like four hours you can actually put them in a zip lock get all the air out and they'll actually cool back down and then when air hits them again for the evening hunt they'll warm back up but I have I have not gone through the troubles of trying to save my my hand warmers right so I got you got you all right well we're coming up on time here kind of a quick it's not really quick we spent a lot of time BS and on the spot cast but anything else that you think you might add this year to your pack or

53:15maybe take away that you don't use it enough you know and this is it's not exactly a pack related but I am switching from a like a full like safety harness to a rock climbing harness I had a I had a lot of issues yeah right first step towards saddle hunting that's right no I I don't know I don't know if it's my harness or what or just the way I sit or maybe my harness is too small for me or something but it just pulls on it pulls down on my shoulders and I just noticed after you know the 10 days of hunting and my back was super sore probably has nothing to do with sitting in a tree stand for 10 days but um but yeah I figured it's I just got it in the mail and it's definitely going to be it's much more lightweight the other thing is I noticed a lot last year where I had my my harness tethered to the tree you know if I had to ever spin or rotate that would get in the way

54:21depending on you know where the deer was at and I just know I just got to think about it I did some research on some forums and I think a lot a lot of guys have positive remarks about using a rock climbing harness the your tethered right around your waist so if you do have to spin or anything like that it's never going to affect when you draw your bow back you know with that potential uh uh line coming down from the tree like around your back at all so yeah I feel you man I've had to do quite a bit of adjustments on mine just to get it to where I like it right I always like mine a little loose uh a little looser uh around my upper body but I like it tight around my waist and my in my uh I guess my thighs I guess but it's just me also there's no more you know throwing a jacket on when you're in the stand because I always put my harness on like uh and then carry the jacket out so I've always got to thread the the strap through the jacket

55:24like if there is a if there's like a passport hole or whatever yeah always monkey and around with that I'm like I think it'll be nice to see you're not not having to deal with any of that yeah so all right man well if that's it we're gonna call our quits today and let's see by the time this launches when this launches you'll be balls deep in an elk hunt I'll be back a week and uh we'll have to reconvene after that and uh probably once again choose a topic last minute hey sounds good to me good luck on your elk hunt yeah same to you man thank you and there you have it ladies and gentlemen thank you very much for tuning into the Hunting Gear podcast if you like what you hear share this with your friends go to iTunes leave a review uh make sure you're subscribing to this and then uh take part in the conversation on the sportsman's nation podcast network instagram page and um the uh facebook page as well as the nine finger chronicles

56:30facebook page and instagram page and the hybrid outdoors instagram page and facebook page our goal with this again is to um start creating conversations about gear and equipment that we all use throughout the uh you know we all use throughout the hunting season and I want you guys to be a part of that so there's that thanks for tuning in uh next week's podcast hopefully we'll be the follow up to the trail camera podcast that we did a while back and uh i'm gonna get uh hopefully i've already recorded a portion with uh Chad so Vester thrown ex-miss trail cameras and i'm trying to get one more company on to uh take part in the podcast and uh then i'll get that one out and then the week after that again it's gonna be me and Bob BS and about something and that's it man hopefully everybody has a great rest of the week and we'll talk to you next time