Do you have sentimental hunting gear?

The same oversized, diaper safety pin I've been using to attach a tag to a deer's ear for 40 years.

 

Would have to be my first hunting/gutting/skinning knives[1975] Buck 110 and 112 along with their synthetic handled twins the Buck-Lites. Bought those myself as no one in my family shot or hunted. Still have those knives. The rifle I used at the same time, a completley sporterized 1895 Mauser 7x57 now resides in S/E Idaho.

 

I grew up in a non-hunting, non-shooting household. Not anti, just no one did it. Early adulthood I connect with a friend who did both, and my sister married a guy who hunted, so I got some mentors. Started deer hunting, and while I didn't shoot any deer for quite a few seasons, I was around people who got deer and I was able to observe the field dressing process. When I got my first deer I was with my BIL and he ground-guided me through the process. Next year I got my second deer opening morning. I was with my BIL's group, but we had all separated. I started the field dressing process myself. Eventually my brother came along, but he had even less experience than I did.

When I first started hunting I was still getting Outdoor Life magazine. In one issue they had a two page illustrated guide to field dressing a deer, and I cut that out and kept it with my gear. So when I got that second deer I pulled out my Outdoor Life field dressing instructions to guide me through the process. Did it help--I don't know--but it probably did. At the end of the season those instructions went back into storage with my other gear, and every Fall I would pull them out again and stick them in my pocket or backpack. At some long ago point I no longer needed to reference them when dressing off a deer, but they still come with me every season. The paper is now so stiff and folded that I doubt I could unfold it without it disintegrating. The other thing that always comes with me is a folding knife my brother gave me that year. It is not a top shelf knife by any means, but it is small and sharp and gets used for part of the dressing off process each time.

 

I'm 75 and I always when meat hunting tote my Grandaddy's 4 1/2' Marbles Bone Handle, I don't use it for much. But, it has to be there. He taught me all my outdoor skills. Lost him in 63' when I was 16. Made a fancy sheath for it about 25 years ago. I hold it often and think about him even though I'm 5 years older than he got to live. I'd trade some of mine for just one more with him.

 

Rivers west gear......they got the market cornered for hunting harsh mountan environments

Alps outdoors commander lite pack. Gods gift to hunters. Can be used as a big daypack, light overnight an can transition into a hauler.......

 

I still have my 1st hunting jacket from the 70's. Odd how it shrunk about 11 sizes over the years.

 

Couple of things. My Buck 105 from 1958, my first deer hunt with my dad. His army surplus compass he carried when in the outdoors and his Marble's match safe that was in his pocket every time he left the ranch house. It is pocket worn through the nickel plate and most of the brass.

 

My wife and I still have our original wedding rings from 1971. Trust me, even gold shrinks - at least mine did.

 

Sadly one firearm is gone and the clothes don’t fit me anymore. I was about 14-15yo my BIL picked up a Revelation 12ga pump for something like $50. I used that shotgun to kill many pheasants and clays until I turned 18 and wanted something “newer” and “cooler” I bought a Mossberg 500 with slug/field barrel and he asked for the Revelation back for my nephew. I asked to buy it from him and he said no. That gun was covered in rust and the stock was dented, scratched and had a nasty brown stain on it. I sanded it down, rubbed some oil into the stock and sealed it and wd40 and steel wool with cold blue took care of the barrel. I did all this at age 16.

I still have an orange camo jacket my BIL gave me for Christmas around the same time. It was a little big at the time and I was able to wear it until I was about 21yo. Also had a set of Gander Mtn bibs and coat I got for Christmas from my brother when I was 15 but they were way too big. I wore them until they faded out and got too small about 15yrs later. The insulation isn’t that good anymore and they don’t fit but I can’t seem to get rid of them. I also have a blue, starter hoodie that I wore when I shot my first deer. I didn’t realize it until my buddy said something that I’ve shot several deer and pheasants while wearing that hoodie. Doesn’t fit anymore but still have it.

Probably my most prize possession is a Case XX fixed blade with the big blade and little blade. My Grandpa was the cheapest person I knew and hoarded everything. One day he says he has something for my hunting. He hands me the knife and it was dirty, sheath dirty and stained. I didn’t know it was a Case XX due to the shape of the case until my buddy pointed it out. I told grandpa the next week what it was and he said yeah, baby! That guy at the flea market didn’t know what he had and I paid $15 for it. I put it in my dresser drawer and haven’t touched it. The next year he was found in his man cave (garage) decreased in his recliner. I did call Case about cleaning it up but part of me says to keep it dirty and crusty cause that’s the way he gave it to me.

 

I have two items. One is the boonie hat I brought back with me from Vietnam. The other is a Remington hunting knife that my FIL carried with him all through WW2.

 

I have a 1981 Jeep CJ-7 that I have been using for hunting for 41 years and it keeps making memories. It's like throwing my leg over a horse to get in and out, the heater doesn't work very well, the windows always fog up during cold wet weather, but it has hauled close to 100 deer, and that 258 engine really sounds good when I walk back to the Jeep in the dark and head back to a warm house and hot meal. When it's really dark, cold, wet, windy and miserable I sometimes get a chill up my back when the engine starts and that's when I really like that Jeep.

 

My first rifle I got for my 16 birthday, a Remington single shot .22, model 514. I had a gunsmith install a Weaver 2-7 scope on it. We were so poor my mother had to pay for it with payments of 5.00 bucks a week. I couldn't begin to count the amount of small game I've taken with it over the past 60 + years. It's still in fine condition

 

My first gun that my late father had ready for me at home when I graduated hunter safety course in 1983 when I turned 12. It's an H&R break action single shot in 20ga. I still have it 40 years later. I used it to teach my 2 boys to shoot and hunt safely.

I've had many guns since but that shotgun is in the safe waiting for my grandchildren. Just hope I live long enough and stay well enough to help them learn what I've learned over 40 years.

 

Those old break action shotguns are special to me, also. That was my first shotgun at age 17, an Iver Johnson Champion in 16 ga. that my dad bought as his pheasant gun about 1939 until he entered the Navy in 1943. Spent a lot of time in a closet after the war due to marriage, kids, mortgage, etc. until he loaned it to one of my older cousins in the late 50's and I got it in 1967. In 1978 a local master gunsmith did a complete re-blue on the barrel and re-casehardened the receiver and it still looks great today. I love it's lightness and quick handling and yet being a 16 ga. it won't kick you too hard. Some of the old, light,12 ga. break actions kick pretty hard. This one will get passed on for sure as its been in the same family since before WW2. Lots of memories and sentimentality with this one.. ..

 

The Remington 700 my parents gave me in the mid 90’s and a Case Trapper knife I’ve had for about 16 years.

Id be loathe to part with either. They’ve killed and skinned more game than I can recall. And I think of my parents. One of whom is now departed

 

I have a similar knife made in Germany, Solingen I think, that was my dad's hunting knife along with his .35 Remington model 14 pump. Soon my grandson will get them.

 

I enjoy the Remington 14 in 35 rem . It belonged to my wife’s grandfather then her father. And he gifted it to me . I have only taken one deer with it.A little 6pt in the mountains of pa . But I’m working up some 200 gr lee flat nose loads.Soon to tested .

 

Any firearm that I still own and once used on a hunt is sentimental to me, because when I look at it, it takes me back to the hunt/hunts I used it on back when I had more time and opportunity to go places and hunt than I do now. (Not complaining about my life now, mind you). That still means a lot. Other than that, I have a super-raggedy old dove vest and some box turkey calls I modified with a metal file to sound super-raspy. I still have the spent shotgun hull from when I bagged my very first turkey, too.

I read each and every one of these posts carefully. What's in them was important to the people who posted them, and to me, reading them. They're all about what makes hunting and the outdoors special and meaningful, which has nothing to do with whether you take home something in your pocket or drag something out. Hunting is more about the memories we make and the people we know.

 

That's the absolute truth. I've been hunting my whole life (74 years so far), and my wife has been hunting since a year after she married me - 52 years ago. Yet we both know the best deer hunting trip we ever went on was the one when my wife's Mom and Dad drove up here from San Diego to go deer hunting with my wife and me, our two daughters, and my own Mom and Dad.
My wife's folks weren't even hunting - they were real "city people," and they just wanted to go along to see what hunting was all about. Fortunately, that was the deer hunting trip when my wife killed the largest deer (a huge 6X7 mule deer buck) that anyone in my family has ever killed. And my wife's Dad carried a picture of himself, my wife and that monstrous buck in his wallet until he passed 25 or so years later.
We have that picture now. It's too precious to be carried in anyone's wallet though, and one of these days, one of our daughters will have it.

 

You're 100% right .308 Norma. The hunts are what they are, but, it's the people you hunt with, especially the ones you've hunted with for YEARS. It's special.

 

That's why I buy special hunting gear if it gets lost, torn, soiled beyond cleaning or if it just falls apart I can always buy another. It's part of the price of hunting.

 

I have a Buck folding Ranger knife that my mother gave to me as a Christmas gift when I was a freshman in college. I keep it in the truck with me in my tool bag, and it has cleaned more deer (mine and friends') than I can count. Not fancy but sturdy and reliable.

 

I don't carry them or even hunt much anymore but I keep most of the stuff I started hunting with in about 1978. I've added or stopped carrying the bows, guns, knives, camping and fishing gear, clothing that I've taken over from my Dad and Brother when they passed. Most is still here in the closet or garage. I have a foot locker full of Alaskan salmon fishing gear my Dad brought back from there in 1972 I don't think I'll ever use. Their stuff has been hard to part with.