Becoming the Minimalist Hunter

I would hate to have to put my numbers down on paper. They have to be astronomical. Adding up everything to calculate the price per pound of venison that makes it into my freezer each year would make me sick. I don’t need all of this gear but chose to buy it anyway, thinking it might just get me that extra advantage that I need to both increase my success in the field and increase my comfort levels while doing it.

Luckily for me, I’m not a hunter because it's a cost effective way to acquire protein for my family. I hunt because I love every aspect of it, the months of preparation, the anticipation of the night before the opener, the hunt itself, the kill, the week afterward spending evenings processing the meat into meal portions, the mount on the wall, none of it gets old. It's what I live and breathe and what I’m thinking about 99% of the time.

I look for every advantage possible, buying expensive clothing with the hope that it will allow me to tolerate the cold a little more than I already can, or trying a lightweight boot that has more flex to it to possibly walk a little quieter. I don’t need any of it, and often find myself asking the question why?

The thought came to me one day when I had gotten out into the mountains to hunt for the day and realized I had forgotten something at the house. I had so much stuff in my pack for this or that scenario yet I still didn’t have everything I thought I needed. Frustrating. It made me think back to my high school days when I would just grab a rifle, a pocket knife, and a box of 22 ammo and hunt the whole evening for small game. 

Is it possible to occasionally get back to that? I don’t need a bag load of stuff every time I go out do I? Can I apply that simplification to certain aspects of my gear? Is it even worth doing?

A large part of the reason I’ve gotten into this thought process is because I feel like I’ve picked up just about all the gear I need. While I’m very happy with my choices up to this point, I find that sometimes I can spend as much time deciding what gear to take as time spent actually hunting. Yes, this is part of the enjoyment of the process, but it can also be downright stressful.

It is entirely possible to take this thought process way too far and end up in the woods with a spear and loin cloth. I don’t have a goal for how minimalist I’d like to get, but I would like to be out the door within five minutes or so of deciding to go hunting. Will I sacrifice some things like comfort, in the process? Absolutely, but I believe I’ll get out more because of it.

Reading some of the old adventure books of the men like Townsend Whelen and R.M. Patterson going on long camping and hunting trips in the early 20th century with little to nothing gets you thinking about how soft we’ve gotten. A pack full of 10 days of gear for them would be little more than a tarp, wool blanket, fishing pole, and a couple handkerchiefs full of jerky.

This thought process can be literally applied everywhere. Taking a simple 10x10 tarp instead of the tent, and learning how to pitch it in a way that it is just as good as a tent can be very satisfying. Yes you’re giving up some comfort, but you are getting away with less and there is a lot of satisfaction in that.

This doesn’t have to be applied to every aspect of hunting, nor should it be. For example, a medical kit is probably not the place to take a minimalist approach. However, something like water purification, you absolutely can. Instead of carrying a filter with you everywhere, maybe you just take purification tabs on your daily hikes and reserve the filter for those multiple day adventures.

Interestingly enough, some parts of the hunting industry are already moving this direction. I think the most obvious realm is the saddle hunting movement. While yes it is still pretty gear intensive, it also greatly simplifies and reduces the amount of gear you need to hunt out of a tree. Aside from just climbing up a bare tree and carefully balancing on its limbs it is a step in that minimalist direction. 

How much of our gear could be offset by detailed knowledge of our hunting area? Or woodsmanship?

Hunting from the ground is a sure way to reduce the amount of gear needed to hunt compared to hunting from a tree, but also requires a whole different subset of skills that can only be learned by time spent in the woods doing it. Walking quietly through a clear cut is difficult on a dry fall day, you’re inevitably going to make some noise but how much is too much? 

Applying the minimalist mindset to all of these different aspects of the outdoors is fun. Sometimes I go down this rabbit hole with one thing then quickly realize that I’d be much better off going back to using the gear I had. Other times I realize that I’ll probably never carry a certain piece of gear again. 

So what will this “minimalist” hunting season look like for me? A smaller pack with less stuff in it, a traditional bow without sights, and a different mindset. Sure, I will be a little colder some of the time and maybe a hair hungry other times, but I’ll deal with that problem when it comes. Instead of trying to plan and think of every scenario ahead of time and carrying gear for all of it, I’ll just deal with it like our fathers and grandfathers did before the endless amount of gear was so necessary.

 

Written by Kurt Martonik

Kurt is a researcher at Spartan Forge and avid outdoorsman. He flew as Boom Operator in the USAF for just shy of 7 years and following his service attended gunsmithing school at the Colorado School of Trades. After graduating there he moved to Montana and was a stockmaker/gunsmith for C. Sharps Arms. He currently resides in his home state of Pennsylvania and operates his gunsmithing shop, Highland Custom LLC on the side.