Show Notes
On this episode of the Hunting Gear Podcast, Dan breaks down all the gear he uses for every hunt. From the time he gets out of bed for his scent free shower, to the walk to the tree, and the moment he is strapped in, Dan discusses just bout every product he touches. From his scent regimen to his bow and arrow set up, to his clothing and boots, and his saddle and hang-on stand set up, Dan not only tells us what products he uses, but why he likes them. Another fun episode! If you have any questions about gear or want Dan to interview a specific company, hit Dan up on Instagram.
Show Transcript
[00:00:00] Interstate Batteries offers a wide variety of batteries for your everyday needs. Stop into one of their thousands of retail locations and talk with a battery specialist about batteries for your truck, trail cameras, and even those weird batteries for your rangefinder. Interstate Batteries even offers cell phone repair in certain locations.
For more information, visit interstatebatteries. com. Interstate Batteries, outrageously Dependable
What's up everybody welcome back to another episode of the hunting gear podcast And today basically what i'm going to do Is i'm going to run through All of my equipment from the moment that I wake up in the morning to the time that I am 100 percent set [00:01:00] up in the tree, ready to hunt. I'm going to break down all of the gear that I use.
And I sat through this this morning and I made a list of everything that I use. And I don't know if I'm necessarily forgetting something. I don't think so. Cause if I am, man, there's a whole bunch of gear. That I take in with me and it's going to sound like a whole bunch of gear, but I try to, I honestly try to be minimalistic in what I take out every hunt.
And so this is, this would be a Midwestern style hunt that we're going to talk about today. I may talk briefly about some of the stuff that I use on a, on my Western hunts when I go out and chase mule deer or elk, but this, a majority of the gear that we're going to be talking about, there is some crossover, but it's based off that, that Midwestern style.
From a [00:02:00] tree hunting from a tree type of conversation. So that's what we're going to talk about today before we get into today's episode, though, we're going to do some commercials. We got two that we need to talk. One's a commercial, one's more of an announcement. And the first one is if you are into sense or being sent free or.
Wanting to experiment with mock scrapes, you definitely need to go check out CodeBlueScents. com and just take a look at all of their offerings and they have everything from your scent elimination type products where your sprays, your soaps wipes.
Everything that you need to be scent free, they offer, they have it. They have orbital glands in their rope a dope system, or orbital scent in the rope a dope system, so you can create mock scrapes [00:03:00] from the licking branch, that, that's on a rope, to the real or synthetic scents deer urines that they offer.
And man, these guys got a variety of products On a hunting gear podcast a while ago, I talked with one of their product specialists, and he was talking to me about the really I guess you would say the quality steps, excuse me, the quality steps that they go through to collect the sense that they make, especially if they're real and how they try to have one deer per bottle.
So it's not necessarily a blend of a whole bunch of different. Deer into one bottle. It's one deer per bottle and that, that type of quality is strenuous, right? They probably don't have to do it, but they understand that's going to provide the highest quality, especially when it comes to how deer use their nose to identify other deer.
Having one deer [00:04:00] in the area seems more realistic than them smelling something and being like, man, what is this? What is, what am I smelling? Very good people at that company as well. Man, I've had the opportunity to meet and conversate with some of the people from Code Blue and man, really good company.
Go check out code blue sense.com. I do have a discount code N F C two zero, and that's gonna get you 20% off. All of their products. Now, second thing that I want to announce is I just actually started in apparel. And right now there's only three different offerings. There's going to be more coming down the pipe, but that company is called full sneak and you can go to full sneak gear.
Dot com. And it's just a Shopify shop right now. As as it starts to grow, I'm going to start adding more products. I'm going to probably get an official website and make everything really really high.[00:05:00] That's what I'm trying to accomplish here. It's going to be a lifestyle brand, Logo Tees.
The first ever Nine Finger Chronicles hat is up for sale there as well. So go visit FullSneakGear. com. Check out the offerings that I currently have, but just know that there's going to be more coming down the pipe. I'm already working on a hoodie. a hoodie. I'm working on a beanie some more t shirt designs as well.
And the goal with full sneak is going to be a full fledged lifestyle brand that is going to be perfect. If you are an outdoorsman, I don't necessarily know if I'm going to get into the camo per se, which I think that's a whole nother monster that I don't, but I got the hoodie is going to be called the post hunt hoodie, right?
I got the date night hat. Things that we use outside of the woods that's, I don't know, just going to look real good and be really comfortable in that. And that's and kick ass designs as well. So go check [00:06:00] out full sneak gear dot com. And now we've done all this. I do need to talk about my gear, right?
That's what we're all here for today. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to talk about what I do when I wake up in the morning. Okay. And so even before that, we're going to talk about like the beginning of this is really sent. So I will wake up. I will go out to the garage and I will turn on my Ozonics that I have in my Ozonics closet.
And I run a dry wash cycle. And as I then go back into the house, and I take a scent free shower using Code Blue, like body wash, and it's like a body wash, hair wash, and put on my deodorant, my gear itself is being... Washed over with O three. And [00:07:00] so that, that's a bacteria killer. That's a scent eliminator.
This O three is I'm a huge fan of using O three. I feel like it does a good job in the tree. Like the Ozonics unit does a really good job in the tree, like diluting scent profiles and reducing the impact your scent has on the, on, on the deer. But I feel like. Where it really shines. And this is my opinion is outside of the tree and using it to clean your like.
Remove the odor from your clothes. Now, it's obviously not going to remove blood or dirt from your clothing, but what it does is if you're obviously hunting gear and equipment is going to get dirty. But for me back in the day when I was really trying to be 100 percent scent free, this was before the days of ozonics and other 03 type of products.
Ozone creating products. I would wash my clothes [00:08:00] once a day at least, and then hang them out on the dryer, like hang them out on the line when I wasn't, and then I would have to get dressed and, take it to the field, get dressed, and then I used to spray down with a whole bunch of stuff.
Man, I just don't do that anymore. It's so time consuming having to wash your hunting clothing. Over and over throughout the year. So now really the only time I wash my clothes is if I got a ton of blood on it or if I fell in some mud or whatever the case may be for having to like, if it's heavy, heavily soiled is what I'm getting at.
If it's not. I throw it right into the Ozonics closet my dry wash bag and I run a dry wash cycle and that to me is clean and you can tell it's odorless when it comes out of there and you're wearing it on the way to the tree stand, right? And so I will, my base layers and my pants, I will [00:09:00] always put on right out of the, right out of the dry wash bag.
Toothbrush, right? So I brush my teeth with just regular regular toothpaste and regular toothbrush. There's nothing fancy there. I don't, some guys I've heard have the conversation like, Oh dude, you need to brush with scent free, man. I don't honestly, I don't think it matters because if that smell is even making it to a deer's nose, they're going to smell the mint flavor, but it's what is coming up.
Yeah. out of your guts that the deer are smelling, right? So if you burp or if you just have your mouth open, all of that breathing is creating odor that they can identify. And that's why I run an Osonix in the tree and I'll get to that. But anyway, alright, so now I'm out of the shower. I dry off.
I'm getting dressed. All, if it's cold outside, I'm throwing all of my outerwear let's say like a big shell jacket or my puffy jacket or any [00:10:00] of my insulation layers, it's going into a bag. So that way when I'm riding to the tree or I'm walking to the tree, then I can I'm not getting hot.
And so I'll throw that into a bag, but at the truck I'm putting out on my base layers or before I get into the car, putting on my base layers and I am putting on. Which is mostly this year. It's everything that I'm going to be wearing is I'm going to say 90 percent of it is going to be hunt worth clothing.
I worked to deal with them on another on the nine finger Chronicles podcast, and so they sent me a whole bunch of stuff, and I will say that I am surprised of how much the quality. I would compare their clothing. So if you're going to say brands like Sitka, Kuyu, yeah, I would say Sitka and Kuyu are the top of the food chain when it comes to gear and how they perform.
They're there at level 10. I'm going to put [00:11:00] Huntworth at level nine. Okay. And so you're paying a ton of money. For Sitka, for Kuyu, and some of these other really elite, maybe first light now for these quote unquote elite brands, you're still getting the quality out of Huntworth, but you're you're paying way less, right?
And man I'm really looking forward to using that. They offer solid colors, which I really like. They, camo patterns. So if you like a digital pattern, they have that. If you like more of a scribbled up, pattern, they have that as well. And I'll be using a lot of Huntworth.
I'll have some Merino wool socks and base layers that I will, and synthetics base layers that I will be using. Some of those aren't Huntworth, but majority the synthetic tops and the synthetic bottoms will be. Won't be merino wool, but they'll be they'll be my insulating base layer.
[00:12:00] Excuse me. Oh, that was unprofessional. Crispy boots. I got a different brand. So for the past, I want to say five, five or seven years, I've had the crispy Thor's this year I changed to the crispy Colorado's and I went and wore them on a couple of hikes to get them broken in for my my upcoming.
Western hunts, and they're very comfortable there. They are why those stores, crispy Thor's and these Colorados are why I continue to go back to crispy every single year. And that is because The quality of them and how long they last me and I beat the shit out of my equipment and these boots You know my last pair of boots last me Five hunting seasons man.
That's five trips there's multiple trips to nebraska. That's five trips to South dakota and then Of course, Iowa [00:13:00] shed hunting and then when I wear my boots outside of the hunting season as well Let's say if it's snowing outside or things like that. I don't want to wear a pair of tennis shoes I'm throwing all my krispies man, and they're comfortable the break in period for them is very small and I have yet to get a blister on my feet in any crispy shoes.
And that's no joke, man. Socks are going to be a combination of Altera alpaca socks. Now these are like merino wool, but they're alpaca. And so they have the same properties as merino wool. Some might argue even a little better. They have the moisture wicking. They have the the ability to not collect odors and bacteria.
And that's a huge benefit and they're very comfortable and, like they hold the warmth very well, especially in the colder seasons, but now they've also come out with a thinner sock, like a lightweight marine or alpaca sock. I used to use darn tough marina [00:14:00] wool. Socks because they were thinner, but now that Alterra are yeah, Alterra has these new lightweight socks.
I'll probably be picking up a couple of those. Plus I already have a ton of socks, so it's not like I need to go buy anything. Anything. I got a ton of socks buh, when it comes to socks that's really it for me getting dressed before the hunt, get in my truck, right? Drive to the property.
I'm not because I have the Ozonics and I've washed my clothes. I'm not really a scent free geek. And I'm not anal about my personal scent anymore because I know that the Ozonics Out of the tree in the tree and I'm clean. My body's clean. Is not, it's not, I don't really think about it or care about it too terribly much.
Depending on the hunt, I do have an e bike on my main farm. The one that I've been hunting a lot. I [00:15:00] don't think that driving a truck to cert through the property. Helps per se, but I don't necessarily think it hurts and so on the new farm that I acquired There's only one access route into the heart of the farm and it's through a gap in a fence And so when I went there the first time and I started walking through this gap in the fence I noticed that the deer were seeing me on this hillside.
They would get up And they would run away. Okay. Once I started using this e bike to drive to this dam wall, and then I would hide the bike, like a tire would be in the pond and it would be laid right there. I think I think that helped. And I think that's that has led to the reason why I'm seeing so many deer on some of these properties because they look at that, they look at that bike and they're like that's not a human threat.
That's not a threat. It's not something vertical walking through the landscape. It looks just like [00:16:00] another vehicle. They're used to vehicles. And so they don't necessarily ignore it. They just don't run away from it. And then by the time that I'm out of range and they can't see me anymore, or I'm to a spot where I'm up in my tree, it's dude, like from an access standpoint, if you can use a bicycle or have someone drop you off at your tree stand and pick you up at your tree stand, I think from an access point and from a deer are probably less apt.
They're not going to stick, they're not going to stay in the field when a bike is going through, but they're not going to run away because they necessarily haven't seen you, they haven't smelled you per se, a truck comes into the field it's going to spook them, but they're going to come right back.
So I don't think it's, I think e bikes actually do help on access staying I don't want to say invisible, but it's a dist, it's not as big of a distraction to them as just walking through the landscape is so depending on the hunt, I might use an e bike. On my [00:17:00] access routes.
I'm a huge fan of nose jammer, right? And so I spray nose jammer on my boots on my clothing. I spray nose jammer on my hats and it's just another because you will never beat a deer's nose. I don't care if you use I don't care if you use ozonics, I don't care if you're scent free and you use the sprays you, you wash your clothes every day, you brush your teeth, you have good hygiene, like you prevent, like you take as many steps.
If a deer smells you, there's things that you can do to, I don't want to say trick them. Because once their nose gets acclimated to whatever it is that they're trying to sniff, they will smell you eventually. It's just how much of them, how much of you are they smelling. And that's why I like using ozone because in the tree it dilutes your scent.
To, this isn't [00:18:00] proven or anything, but my theory is that it dilutes your scent cone to the point where they smell you and maybe they'll say to themselves, it triggers something in their brain that says, okay, there was this scent here, but it's so diluted that it hasn't been, it hasn't been, it's been a while since they've been there, or maybe they're there.
Yeah. 500 yards away. So they're no big threat to me right now because that's what that's the profile that I'm getting. Now, when it comes to nose jammer though, I truly believe in this product for the science behind it and from overwhelming the olfactory senses in any type of animal, right? So Imagine walking into a house where the people there smoke inside.
As soon as you walk into the house, you will smell cigarettes. And it's overwhelming, [00:19:00] cigarettes. Or when you walk into a pizza shop, store, a pizza restaurant. You smell. That and it hits you like a ton of bricks, but then after a while your brain adjusts the how you smell that those smells go away and then you can start to pick out certain things again.
And I think that's what happens when I, when you use nose jammer on a deer, at least that's how they market it. It overwhelms them. It is the only thing that their brain can pick up. In that and they're like, holy cow, what is this? And so for a short period of time down, if a deer is downwind of you, it'll smell that.
Sometimes and I use it mostly for my access routes. And so it's just another thing that they're they're picking up. They're picking it up. They're picking up the ozone. But what they're doing is it's overwhelming them. And they're like, Holy cow, it's so potent. What is this smell? And my smells [00:20:00] mixed in with that.
So it's like a Trojan horse of sense, right? The. Like my scent is in there somewhere, but it's diluted. It smells like ozone. It smells like like vanilla extract, which is what nose jammers made out of. And so those, from the scientific standpoint, that's my scent regimen now. So I get to the tree and I'm using a variety of different climbing methods, a variety of different Saddles and hang ons throughout the year and I'll break those down right now.
So I do have two different tethered saddles. I have the lockdown and then I have the phantom XL that I'll be rotating through this year. I think the lockdown is going to be good for first time insets where I can have a whole bunch of stuff right in my [00:21:00] pocket, in those pockets on that saddle.
And then, put up my climbing sticks, start pulling stuff like bow hooks and ropes and anything like screwing steps or is anything that I need to carry at my hip to help myself in climbing and setting up in the tree. But once I've been to a tree, let's say I, I find a good spot and I'm probably going to come back to it.
I may or may not leave. my platform there. I may or may not leave my climbing sticks there, but then I'll probably come back with a lower profile saddle in the, and then I use the phantom XL. It's very comfortable. I'm a bigger dude. I'm right at six foot six one and I am probably two. I'm right around 230 pounds and so it's comfortable for my fat ass is basically what I'm saying.
I'm using the XL platform tethered offers as well in my saddle setup, not [00:22:00] very many mods to it other than hockey tape over some of the metal and some of the front. the front part where I feel like there might be some clicks and some bangs on the stand. But for the most part, I don't really mod out my platform.
I do the same thing with my climbing sticks where I'll wrap hockey tape around them to minimize it. It doesn't prevent it, but it makes us. It makes a sharp metal on metal sound seem like a dull metal on metal sound, and it doesn't necessarily carry through the woods that far. And so that's what I'm doing for my climbing sticks for my stand.
If I am going to pull a sat or or that was my saddle, excuse me. My stand is just an old Lone Wolf, man, and those from there's, they just work so well as a hang on, right? There's all these other brands now that have spurred off from this. And there might be some different adjustments like [00:23:00] Lone Wolf custom gear and XOP and now Novix.
They all kind of stem. From and they've all taken it a little, different directions, but I will say that original design works so well. That's those are the only stands that I need. And if I'm going to go to a, let's say, a spot that is a historically good rutt spot, I may throw a stand in there to, to keep there.
If it's a historically good rutt funnel where I know I'll be, I can leave a standup all year round on some of this private, when I'm on public. I'm definitely using a saddle much more mobile. I don't necessarily know where the deer are coming and going from. So I have to go find it, which I'll while use the saddle sticks.
I do have tethered sticks. I have one set of tethered sticks. They're pretty good. I do like them. My [00:24:00] main. that. And the reason I like using the lone wolf sticks, the, there are three steps. They're not double sticks. They're singles, they're single step six sticks that rotate. I can stack them.
They're fairly light. I can put them in a bow holder. That's what I do. I take the ends, put it in a bull holder, take the bow hole. Bow holder and strap it to the sticks and then I can throw the sticks over my shoulder when I'm walking in and that way I don't have to take my backpack off when I get to the tree.
I just take them out of the bow rope or the bow holder. Set the bow holder at the bottom of the tree. the tree and then I start setting things up and then from there I go am I putting up a full tree stand lone wolf tree stand or if I'm putting up one of the tethered XL platforms so that's the stand climbing stick saddle type of setup I [00:25:00] got now.
I am wearing this year a in the past, I've worn the mystery ranch tool bucket or not tool bucket, a tree house, excuse me. And that's a pretty sweet. Sweet pack this year. I think I'm gonna be using a Backpack the bigger backpack from Huntworth It looks like it's gonna be able to do everything that I need it to as far as holding water Holding extra clothing like my layers that I won't be wearing When I'm walking to the tree or riding to the tree won't be using that But I will be using that when I get into the tree It's gonna be easy to unzip pull my clothes out put them on Either in the tree at or at the base of the tree before I climb up and then after that really It's just what's in the backpack, right?
[00:26:00] And we'll talk about that here in a little bit. It's a very comfortable backpack It's fairly it compresses down very well, but it can hold a bigger heavier coat I might be able to stuff a coat in there with insulation layer And then once I get to the tree, like I said, water go My water analgene bottle goes in there.
My grunt goes in my grunt tube is in there any snacks We'll fit in there and then to the exterior, I will have strapped my my rattling antlers. And so I don't use a rattle bag. I use real rattling antlers. For some reason, I just assume deer can hear that like the plastic on plastic or hear these rattle bags.
And I'm sure they can't really tell the difference, but for me... I'm just like, I like the the authenticity of real rattling antlers. And so that's why they're a little bit more bulky. The, their profile isn't near [00:27:00] as flat as some of these other options, but I really do like them. And so that there's that here's my bow setup.
Okay. Bow setup. I have a Bowtech solution. I have a 30 inch draw at 70. I have a React 5 site by Trophy Ridge, and here's why I like using a multi pin site. I, in the past, I have used a single pin site, and in the moment of truth, if things are happening quickly, and having the ability to Having the time and awareness to range and adjust and things like that.
I just like having multiple pins. Now there are hybrids that do interest me, and that is the 20 and 30 pin or set. And then the other pin, the third pin, or I'm sure there's different [00:28:00] variations of this, is a sliding pin so that you can crank the dial if it's out. Like to 40, 50, 60, 70 or something like that.
You can crank it all the way down to how, whatever the furthest distance is that you want. And so it's a hybrid version of that. And so that's something that interests me, but this site's been working for on multiple bows that I've owned and I really like it. And the setup time to get your bow accurate with this site.
is really easy, man. You set up at 20, you set up at 30, you make your adjustments. And then once you have those two pins set, then 40, are all automatically set. And so that's once that tech type of technology came out, I was a huge fan of that little drink here a second before I get into my rest.[00:29:00]
All right, vapor trail this or what it's been three years now since I've gotten a vapor trail rest man, I used to use ripcord. I loved that rest I love that rest, but then I noticed on a new version that I got it just didn't seem like the quality was there Still a very good rest man.
Absolutely still wouldn't hesitate to put a ripcord on but I feel like something changed Once that company was sold to I forget the name of the company that bought them Anyway, it's an it's another one of those huge conglomerates, right? They own 20 brands or something like that So they bought ripcord and I feel like the quality of the product went down since the sale Since they sold it to that.
And so that's why I went to vapor trail. I had several guys tell me, dude, you need to try the vapor trail. You [00:30:00] need to do the limb driven system, the limb driven rest. And that's what I have. I got a vapor trail. It's a limb driven rest. There's You know, theories and science behind why a limb driven is better than a cable driven system and how there's less, less rest arrow interference on a limb driven system because that, that once that limb goes up, it stays up, there's not a lot of bounce back on that launch pad.
Huge fan of that. And then That's it for my bow setup. Here's my arrow. Oh, and all my bows set up. I do have a customized grip, which is hockey tape around the grip that came with it. And it gives it a little bit more grip is which is why I like it. My hands don't slide when I come to full draw.
And that's why I like that. Arrows day, six arrows. I think mine are the two fifties. [00:31:00] FI 524 grains, total arrow weight. Love the tolerances on those arrows. They are the most cons. They have the most consistent tolerances in. the entire hunting industry, right? So their manufacturing process allows for their arrows to be very straight and all of the arrows to be very straight.
And so that's why I like the consistency in there. It's a very high quality product and high quality in this instance reflects So they are more expensive, but you're getting a very good set of arrows that you will be able to shoot for multiple years. If you take care of them on the end of my arrow is a wasp jackhammer.
Now, if I'm going to hunt a bigger bodied animal like elk, I will put a boss for blade on, [00:32:00] but For whitetail and mule deer purposes, I'm putting a jackhammer, 100 grain jackhammer on that and at 70 pounds and at 30 inch draw, man, if it's Unless I hit major bone or major tissue tough tissue, then I'm going all the way through that animal.
I don't know how many pass throughs I've had with that at that setup. Just a ton. And then when I did shoot the boss, four blades on those arrows, the one year, man, obviously there's no energy loss in a fixed blade. I was destroying animals. My arrow was zipping through them like butter coming out the back end, sticking, six inches in the ground.
Those are fairly close shots, but very accurate flying arrows. But that again is not only your arrow setup. But it's how you tune your arrows and your bow together, got to make sure your sights on, got to make sure your rest is set up. A lot of that has to [00:33:00] do with timing of the cam timing.
And so that's why I go into a shop and have somebody really work on my bow every single year to get it to be quiet. And when something is quiet, that means that Energy is more efficient and it's being delivered into the arrow and not like the hand shock or the vibration of the bow. There's that, I think that's it.
Oh, four fletch. All of my arrows are four fletched. They come the fletchings that come with the. Day six arrows are the ones that I use. This year, I had to have a couple arrows, the fletching stripped, and then I just bought some regular, I don't even know, ABA America's Best Accessories, America's Boat, I don't know.
A B E, I forget the name of it. Anyway those are the fletchings that I use, whatever those are for fletch. And the reason that I shoot for fletch is [00:34:00] to stabilize the back end as fast as possible. Some guys, depending on who you talk to, the more drag, you're losing speed, but you're all, your arrow is flattening out quicker.
And you're able to get. like really good arrow flight down to your target. And right now I have that I did notice a little bit of a bump in accuracy when I'm shooting a Ford Fletch. And then on top of that in windier conditions. I necessarily haven't seen it firsthand, but four fletches are supposed to work better in windy conditions.
Accessories next on the list is the accessory, all the accessories. And it's very simple. I usually carry like a real tree bow holder, a screw in bow holder. I do have these tethered ones that hang on the ropes. So now I'll be able to put this strap around the tree and then.
put these boat, like these hangers on there for my pack [00:35:00] and any other things that I want to hang on the tree, like rattling antlers or grunt tube or range finder or even my bow. So I got some of those tethered. I do have one of my favorite brands. I don't know if they even make them anymore because I haven't seen them at the store that I go to, but I think for a while Gorilla was making these really high quality screw in hangers that I would use to hang my pack on.
The thing that pisses me off the most is having to struggle. When you're hanging off of a tree trying to get a screw in something into because it's not sharp or it's dull or something like that. So there are certain screw in step screw in hangers that perform better, they're sharper, they have more grip right away and they're easier to screw into the tree and those are the ones that I like.
I think. A lot of us have been there before to where we're trying to force this doll, basically nail into a [00:36:00] tree, trying to get it to spin. And it's just not working. And then you're spending a lot of energy in the tree, trying to do something that is a waste of time. Now to the Ozonics unit itself it's this year.
I have the 500 with a screw in arm with an extension. And so that is in my pack. I hang my pack up. The Ozonics is running the whole time I'm accessing. So once I leave the truck, the Ozonics comes on. I put it in my pack with it vented, and then it's coming out. As I'm walking or riding my bike to, wherever I get off my bike or climb up to the tree.
And so that's on the whole time. I will grab the screw in arm, screw it in, pull the bag out, pull the bag out or put it in the bag, pull out the arm, screw it in, hang the ozonics. Very simple. And then. [00:37:00] I always get an extra battery, an XL battery, so I had two, I got two XL batteries and one XL battery should last you all day, depending on how long you're in the tree and how, what cycle you're running on your Ozonix unit.
There might be some time, like parts of the day where thermal shift or the wind changes direction and you might not need to run it. I would suggest shutting it off. And then turning it back on, especially at prime time. If you're an all day sitter, right? I'm not an all day sitter. So I like to. Go and leave and then come back to different areas, whatever.
And so there's that and then while I'm hunting, my other XL battery is charging so that when I get back to after the hunt, I switch batteries out. I put the new battery that's been charging. I put that in the dry wash bag or in the unit and then put it in the dry wash bag. [00:38:00] And it, I have a fresh battery for my, my dry wash cycle, a grunt tube.
That's also goes in my pack. That's a bone collector. Funny story. I went to a Gander mountain one time. That's where I bought it at several years ago. Before that, I had a grunt tube for. I'm going to say 12 years. I had the same grunt tube and still to this day haven't found a grunt tube that sounded anything like this deep, like just a deep dominant buck grunt man.
It's money. It's not one of these grunts that sounds like a beep, just like very soft, very non mature sounding grunt call And so I was taking all of these grunt tubes out of the packaging and blowing them into, like blowing them and testing them out. Some kid, I look at it now and I might've been a little harsh on him.
And he came up to me, he's I don't know, sir, I don't know if you can take those out of the packages to test them like that. And I just [00:39:00] looked at him and said I'm going to. So if you have an issue with this, you can send your manager over here. Like I, I just wasn't having it. I don't know. I don't know why.
And so I took all them out and I found the bone collector grunt tube. It has a built in snort wheeze thing in it. I don't use it. I just use my mouth. But it sounds as close to the original grunt tube that I had for all those years. It's, again, a deep grunt. You can squeeze it. It flexes a little bit.
You can manipulate the sound. Make it sound really good. So I like that one. I, like I mentioned earlier, I bring real rattling antlers with me. I bring a Nalgene bottle with me. My rangefinder is a Vortex. I have a Vortex rangefinder. That thing's kick ass. My binoculars are the triumph in the tree.
They're going to be the triumph HD binocular this year. Really good. I'm using, I forget the name of the [00:40:00] vortex sent me one. I do like it, but the other one that I use has a magnetic strip on it, which I, all I have to do is flip the lid up and take the lid off. And there's magnets in there that hold it together.
It doesn't make any noise. And that way I can take my binos. set them back in and that lid doesn't interfere with anything. God, I forget the name of it. It's right out there. I should probably go look, but I'm not, I'm going to just tell you, it's a really, a really good one. Outside of that I use a, Oh, I also use a hand muff.
I'm not a big fan of wearing gloves. Especially in prime time I like putting my hands in my pocket. I do use a lot of hand warmers throughout the season. I do the ones with adhesive on them, and I can stick those to my legs or my lower back or my chest or something like that, the places that get cold first.
Ooh, I forgot a big one, boot covers. Arctic [00:41:00] Shield boot covers, man. I used to be the guy who used to wear the really big Alpha Burley Pro rubber boots. I still wear those if I have to cross water or if it's really wet outside or, muddy then I'll wear those. But typically, I'm just wearing my crispies with a pair of heavy duty socks and then I'll put my feet in With my boot and everything in that, in the Arctic Shield boot covers, man, and my feet have stayed really warm throughout the years.
'cause it just capsulates all that moist or that, that heat leaving your boot. And so it's really, it's a really good product. And if it's extremely cold, then I will take a couple of body warmers. And I'll body that, like I'll body it or adhesive, stick it to my boot and then put the boot cover over top of it.
And that acts as like an insulation or like a [00:42:00] heat. a heating sauna for my boot. And so I really liked that. Other than that, man, I think that's that's my, everything we need to know about how I approach my season. I didn't get into too much detail about the type of clothing that I'm wearing, but it's all early season stuff.
Unless it starts to get cold and then I'll start bringing out the big dogs the big heavy duty sweaters and hoodies and insulation, puffy jackets and things that are meant to keep me warm in those colder those colder hunts. That's just me, man. That's what I do. Thought you guys might be interested in it.
If you guys have any questions about the gear that I use or gear that you use, go to the Nine Finger Chronicles Instagram page, hit me up with a DM. Also, huge shout out to Code Blue Sense for partnering with this podcast. Please [00:43:00] go check out fullsneakgear. com.
And there are, there's a couple couple of products there that I think you guys might find cool. Would love to would love to see that. See you guys buy that. And then, oh, the Nine Finger Chronicles hats there as well. That's it, man. And and so hit me up on Instagram if you are a company listening to this podcast and you own...
Hunting gear and equipment company or your manufacturer or something like that. Hit me up. Would love to have you on. If there is a company that you would like to have on, hit me up again as well. And man, I hope everybody's gear is in check. I hope all of your guns and bows and crossbows are shooting accurately for this upcoming season.
I hope all of the, you've checked all your gear to make sure. It's working properly. And then I hope all of you have extremely good luck this upcoming season. Have a good one and we'll talk to you next week.[00:44:00]