Whats in your stalking kit?

[Echo_17]

Rifle and scope.

Not to sound cheeky but the two most important pieces of stalking kit are very high quality and well fitting boots and socks appropriate to the climate and terrain you are stalking in.

If you have sore, wet, cold, blistered or otherwise compromised feet you are going to be miserable and unlikely to ever have an opportunity to even take a shot.

Next is a pair of good walking/running shoes, being in halfway decent shape does wonders for your stalking so you are not huffing and puffing your way up every hill and stumbling through brambles.

In the off season I like to just take nice long walks in the woods following game trails and focusing on being quiet as I move, reading the wind. It is a great way to combine staying in shape, practicing stalking and enjoying nature year round. I have started bringing my 7yo son and it is a great way to spend time together, pass on the outdoors and make a game of being sneaky.

Similar thoughts applies to good layers, having a “system” made of high quality, thin layers that can be mixed and matched for any climate and are easy to add and subtract from throughout the day while being breathable, quiet and weather proof greatly increase one’s comfort and therefore focus. This is also much easier on the wallet and lets you have fewer, much higher quality items that you get more use out of.

Don’t get hung up on big single items or specific camouflage patterns, our prey doesn’t see THAT well and movement, scent and skylining yourself are 1000x more likely to get you busted than not having the latest Sitka pattern

Good binoculars in a chest rig are also fantastically important, I like a nice pair of 10x fixed power for general use. The chest rigs are great for keeping your binoculars preordered and clean while giving you easy pockets to hold a wind puffer bottle, range finder and maybe a snack

We are blessed as shooters as in the current age even the most pedestrian modern hunting rifles are supremely accurate and dependable, we all just like to overthink it as that is half the fun!

 

[Nickb]

Not to sound cheeky but the two most important pieces of stalking kit are very high quality and well fitting boots and socks

You can have the best boots and socks in the world but you wont shoot any deer without a rifle

 

[Norfolk Deer Search]

You can have the best boots and socks in the world but you wont shoot any deer without a rifle

That’s fact

 

[Echo_17]

You can have the best boots and socks in the world but you wont shoot any deer without a rifle

Very true, but on a hunting group a rifle of some variety is a bit of a given

 

[tackb]

Very true, but on a hunting group a rifle of some variety is a bit of a given

unless you hail from the americas where you can hunt with rifle,shotgun,muzzle loader , bow+arrow , spear , blow pipe probably even your bare hands if you want?

 

[Echo_17]

unless you hail from the americas where you can hunt with rifle,shotgun,muzzle loader , bow+arrow , spear , blow pipe probably even your bare hands if you want?

Never used a blow pipe or spear but definitely the rest

but have a buddy that hunts with spears in Florida for boar with dogs at night, sounds like a proper adventure

 

[Echo_17]

It's many years since I last went stalking (getting back into it now). However, I've worked in remote, conflict-affected/non-permissive environments for many years, and there are some cross-over 'non-negotiables' I might suggest. These have a place in your bag, or on your person.

1. Trauma focussed IFAK (individual first aid kit). This is not the same as a small first aid kit, because it's primarily focussed on heavy bleeds: Two 'CAT' tourniquets, adapted to be ready to self-administer, a Sharpie pen to write on the injury site or forehead the time of application, and a good field dressing. Keep this on your person and tell people you are with where they are and how to use them. Canine IFAK too, if you work with one.
2. A small 'booboo kit' is useful (e.g plasters, tick remover, tweezers, electrolyte powder, pain relief, a sling bandage) and can live in your bag.
3. Small tools appropriate for field stripping your firearm - Hex keys, turn screw and a paint lid lifter to help get a stuck case out (usefully many also double as a bottle opener)!
4. A length of sniper tape or fabric repair tape, wrapped around something like your knife sheath. Useful for fixing torn waterproofs etc.

These items take up no appreciable room, but when needed will save a hunt (or your life).

Great mention, always carry a TQ in my bino pouch, cheap insurance in case something goes very wrong in the bush

 

[Scotty99]

Why the cable ties ?

Some people like to tie off the tubes at the rear end and the oesophagus to prevent leakage, often taught to do it that way. Personally I don’t do it that way but some choose to. If not the cable ties are optional.

 

[Chris Richardson]

Some people like to tie off the tubes at the rear end and the oesophagus to prevent leakage, often taught to do it that way. Personally I don’t do it that way but some choose to. If not the cable ties are optional.

Well they’re being taught wrong then , still nothing like an additional bit of plastic to litter the countryside

 

[Siggy]

To much when I am heading out, not enough when I am coming back

 

[Mike1979]

Well they’re being taught wrong then , still nothing like an additional bit of plastic to litter the countryside

I recall the guidance/advice (if using a cable tie - which I dont) was to ensure the cable tie was removed before the gralloch was left for exactly the reason you describe

 

[Robertson_Dorset87]

Ammo, gloves, binos, thermal, 3 in 1 knife. (Unzipper, chest saw and knife all in one)
Spare batteries. S Hook

Everything else stays in the Mule.

 

[Spear Chucker]

In addition to the obvious, I thought I’d include the things that I have recently discovered on my pockets that may or may not contribute to success and well being:

A third of a saussicon
2 empty cases (1x Creedmoor, 1x .22 ARC)
A strip of Velcro, with sticky back still intact
3 x cyclists reflector strips
Assorted lengths of paracord
2 left gloves
A windchecker puff bottle thingy
A can of Smidge
A snood
Half a roll of vet wrap
A folding pocket knife (wondered where that had got to)
Half a bag of peanuts.
A pine cone

Archaeology is always interesting. I walked into the shed on one occasion and thought "funny, there are an awful lot of flies in here". I thought no more of it until a few moths later when I decided to wear my Cecil B De Mille coat for a foray. I put it on and felt something in the left-hand pocket. "What's that?" I wondered. The answer, of course, being a mummified pigeon I had stuffed in my pocket after shooting it the last time I wore the coat for a foray.
It's a bit like the .22 bullets that fall through the hole in your coat pocket, which you find just before you join the check-in queue at Stansted.

 

[Scotty99]

Well they’re being taught wrong then , still nothing like an additional bit of plastic to litter the countryside

I agree that’s why I don’t do it.

 

[Klenchblaize]

Well they’re being taught wrong then , still nothing like an additional bit of plastic to litter the countryside

Only a truly OCD deerstalker would trim and discard the cable tie excess before transporting the beast and guts off site!

K
Ps: I do not leave the crud under a hedge.

 

[sy247]

I use a cable tie sometimes and I cut it off and take it with me.

 

[Cootmeurer]

It’s obvious you all are idiots
A proper kit must be a camo set of clothes in the newest camo pattern of the newest material.
Then your rifle stock must match that same pattern and your man-purse should also be the same.

Then make sure all your knives, phones, keys are also camouflage/ so that you can set them down and never find them again

Seriously though - if you can find a US MRE from military surplus - they have a little sealed accessory bag that contains TP, matches, instant coffee and salt/sugar. Add to that a knife with a blaze orange or other high vis handle, some rope, a couple ziploc bags, a flashlight/torch and or headlamp, nitrile gloves - along with your rifle and shells. Bottle of water is nice as well

 

[Spear Chucker]

It’s obvious you all are idiots
A proper kit must be a camo set of clothes in the newest camo pattern of the newest material.
Then your rifle stock must match that same pattern and your man-purse should also be the same.

Then make sure all your knives, phones, keys are also camouflage/ so that you can set them down and never find them again

Seriously though - if you can find a US MRE from military surplus - they have a little sealed accessory bag that contains TP, matches, instant coffee and salt/sugar. Add to that a knife with a blaze orange or other high vis handle, some rope, a couple ziploc bags, a flashlight/torch and or headlamp, nitrile gloves - along with your rifle and shells. Bottle of water is nice as well

Don't forget the A-hole remover and the clickety-clackety ratchety-winch thingy you need to scare off all of the other deer for 5 miles around.
New boy looks like a one man band. As time goes on, he slims down.
The field kit rapidly shrinks, the box of once-used and never-to-be-used-again rubbish grows. By the time he retires you'd look at him and wonder where he keeps his knife. It is the paradox of the human condition. By the time you learn the value of planting an apple tree, you are too old to pick the fruit for very long.

 

[Uillie]

Hill stalker.

Rifle and ammunition, knife, bins, drag rope, Garmin, first aid kit all inside Vorn backpack. Oh and don't forget your cromag (shepherds crook)

 

[HonestJohn]

I pack more for the open hill, it’s a bigger place and more can happen.

What I don’t get, and makes me laugh, are those who pack up the kitchen sink to stalk around a farm where you’d walk around in jeans and wellies or kids run around playing in the fields.
Jeans and wellies for a farm walk about during the day…add a rifle and suddenly it’s camo, leather boots, full medical and evac kit, drag bag, roe sacks, professional larder equipment for a gralloch a pocket knife could do, ropes, s hooks, folding bloody gambrels even!, block and tackle, drinks, food, toilet paper, zip lock bags, knives, several torches, binos, thermals, range finders, etc.