Replacing Hunting Equipment

MarkDarvin

Well-Known Member
Just when I think I'm done buying new stuff and having to replace old or inferior stuff, something new seems to keep popping up. Two years ago, I thought I finally had it. I was caught up and couldn't think of anything that was broken down or any new gizmos that I needed.

Well, last night I went out and had to replace some stuff. My bow case finally fell apart, so I had to get a new one. My cabin duffle bag has been woefully undersized for years, so much so that I blew out the zippers and had holes in it large enough to lose a musk melon.

So off to Scheels I went. Thankfully I had some gift cards earned from when I built the cabin. I sat on them for two years not really knowing what to get. Well they came in handy. Got a new bag and a new bow case and only had to fork over an extra $28 outta pocket.
 
I gave one of the managers a little schitt while I was there (not bad, just a little bit). I asked him if he had any duffel bags that didn't have nike and under armor logos on them. I said I try to avoid supporting child slavery and anti-gun movements whenever possible. He chuckled and walked me over to the camo stuff.
 
I always get asked why do you spend so much money on whitetails you could buy all the meat you want between apple trees, food plots, corn/soybean fields, trees, tree stands, new gear, tractor, etc etc.....i always tell them if you have to ask the question you won't understand the answer.
 
Would you rather spend money on s*it you hate, or sh*t you love?
Make no mistake, you will always have to spend money. Accepting that leads to peace.


Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum
 
“You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.”

Name that movie...
 
I always get asked why do you spend so much money on whitetails you could buy all the meat you want between apple trees, food plots, corn/soybean fields, trees, tree stands, new gear, tractor, etc etc.....i always tell them if you have to ask the question you won't understand the answer.
Beware of the man who has no hobby. Not having a hobby is a high risk factor for depression and suicide. It's not if a person can afford to have a hobby. It's that a person can't afford to live without one. And a person turning their hobby into their job also makes a big mistake. Before, they had a job and a hobby, now they only have a job.
I'm very careful to not let habitat management turn into work, If it starts to feel like work i take a break and go hunting or fishing.
 
Beware of the man who has no hobby. Not having a hobby is a high risk factor for depression and suicide. It's not if a person can afford to have a hobby. It's that a person can't afford to live without one. And a person turning their hobby into their job also makes a big mistake. Before, they had a job and a hobby, now they only have a job.
I'm very careful to not let habitat management turn into work, If it starts to feel like work i take a break and go hunting or fishing.

Wisdom to live by!!!
 
Beware of the man who has no hobby. Not having a hobby is a high risk factor for depression and suicide. It's not if a person can afford to have a hobby. It's that a person can't afford to live without one. And a person turning their hobby into their job also makes a big mistake. Before, they had a job and a hobby, now they only have a job.
I'm very careful to not let habitat management turn into work, If it starts to feel like work i take a break and go hunting or fishing.


Ya know I see these TV Guys that get to Hunt and Fish all the time and I used to think "Boy they've got it made! I'd love to do that!".

Now I know better. If your Paycheck depended on you shooting not just a Deer but a BIG Deer Several Times a Year and in Several States and always making it seem like like it's easy, I'd think you'd get sick of it after awhile but you couldn't stop or your paycheck does too.

Yeah I know a LOT of these guys just go to Farms where the Guide has really done all the work and all they really do is show up, get picked up and taken to Camp, shown the Pics of the Bucks at each Spot and told which one(s) to take and then hauled out to the stand. Get a Discount or pay NOTHING to say "XYZ is the BEST Place to go hunt and Jimmy X has the Best Deer Program on the Planet, Hands Down!"

But after awhile it would just become Killing, not Hunting. Personally I'd grow tired of it.
 
A True Story from a Friend that had a Hunter join his Hunt Club thinking that it would be like the "hunts" he had been on in Texas.

The Guy told him that they picked him up at the airport, drove him to the Camp, food and drinks on the Tab. Next morning they load him up in a Jeep that has no top but a Platform built onto it instead. Has a Spin Feeder on the back.
As they drive down the lane/road they turn the Feeder on and Corn gets tossed out behind them. They reach a Curve with a Big Bush at the end on the lane they drove down.
They back the Jeep up to the Bush and it has been cut so the top is level with the top of the platform. He climbs up on the platform.
Deer come out to eat as they have been trained to do. He picks one out and shoots it. Climbs back down into the Jeep and is taken back to Camp.

They go find his deer and bring it back to Camp. He gets set up for the Money Shot with the Deer. Then heads back inside the Camp to Eat and Drink the rest of his "hunt days".

They butcher the meat and put it coolers with Dry Ice. They take him and the meat to the airport. When he gets off the plane is the first time he's touched the Deer since the Money Shot.

And that was how each of his Hunts have been and what he expected. He didn't last there to long.
 
When it comes to replacing things.....I try to be a little pro-active and have a list ready for christmas and spring....this way I either pay nothing....OR try to catch things on clearance sales. I also try to stay reasonable....I don't need stuff that has the fancy logo's on it....I found out the deer don't care if your using cheap camo or realtree. They don't care if your using a used Hoyt or a new Mathews....
 
The whole point of my post is how things come up outta nowhere. I had a big purchase this year that was a couple years in the making. Otherwise, there wasn't anything else on the needs list, and I still end up blowing a huge sum of money on stuff. All I've got left to do is fill the propane tank. I'm holding off a little while longer to try to get it down far enough to not have to need a fill next year.
 
And I bet in the next 30 days another $250 repair, improvement, or gizmo will come along.

I just had to replace all the tires on my farm tractor trailer and replace a heater hose that was leaking on my F350. That heater hose was engineered and installed by Satan himself, so I hired a good mechanic to do it. Ain’t any telling what that will cost, but it’s better than an engine overheating and cracking a head or a radiator. Some times you have to look on the bright side. o_O
 
I just had to replace all the tires on my farm tractor trailer and replace a heater hose that was leaking on my F350. That heater hose was engineered and installed by Satan himself, so I hired a good mechanic to do it. Ain’t any telling what that will cost, but it’s better than an engine overheating and cracking a head or a radiator. Some times you have to look on the bright side. o_O
And here i thought French engineers were the worst
 
The whole point of my post is how things come up outta nowhere. I had a big purchase this year that was a couple years in the making. Otherwise, there wasn't anything else on the needs list, and I still end up blowing a huge sum of money on stuff. All I've got left to do is fill the propane tank. I'm holding off a little while longer to try to get it down far enough to not have to need a fill next year.

Yeah I got off topic, sorry about that.

I though I was set for this year, then moved a Stand- decided to replace the cheap seat it came with. And why just do one when the other is exactly the same? so $200 later New Adjustable Comfortable Swivel Seats for both.

Oh and seed. There is always some seed to add into the mix.

AND the next to last trip I noticed something was squeaking on the 4-wheeler. After starting to look found that the Suspension Bushings were shot, not bad for a 13 year old machine. So Replaced ALL the Bushing Front & Rear. Broke one Axle getting it out (had to to replace the rear Upper A-Arm Bushings) So why Replace just One? New Axles on the Rear. Found a bad U-Joint on the Rear Drive Shat, so got 4 to replace them all. While looking at the Front Shaft I noticed that the Boot had torn on one of the Front Axles. Boot was $40. New Axle was $65. Seemed like a No brainer to me, so Two New Front Axles as well.

A Simple Squeak turned into about a $400 Job and that was with ME doing all the work.
 
Yeah I got off topic, sorry about that.

I though I was set for this year, then moved a Stand- decided to replace the cheap seat it came with. And why just do one when the other is exactly the same? so $200 later New Adjustable Comfortable Swivel Seats for both.

Oh and seed. There is always some seed to add into the mix.

AND the next to last trip I noticed something was squeaking on the 4-wheeler. After starting to look found that the Suspension Bushings were shot, not bad for a 13 year old machine. So Replaced ALL the Bushing Front & Rear. Broke one Axle getting it out (had to to replace the rear Upper A-Arm Bushings) So why Replace just One? New Axles on the Rear. Found a bad U-Joint on the Rear Drive Shat, so got 4 to replace them all. While looking at the Front Shaft I noticed that the Boot had torn on one of the Front Axles. Boot was $40. New Axle was $65. Seemed like a No brainer to me, so Two New Front Axles as well.

A Simple Squeak turned into about a $400 Job and that was with ME doing all the work.
Getting back on topic about these unplanned expenses like your atv, some of those are unavoidable, and fixing up your old atv was probably a much better value than a new one. But just last year I had this same thing happen to me with a slightly different twist to it.
I have multiple atv's, which I put about 300 miles a year on each. One was a 2005 yamaha kodiak 450 with 4k miles on it that had served me well for many years as my sprayer and seeder rig, and one day a year ago I was looking at that machine, thinking how much good use I'd gotten out of it, and suddenly I said to myself, this machine is just at the point of becoming a mechanic's special and someone else is going to be fixing it! The factory was offering a special on new ones for $6900 including tax and camo upgrade, so I sold the old one private and paid about $3500 out of pocket and had a new 2019 450 kodiak with camo. Anyway, the next owner pretty much had the same list of repairs as you did during the next year, he did nothing but fixing. My point is, spending money, and having the aggravation of breakdowns can be two different things. Yes, I spent $4K, but if history repeats itself I'll have another 14 trouble free years of atv use without any aggravation, at the low cost of $286 dollars a year while the other guy will be fixing my old one for very likely an average of $286 dollars a year and a lot of aggravation.
I have some old equipment that I'll keep, as long as it's solid and easy to fix. But I'm quick to bite the bullet and upgrade if need be, I'll often think to myself, what are the annual costs for this piece from this point forward, vs trading up?
And sometimes, laying out a little dough up front can save a lot of trouble on the back end, while coming out the same dollar wise.
 
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