doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Your vital equipment list for upland hunting...

The board seems a bit slow the last couple days so I will attempt to spark a conversation. Besides your favorite double, what gear/gadgets to you just have to pack for a 3 or 4 hr hunting trip on a Saturday morning? I would say that my dog, and all the various items that go with a dog are necessary, this is not the answer I am looking for however. Do any of you have a particular item that makes the hunt more enjoyable that may be out of the norm? For me it's a hat pin made for me from the tail feather of the first wild rooster pheasant I ever killed. I switch it from hat to hat depending on the day but it's always there. Kind of a good luck charm I guess. I with the population of birds in Iowa I believe it is wearing out....

I like to take a couple good old paper shells for first bird.

My Small Munsterlander Pointer


My hunt'in buddy


A shotgun and some polywad spreader 7 1/2's

Everything else is not that important

Gary

Chocolate

My Beans waxed cotton game vest. After a couple seasons of hard use it looks and feels like a vest brought to life from an old black and white pic of an old hand proud of his days upland hunting achievements.

-Chris

Calf skin fingerless gloves to ward off thorns from multi-flora rose. They have saved me from many a scratch, I know this because I've regretted everytime I've forgotten them over the years.

Also every once in a while I'll take some black powder loads with me for the heck of it. I bought a couple of boxes of GOEX loaded 7.5's years ago and use them for practical jokes when someone wants to borrow a shell too.

Muck Boots! No laces to bend over and lace; slip on and slip off; keep my feet warm&dry in the swamps; Used to be Cheap too...Geo

Plenty of "John Wayne" paper.

Mike

Old fashioned lined wicker picnic basket with sandwiches, nuts, and fruit.



Paper shells loaded with nitro for my later doubles

Magtech brass hull black powder loads for my earlier doubles.

Waxed cotton vest.

I have younger dogs and have been putting a GPS locator collar on them until they will hold point for fifteen minutes which my Molly did last week. After that it is back to the old fashioned way of looking for the dog - scratch my head. I have a two collar set and on those days my shooting student Joe wood is having a near full time senior moment I put one of him just in case.

Battery booster in case the Expedition battery goes south. My main hunting buddy and shooting student Joe Wood is going senile and sometimes leaves things turned on on the truck.

First Aid Kit

A roll of stick on Velcro.

Garmin GPS for the navigating the truck.

"Roads of Texas", "Roads of Kansas", "Roads of New Mexico" and BLM maps

Gun cleaning kit

Back up doublegun to the one I am carrying.

Surgical tools for dog injuries, particulary porcupine encounters of the third kind

Spare shells in five gauges for my guests who forget theirs, I usually get about $5 per cartridge.

Spare vest for my guests that forget theirs, $50 per day rental

Spare batteries for the GPSs, walky talkys

My shooting student Joe Wood usually brings walky talkys so he can ask me what he needs to do when he gets in a jam and I am out of hearing range.

Duct tape

Spare socks

Filson waxed overalls for hunting in cold wet thorny country. In my opinion that is all they are good for.

Extra fleeces, agiain for rental to my guests

I like the Nike "Cold damp weather golf gloves" that someone on here recommende. I usually carry a spare pair.

A fluffy down filled coat. Fleece is nice but the down has insulating properties well beyone a couple of layered fleeces.

20 or thirty bottle of bottled water - in a cooler without ice

6 gallon gas can full of tap water for the dogs

The stainless steel dog bowls Walmart sells, have a rubber ring on the bottom to keep them from sliding around. One for each dog.

Dog food with measuring cup for the dogs - in a plastic container with a screwon lid.

Full tank of gas.

Duct tape, motorcycle innertubes, scissors and bandage scissors for dog boots.

Compass for the one day a season we have that it is foggy.

Rain coat.

Alleve and Aspirin for my guests, $2 per pill.

That is about half the crap I carry in my Expedition

Best,

Mike

A hair pick and Leatherman tool with pliers are absolutely as essential as toilet paper. The pick is used to flick cholla burrs off myself and the French Brittany and the leatherman pliers are used to get any left over spines out of me and the dog. I just find it hard to walk with my hunting pants nailed to my shin bone by cholla cactus spines. Hunters from areas without cholla just haven't seen anything as nasty.

First post here. Greetings all!

For grouse hunting in Eastern Ontario, I usually bring:

Shotgun and shell belt.
Game carrier.
D.H. Russell No.1 in a custom sheath.
500 ml Nalgene full of water. Maybe a small flask if I'm in a single malt appreciation kind of mood. Possibly a couple of apples and some beef jerky if I'm going to be out for several hours.
Camera.

Knife and game carrier go on the belt, sundries in a small shoulder bag. I like to hunt pretty light. I've even tried hunting in a Utilikilt and Vibram Fivefingers, but that got very scratchy very fast .

Durn, Mike. You sure you don't need an old schoolbus? No wonder Joe likes hunting with you, all he needs to bring is his self and his gun!

My possibles are:

doublegun and shells

three bag belt bag

shades

cigars

Gerber multiplier

Dan's Windwalker snakeproof chaps

old Columbia shooting gloves, trigger finger cut off

and my buddy Greg's Ranger, tricked out for quail



We've got this thing figured out, eh Joe?

Stan

Beer.

For me it's my late fater's realtree camouflage "bush style" hat. The one he wore while in the VA hospital with his name and room number in permanent marker inside so he'd know where to go at the end of the day.

Thin but tough pigskin gloves that fit close but do not restrict finger and hand flex to ward off blackberry thorns and thornapple thorns as well as all sorts of other branches and puckerbrush snarls that would otherwise shred the backs of my hands and fingers. Anyone who uses fingerless gloves must not get into the thick stuff very much...

My frayed-at-the-cuff six-year-old waxed Filson Tin Cloth chaps for the very same reason but also to keep my legs dry in the morning frost or dew on the goldenrod and tall grass in the edge cover.

A bottle of water and a waxed vest with a game pocket ample enough to hold my wool shirt as the day warms or to hold my rain jacket in case the day turns wet.

A good friend and shooting companion who thinks and hunts much like I do.

When out for Sept. dove in TX its still chigger season and they will cross a trap to get to me. Single most important item to keep them at bay is an old sock filled with a handful of dusting sulfur & tied off. Keep it in a pound coffee can w/lid when not in use. Just bang it against yer boots, pants and around yer waist and they mostly stay off. A bottle of clear fingernail polish will suffocate the ones that bite you anyway, but that's post hunt therapy.

Another couple or three items worth packing are extra ear plugs and glasses for those invariably not having them. FWIW, I've found the clear poly glasses sold at most sporty stores & the Wally Marts for 'air soft' use have the highest protective impact ratings and they are inexpensive. Always pack at least a roll of paper towels.

I've also seen times when having some Zantac for the over exuberant and Immodium for the unfortunate was most appreciated.

A good friend to hunt with
Steve

Valium



Prozac..................for me



More Prozac when your pup points a Missouri squirrel in front of 3 witnesses

Fox shotgun
Field bred Springer
RST shells
License
Filson shelter cloth vest
Beans brush pants
whistle and counter
snap leash
bottle of water
cell phone (turned off unless an emergency)
Bird knife
Hunting buddy

I hunt quail in "the shadow of the fence" along the Arizona/Mexico border.For the past few years, in addition to my LC Smith 16ga.,and typical quail gear, I pack 6 rounds of 00 buck, a .357 revolver for backup, and a cell phone.Unfortunately, the scaled quail population in southern Arizona has suffered greatly from the cumulative effects of global warming-birds are scarce.Its a very different situation from the care free days of my youth when quail were abundant and rattlesnakes the only threat! Some times I wonder if its still worth the risk,but,sunrise on the desert with a nice double across your arm is a wonderful thing not to be missed!

Hope and Anticipation!

20 years ago just a short drive east of Memphis we had some of the finest quail hunting in the south.....now unless you shoot pen raised quail there is no upland hunting. I've did it a few times it's just not my bag.

Now I mainly turkey hunt and go duck hunting a few times.

I hunt many things in many places.
I have a leatherman-like tool permanently attached within the game pouch of my vest.
If the hunt is more remote, I take my ELB.
If a jaunt in the area, my most welcome piece of kit is just a bottle of water. It is just very amazing how simple and delicious a drink of water can be in the field.

I usually have a thermos of coffee in the truck as well, but that is for between stops.

For those that maintain a slide-in set of drawers, I recommend a Jet boil, and some coffee/boullion crystals.

When I hunt with Mike, I just bring a gun and a checkbook on a non existent account.......

So...nobody brings a license?

Lots of trash bags. When we leave an area, nobody knows we were ever there.

As with many of you, we try to clean up the crap left by other hunters, and sometimes fill up a drum liner with hulls, boxes, bottles, cans and misc junk. This has been very helpful when we have run into land owners making their rounds.

My Dad�s old pen knife, left front pocket where he use to keep it all of the time. That�s it.