Hunting Gear, Written Down at Deer Camp

What Deer Camp Journal is, and what it isn't

This site is a notebook. Hemlock Run has been my camp since 1991, and most of what we know about gear came from sitting around the same table after dark, boots off, deciding who was wrong. Jess is my niece and the bowhunter. Danny is a union electrician I taught in shop class a long time ago. I'm the one with the 7/16 wrench and the opinions.

The three of us are the site's recurring characters. You'll see us in the bylines and in the asides. Here's the thing, though: none of us bought, tested, shot, carried or slept in the products on these pages. We didn't, and we won't pretend we did.

What we do instead is plain and simple:

• Specs from the maker first: product pages, manuals and spec sheets
• Amazon listings second, only for fields where they hold up
• A stated rule on every list, so you can see how it was sorted
• A dash where neither the maker nor the listing states a value
• No prices on the page, because they move every week

If a page says a tent is waterproof, it's because the maker says so about that model. If the maker doesn't say it, neither do we.

How a pick gets on a list

Every best-of list on this site opens with its rule. Some rank by a spec, like the straightness grade of an arrow or the capacity of a cooler. Some start from what buyers rate highly and then check the maker's numbers. Budget lists sort by a price tier we work out behind the scenes; the price itself never shows up.

The order of products follows the rule and nothing else. Every brand gets written about the same way, with trade-offs stated as facts: heavier, shorter, fewer modes. If you want to argue with a pick, argue with the rule. That's what the rule is for.

What a type page does

A type page covers one kind of gear, like a ladder stand or a headlamp. It has a table of models with the specs that matter for that type, then a walk-through of what each spec means and which way to lean. Read the walk-through before the table. A table tells you what a thing is. It doesn't tell you what you need.

How to use the six sections of hunting gear

The site splits hunting gear the way our camp splits chores. Each section has one writer, and each writer stays in their lane. (Mostly. Jess has opinions about my chairs.)

Archery and bowhunting

Jess runs Archery & Bowhunting: compound bows, crossbows, recurve bows, and the long list of bowhunting equipment that hangs off them, from hunting arrows and broadheads to sights, rests and nocks. She does the math so the rest of us don't have to. Start with the bow, then build the arrow around it.

Blinds and tree stands

That's mine. Blinds & Tree Stands covers ladder stands, hang-ons, climbers, hunting saddles, ground blinds, box blinds and the chairs that go inside them. It's the section where the safety rules are longest, and that's on purpose.

Trail cameras and optics

Jess again. Trail Cameras & Optics is trail cameras, rangefinders, binoculars and the harnesses that carry them. It's the scouting section. Glass and cameras tell you where deer are; they don't put you in front of them.

Knives and tools

Mine. Knives & Tools has hunting knives, fixed blades, pocket knives, multi-tools and machetes. I call every multi-tool "the Swiss thing." Jess says that's not a category. It is at my table.

Fire and lighting

Danny's. Fire & Lighting covers headlamps, camping lanterns, torch lighters and fire starters. He owns more headlamps than socks, which makes him either the right man for the job or the reason we need one.

Camp gear

Camp Gear is split between Danny and me. I write tents, chairs, cots and tables. Danny writes coolers and everything that goes to the beach, because his wife Renee takes him to the Jersey Shore every July and he came back with opinions. It's the section for hunting and camping gear that does double duty: the camping tent that goes to deer camp in November also goes to the lake in June.

Hunting equipment, accessories and supplies are not the same shopping trip

People lump all of it together as hunting supplies. It helps to split it three ways before you spend a dime.

Hunting equipment is the big stuff you build a season around: the bow, the stand or blind, the tent. You buy it rarely, you buy it for the worst conditions you'll actually see, and you read the manual. Buy once, cry once.

Hunting accessories are the parts that make the equipment work for you: sights, rests, quivers, climbing sticks, a binocular harness. These are where fit matters more than features. A quiver that doesn't fit your bow is a very nice paperweight.

Supplies wear out or get used up: batteries, fire starter, broadhead blades, ice. Keep a list and restock before the season, not on the way to camp.

Buy for the hunt you actually do

Here's the rule I'd give anybody standing in front of a wall of gear: buy for the hunt you actually do, not the one on the magazine cover. If you hunt from the ground and never climb, skip the tree stand pages entirely. If you sit the same ladder stand on the same fence line every year, you don't need the lightest climber made. If camp is a cabin with a woodstove, you don't need a four-season tent.

Write down where you hunt, how you get there and how long you sit. Then shop with that list. It's a Saturday-afternoon job and it saves real money.

Outdoor gear that pulls double duty

A lot of outdoor gear doesn't care whether you're hunting. A good chair, a good cooler and a good lantern work the same at deer camp, a ball field or the beach. That's why Camp Gear is the biggest section on the site and why it has beach chairs in it. Danny insists the beach counts as camp. Renee agrees with him, which is how he wins most arguments.

Safety rules that run through every section

Some lines show up on a lot of our pages. They're short on purpose. Here they are in one place.

• Harness every time your boots leave the ground. The Treestand Manufacturers Association says to wear a full-body fall arrest harness every time you leave the ground, including while you climb up and down.
• Use a haul line. The same guidelines say to raise your bow and pack on a rope once you're at height, and never climb with anything in your hands or on your back.
• No fuel-burning heaters or lanterns in a closed tent while you sleep. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warns that carbon monoxide builds up in tents, campers and vehicles.
• Cover your broadheads. Wisconsin DNR's archery tips call for a covered quiver to protect you and the points.
• Cut away from your body. That's the first rule in the American Knife and Tool Institute's safety guidance.
• Put the fire all the way out. Smokey Bear's rule: if it's too hot to touch, it's too hot to leave.
• Keep the meat cold. The FDA says to hold perishables at 40°F or below and keep drinks in a separate cooler.

My one opinion on this page is the first line on that list. Wear a harness every time your boots leave the ground. No exceptions, no "just a minute." The reason is in the manufacturers' own guidelines: they say every time, including the climb, and the climb is where nobody is sitting still.

Hunting rules change by state: seasons, legal equipment, what you wear, where a trail camera may go. Check your state wildlife agency before you buy and again before you go.

A camp aside

The cabin has one good chair, and it's mine. That's not a rule anybody wrote down; it's just been true since the first Clinton administration. Every year Danny brings a new camp chair and sets it next to mine like he's making a point. Every year Jess reads the weight rating off the tag out loud. And every year, by the second night, all three of us are at the kitchen table anyway, because that's where the coffee is.

That table is where this site comes from. Somebody asks what headlamp to buy, or whether a saddle beats a hang-on, and the answer turns into a twenty-minute argument and then a page in the logbook. Now the page goes here too.

How to get the most out of this site

• Start at a section if you know the kind of gear but not the type.
• Read a type page before a best-of list; it explains what the specs mean.
• Check the rule at the top of any list before you trust the order.
• Read the safety line on stands, broadheads, knives, fire and heaters, even if you've read it before.
• Check the brand page if you already know the maker and want to see the lineup.

New pages go up every week through the season. The brand directory lists every maker we cover, and the gifts for hunters page is Danny's yearly attempt to make Christmas shopping easier for the people who live with us.

That's the notebook. Pull up a chair. Not that one.