What to do when it’s time to pack it in
AS MUCH AS I hate to admit it, it is time for me to retire my old hunting pack. The camouflage is faded and outdated, the buckles are broken and worn, the straps are frayed and chewed up, the zipper gives way at the worst times and various holes are covered in duct tape and pine pitch. I could live with all those things, if it weren’t for the gaping hole in the bottom of the main compartment.
Yes, I need to get a new one. On the plus side, I’m selling a funnel with straps, if anyone is interested.
The sad part is that pack has a lot of sentimental value attached to it.
To give you an idea of how long I have had it, I recall shelling out ten dollars for it and getting change back, which, by the way, I just recently found in one of the many pockets it has.
Yes, that old pack had been serving me well for almost 30 years.
That’s why I was so surprised to discover the prices of hunting packs these days. The price of the average back pack now rivals the price of my first car – and, coincidentally, it too had a hole in the bottom.
The good news is I’m now 55, so if I choose right, this will be the last pack I ever buy. That, of course, is also the bad news.
There is an art to choosing a hunting pack that requires the wisdom gained from years of trying to get others to carry yours.
The first thing you need to know is that, in hunting packs, bigger is not better. It just holds more and is heavier.
And that is only good if you are giving the pack
away as a birthday gift to a person you regularly hunt with. Then, he or she will have no excuse not to carry your stuff.
If, on the other hand, you feel like you will have no choice but to carry the pack yourself, smaller is the way to go. The older you are, the smaller it should be, in fact.
I’m now looking for one that will just accommodate my wallet and car keys. I figure, I’ll keep all the other gear I take out in my jacket pocket and eat my lunch the minute I arrive at my hunting grounds.
The problem with getting a bigger backpack, aside from having to carry it, is that it causes you to buy more stuff. For instance, if it has an outside pocket for a water bottle, you end up buying one just so you don’t get asked if you lost your water bottle every time you run into another hunter. And if you have a water bottle, you then have to fill it with water, because nothing makes you look like more of a rookie that starting up the trail with a full pack and an empty water bottle.
The water bottle is just a start. You need to fill whatever pack you carry with gear you once bought and hope to someday use. For some people, that’s means you fill that big pack with a portable stove, high-end cooking utensils, state of the art navigational gear, a solo tent, sleeping bag and all the accessories.
Maybe I’m getting older, but I’d rather fill that big pack with a much smaller one that holds with a sandwich, a candy bar, a few shells and a can of pop.