Ep. 43: Remi Warren's Pack Dump: How Much Gear is Too Much?
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As a guide and hunter, I've spent thousands of days in the field. This show is about translating my hard-won experiences into tips and tactics that'll get you closer to your ultimate goal, success in the field. I'm Remy Warren. This is Cutting the Distance. It's pretty hard as a hunter to have a conversation about hunting and not talk about gear.

It's because gear is such an integral part of what we do and can really make or break a trip. Having the right gear might mean the difference between being successful consistently or just lucking 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 balancing this carrying the weight of something or lightening 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. So I figured, hey, I'll just ask dad, do 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 elk 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 was a lot of elk and we weren't really sure if there was any bulls in there. So we figured, let's go get in there close and see if we can't pick out a bull. So we start 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 to once they get into that timber. Most of the time, they go a couple 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 got to 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 stop at about that time in the morning, about 10, 30, 11 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 first couple of times he'd been out for a few weeks. So I thought, yeah, you know, sometimes just a little bit slower some days.

So he's sitting down. He's like, yeah, man, I'm just kind of tired today. It just seems like I'm dragging a little bit. And I was like, yeah, 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 lighten 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 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 I

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 going to be there was dry. And we were severely dehydrated hiking all the way through the night back. And it was just one of those, you know, he keeps bringing it up like, yeah, 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 lighten 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. I'm like, what? This is just 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 picked it up and we're day hunting and it feels like he's got stuff for 10 days worth of hunting in here. And I open up the pack and I just have to laugh because

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 DeWalt Sawzall. And there is five Makita batteries, none which go to the Sawzall that's in there. There is a cordless drill set.

a packet of ratchet straps, and there are five to six full hardcover books.

And I'm like laughing. Okay, do you really need this ratchet set? 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 going to 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 planning 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 mountain middle of the day. And he's got not only a Sawzall, 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 gear that I take and kind of my basic kit. And what my kit is, I refer to my kit as just the basic things that I take and

pretty much on every hunt. And then I kind of adjust from there depending on the hunt. So if I'm hunting elk, my kit will just slightly adjust for elk. Or if I'm hunting mule 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 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 mountain, chasing after something. You're 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 streamline 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 a pack dump. So I'm just going to 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 and what I don't need to carry. And how I've done that is I'll go out on a hunt and there'll be things in my backpack that I've kind of always taken and I'll take it for 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

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 then 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 going to be for a day hunt. So what a day hunt is, I'm just going to, 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 backcountry 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 backcountry, 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. Your pack's 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 going to be a long ways away from a road that's

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 mention 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 gear. 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 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'd be hard pressed to find too many individuals that have tried as much different stuff from different companies and different places than I have. So 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 figured I'd 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 specialize 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 it's debating between certain things, it's going to try to check all three boxes for me. So I like to balance lightweight, durable, and practical.

So here's a rundown of a typical day hunt pack. We're going to just pick a hunt and then we'll talk about 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 pack and I tend to like a little bit larger cubic inch pack. I have a stone glacier. I either use the Solo or the Sky 5900. So we'll just use the Sky 5900 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,

You need the pack to be adjustable to your torso and you need a sturdy frame. It can be an external frame, which would be like an old school backpacking pack. Some really good ones for external frames are like Barney's pack of Alaska, Kelty freighter pack, outdoorsman pack. Those are all external frames. And then internal frame pack would be like a stone glacier. There's a lot of other ones, Kefaru,

I mean, there's some even that I've used that maybe necessarily don't like, but I see a lot of other guys use. I don't have to mention them, but like just the frame is inside the

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 going to 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

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 load it down with a lot of weight. You know, I think that some of the gear items that most people struggle with are going to be packs and boots. And the reason is because those are the things that are the most, like put the most understaffed

uncomfortable 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 going to 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 going to be a water bottle. Some guys use bladders, you know, there's so much of this gear stuff. That's why I say you could take two hunters that do this a lot. There's going to 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 talking

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 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 them 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 aren't as 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 use one of those

i think they're called smith's knife sharpeners it's these yellow ones you can buy at 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 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 day pack, you're going to 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 back country. You're covering a lot more ground. 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 fire starter. 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.

Allen also makes some very similar. I just like something that's durable. They're more like a pillow, like I call them pillowcase 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 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 P cord, some

Something that I've used a lot is mule tape. It's a little bit more tensile strength, not round, a little bit more grip. The knots slip a little bit easier in it. That's really good stuff. I actually, on a Christmas special, talked about some that I wasn't sure if it was around anymore. And it actually is. I saw it on Shark Tank is the rapid rope. It's like rope that comes out of a can.

So that stuff works pretty good. You 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 going to pack some of it back if you're 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 gear in my kit. I've talked about it on my social media a lot and written many articles upon it.

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 waders to cross a river, you know, use them as emergency shelters or making sleeping pads and 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 one of those small made for backpacking type first aid kits. And I put some extra Advil or things that I might need in it. And then I always have some duct tape and I generally wrap 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 duct 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 at night, maybe in some more treacherous country or whatever, it helps really identify, oh, okay, I'm

You'll see a little bit further than where my headlamp 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 flashlight for navigation and just light things up a little bit brighter.

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

My two top suggestions for binoculars for Western hunting are going to be a little bit higher magnification. So I, I either go my standard 10 power, or I also really like the 12 power and I'm going to do for me personally, like a by fifth. So 10 by fifties or 10 by 52s or 12 by 50, 12 by 52, something like that, uh, that binoculars.

objective lens is nice because it lets in a little bit more light, gives you a 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 is in big open country and that's always the 12 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 12 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 finder is just another thing that just makes you that much more successful. I

I remember hunting without a range finder, not knowing how far to shoot and just judging range in mountains is really hard. I think it's a skill that you need to have to be able to judge distance, especially as a bow hunter, but it's nice to have that a hundred percent verification. And I think as readily 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 going to 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 going to 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 of 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 deer tag in a really good unit and you're looking for a certain size buck that means you're going to really scrutinize the deer so you're going to 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 bull. And if you're hunting general area in 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, less,

And as you go less magnification, less objective lens, everything, it gets lighter. So the type of hunting and the type of optic you're going to buy for spotting scope is really going to 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 that'll probably be

you know, a up to 60 power spotting scope with a large objective lens in the 80 to 90 millimeter range. A mid-range optic would be something like

65 millimeter. That's the objective, the out of the furthest lens away from your eye. And then something in the, let's say 15 to 40 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 mostly the hunting you do 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. 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, 33 power max, but it's super light and I can verify what I'm looking at's 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 onto 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 in 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 12 power binocular and you won't really need the spotting scope possibly. 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 going to 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. As you're hiking, you're going to have to have room for your clothes because you're going to hike with your jacket off. So you're going to stop and maybe need some extra insulation. I 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. Cause if it does rain, it's pretty fast and furious and then like lets up pretty quick. So

That's what's in my day pack. Then there's a couple other pieces that vary, but if I'm bow hunting, I've got my extra socks for stocking. 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 my

One other thing that I really like is a small water bottle for my drink mix. So I've talked about it before. There's like my Hydrate Recover drink mix 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 Dasani 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 inReach. It's like Garmin makes it. There's also, what's the other one? Spot, satellite messenger thing, or there's different kinds of ePurbs out there. 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, Onyx, whatever, and

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 reinvigorate 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's generally heavier than most because I've got all my camera stuff, but yeah,

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

Just having been a guide for so long, you look in people's packs and there's just, I don't even know. I've seen full-size saws and all this other stuff. It just depends on the hunt. The only reason that I take a saw is if I know I want to take 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 XO mod that has a fixed blade knife and it's got this like little saw. It's about four inches long. I'll use that little saw for that. I can break down an entire elk with a 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 have it attached to the loin outside of that, that's pretty much it. And then one thing that 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 headlamp 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 and,

I generally, the one thing that I do take that's redundant, I take a multi-tool 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 knives into the backcountry or 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'll 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 and a sleep system.

And so let's talk about a little bit of the things you're going to need for the backcountry. 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 pack. 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 backcountry kit now. A lot of people, I get questions asked like, how much does your, let's say five day hunt, how much does your pack weigh? You know, at the low end, probably 30 pounds at the high end, about 42 pounds. We're probably, I'm probably averaging about 35 pounds. I have a lot of really specialized lightweight gear and

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 a heck of a lot tougher. And most of my gear was super bulky, super heavy, and I just didn't really care. 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 change, my kits constantly changing with what kind of gears in it, but the basics are always there.

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 tailor 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

the cooking type stuff. So you can split your fuel and your stove. You can pull out some, some guy can carry the poles. 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 going to 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 of 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 bivy 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 going to 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 the space and split the weight.

The bivvy is just like a bag liner, often Gore-Tex or whatever, and you can combine that as well with either a ground tarp or just like a lightweight tarp that you can either hang over, put on the ground, do whatever with. If it's raining, kind of keep the rain off your face and everything else. I've used the bivvy sack a lot in the past.

but there's also what I call bivy 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 bivy sack's great for that. Recently, I just got, I've been using some of the stone glacier tents. So the, uh,

The Sky Air is just a small lightweight tent that uses trekking poles. And then you stake it out. And it's just nice to actually have that little bit of extra room and some place to maybe stash gear if you want. You can also cut sticks or tie it off. I've done multiple different setups with it.

In the past, I've done a lot of bivvy 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 going to 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. This seems to be the best balance of everything.

Now inside that tent, you're going to need a sleeping pad. It's one of those things. The pad is not only good for comfort, but also really great for just insulation. If you're going to get cold, it's going to be from the ground up. So having 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-a-Rest, the Therm-a-Lite Pro. It's 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 light. There's a bunch of different kinds. 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 got it at Sierra trading post just fills up with air. Easy to blow up. Yeah. If you pop it, it's going to 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 yeah,

That's not a problem. I will say this though. I did lend 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 bag. I don't know why I grabbed this one. And I go to blow up my air mattress and there's just a 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 it's 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 are just more lightweight and it's a great option to go with.

Sleeping bags, that's another thing 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. 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 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 15 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 19, 19.

ton of gear suggestions in there for late season. But my standard bag is a 15 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 stack, but then like I said, in the day pack, that same waterproof bag that I sometimes keep extra clothes in or whatever, when I'm hiking around, I keep my sleeping bag

in that just in case I did cross a 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, a couple that I really like for some reason, I don't know. I've been looking at my list here and 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, it'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 boil. 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 fail in cold weather. So I just started using the reactor and,

If you're traveling by air or what have you, you might want to look at something like the Optimus. 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 canisters.

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 too is you can, and I don't know how many people know this, but I think most of the little fuel canisters have it like a jet boil canister or a

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 got 10 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 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 it's a good thing to remember before you go out check and see how much fuel you got

Now, for backcountry, 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 source is a ways away, you can have it there for cooking and filling up your bottles and whatever. Water purification. I've been using a SteriPen lately. Actually, the guys, the meat eater guys turned me on to it when we were in a fog neck and

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. 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 a creek, I can just fill up drink. And if I know I'm going up this creek bottom, I'm

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, sanitize, and then head out for the day. Then you can constantly drink water and constantly have some more sanitary water. This podcast is kind of bringing together a lot of ones I recently did about water purification. It was episode 30 for water purification. So overnight, I got my toiletries, which would be a toothbrush, travel toothpaste, and

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 a wipey 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 extra socks. It's mostly what I'm wearing. What I have is my, a base layer. So some kind of thermal, I have an outer layer, which would be like my soft shell or my pants, whatever soft shell 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 wear my, if I'm going to wear the socks multiple times, I kind of just sleep in them. So most of the time, let them 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 rain 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. Using your game bags is a great, like if you're in bear 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 sack 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 sleeping 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 backcountry. 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 day hunt and 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 going to 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 kit's 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 it 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 answering specific questions about gear because I've had a lot of experience with different stuff. So I don't mind it. 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 going to be doing a Q&A. So share your thoughts. Send me your questions. You can do that either through Instagram, at remywarren, or through remyatthemeateater.com, and I'll try to get to as many as possible. I love the Q&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 talk about are 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 a future one. And then before we close, if you liked this and want more, I mentioned them throughout the podcast, but episode 32 is about backcountry food. Episode 30 was about water. Episode 19, late season camping. Combining all this knowledge together, you can go back and re-listen to some of those. I think it's going to paint a really good picture of kind of what your kit's going to 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.

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