A Minimalist By Accident

As I watch the many hunting shows on television, and boy there are a lot of them these days, I'm constantly amazed by the amount of gear being carried into the woods. I can appreciate that there may be more to it than I realize. For instance the the guys may be sharing the load of carrying filming equipment etc, but I also regularly read blogs and posts where people go through the lists of what they have in there packs. Boys that's a lot to carry for 4-5 hours in a stand. I have been lucky in that I have never had to travel through hundreds of acres of public land to find a hunt spot. I have always hunted privately owned land. If always hunting public lands were the case, I am pretty sure I would have a different perspective on what I needed to survive if something did happen to me in the middle of no where. In fact I'm sure of it, but these guys are walking across a corn field to a stand that is a thousand yards from their truck at best, and they look like they have the gear for a two day hike. I will agree also that there is a lot to be said for preparedness. Be Prepared is the scout motto and it is something I have lived by for most of my adult life, but there seems to be a lot to be said for unpreparedness. It's kind of a Murphy's Law sort of thing, you know? If you have an umbrella with you it doesn't rain. Well, regarding the hunt, some of my best experiences in the field occurred when I showed up with no gloves, no knife, no flashlight and could only find one bullet under the passenger seat in my truck. Completely unprepared, yet hyper focused because there was no room for error. I heard a man once say that you should only go in the field in search of game on an empty stomach and hungry. That way you were focused on the task at hand and all of your senses were peaked, like an animal looking for its next meal. I think there is a lot to be said for that idea. As an adult, with a wife and three kids, I have to admit that I am more often than not better prepared than I used to be when I hunt. However, everything I carry fits in a small fanny pack with room to spare. A flashlight, my release, a pocket knife, rangefinder and my phone. That's all I have. During bow season I don't even bother taking binoculars. I figure if the deer is close enough to kill, I'll see what it is then. Any movement using the binos is just gonna get me busted by a deer I don't see. Everyone has their own formulas for success and comfort in the field. Maybe if I thought about it harder I may have more success, but so far things have been pretty damn good. Enjoy your time in the field and take whatever you feel you need. I would suggest though that sometimes you go into it with very little, the absolute minimum to get the job done, and discover how little you actually need.