Best $100 Investment I’ve Made on Hunting Gear

Best $100 Investment You Can Make in Hunting Gear

Make sure you listen to The Hunting Gear Podcast as I cover this topic in detail.  The podcast was uploaded 8/20/24.  Below is the Descript version of this episode:

Now, if you follow the Wired2Hunt podcast, you’ve probably heard Mark Kenyon interview some of the best deer hunters from across the nation in recent weeks, and he asked the same series of questions to each one of them to get a perspective on how they would interpret the scenario or how they go about certain hunting-related situations.  One of those questions pertains to exactly what we’re going to talk about on this podcast, that’s hunting gear.

Mark’s question to each one of those guests was, “What is the best hundred dollar investment that you’ve made in your hunting gear?”

And as soon as I heard this, my wheels started turning and I thought, I have to have a podcast episode based solely on this question, because who better to answer this than somebody who’s devoted their life to helping people not only save money on hunting gear, but also just inform you and help educate the hunting community of products that are not too expensive.

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But you get a good bang for your buck when you make that investment. So without further ado, let’s jump into the list, starting with our first product from Arctic Shield. Arctic Shield boot insulators have been a staple in my cold weather hunting gear arsenal for years. In fact, I don’t even wear insulated boots anymore.

I think my highest insulated boots that I own are like 400 grams. And I start hunting with those at the beginning of bow season, and they carry me all the way through January. It’s not because my feet don’t get cold. If I don’t utilize those boot, Hardex Shield boot insulators, yes, my feet are going to be really cold.

However, I’ve learned through years that I don’t have to go buy 1600 gram boots to stay warm. I can simply pick up a. A 50 pair of slip ons. They go over the boot. If it’s really cold, I put the hot hands in each side, zip them up, sit back in the stand or the blind, and my feet stay warm and dry. Now, I’m not saying this is going to work for every scenario, because if you’re walking a lot, you can’t wear them.

But for the hunting scenario of just climbing in a tree stand or the ground blind, save yourself the money, invest in some Arctic Shield boot insulators. Just make sure you go up a size from what you think you might wear, because hunting boots are usually big and bulky. Uh, other than that, man, it’s the best 50 bucks I can tell you to spend.

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Now, the next item on our list should come to no surprise, and you probably already have this. That would be non cellular trail cameras. You know, the ones that just take an SD card and you actually manually have to go and check and it seems like outdated technology. Well, it’s not. And the reason why is there’s a lot of locations that I hunt that don’t have cell phone service and I do not need.

A cell camera. I don’t need a data plan. I don’t need to pay that extra money. I just need data. I just need the information contained on that SD card. And to be honest with you, I’ve got way more non cellular SD card cameras than I ever have cellular trail cameras. Don’t get me wrong, I love waking up during the rut to see photo after photo books that I have the chance to hunt.

However, there’s something special about pulling that SD card for the first time and taking a look at it once you get home, going through and interpreting that data. Now one thing for me, If I look back at some of my hunting scenarios from years past and the data that I’ve collected, I’ve got years and years of history in some of these locations, but cellular trail cameras, since I’ve started utilizing them more, I haven’t kept as many of those photos and that data through the years, unless it’s a non SD card camera.

So, I even utilize a non SD card camera in the same locations that I run a cell camera now, just so I can maintain that data from year to year, cause let’s face it, who checks their cellular trail cameras anymore? You just put a solar panel on them, some high quality batteries, you set them and you forget them, and turn the data plans off at the end of the season.

I just pulled one from last year that I even forgot was hanging there. But The SD card cameras, those are always fun, regardless of when you get to pull them. How expensive are they? Well, to make this list, they’ve got to be under a hundred bucks. And so if you’ve paid attention to huntinggeardeals. com and you’re part of our daily deals, email subscriber network.

Then you’ve probably seen the Bushnell deal that I just posted with two non cellular SD card cameras are 18 megapixel for 40 bucks, 20 bucks a camera. You can’t beat that. So invest in some cameras, high quality batteries. Now I will tell you, don’t skimp. On sd cards go with the sandisk extreme pros That’s the best sd card that i’ve used and I haven’t had any issues with any of those cameras or cards since then But make sure you don’t get a sd card.

That is more Then what your camera is capable of supporting. Like for instance, some of them have a max of 32 gigabytes of storage and a 64 gigabyte camera card won’t work enough about cameras. We should all have some non SD card cameras in our arsenal. If they’re legal where you’re hunting, of course, because some States are kind of weird about that now.

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So number three on the list. Is something I hope everybody here has. If you’re hunting from an elevated position, you better have a safety harness on. Do not be the statistic that we talk about each and every year when the unfortunate event, somebody falls and gets hurt. We probably all can think back of a buddy or some, an acquaintance, somebody that we knew that fell out of a tree stand and got hurt.

One of my good friends broke his femur. He was out for the season, but thankfully he didn’t lose his life. Just last week, a neighboring property had an issue and the guy literally, the tree stand broke and somehow he managed to catch himself on a limb or something, but keep him from hitting the ground.

But he came straight back to the house, was done for the day. He’s like, I’m not climbing up. And the sad thing is he had a harness with him, but guess what? He didn’t use it and clip it in. Thankfully he didn’t get hurt. Now I say all this, not to scare you, but just to give you the facts. Thanks. Gravity wins every time.

And unfortunately, if you don’t have a harness on and you’re 20 foot up in a tree, especially if you fall asleep and you’re going head first, the chances of survival are very slim. Um, just recently, if you listen to that wire to hunt series that I was talking about, Mark Kenyon interviewed Andre Daquista, one of the most famous hunters that And the country he’s told us that he fell out of the tree stand a couple of times last year and had he not had a harness on We may not have had the opportunity to listen to him.

Tell us About that keep that in mind. It can happen to any of us regardless of how heavy you are How light you are how young how old pick up a safety harness? You can pick up a good 100 bucks, and there’s several other on the market Um, even the saddle hunter guys like you’re staying tied off all the time. You don’t need a regular safety harness You’ve got your saddle So stay tight off guys, and if you don’t have, say you’re hunting from a saddle or whatever, so.  Tie off a hundred percent, just like you would in the workplace. Make sure you’re taking it into the woods with you.

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Now, the safety guy in me won’t let me stop there when it comes to the safety talk. So let’s talk about hearing protection. And it’s something that I’ve overlooked in years past. Not when I’m at the range and I’m sighting my gun in, but During the hunt itself, cause I’m only going to shoot one time if I’m lucky.

So I can survive one shot. But years, a couple of years ago, I was down in Texas and I was hunting with this kid named Weston. He was like 10, 11 years old and we’re turkey hunting. And you know, when you’re turkey hunting, you can’t move. You can’t get busted. Um, turkeys have a very keen eyesight and we got turkeys gobbling her on their way in and he starts fumbling around.

I’m like, what the heck are you doing? Well, he flips out his hearing protection. He slides it on real quick. And I was like, what the heck? I didn’t think much of it, but I watched this kid each and every time he would not take a shot or have the opportunity to take a shot without having his hearing protection on.

Fast forward to being a dad and having my own son in the woods with me and at the range. I found out very quickly that the noise generated by that gun scares kids just as much as the recoil does. So not only am I protecting. His hearing but i’m also giving him the courage to pull that trigger and removing the fear of the noise as well So, how do you protect your hearing guys?

Yeah, you can get earplugs, but who wants to fumble around with those? There’s a lot of options on the market with headphones noise reducing headphones and they actually enhance Some noises. So I’ve got some headphones the other day from shell shock, man. I can turn those digital headphones on and it just enhances all the close sounds and then boom, something loud.

You don’t hear it reduces it by a noise reduction rating of like 28 or something like that. And that’s a lot when it comes to hearing protection. So get some noise reducing headphones. There’s a lot of different brands out there, a lot of different options that protect your hearing. All right, that’s enough safety talk guys, if you didn’t know, safe, I was a safety guy my previous line of work in both the mining and the oil and gas industry.

So it’s not uncommon for me to be like, Hey, where’s your safety glasses? Like it’s still programmed there, but I’m doing the hunting stuff full time now with huntinggeardeals. com and selling property with Whitetail Properties in Ohio and West Virginia. So if you’re looking for land, hit me up. Now let’s get back to this list of the best hundred dollars that you’ve spent on hunting gear.

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Now, one of the best buying decisions that I’ve ever made for improving the quality of my hunt and for improving my hunting opportunities is a digital scouting mobile application. There’s several different options on the market, whether it be Onyx Hunt, HuntStand, and Spartan Forge. There’s a bunch of options out there.

I have what I personally use and I’ve been using them for more than a decade. And I say that they’ve increased my hunting opportunities more than anything else. Because it’s provided information that I need, whether it be property boundaries or just tell me the, who the landowner is when I go to ask for permission, we’ll give you an example.

So I’m scrolling through on X. I just moved to Ohio and I’m thinking, how am I going to get permission to hunt? Some of these awesome properties. So I got my mobile app out on my phone. I’m going through it and I find this property. It’s a very large acreage in a very close proximity to other people. It’s easy to access, I should say.

And I find who the landowner is and wouldn’t, you know, it’s my neighbor. And I knock, knock, I show up and I asked, I said, Hey, are you guys The owners of this tract of ground. And this lady looked at me very funny and she said, how did you find out? Because they didn’t have it in their name. They had it under a, um, some letters basically.

And then the tax address was their home address. And I told her, I said, I utilize this app for hunting and it showed me the tax address and it just happened to be yours. So a couple of days later, I’ve got permission to hunt like 600 acres in Ohio completely for free, just because I was able to identify the landowner, knock on the door, And ask for permission, unfortunately, the property sold that happens in today’s society.

Um, long story short, I’ve continued to find more and more opportunities, not only on permission properties, but also when I’m traveling out west. So just past, uh, so just about a couple, so a month or two ago, I had to take a trip to St. Louis, Missouri. And during my trip to and from, I decided to drive. I can either hop on a plane.

Make a quick flight, get a rental car or an Uber or whatever. But instead I was like, I want to take this opportunity to scout for deer along the way. And I didn’t get on my feet and tromps through the woods and waste a bunch of time. What I did was drive with my on X on app or any other app that you could use.

And I dropped pins everywhere that I seen terrain features that I was interested in, uh, soybean crops that had deer in it. And long story short, it made for a very fun and interesting adventure. If you pulled up my map of the country, you’ll find pins of deer and antelope and elk all over the country.

Areas that I’ll probably never have a chance to hunt, but I have the opportunity to go back and review that data for years, as long as I keep my account active, I don’t lose my password. So do yourselves a favor, not just for marking your location and knowing where you stand. But for future scouting references, for understanding how to utilize a topo map, get a copy, get a subscription to some type of mobile scouting tool.

These are tools. If you’re a carpenter, you have a certain set of tools that you carry to work with. If you’re a plumber, as a hunter, I have to have a certain tool for scouting that I can utilize 365 days a year in the palm of my hand. So for me, one of the best. Investments that you can make is a mobile scouting map, whether it be on X, HuntStand, Spartan Forge, or anything else.

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Next up is a ground blind. And yes, you can spend way more than a hundred dollars on a ground blind. Don’t get me wrong. You can pick up the hard side of blinds that will cost you three or four grand. You can get a soft hub style blind that costs 400 bucks. You can also pick up like an Ameristep caretaker on sale or something similar under a hundred bucks.

You check the retail prices of those and they’re going to be like 150, 160, maybe more, but if you pay attention and you’re a smart shopper, you pick up these ground blinds outside of peak season. That means when they go on sale at Walmart and on their clearance section at the end of the season or Amazon Prime Day, this is when I usually stock up, regardless of the brand that you choose, a good hub style blind.

For under a hundred bucks is worth its weight in gold, in my opinion, because it increases my hunting opportunities. There’s a lot of locations that I just can’t hunt from a tree stand or saddle. I need to be on the ground and I want to be concealed. Another factor that this has really increased my hunting success and actually the success of my son is the fact that I can take my kid with me and he can get by with a little bit more movement.

He’s got more time to. And less pressure when it’s come time to take the shot because he can move, he can get in position, whereas you and I, we might be a little bit more skilled and we’re set up preparing for that shot. Uh, whereas he needs a little bit more time and he’s going to move some. So ground blinds have really allowed us to hunt more together.

And be more successful. And to be honest with you, when it gets cold, those ground blinds are very nice. Cuts the wind, it retains heat, and it’s just fun to be relaxed. You sit all week in a tree stand from daylight to dark, your body’s hurt. You’re sore. Hop in a ground blind for a day or two, mix it up.

Take a ground blind with you on your next hunting adventure. You may never use it, but some crappy weather rolls in. It’s nice to kick back, relax. And enjoy the hunt. You don’t have to be in a tree stand to have a good hunt.

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Let’s move on. Here’s a product that you probably already have, and you probably spent more than a hundred bucks on it.

I know I’ve got a couple of range finders, three that I can think of, two that I’m in the process of testing right now, and one is a personal range finder. They’re all like 300 plus. So they wouldn’t fit this list, but there are some range finders that you can purchase for under a hundred bucks that will not only get you started as an archer or on the range, but it’ll also get you close.

Um, check the accuracy, which each one of these inexpensive range finders. I don’t want to call them cheap because let’s face it cheap. Sometimes it’s good. And it’s a bad way to look at things. So inexpensive would be a good way to look at it. Make sure you’re buying a product that has some type of warranty.

And if it doesn’t, a lot of the locations that you buy them from, like a Walmart or Amazon, you can actually buy a protection plan. So for 65 bucks, you can get one of those Halo six, four 50 range finders, get you in the woods. It provides an accurate reading for close distances when you’re bow hunting.

And if something goes wrong, pay that three bucks to get the extension plan and if it breaks. You get your 65 bucks back, pick up an inexpensive range finder. You will not regret it. This hunting season, you should always test it and you should shoot your bow accordingly to there’s range. So I heard long ago when I first started using a range finder, site your bow in according to the readings that your range finder is giving you for the most part.

Nowadays, range finders are measuring within inches. Not yards, so it’s not really a big deal, but with these inexpensive rangefinders, make sure you double check them.

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Here’s a product that I don’t personally utilize, but there’s too many people listening this today that would probably be upset if I didn’t include it, and that’s a bino harness. And the reason why I don’t utilize a bino harness is the fact that I don’t like anything on my chest. I don’t like anything having the opportunity to touch the string of my bow when I pull it back, so I don’t wear a binding harness, but if you do, whether you’re hunting out West, spot and stalk hunting, or whatever the case may be, pick up a cheap binding harness.

You don’t need to spend like 200 bucks on a binding harness. It’s just a bag for your chest. You know, like the Rock used to carry a fanny pack. It’s the same thing just for guys that like to hunt out West. So I’m kidding. Bino harness is a really nice feature, especially if you want to be mobile. You can store a lot of gear.

You can get some of the bigger add on accessories, your range finder pouches, a little bit extra gear, your release, things like that. They’re actually really handy. And to be honest with you, most of us carry too much gear when we go in the woods. So. Pick up a bino harness, leave the backpack at home, and head to woods this season.

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Here’s a product that I personally utilize. I don’t really need to explain too much about it, but it’s a Sitka neck gaiter. Just a neck gaiter. Uh, Nomad makes one. It’s very similar to it. It’s kind of fuzzy on the inside. It’s very warm. Um, some people like to wear a face mask, some people don’t. Personally, when the weather gets cold, I don’t like to have my face exposed, uh, especially my mouth.

So I like to cover my mouth up when it’s really cold outside, because I feel like I always get sick if I don’t. So I will slide that neck gaiter up over my face as far as long as I can see. Stay warm and cozy, slide it out when it’s time to take the shot. They’re like 45 bucks. Can’t beat it as far as warmth goes.  Uh, but if you’re hunting in a warm environment, you don’t really need it.

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You’re probably gonna kick me for this one guys, but I am a scent control guy So if you’re not just skip over this, there’s a lot of scent control products out there I have a brand that I personally utilize but so i’ll touch base on this This is my soap box if I can do something to potentially Increase my odds of success in the whitetail woods, and it doesn’t cost me an astronomical amount of effort or money.

Why not? If it just reduces my chances of getting busted by a couple percent, I’m going to take that opportunity because I know if I do a couple percent here, a couple percent there, and a couple percent over here, all that adds up. Dimes make dollars. Same thing with hunting success. Dimes make dollars here.

I’m going to utilize some laundry detergent. Body wash, all this stuff. You can usually get a kit for under a hundred bucks to get started. Even the, uh, the body, like body foam and stuff like that. Those are pretty nice, uh, scent free deodorant. That’s really hard to find a good deodorant nowadays. It seems like, but there’s a lot of options out there.

So I’m always going to recommend somebody go with some type of scent controlled product in this scenario.

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Lastly. Is a product that you probably already have, especially if you work or hunt in an environment that is covered in mosquitoes, whether you’re bear hunting in the spring in Canada or hunting down South during the early season, a Thermacell is a must have for those pesky mosquitoes and they’re like 25, 35 bucks.

Make sure you get the accessory pack to go with it. So you have some extras during your hunt. They’re quick, easy to utilize, and they’re effective. Uh, to be honest with you, I’ve had a lot more hunts on that. To be honest with you, it’s one of those things that I always regret not having with me when I need it.

Uh, so every time I go on an out of state hunt, I know to take my thermostat with me. And I say this from experience because I can remember being around, I don’t think it was a milk river, I can’t remember where I was scouting out in Montana. And I pulled up to this area to glass for whitetails in this creek bottom.

And I stopped the truck and I heard this noise. And it, I swear the mosquitoes were knocking on the windows. There were so many of them. It was so miserable to try to get out in that area and actually scout that I, uh, hurried, got back in the truck and I just glassed from a distance. I was like, that is not worth it.

So I feel bad for you guys that are hunting in those environments. We’ve all been there. Pick up a thermocell and protect yourself because. Let’s face it, mosquitoes have the opportunity to carry some really nasty diseases and you need to protect yourself and a 35 thermocell is a good way to start. Um, as an add on benefit, pick up some Sawyer’s permethrin to go with that, to protect yourself from ticks and chiggers, treat all your clothing, whether it’s turkey season, scouting season, beginning of bow season, or if you’re in an environment like Alabama or something like that, and you’re going to be faced with those all season long, make sure you treat your clothing with Sawyer’s permethrin.

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Lastly, and I know this is a short episode guys, I could go on and on and tell you, Oh, you need to shoot this broadhead, but let’s face it. There’s a thousand different broadheads on the market that’ll kill a deer. Same thing with arrows and they don’t really need to be on this list, but I’m looking for products that enhance my hunting experience that was worth the investment, and I got more money.

In value than I actually paid for it and lastly second to last I got two I got another one too is a black diamond headlamp Now I heard about a black diamond headlamp for years before I ever spent the money and bought one But I have no regrets. I have like five of them. Now. They’re extremely lightweight They make it as far as battery life through the season.

They’re nice and bright Um previous years It seems like every headlamp that I bought somehow turned on in my backpack and when I needed it It was dead that doesn’t happen anymore since I switched to black diamond And of course, I don’t they’re not making so do yourselves a favor pick up a high quality There’s other brands on the market guys that will do the job I’ve just found a lot of success by switching to the lightweight high powered black diamond lamps And I actually run energizer lithium triple a batteries in those headlamps that way I don’t have to worry about them going dead at the wrong time.

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So the last product on my list Is the outdoor edge swing blaze knife. Now I’ve been utilizing this for years and to be honest with you, makes field dressing so much easier. There’s a lot of great tools to help with that process, but I can start the process and finish the process quickly. And cleanly with that knife.

I don’t have to carry out a lot of different options with me. I simply flip the blade from one side to the next one blade being a cutting, starting skinning knife. The other being that, um, the unzipping or the undressing from the initial cut up to the sternum that exposes the. Uh, and it’s dull on the end, so you don’t poke, um, the stomach.

And if you’ve done that, you know how nasty that can be.

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So I hope you enjoyed this episode. I know this is a little different than what we typically do, but I felt like this was information that you needed to know. All right. So my question for you is what did I leave off of this list? That was important to you.

What was the best investment that you’ve made for under a hundred bucks to improve your hunting success? Maybe it made your hunt. Easier or comfortable or it’s a tool that you utilize to be successful. Maybe it’s a game call Whatever the case may be let us know drop a comment to wherever the podcast is found.