Wasting money on useless gear

[Killdeer]

You buy what makes sense to you at the time, and what is available. As you learn, you get better stuff. My problem is that I can’t seem to get rid of the old stuff. Too many memories.

I have too many knives, too many bows, and things that I will never use.
Gonna be a yard sale in Hell one day!

Killdeer

[Sam McMichael]

You never know what the final tally is until you are dead. That's the only way to know who actually wins. The trick is to delay that final tally as long as possible. I will never win, but I expect to make the Honorable Mention category.

Also, buying a lot of useless stuff as a young guy is part of what helps make "experts" out of old guys.

[Blacktail42]

I would add that much of the choices we make are dependent on the situation we find ourselves in. For example, it's common to believe that a solid pair of boots is very essential to your trip outdoors, but I can solidly state that for most of my hunting season, and where I hunt, a cheap pair of sneakers works better for me. The situation dictates the necessity. What makes the difference is the understanding the value of the decision.   

[Terry Green]

Also, buying a lot of useless stuff as a young guy is part of what helps make "experts" out of old guys.

Yep, by learning that you don't need worthess stuff to be successful.  The "must have" stuff becomes clutter.

You also find out you don't need the "new and improved" because you bought the new and improved 8 years ago and it's still working. 

Sooner or later the old adage is true, "less is more".  I was fortunate enough to learn that in my late 20s.

[Terry Green]

I would add that much of the choices we make are dependent on the situation we find ourselves in. For example, it's common to believe that a solid pair of boots is very essential to your trip outdoors, but I can solidly state that for most of my hunting season, and where I hunt, a cheap pair of sneakers works better for me. The situation dictates the necessity. What makes the difference is the understanding the value of the decision.

Matt Schuster has killed more hogs than most and he hunts in tennis shoes most of the time because of the terrain he hunts the majority of the time....

In this case scenario he is also able to sneak and be quiter stalking..... less is more.

[trad_bowhunter1965]

About the only stuff I buy now is knives because I am a knife nut and vintage broadheads I use both and maybe Arrow Master quiver "Thank you Terry Green"

[Sam Spade]

Yep, I remember thinking when I was young I needed every lure in the bass pro shop catalog. 

[trad_bowhunter1965]

Yep, I remember thinking when I was young I needed every lure in the bass pro shop catalog. 

Sam
I haven't bought anything from the big box sporting goods store in so long they quit sending me catalog and I don't even get emails 

[Larry Dean]

The problem with todays ASL bows, as produced by the custom builders like Ekin, Berry and others, is that in reality you only need one that you can shoot with ease. The most you would need is one that is lighter weight, just in case you have a stiff muscle on a given day. You will not wear it out, it will shoot just as good ten or twenty years from now as it does today. I am a tough sell, not because of bad work, because of their great skill.

[Richmeister]

Mine is Bows. If I had any sense I’d stick with one bow and spend the money I’d normally bought a new bow with on Tags and fuel to hunt.  I have to agree with the scent products. I watched a video similar to what woodchucker described. The police dog went directly to the person every time no matter how hard they tried to mask his scent .

I'd love to see that same experiment done with the scent loc clothing to shut that argument up as well.

[Larry Dean]

The best way to cover your human scent is to put a plastic bag over your head tie on with two stout rubber bands and spray it with skunk pee. 

[GCook]

The best way to cover your human scent is to put a plastic bag over your head tie on with two stout rubber bands and spray it with skunk pee.

The problem with that sad story of the police dog finding the guy is it is an apples to oranges discussion.
The reality is that the deer isn't given your scent the sent to track you.  Deer deal with predators everyday.   In farm country deer deal with human activity and scent all the time.  They understand when that scent is in close enough proximity it presents a danger.
Just on our place someone is there most weekends.  Taking care of live stock, mending gates or fences, hunting pigs.
They deal with us all the time. 
If our scent were always a critical factor we'd seldom if ever see them.  However a deer can tell by scent strength how close that coyote or wolf or human is.  Stronger the scent the more reactive they are to a clear and present danger.  Not to mention in suburban areas deer eat in people's yards.  They have adapted to live around people just like coyotes and fox so if mere human scent were the determining factor to make them avoid a stand then bowhunters would kill fewer.
Scent control and cover products work not by being 100% effective but by diluting that scent enough to keep the deer's response from being immediately panicked.
You don't have to believe but like most things the science is proven and tens of thousands of hunters successfully use the systems every year. 
Will it fool all the deer all of the time?  Nope.  But I've killed a ton of them that were dead down wind of me or came in from dead down wind of me.  I've been killing deer with bows for over 3 decades, most years filling all 5 of my Texas tags with a bow.  And often a few MLD tags as well.  I haven't done it by being incompetent and using a system that hasn't proven itself over those years.
I've never fooled a pig with it though.  Almost as paranoid as a turkey.

[gregg dudley]

The other day my kid told me that I hunted like an old man.  I asked him what he was talking about and he said, "You dress like you are homeless and you don't carry $^!# with you!"  On most levels, he gets it.  He just likes to give me $^!#.   

Expenses are for Experiences.  Once I figured that out I stopped buying a bunch of things I didn't need.  Too bad it took 40 years to learn it and another 11 to sort of dial it in!

[Jim Jackson]

I have killed dozens of deer down wind of me without the scentlock scam. With a BOW.

[GCook]

The other day my kid told me that I hunted like an old man.  I asked him what he was talking about and he said, "You dress like you are homeless and you don't carry $^!# with you!"  On most levels, he gets it.  He just likes to give me $^!#.   

Expenses are for Experiences.  Once I figured that out I stopped by a bunch of things I didn't need.  Too bad it took 40 years to learn it and another 11 to sort of dial it in!

🤣 That's funny because I had that same conversation this year.  I was dropping off a hunter at his stand then gonna head to mine.  This was his first afternoon of the hunt.  He asked where my pack was.  I said what pack?  He replied, the one with all your gear.  I said my bow and quiver were on the cart, my glove hooked on the bow, what other gear did I need?
He said the same thing about old guys.😂

[Russell Southerland]

I killed plenty of deer before scent lock and never let up since it was invented. Yep, never bought into that scam, but sure get a kick out of those that try and justify it.   

[Wudstix]

Wash camo in baking soda.  Wash myself with Scent-Away.  Rub some Ash Juniper/Cedar brush on my boots.  Keep the breeze in my nose.  Seems to work.
 

[Terry Green]

I smoke cigars before, during and after the hunt... just ask the TX boys... dead javies can't talk.

Wash this wash that....
... blah blah blahhh

[GCook]

We have a saying in Texas Mr. Green. 
Something about blind hogs, acorns.😄
But yeah, wind direction always trumps scent control.   But that takes another interesting direction because the smoking of clothes is an old trick and is effective.  I too have known smokers who smoked on stand and had success.   Even bowhunting.   There is definitely something to that situation I don't completely understand.   If it covers the human scent sometimes or the scent of it is a curiosity attractant or . . . 
Not worth starting smoking to experiment the phenomenon but there is definitely a connection.

[Longrifleman]

Where to begin? Yep, a bonafide gear junkie here, and also susceptible to the "1 is none, & 2 is 1" mindset. You name it, I probably got it. Started hunting w. trad bows back in '92...Now the herd is up to 13- 4 customs, & the rest bought used thru various classifieds. In my defense, they all get used, although sometimes a few years apart based on the urge I get in Mar/April of each year when I start thinking about what I want to hunt with. 

High $ camo? Guilty as charged, but here's my excuse- 4 yrs ago I weighed 120 lb more than I do now, so once the weight came off, I decided to reward myself with new hunting wear. Addicted to First Lite, because I'm a Merino wool freak, and at least for me, that stuff keeps me warm (which was never a problem for me when I was heavy, but now between the lighter weight & the years that have gone by, well, darn it, I get COLD!

Knives? Been collecting them since age 15 or so... (I'm 59 now..) we don't need to go there...

Treestand- I have one. Blind-I have 1. Tree saddles- I have 2. Binocs- I have 2. Packs? Let's just say more than 2...

We won't even mention the gun collection...

My biggest fear? If I go first, my wife will sell this stuff for what i told her I paid for it! 

Yeah, I've had it bad for a while...