Ep. 43: Remi Warren's Pack Dump: How Much Gear is Too Much?

between being successful consistently or just looking into something. There's so much new and awesome gear out there, but there's also some really great, tried and true pieces. The trouble is what do you take? What don't you take? You're always balanced seeing this carrying the weight of something or lightning your load a little bit. So this week on the podcast, what I want to do is a pack dump. I want to talk about my kit and what I carry for both a day hunt and a backcountry trip.

Then I also want to give you some tips on refining a kit for yourself. But before we go into that, I want to share a story of a hunt I took with my dad in Montana, and let's just say one of us had way too much stuff. This story takes place during the general rifle season in Montana. Now I just got done guiding some hunters for the week, and of course it's the weekend. So what do I do?

I go hunting. I like to get out and stay out. Now, maybe most people would reset and recuperate for the next group of guys coming in, but me, it's like, all right, I've got a few days off, just like anybody else that works Monday through Friday. It's the weekend. Now I can get out and do some hunting myself. My dad happened to be up for that time, and so I figured, Hey, I'll just ask Dad, you want to go elk hunting

with me today. He's like, yeah, that sounds great. So the next morning, we load up the truck and just head out way before daylight, get to a spot and start hiking in. You know, sun starts coming up and we're looking and we spot some milk up higher on the mountain and decide, all right, let's go make a move. It's just some cows and spikes, but we could tell there's a lot of ilk, and we weren't really sure if there was any bulls in there, So if let's go get in there close and see if we can't

pick out a bowl. So we started walking up the mountain and it's a ways away. We get in there, and by this point it was one of those deals where they're kind of in the open, but if you're there right then you could probably see into that timber. But who knows where they disperse you once they get into that timber. Most of the time they go a couple of canyons back and bed in some thick timber. So we get up there, but by the time we

get there, the elk had really disappeared. We spotted a few cows, and now we just kind of gotta keep hunting around the rest of the day. So we keep working our way up the mountain and not really seeing much, and my dad's doing pretty good. But I noticed we kind of stopped it about that time in the morning, about ten thirty eleven or so. It's not quite lunchtime, but we're sitting down having a snack, drink some water, talking,

just having a good time, really enjoying the day. And I kind of noticed that my dad seemed like he was a little more tired than normal, but also he hadn't been out a lot, because it's kind of the first couple of times he'd been out for a few weeks. So now that yeah, you know, sometimes just he's a little bit slower some days. So he's sitting down, He's like, yeah, man, I was just kind of tired today. It just seems like I'm dragging a little bit. I was like, yeah,

and you know, that just happens. And we decided to get up and maybe go check over the next ridge, keep going, and I pick up his pack to hand to him, and I'm like, this thing is just way too heavy, and we just kind of have this kind of between us back and forth where I'm always trying to get him to light in his pack. But he's the type of guy. There's there's two types of guys. There's always the guy that takes way too much stuff, and then there's the guy that doesn't take enough stuff,

and then you try to find that happy middle. So my dad always takes too much stuff, and I always try to lighten his load, but inevitably when I do, a scenario will happen. It just happens every time, a scenario will happen where there was something that I happened to take out that now he needs. Maybe he didn't use it for years, but as soon as I take

it out, then he needs it. I can remember a few years before this particular instance, we were hunting sheep and you know, he had all this water, just tons of water bottles, and I was like, you don't need this much water, dad, So he took some of the waters out of his pack, and sure enough, we ended

up way further than we thought. The water source that I thought was gonna be there was dry, and we were severely dehydrated, hiking all the way through the night back and it's just one of those that you know, he keeps bringing it up, like, yeah, I remember when you took all my water. So I'm giving him a hard time saying like, what do you have in this pack? Is? I was like, I guarantee I can go through this

pack and light in your load. There's just things you don't need, and he's like, no, it's just all all stuff I need. I'm like, okay, well let me look. No, no, no no, And I'm like what this is? So I'm like, come on, let me look, what's I guarantee you've got stuff in here that you don't need. And he looks at me. He's like no, He's like, everything in there

I need, don't mess with my pack. I'm like, okay, So before I give him his pack, I just have to say, I mean this thing, I'm picked it up and we're day hunting, and it feels like he's got stuff for ten days worth of hunting in here. And I opened up the pack and I just have to laugh because in the pack is a bunch of just random stuff. I'm not talking hunting stuff, I'm talking random stuff. There is a full ratchet set with all the bits. There is a dualt saws all, and there is five

Mokita batteries, none which go to the saws. All the it's in there. There is a cordless drill, a packet of ratchet straps, and there are five to six full like hardcover books. And I'm like laughing, Okay, do you really need this ratchet set you And obviously these are not hunting items. I couldn't figure it out, and we

just started laughing because what had happened. My dad a week earlier was flying to the airport and he had his hunting pack in the back of a truck, but he also had some tools and stuff sitting in there. So he threw all the stuff from inside of his truck and the tools into the backpack, thinking he was gonna clean it out, and then completely forgot that he

put it in there before he left. Then in the morning, he just grabbed his pack and he realized he hadn't even looked in the main compartment until I opened it up and we got on the top of the mountain. So he had all this construction stuff, like work stuff, some just random stuff that was sitting in his truck because he was playing on putting it in his backpack and then moving vehicles and cleaning it all up. Yet we're here at the top of an elk com out in the middle of the day, and he's got not

only a saws all, but no battery for it. But he has a pile of other batteries for different drills and different things. So he's got this big pack full of non essential stuff huffing up the mountain chasing after elk. While the story of my dad having way too much stuff is just on the extreme side, I think we're

all guilty of it. In some ways where we've got a lot of things in our pack that we haven't really scrutinized, and we're carrying a lot of extra weight or extra things that we probably don't use, probably won't use, or have completely forgotten that we've got in there. So I want to just talk about some of the g that I take and kind of my basic kit and what my KID is. I refer to my kit as just the basic things that I take pretty much on every hunt, and then I kind of adjust from there

depending on the hunt. So if I'm hunting elk, it my kit will just slightly adjust for elk, or if I'm hunting meal deer, antelope, it kind of adjusts from there. Whether I'm doing a day hunt or a backcountry hunt, a few things will change. But overall, I figured out a system to help refine my kit to make sure that the things I have are very useful. I know what's in there, so I I use what I have, and it kind of cuts the weight of just some

of the extra stuff that you can accumulate. There's so many times where you'll be on a day hunt or whatever and you just kind of you're lugging up the mount and chasing after something like why is my pack so heavy? I haven't even started the pack out yet, and I've got way too much stuff. So just refining your kit really helps you streamlined the process and use what you have. So let's start out with a day hunt. What I want to do is I want to kind

of do what I would call it pack them. So I'm just gonna essentially grab my pack, dump it out, and let you know what's in it, and then how I modify it from there. It's taken me years to decide what I need to carry in what I don't need to carry, And how I've done that is I'll go out on a hunt and there will be things in my backpack that I've kind of always taken, and

I'll take it on a trip. And after a couple of times, I realized, Man, this thing that's sitting in here, whatever it is, this extra water bottle, I've never really used it, Or this, you know, this survival type kit with a bunch of extra heavy, redundant things that I already have two of, Or this old flashlight where I've got my two good flashlights, but I've got this other one that I just never use and somehow it sat

in the bottom of my pack for years. So what I do as I go on trips and I really scrutinize the things that I use a lot and prioritize those and the things that maybe have multiple uses for other things, and just kind of refine it that way. So let's get into the pack dump and this is gonna be for a day hunt. So what a day hunt is, I'm just gonna just so everybody's on the same page, same terms. A day hunt essentially where you're

going out from a base camp. Could be vehicle based, could be it could even be from the back country or whatever. But you're just you're going back to some form of camp at night and you're hiking out from the day from there. So it's normally you're maybe you've parked your vehicles and you're camping, or maybe you're hunting from your house or a cabin somewhere, and then you go out and come back to that spot and you're

hunting for the day. Actually, I would say on day hunts, you're probably covering a lot more ground than many back country hunts. So they can be physical, they can be hard, you can get a long ways away from roads in a day, and honestly, day hunting is probably the way

that the majority of Western hunts go. There are the back country, you know, week long type trips into one area, but if there's nothing in that area, day hunting is a great way to be flexible, to move around and then kind of centralize in one spot and go out different places each day, hiking into new areas or checking different spots. So it's highly mobile. You're moving a lot um.

Your pack is going to be lighter because you don't have certain items that you need to carry for overnight type trips, but you also want to be ready to pack something out in the case that you get something while you're out there, because you're probably gonna be a long ways away from a road. You can travel a

lot of distance even before the sun comes up. You want to have everything you need for the day, maybe some ability to carry out some meat if you are successful, and not have too much weight that slows you down, so you can cover the most amount of ground the most efficiently. Now, if I'm going to talk about gear, I first just want to you know, obviously mentioned that I am sponsored by a lot of companies and so most of the gear is companies that I am sponsored with,

not all of it. However, the companies that I do work with, I only work with companies that I really like their gears. So for me, I'm always just want to clarify that that there are some companies that I work with very closely, but it's mostly because it's gear

that I really like. So I just think that that's a caveat to talking about any kind of gear knowing where I'm coming from, and it is good because I've I've got to sample of a lot of gear within certain companies product lines, so I've had experience with from top their top end stuff to a little bit of everything. It would be hard pressed to find too many individuals that have tried as much of different stuff from different

companies in different places and than I have. So I I really have a lot of opinions on gear, but for the most part, I just like to tell you about the type of things that you need, and then I can even suggest some of my favorites as well. There's a lot of different things that work, but I just figure I throw that out there before we get too deep into this when I'm talking about gear, when I think about what gear I like. You know, there's certain gear that specialized for a task at hand, but

I like to balance lightweight, durable, and practical. So if I'm thinking about what's in my pack, what am I taking, it generally checks one of those boxes or all three. You know, if if it's debating between certain things, it's going to try to check all three boxes for me. So here's a rundown of a typical day hunt pack.

We're gonna just pick a hunt and then we'll talk about this the gear that I would take for that hunt, and then kind of how to tweak it and how you can adjust the kit for the things that you think you might need. So my typical day hunt, I'm grabbing my my pack, and I tend to like a little bit larger cubic inch pack. I have a stone glacier. Either use the solo or the Sky. So we'll just use the Sky for this because it does work really good for backcountry and more day hunt. Use a little

bit of everything, a little bit bigger bag. So that's the pack that I'm choosing. When it comes to packs, whatever pack it is, here's the three things that you must have. You you need A belt, you need the pack to be adjustable to your torso and you need a sturdy frame. It could be an external frame, which

would be like an old school backpacking pack. Some really good ones for external frames, or like Barney's pack of Alaska Keelty Freighter Pack Outdoorsman Pack those are all external frames, and then internal frame pack would be like Stone Glacier. Um there's a lot of other ones kafar Rou. I mean there's some even that I've used that maybe necessarily don't like, but I see a lot of other guys used. I don't have to mention them, but like, just the frame is inside the bag, and so there's pros and

cons to both types of packs. But you have to have that frame, you need that adjustable belt, and you're gonna want some adjustability in sizing the pack. Not everybody's the same, so pack fit and being comfortable is key. I really like the Stone Glacier because it's super durable, but it's also really light and I can carry a lot of weight out in it and that's key to me. And it's also very customizable to my size and torso and body, so it fits good, especially when I loaded

down with lot of weight. You know, I think that some of the gear items that most people struggle with are gonna be packs and boots, and the reason is because those are the things that are the most like put the most uncomfort on someone because you're walking a lot, so that goes into boots and then packs. You're carrying

a lot of weight. It's already an uncomfortable task, so you need to recognize that it's something that's uncomfortable and you want a piece of gear that makes it more comfortable. I've really landed with the Stone Glacier packs. I really really enjoy it. So that's the pack that I'm just gonna be talking about. So now inside that pack, you know, really I'm pretty bare bones when it comes to what I consider my essentials. It's gonna be a water bottle.

Some guys use bladders. You know. There's so much of this gear stuff that's always say you could take two hunters that do this a lot. There's gonna be some things that line up. Me and my guide friends or other outfitters that I know, when we get together and talk, we pretty much just talk about gear and the things we love and the things we hate, and we can

do that for hours. Because we've spent so much time with gear and everybody's got their own little nuances of the things they like and or bad experience with something, and and you just kind of learn and and see everybody's things that they like. So for me, I'm a water bottle guy. There's guys that are bladder use the bladder tubes and hoses. I don't like those because I've had trouble with them in the past. When it's cold,

they freeze. I've seen him pop, or you sit on the hose and it starts to leak, or if you're out for a long time, the hose gets dirty and then you get bacteria and I feel like they're in his clean so I don't really like it. It's not as easy to fill up in water sources. My dad, on the other hand, he's the kind of guy that wants water easily accessible, so he uses the bladder, and no matter how many times I try to convince him, he tries to convince me the other way. So that's

just one of those things. But I'm I'm a bottle guy. Now. After that, we've got our knife, and then I always have a knife sharpener. I just used one of those I think they're called Smith's knife sharpeners. It's these yellow ones. You can buy it pretty much every gas station or grocery store in America. It's a pull through kind. It's got a ceramic on one side and a steel on the other. There's plenty of great knife sharpeners out there.

This just happens to be one that I think is simple, easy to use, fairly light fast, does what it needs to do, and you can get on working or cutting or whatever. For knife, you know, there's a lot of options out there. You can do the replaceable blade I got, like the replaceable blade gerber Um Vital series. I don't really I wouldn't really use bring the knife sharpener. If I choose that knife for a hunt or just like a stout, you know, standard pocket folding blade, pocket knife,

fixed blade or whatever. Then in your daypack you're gonna have your lunch. You know, this will consist of pretty much snacks throughout the day, breakfasts, even something for if you get in late. I throw in a lot of extra food on my day hunts and eat as much as I can, because when you're day hunting, you're burning probably as many if not more calories than you might

in the backcountry, you're covering a lot more ground. You're you've got a lighter load, so you can move a little bit more agile and cover a lot you can get into some places that's a little bit harder with a heavy pack. So having just that high energy level, bringing extra food because you know that at night you're going back to your base camp, you can resupply and keep going the next day. Then I've got in here. I've got some firestarter. There's so many different kinds out there,

you know. I use like these different cubes or it's kind of like this cotton wax, cotton stuff just depends. I've got different kinds, but I put the fire starter. I've always got it in my backpack, something that always stays in there. And then game bags I generally carry about four. It adds a little bit of weight. I like the reusable kind. I use the Caribou gear ones. Alan also makes some very similar I just like something

that's durable. They're more like a pillow, like a calm pillow case style with the draw cord, and I'll use those for not only game bags, but also just other things as well, Like kind of you can separate out your gear are in these bags. You can do whatever you want, you know in the back country, which we'll talk about later. You can use them for a bunch of different purposes. Game bags. I always have some cordage, whether it's like pcord something that I've used a lot,

as mule tape. It's like a little bit more tensile strength, not round, a little bit more grip, the not slip a little bit easier in it. That's really good stuff. Actually, on a Christmas special talked about some of that. I wasn't sure if it was around anymore, and it actually is. I saw it on a shark tank. Is the rapid rope. It's like rope that comes out of a can. So that stuff works pretty good. Just pull out some good length of that because I'll use that cordage for so

many different things, but especially on a day hunt. You're going out, You're gonna pack some of the back of your elk hunting or whatever, but you might need to hang quarters and stuff in a tree, so it works great for that as well. Then I've got what I think the most underrated piece of year in my kit. Have talked about it all my social media a lot and written many articles upon this topic. But the black contractor garbage bag, if it's not in your pack, it

needs to be. It works great as a pack liner, especially when you're packing stuff out. Keeps the blood and everything out of your pack, but also has so many other uses. I generally keep two of them in my bag because I've used them as makeshift waiters to cross a river, you know, use them as emergency shelters, or making sleeping pads, and all all different kinds of things. Gathering water if there's no water where you go and you can put some snow on it, melt some snow

into water. Outside of that, a couple of the other what I would consider small items or just stuff that's always in my bag, would be a small first aid kit. I kind of specialize it. There's, um, you know, one of those small made for backpacking type first aid kits, and I put some extra ad vill or things that I might need in it. And then I always have some duct tape, and I generally wrapped that duct tape around my water bottle so it's easy to find. I

know exactly where it is. And honestly, that duct tape is mostly for first aid type stuff. If you cut yourself or whatever, you can just use that duck tape, or if you start to get blisters on your feet, it's just right there on your bottle. You don't have to dig around, and you always know you've got it. Then another item that I always have in my pack is I have a small flashlight. I always have my headlamp, but I also carry this small other flashlight that's a

lot brighter. I don't use it as like constant on, but when I'm navigating night, maybe in some more treacherous country or whatever, it helps really identify, okay, you see a little bit further than where my head lamp goes. And it's nice to have a backup light because I have been in scenarios where my light batteries have died, haven't had extra batteries, or something's gone wrong, and it's just nice to have that that flashlight for navigation and

just light things up a little bit brighter. Now, let's talk about optics. We've talked about using optics, and we've talked about the types of different optics and past podcasts, but I think optics are one of the key pieces of gear that you're gonna have with you, and each hunt is a little bit different. So this is where we start to get into the type of year that starts to shift based on how we're hunting, what we're hunting, what our goals are, and what we're gonna need. I

always have my binoculars on me. My two top suggestions for binoculars for Western hunting are gonna be a little bit higher magnification, So I I either go my standard ten power or I also really like the twelve power, and I'm going to do for me personally like a by fifth, So ten by fifties or ten by fifty two s or twelve by fifty twelve by fifty two something like that. Uh. That bigger objective lens is nice because it lets in a little bit more like gives

you bigger field of view. So when I'm looking at binoculars, I'm looking at something with a good magnification and a good field of view. There's guys that hunt with eight powers. I think they're fine for a lot of things, but you know, most of the hunting I do us in big open country, and as well, is the twelve power too much for when you get in the timber. But you can still use it. I just like having that

extra bit of kick out at some range. So tens or twelve power binoculars are my go to, and this would be something that I'm always wearing anyways, and then I've got my range finder there. Range Finders just another thing that just makes you that much more successful. I remember hunting without a range finder, not knowing how far to shoot, and just judging range and mountains is really hard. I think the skill that you need to have to be able to judge distance, especially as a bow hunter,

but it's nice to have that verification. And I think as really accessible as range finders are, I don't even know if I need to mention having that, but if you're new to it, those are things that you should have because you're gonna need them. Now. One of the pieces that could be the variable piece is going to be the spotting scope. You know, there's all this gear and you kind of got to decide, well, what kind of hunting do I do? What kind of pieces are

going to be essential. Here's how I decide, like what spotting scope I'm gonna take, or if I'm taking a spotting scope, it's going to depend on the type of country i'm hunting, how big and vast is it? How far am I going to be looking most the hunting I do, I'm looking pretty far, So it's nice to have a spotting scope for verification. Then you're also going to have to decide, well, what type of hunt is it?

Is it a type of hunt where you're really scrutinizing what you're hunting, so you know it might be a mule, your tag in a really good unit, and you're looking for a certain sized buck. That means you're going to really scrutinize the deer. So you're gonna want that big magnification, a really high quality scope to be able to really scrutinize what you're looking at. Maybe you're in Alaska and you're hunting doll sheep and you need to make sure

that it's a full curl ram, really scrutinizing. Maybe you're on a bow hunt and you're just like, hey, any buck is fine. You just need to know if what you're looking at is a buck or a bull or

maybe a brow time bowl. And if you're hunting general area Montana and you're just you're looking for the bare minimums, you aren't really scrutinizing, then you can kind of go a little bit less on the spotting scope, say, less magnification, less clarity, and as you go less magnification, less subjective lens, everything it gets lighter. So the type of hunting and the type of optic you're gonna buy for spotting scope is really can depend on the type of hunting you

do the most. Honestly, I think that something in the middle is probably the best for everything you know you've got. I would say the best type of optic spotting scope for long range really scrutinizing would be a large objective lens, high magnification, So I'll probably be, you know, a up to sixty power spotting scope with a large objective lens

and the eight to nine millimeter range. A mid range optic would be something like a sixty five millimeter that's the objective the out of the furthest lens away from your eye, and then something in the say fifteen to forty power is generally with that type of objective lens. So what happens is you get a larger objective lens, you can get a little bit more magnification out of it, and a lot more clarity and light gathering. But if you know that, hey, you're you're mostly the hunting your

due is kind of truck based. You're doing a lot of long range glassing, and then you aren't hiking as far and you're going to be scrutinizing trophy quality or legality. That bigger, heavier spotting scope is great, and maybe that's the one you invest in because that's the type of hunting you're doing the most. Uh, if you're doing a lot more backcountry hunting, man, just look at not as much magnification, lighter, but still able to just verify what

you're looking at. That might be your go to. You know, if I'm doing a back country hunt, I've got like a small Vortex razor goes small objective lens thirty three power max. But it's super light and I can verify what I'm looking at legal or what I'm going to chase super lightweight. That's a great scope to have, but something in the middle is the best for kind of every scenario, balancing lightweight but also varying from being able

to judge quality to not being so big and cumbersome. Now, one piece of gear that I also find essential in just having used so many things, I like to be able to put my binoculars onto my tripod, so I use a binocular adapter. I use the Outdoorsman Adapter. I think it's kind of the gold standard for binocular adapters. It's got a nice post, you put your base plate on it, and then just it's super easy. You don't have to you don't have the post on all the time.

You just slide that on your tripod, click your binoculars in, good to go. Adding that really adds some stability and now you can kind of decide, well, what kind of hunting do you do? And having that extra stability and the binocular helps you kind of see what you're looking at in a clearer picture. It could also mean maybe just carrying like a higher magnification binocular. Maybe you just go twelve power binocular and you won't really need the

spotting skille possibly. Um. So that's just something to think about as well when you're refining the type of hunting you're doing and what you're gonna need now. In my day pack or any pack, I also always kind of have a dry bag, and in that dry bag i'll stuff my puffer or insulation layer maybe my extra jacket, whatever I'm You know, as you're hiking, you're gonna have to have room for your clothes because you're gonna hike with your jacket off, so you're gonna stop and maybe

need some extra ins elation. I'd like to keep stuff in that dry bag because then I can put anything in there that I might need later on. That bag also helps me kind of keep things organized, and then depending on the hunt, I'll have some rain gear, whether it's just a jacket or pants or the whole set that day. Hunting is nice because you can kind of decide each day whether you're going to take it. Most of the time I end up just carrying it because it doesn't hurt, and if I do carry it, then

I know it probably won't rain. Just a strange, superstitious thing. But most of the time I've got it. Now, if I'm an early season archery Nevada hunt, probably not going to get it. Keep it in there, or I'll just do a jacket because if it does rain, it's pretty fast and furious and then let's up pretty quick. So that's what's in my daypack. Then there's a couple other pieces that vary, but if I'm bow hunting, I've got

my extra socks for stalking. You might remember the old shoes off situation early in the podcast if you've listened to them all my extra stocking socks. And then one other thing that I really like is a small water bottle for my drink mix. So I I've talked about it before. It's like my hydrate recover drink mixed stuff.

I don't necessarily always like to put it in my water bottle because I like to keep that for water and then I'll fill up just like a you know, you just get like a plastic single use that I end up using for the whole season, like the sawny water bottle where you can scrunch it down, put the cap on, and then when you want drink mix, you can pour your water in it, mix it up and you can kind of keep the two separate. That's just

that's personal preference for me. And then you've got your electronics. So one thing that I've found handy I use the inn Reach Garment makes it. There's also the other one spot um satellite messenger thing or there's different kinds of eprubs out there. And now that we have this technology. I used to not carry something like that, but man to just have that peace of mind of knowing you can reach someone if you need to in an emergency, especially because I hunt alone a lot, it's great to have.

And then I take my phone and I use my phone for my mapping apps on x whatever. I always download the maps and then put it into airplane mode. And this might turn you off from my podcast, or it might just reinfigure you for your podcast. But I have a Samsung type phone and there's actually a sweet battery saving mode when I put it in that it lasts like seven days, so I don't have to worry about it, and then I can just jump into the

app whenever I need. For me, I carry my camera and batteries, but I'm also doing like a lot of extra filming stuff. So my pack is generally heavier than most because I've got all my camera stuff, but something that probably most people will take as well as maybe an extra better camera or you just use your phone. And then the last thing that you cannot forget toilet paper. I almost forgot it in my little packing list right here. That would be in the always in my pack bag.

You know, you look at that and you think, okay, that's probably pretty similar to what you're carrying. But I know, you know, just having been a guide for so long, you look in people's packs and there's just I don't even know, like there's full I've seen full size saws and all this other stuff, and just you know, it

just depends on the hunt. The only reason that I take a saw if I know I want to take like the loin with the rib attached, then I cut the ribs off halfway through, and I just use a small I've got like this Exo mod that has a fixed blade knife and it's got this like little safts about four inches long. I'll use that little soft for that. I can break down an entire elk with two inch razor blade or even just like a regular you know,

razor blade fairly easy. So you don't need a saw for any cut on a deer except for maybe cutting the skull plate off, and if you wanted to make that rib roast thing. So I will carry that on certain hunts if I know I'm going to take the ribs bone in like that or not just the whole rack but haven't attached to the loin outside of that that's pretty much it. And then one thing I always have is I kind of have like my pocket gear, where it's stuff that's in my pants pockets or jacket pockets.

I always keep a head lamp in my pocket and just make sure to hit the button so it doesn't go off while crawling around or whatever. I always have a lighter in my pocket. I generally the of the thing that I do take that's redundant, I take a multitool because I like having the pliers and the other tools if necessary. And it also has a knife as

a backup. I know a lot of guys take way too many knife into the back country you're out hunting, but it's nice to just have that in my pocket for just things that I need to cut or whatever without having to get my processing knife out of my pack. Sometimes I won't take that, though, I'll just have my pocket knife in my pocket and that will be my knife for everything. So that just depends. And then I'll take a wind checker if I'm bow hunting. I just

recently started adding that back in. For a long time, I just use dirt and sticks and leaves and feathers that I found. But I've just decided that sometimes having just one of those puff bottle wind checkers is nice to have depending on where you're at tripod. So I do always have my tripod, which will be used for my spotting scope, my camera, and my binoculars. That's my kit in a nutshell, and that works for day hunts.

But you know, my backcountry pack is very similar. It's just adding more food, cooking, a shelter, in a sleep system. And so let's talk about a little bit of the things you're gonna need for the back country, and then you should be able to kind of understand, Okay, this is what I need. Really anything outside of that could

be redundant or unneeded. But one thing that I'm going to suggest is as you start hunting, as you start doing more of this, or maybe you've done this your whole life, but you look at your pack and what are you taking. There's something that you haven't used for years. Honest to god, I've had things in my back I can't remember what they are right now, but I know like when I started out, there was just things that I'd have in my pack for years and I realized

I never touched them. Okay, let's talk about the back country kit. Now, a lot of people I get question asked like, how much does your gonna, say, five day hunt? How much does your packway? You know, at the low end, probably thirty pounds, At the high end about forty two pounds. Were probably probably averaging about thirty five pounds. I have a lot of really specialized lightweight gear. Lightweight gear. As

you get lighter, the cost gets greater. So it's one of those things you're like, when I started out, I was just the heck of a lot tougher and most of my gear was super bulky, super heavy, and I just didn't really care. Um, I didn't need to shave off the ounces. But as time has gone on, I've invested in better gear, more lightweight, durable, and you know, things things change. My kids constantly changing with what kind of gears in it, but the basics are always there.

The weight really depends on whether you're solo or not. So if you're doing a five day trip, I think most people probably go with a friend or something. I do a lot of hunting by myself, so I kind of tailored my kit toward being lightweight, but also trying to not be so bulky and knowing that I'm going

to be by myself. There's certain items if you are traveling with someone else that is going to be awesome to split because you can split the tent weight, and you can split the cooking type stuff, so you can split your fuel and your stove. You can pull out some some guy can carry the polls, another guy can carry the tent. When I'm hunting with my brother, that's what we do. We take one stove. We one guy will carry the stove and the fuel. The other guy

might carry the tent. We just kind of split the weight up that way, and that'll shave off a few pounds off of some major items. Let's start with our shelter. That's gonna be the one that that's your tent or whatever you're sleeping in. There's three options that I use, so I use You've got I mean, there's a lot options, but these are the basics. So what I would consider a bivy camp that's just literally like a bag that

goes over your sleeping bag. I have baby hunted a lot, and it's probably one that I use mostly up through September, especially because when I'm by myself, there's a lot of lightweight. Now The second option would be like a lightweight, one man type tent, and then you've got your two man later like three or four season tent. So the three or four season tent is gonna be the heaviest, but

it can fit more people, has more room. If you're going with a couple of people, that's probably your best option. You can share to the space and split the weight. The baby is just like a bagliner often gore text or whatever, and you can combine that as well with either a ground tarp or just like a lightweight tarp. You can either hang over, put on the ground, do whatever with um if it's raining, and kind of keep

the rain off your face and everything else. I've used the baby sack a lot in the past, but there's also what I call biby hunting. So that's where instead of setting up a base camp, you just kind of every day you have everything on your back and you keep moving. So you might be on like a five day hunt. Wherever you happen to stop that night is where you camp. The bavy sacks great for that. Recently, I just got I've been using some of the stone

glacier tents. So the um was it the sky Air is just a small, lightweight tent that uses checking polls and then you stake it out and it's just nice to actually have that little bit of extra room and someplace to maybe stash gear if you want. You can also you cut sticks or tie it off. I've done multiple different setups with it. You know, in the past, I've done a lot of baby hunting, but now I'm kind of transitioning to kind of setting up a base

camp and then spiking out from there. I do that a lot as well, so it just depends on the style of hunting you're gonna do. And then for like a later season, I've just used the same Stone Glacier, but the Skyscraper two person tent. It's probably the best tent I've ever used. And I'm not just saying that because I work with them. That's it's honestly the best tent I've ever used. It's super durable, it's got the room, but it's super light for what you get out of it.

And that's been the hardest thing to find, is like a really good tent that has the durability the lightweight factor. You always sacrifice something that seems to be the best balance of everything. Now inside that tent, you're gonna need a sleeping pad, you know. It's one of those things. The pad is not only good for comfort, but also

really great for just insulation. If you're gonna get cold, it's gonna be from the ground up, so having that that air acts as an insulator between you and the ground. So some form of sleeping pad is super key to being comfortable and keeping you warm. There's so many different kinds out there. I've used all of them, you know. Now I've actually got a therm arrest, the thermal Light Pro, super expensive and really lightweight. I've just bought it last year.

I like it, but I also think that there's other options out there that are cheaper and probably just as good. And like, there's a bunch of different kinds. There's I used to really run the kind that had some form of padding in it that you didn't really have to blow up, so you're just you always know it's good. And then I kind of opted switched fully over to the more like air mattress inflatable style. There's one that I used for a long time, still really like. It's Alps.

It was fairly cheap. I gotta Sierra trading post just fills up with air, easy to blow up. Yeah, if you pop it, it's gonna suck. But you know, I think back and I'm honestly never popped a sleeping pad. And you can keep a little patch kit with you too, so that's not a problem. I will say this though, I did land a sleeping pad to a friend two years ago, and then I grabbed my sleeping pad. Went out in the back country on a Nevada hunt last year and I didn't have my other, my regular sleeping pag.

I don't know why I grabbed this one, and I go to blow up my air mattress and there's just the thousand holes in it. The thing was shredded and did not pump up. But I'm like, how does somebody shred a sleeping pad like that? And I think is because he had it strapped to the bottom, probably kept sitting down doing all that. I always keep my sleeping pad rolled up inside my pack bag when I'm hiking, and honestly, I've never had any major issues with them.

So the air style or just more lightweight, and that's great option to go with sleeping bags. That's another thing that a ton of people ask about. For me, I used to be a synthetic guy, thinking down gets wet, then it loses loft and it's not as good. That is true, synthetic will keep you warm if it does get wet. However, synthetic is heavier. There are some lightweight synthetic bags. But I honestly think down has come so far. And I realized over the years I was another one

of those things. I looked at the way I used it. I looked at what's happened knock on wood. I've never really got my sleeping bag wet, so I just switched it down because it's stuffs up, smaller, it's lighter weight, and it's super warm and comfortable, and there's coatings on the down. Now, I will say, if they were to get really wet, I don't think you should fully commit

to that waterproof. I mean it's like the downs waterproof, yes, but I don't know if it works like synthetic in my opinion, So I take a fifteen degree bag on almost all my hunts. A zero degree bag is just for like late season hunts, And honestly it depends how you sleep too. So some people are colder, some people are warmer. But if you want some more late season camping tips, go back to I think it was episode nin nineteen, ton of ton of gear suggestions in there

for for late season. But my standard bag is a fifteen degree bag. I think it works really good for kind of a combination of everything and I go down. I also have, like I have the stuff sacked. But then, like I said in the day pack, that same waterproof bag that I sometimes keep extra closing or whatever. When I'm hiking around, I keep my sleeping bag in that just in case I did cross the river and dump and at least like it'll keep the bag dry and

you don't have to worry about it. Now. Camp kitchen stuff, We've got our stove, our fuel couple that I really like for some reason. I don't know. It's I've been looking at my list here. It's like MSR. They're mostly MSR products, but there's a lot of other brands out there. I'm just the MSR guy. So if I'm by myself, the pocket Rocket's just like a little stove that goes onto a bottle. Otherwise, I generally take my reactor, which is just super fast. It's kind of like a jet

boiled jet boils are great too. This one I just like it's a little bit faster and seems a little more durable. I've had some jet boils failing cold weather, so I just started using the reactor. Contraveling by air, what have you. You might want to look at something like the Optimists. They've got like mixed fuel ones or the Whisper Light MSR Whisper Light. You can mix fuel canisters.

You pump them yourself, so you're traveling, you can just fill it up with diesel or whatever you can find, depending on where you're going, pump it up and go. I kind of like just having the regular canisters if I can, so even if I travel, I just make sure there's somewhere I can buy one of those canisters and not have to work with the mixed fuel. It can be kind of a little bit leaky and messy sometimes, but that's the route I go. One thing you want to think about two is you can and I don't

know how many people know this. I think most of the little fuel canisters have it, like a jet boil canister or regular fuel canisters. You can set those in water and see how full they are, because you might use one on a trip, and then I've had that problem where I've got ten canisters that are like varying from maybe a quarter empty to three quarters empty. You just don't know. So you can drop it in water and see where it floats. If it floats halfway, then

it's like halfway full. There's normally most of the cans have some kind of indicator on it, and those indicators are to show you how full it is once it's sitting in water. So that's a good thing to remember before you go out, check and see how much fuel you got. Now for back country, another item that I

take is a dromedary. It's just like a collapsible water bag or whatever, something lightweight where you can put a lot of water in for camp water, so in case the water sources of ways away, you can have it there for cooking and filling up your bottles and whatever

water purification. I've been using a starry pen lately. Actually, the guys, the meat eater guys turned me onto it when we're in a fog neck because I'm just kind of a little loosey goosey when it comes to water, and they just seeing how easy it was, they kind of kept them in their pockets the whole time. Um, it's nice even on day hunts to have that because you don't have to carry as much water. I hate carrying water. It's just a lot of weight. But I

like drinking water. So if I have something where every time I cross the creek, I can just fill up, drink and if I know I'm going up this creek bottom, I'll almost just walk around with an empty water bottle, fill up, drink, pour out whatever, keep going. And then when I'm going to get away from the water source, I fill up sanitized and then head out for the day. Then you can constantly drink water and constantly have some

more santit a water. This podcast kind of bringing together a lot of ones I recently did about water purification. It was episode thirty for water purification. So overnight, you've got my toilet trees, which would be a toothbrush, travel toothpaste, and I take some antibacterial wipes. Since the pandemic, those are pretty hard to find, but I think they're coming back online now. I had a bunch because I just use them for like what I call wipe e bath

day three or whatever. You just wipe them down kill some bacteria, try to smell a little better, clean up a little bit. And then as far as clothing or extra clothes, I don't really bring a lot. I bring a couple of extra socks. It's mostly what I'm wearing. What I have is my bass layer, so some kind of thermal. I have an outer layer, which would be like my soft shell or my pants whatever saftra jacket,

and then I have an insulation layer. Normally, I just bring an upper insulation layer, which would be like a down puffer, and then beanie and gloves and that kind of stuff. But as far as extra stuff, I don't bring any extra shirts or anything like that. I just bring if I'm like a five day hunt, maybe two extra pairs of socks. It's nice to change. I generally where my if I'm going to wear the socks multiple times, I've kind of just sleep in them something most of

the time. Let him dry out. You should let your feet breathe a little bit sometimes too, But and then maybe an extra change of underwear or whatever, and then I've got my rain gear overnight, like multi day trip, I'll definitely keep my ring gear with me, and then outside of that, your electronics would be the same. But you know, now I've started carrying one of those phone battery backup chargers just because I use my phone for navigation and so many other things. And then a large

dry bag to keep everything in. I kind of mentioned it before. Um, using your game bags is a great like if you're in barer country, you can use your game bag to hoist food up or store food. Also use the game bag to just separate out some gear and food and other stuff. And then one last tip is you want to sleep comfortable pillow. What I do is I take my down puffer and I just stuff

it in my stuff sacked for the sleeping bag. Then I put that in the hood of the sleeping bag, and I generally just wear a beanie when I'm leaping and that's super comfortable. Great use of something multiple different ways. And that really is just the basics of my day hunt kit and the gear that I take into the

back country. I mean, there might be a few things that I'm forgetting that you know, when I'm actually packing up for it, I see it and bring, But for the most part, that's what you need, and you know, the thing that's going to vary on your your day hunt in your backpacking is going to be the food that you're taking. There's a past episode that I did already on food, and there's just I mean, like I'm looking at this just talking about two different types of gear,

and I'm at way longer than I normally go. So I hope that that helped. There's a lot of different gear options out there, but that's just the basics of what I do. Gives you kind of a rough outline of what you're gonna need for a multi day trip or a day hunt, and then, like I said, make

the kit to something where you're comfortable. You've got what you think you need, and if you've got something that you never use, you know, start thinning it out and just getting down to the basics of the things that you need to be comfortable. Everybody's kids going to be slightly different. Some guys take more than other guys, some guys take less than me. I found the happy medium for myself, and I think that just kind of tweaking and adjusting your gear and the things that you take,

you can do the same. If you haven't realized that by now, I could probably talk gear for days. Honestly, It's just an integral part of what we do, and I do enjoy talking about Gear. I also enjoy, you know, answering specific questions about Gear because I've had a lot of experience with different stuff, so I don't mind it. I get I get a lot of questions about it, and I enjoy sharing some of my thoughts on some

of that. Talking about sharing thoughts, next week, we're gonna be doing a Q and A, So share your thoughts, send me your questions. You can do that either through Instagram at Remy Warren or through Remy at the meat Eater dot com, and I'll try to get to as many as possible. I love the Q and A portions that we do. It's your chance to reach out and kind of make this podcast two ways, and a lot of the topics that I talked about or because of

the things that you guys write in about. So if there's a topic that isn't being covered, be the guy that jumps on and says, hey, let's talk about this. Maybe I'll answer it in that podcast, or maybe I'll just answer it in the future one. And then before we close, if you liked this and what more I mentioned him throughout the podcast, but episode thirty two is about backcountry food, Episode thirty was about water. Episode nineteen

late season camping. Combining all this knowledge together, you can go back and relsten to some of those I think it's going to paint a really good picture of kind of what your kids gonna look like as you go out for different hunts, and you'll be more prepared. So until next time, carry just the right amount of stuff and don't weigh yourself down.