Modified tweaked DIY multipurpose hunting essentials!

[Rob W.]

I want to know what part of your gear have you modified, made yourself, use for multiple purposes, combined, invented, and/or just think is neat item to have hunting.

Lets make Macgyver proud!    


Rob

[Rob W.]

To start I have found that a good set of ratcheting pruners opens up a rib cage with ease and is in my pack anyway.

Wish I could go back and tell myself that as a kid.    

Rob

[ron w]

I always take a couple of knives, but one is always a big one. Can trim a shooting lane, brush in a blind, split a pelvis on a deer or a bunch of other things. Sometimes bigger is better....lol! This should be an interesting post!!

[Orion]

I modify the lower bow quiver bracket on my slide-on, strap-on and bolt-on quivers to position my arrows more in line with/parallel to the curve of the lower limb so the fletches don't stick out in front of the bow limb.

Use a painter's loop/strap to set my hang on stands and as a safety belt.  Can sit in the nylon webbing loop with my feet on my climbing steps while installing the stand.  Once in the tree, I move the loop up under my arms around my chest, where it serves as a safety belt.  A heavy rubber band keeps it tight around my body, yet stretches to open the loop should I need to extricate myself from it.

Have a few others, but that's a start.

[Archie]

I modified my Catquivers, adding weight-bearing hip belts for the both of them.  Much more comfortable to wear full-time.  Also DIY-converted a bolt-on quiver to strap-on, and like it better this way.  Made a single-arrow quiver for my longbow, too.  Made my own ghillie-hat, and am halfway into a ghillie-suit creation of my own.  Created a light-bracket for my bow.  And I'm also in the middle of making a homemade quiver like a Catquiver mini, made out of an old hiking pole.  Made a vest that has an arm-gather for keeping clothes out of the way of my bowstring.

[Hoyt]

I modify just about everything I use. Put doubled and twisted tie-wire on my bow quivers so I can hang them from my stand's straps.

I tied a piece of leather to my bow quivers for a shoulder strap and will use them that way this season...hip or side quiver. Put leather around the bottom part that holds the broadheads and let it extend up past the old section for side rail using big Tree Sharks. Treated it with beeswax.

Made a one arrow, leather, broadhead, bow quiver and fastened to my bow for a quick first shot while walking in and out and second shot while on stand.

I tie a piece of 1/8" rope from one rail to the other on any climber I have that has rails. Let the rope hang down just above the bottom platform and use for footrest. Surprisingly you can stretch your legs straight out and they will stay in that position in a relaxed state. I use the rope to tie the sections together when transporting.

[calgarychef]

Good post, it seems I make a lot of gear because:
#1 I'm cheap
#2  most stuff isn't made like I'd want it to be

I've made:
gillie suits,
hand warmers,
 great big warm fur mittens,
 a heater suit,
broad head sharpening jigs,
 knives,
over booties to keep my feet warm on stand,
decoys of animals not available at Montana decoy (to great
success),

[Roger Norris]

I use a toothpick/rubber band contraption I make to hold my arrows on. All my bow hunting pants have rubber bands in the pockets.

[Rob W.]

I carry a small length of paracord to make a deer drag. I place a good diameter hardwood stick in the deers mouth and wrap the muzzle and behind the head.

Works good, doesn't take up much space and can serve many purposes on a hunt. I also use the paracord as helping hand on solo hunts for field dressing. One leg tied to a small tree is a big help.

A couple heavy duty black zip ties also takes almost no space or weight and has about a million uses.

I always carry a small gerber survival kit. I like the size of the waterproof bag. I took out a few things and upgraded some stuff. I put in a better compass and replaced the knife with a Swiss Buck. Whole kit is about the size of one of todays cell phones and contains some good stuff.


Rob

[bluegrassbowhunter]

I keep my pull ropes on my climber stuffed into a empty aspirin or vitamin bottom & clipped to the stand.This keeps the rope from coming loose & tangling up on brush etc...

Use the  empty nasal spray bottles with carpenters chalk for wind checkers.

clothes pins with a small piece of reflective tape for marking trails...

[two4hooking]

Just like #2 a K-Bar knife.  

- Big bad blade
- flat pommell for pounding in tent pegs
- Use another peice of wood and use it as a splitting froe for firewood.
- digger
- machete / pruner
- been know to cook meat over the fire with it

[BaldingEagle]

Archie,
Do you have a pict of the ghillie hat?  I'd like to see that.
I took a Boa, Strap-on quiver and turned it into a modified G-Fred quiver.  Works well.
 

[reddogge]

Just my coathanger hook on the end of my hauling line. I've used it since the 60s for letting stuff down from the stand, shaking it loose, back up the tree for another load down. I let my bow down first and shake it off. Also I've fished up my glove and hat that fell off while up in the tree.
 

And my face mask made out of some old deerskin.
 

[PeteA]

I love to tinker with stuff. Made a arrow hook I use to find arrows that have missed the target out of a broken carbon arrow ( about 29-39 in long). Epoxied a 8-24 screw in hook inside one end. Made a camera mount that fits over the nock end of an arrow, I can  screw it on my digital camera and mount it to and arrow, stick the arrow in the ground and take self timer photos. Made a tube quiver out of a plastic tube, an old pants leg and a brown luggage strap. Made a deer drag out of an old seat belt strap. Made a ghillie out of 2 old car cargo nets, a bunch of old tee shirts, a roll of jute twine and some old burlap and a piece of mesh blind material. Made an alcohol stove out of 2 Fosters Beer cans. It's an ultra light backpacking stove can boil a couple cups in about 5 minutes.

[ron w]

I use Kwikee Quivers, I take a small piece of leather and screw it on the back with the small screw that's there I punch 2 holes in it and run a small loop of para cord threw it. When I get to my spot I pop off the quiver and hang it with the Para cord loop. I also bent up a bracket and put on a Kwikee bracket so I can use the quiver like Mark Baker does when I hunt with my longbows. Make'n stuff is fun....lol!

[elkbreath]

Some of my faves

#1 I used to carry my kids around in a kelty kids pack.  they work fine around town, but horribly UN-utilitarian in the woods.  
I came up with a solution and built two strap stirrups for attaching to my Kifaru.  This is WAY better.  When the kids legs are tired he hops on the chair and puts his feet in the stirrups.  When he is not I still have the best backpack I've found to date.  In the pic you'll see the yellow straps around his feet.

     

#2 I made a sherpa strap (tumpline) to lash to my pack on a pack out, making those 120+# loads WAY more tolerable, almost easy in comparison.  amazing how ancient technology can be forgotten, yet still very useful

#3 I make my own calls, agonize over their sound, and usefulness, constantly tweaking and revamping.  Calling is by far my favorite way to take an animal, with that in mind I have to have it just right.  I've built a hundred grunt tubes over the years, but this is the one that right now hits the sweet spot. totally custom with lots of changes, from build to cover to dampeners and back pressure chamber.  This thing is LOUD and really thumps. The string is made such that it cannot come off the tube, is wide and thick (far more comfy)and finally white and pink, removing the possibility of losing it.  Finally, I braid a short open reed call into the string itself.  I use diaphragm most of the time, but sometimes I get the hankering for an open reed.  This year its a lathed wooden bodied custom (not pictured) with a mouthpiece modeled from a fight'n cow call, sanded surface and thicker 'tapered' (important) reed and a peice of rubber on the edges that can be closed to offer a more nasally numbed down sound.  Sounds so good, its loud when needed and rarely sticks but can still do a soft calf call.

     


Great thread!  cant wait to hear more.  Now if someone could just figure out a drag to get our elk out of the woods...

   

[JimB]

I built this lightweight monopod for my pocket camera,from a broken carbon shaft.It weighs about 2 oz and fits in my fanny pack.
 
 
I build some of my own bow quivers so I can get the fletch angle I want plus I want the quiver hood and fletch as close to the bow as I can get it and still have clearance.
 
I made some broadhead sheaths to carry in my pack.Generally,I carry blunts in them so I can switch out in the field so as not to be tempted to shoot my good broadheads at small game.
 
A couple more quivers.
 
 

[Charlie Lamb]

Jim... that old BigHorn is the bomb!!