So, What Did You Leave Behind?

[ArkieElk]

After weeks of planning and days of packing you are finally on your way to your favorite hunting area. You may be just a few hours or maybe a couple of days travel from home. During the course of setting up camp or maybe the day your hunt begins that feeling you have had in your gut becomes a reality. You forgot something important to your hunt.
I have left my binoculars at home on two different hunts. Once I started setting up the tent only to find out I left the stakes 1200 miles away. At least once the stakes made it but the hammer to install them did not. Oh yeah, there was the time I left my license on the table next to the door. (so I wouldn't forget it) I did remember the truck jack once, but I packed it first in the bed behind everything else for a two week stay. It looked like I was setting up camp on the side of the highway! I have made check lists and even then a new piece of gear always seems to miss the trip. Am I alone with this curse? Tell us, what did you leave behind?

 

[Apparition]

Got 2 hours away from home and realised I didnt have any guns.

 

[speezer87]

Not hunting, but fishing trips plagued my family.

Theres the time my dad forgot to put the plug in before launching the boat (I was not at the ramp). Standing on the dock my uncles says that boat is riding really low in the water (yelling) Bill did you put the plug in. My dad responds with several curses and quickens the pace to the dock, where i had to jump in and put the plug in while in the water. Luckily we have a bilge pump, and nothing serious happened.

The other time is we are leaving for a week long trip, i was in early high school and was bringing a friend, whose mother was a nervous wreck about the trip for some reason. my friends parents are there watching us leave and as we are pulling out of the driveway (which has a small down hill hump in it) the boat slips off the hitch ball and starts grinding along the ground. Friends mom about fainted. Luckily between myself, dad, uncle, friend, and friends dad we were able to lift the front of the boat back onto the ball and made sure it was secure.

It is now a joke in the family to question anyone going out in a boat to see if they have the plug

 

[kidoggy]

I forget...

 

[missjordan]

Left all my clothes at home both civilian and camo so I only had what was on my back, at least we were only out for two days and had a few pieces to share with someone


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[Slugz]

To be honest.....hardly anything since I started keeping the completed checklists from year to year to include the actual one I use to cross things off by hand. It always has notes on it and small changes from year to year. Really has helped us on our hunts.

 

[JimP]

I very seldom ever leave something behind that is actually needed on a hunt. I load my truck with the same items no matter what I am hunting and I just know that there are things that need to go into it. I also have the philosophy that as long as you have your rifle, shells, knife, and tag you can hunt. If you are a archer they replace rifle and shells with bow and arrows.

Now I have a friend that we have had to go to the local game and fish and get him a duplicate license and tag, go to the store and buy some shells, loan him my knife, binoculars, and so forth. When we were working together and carpooling I almost expected to see him walk out of his house in his BVD's because he forgot to put his pants on.

 

[hoshour]

To be honest.....hardly anything since I started keeping the completed checklists from year to year to include the actual one I use to cross things off by hand. It always has notes on it and small changes from year to year. Really has helped us on our hunts.

I'm the same way. I have an extensive checklist that I don't check off until they are packed.

 

[Work2hunt]

To be honest.....hardly anything since I started keeping the completed checklists from year to year to include the actual one I use to cross things off by hand. It always has notes on it and small changes from year to year. Really has helped us on our hunts.

Same here. I don't like to rely on my brain to remember. I'm going with a checklist where I mark the box when it gets packed and loaded.

 

[CrimsonArrow]

A sleeping bag good enough to keep me warm on a mid-September Idaho elk hunt

 

[mcseal2]

I do the checklist thing. I start my checklist with the big ones: tag, binos/rangefinder, gun, ammo, knife, boots, daypack survival kit, cash & wallet, phone charger. I put the small ones in my hunting pack and tie the boot laces to the pack, the bigger items go in the gun case. Those get packed a day before we leave and the truck keys get put with them. When it's time to load the truck they get put next to it right away and packed last so I can get to them first. I also want to make sure they can be accessed for a final triple check before I leave home.

Past that I work down the checklist that's broke up by item type. I don't check it off until it's in a bag that's going with me. My lists are on the computer so I can modify them easily and print them off each trip. I have a base list I'll re-save into a new file for a specific trip like Muley 2017 and then modify from there.

One of the best things I have been doing for several years is going through and making another version of my list each year when I get home from the trip. I go through and figure out what I actually used, what I still want to have that I didn't use, and what I can remove from the list. I've streamlined my packing considerably by doing this over several years. Some items like rain gear, tire chains, and gaiters I may not use in Wyoming in October for several years in a row for example, but I'll still pack them every trip. Other items like a Harris bipod I carried in my gear for years and never used get taken off the list. If it will be sitting in the truck or in a tote at camp it's not worth having along no matter how nice it is to shoot off of. I've really trimmed down my clothing list as I get more of the technical clothing and get more confidence in my ability to stay warm layering it.

 

[Ikeepitcold]

I always do checklists. I start about a month befor a trip, this has helped me a lot. First thing on the list is tag, next rifle, ammo then optics, after that's it's all luxuries lol. I can get the job done with tag, gun and ammo if that's all I had.

 

[tttoadman]

My checklist is also very effective. I find the short local trips are fails for me. I am not as diligent to pack for a one nighter. One result of this was packing up the trail in the middle of the night for 3 hrs using a key chain light.

 

[7mag]

I always pack my clothes and sleeping bag in a dry bag used for white water rafting. Its a little heavier but if it starts raining or snowing i know i will always have dry clothes and sleeping bag at camp. It makes a pretty good pillow when stuffed inside a sweatshirt too. There has been a bunch of times a 8x8 tarp would have been really nice for shelter from rain/ snow but i have never brought one

 

[Hilltop]

Forgot my release on an early archery antelope hunt 2 hours from home when I was a kid. I traveled there with 2 other people so I was stuck. I practiced with a leather glove into a dirt bank for an hour or so. Never felt good about it so decided not to hunt- just glassed a lot. Lesson learned. I always have a spare release tucked in my bow case now.

 

[ArkieElk]

So, I am not alone! Seems like checklists are the way to go! I do have one......somewhere. We started making a grocery checklist several years ago. It really sucks to get "on top" and find out you have the buns but no wieners to put in them. I get pretty anal about packing for my trips. I think I need to improve my checklist routine. Great tips folks!

 

[EOHunter]

I mainly forget things on scouting trips such as binoculars, new batteries for trail cameras, cold weather clothing.

Hunting I always feel like I do a great job with my checklists, but there always seems to be one thing missing. One year we forgot tags. I had put them in the pickup about a week ahead, checked them off my list, then took them out because I needed my license to go out hunting, and forgot to put them back in. The checklist said they were there, but they weren't. Luckily it was only about an hour total turn around time to get it.

Last year going to Wyoming solo from Eastern Oregon I forgot all the vacuum sealed burger patties and hot dog patties I had pre-made and froze. I figured it out when I was in Mountain Home so I was able to add another item to my list...stop at grocery store in Pocatello. Most extra things I forget are small things like extra knives, maps, mostly things either I don't really need or someone else at camp has what we need.

Here is what irks me...when my hunting partners constantly forget their important stuff, mainly meat bags. I make it very well known that they can borrow mine, but if I get an animal after theirs is all bagged up, their stuff is getting thrown out and mine is getting put in. They have the option then to use something else or drive home. I have forgot important stuff before, but it only affects me so they aren't ever out anything.

 

[Fink]

I forgot my waders on a duck hunt once... That was a cold, wet hunt in tennis shoes.. thankfully there were 4 of us, so i didnt have to put out/pick up decoys, and only got wet when the dog got in the boat.

 

[Horsenhike]

It isn't easy to admit, but I traveled to Wyoming last fall only to discover I had neglected to pack any duct tape.

Would some of you like to post your lists? Maybe as a file? Can you do that on here?

ETA: Drove an hour to hunt coyotes only to discover I didn't have the trigger lock key for my gun. Never used that item again.

Walked to the top of a huge hill this spring only to discover I left my turkey call at camp. Lame.

 

[Work2hunt]

It isn't easy to admit, but I traveled to Wyoming last fall only to discover I had neglected to pack any duct tape.

Would some of you like to post your lists? Maybe as a file? Can you do that on here?

ETA: Drove an hour to hunt coyotes only to discover I didn't have the trigger lock key for my gun. Never used that item again.

Walked to the top of a huge hill this spring only to discover I left my turkey call at camp. Lame.

I don't think you can post a file but feel free to PM me with an email and Ill send you mine.