Here in Idaho, as well as most of the Western United States, we have a vast network of public forest lands that are ideal hunting locations. However if you are going to be hunting in these remote wilderness areas there are some key pieces of equipment hat you must have. In the higher elevations the weather can change very quickly in the fall and the first and foremost thing that any hunter must be prepared to prevent is hypothermia. I can not stress this enough. More people die from hypothermia every year than any other cause in the mountains. Getting caught out at night with out being prepared for it can be deadly.  

The other major factor when hunting in the wilderness is the lack of communications. How do you call for help if you need it? Even when you can call for help you could be miles from the nearest road and it could take hours for that help to reach you. Do you have the right supplies to survive until that help reaches you?

The pack I use for hunting has an attached Fanny pack that can be removed and carried alone. This Fanny pack has 2 water bottle holders as well so I always have my water. I keep my emergency gear in this Fanny pack. All other hunting accessories go in the main pack or one of the external pockets on the main pack.

Here are the essential that I believe everyone hunting should carry with them.
First and foremost for me is fire making. The only way to defeat hypothermia is to stay warm. The most effective way to stay warm is to build a fire. You should have at least two different types of fire starters with you at all times. Matches are a simple and easy fire starter to carry. They take up little room in your pack and are fairly reliable.  

There are many different varieties of matches readily available to the outdoors enthusiast these days that are designed to light when wet, or in high wind, or both. These are good matches to keep with you, but do not rely completely on them because they can fail and leave you shivering in the dark.  
Another easy fire starter is the disposable butane lighter. These also are cheap, readily available, and take up little room in your pack.  

I also keep a flint and steel fire starter in my pack. This particular model has a bar of flint material embedded into the side of a bar of Magnesium . To start the fire you scrape some of the Magnesium  off into your tinder and then scrape the flint to throw sparks onto the Magnesium  to ignite it.  

I also carry some tinder material in my pack. Hunting here in the west it can be difficult to find tinder that is dry enough to get a good fire started so I bring some with me. There are many different types of tinder that you can keep in your pack that will not take up a lot of space or add a lot of weight to the pack. The two things I like to carry are Dryer lint and a paraffin wax mixture. I read about this in a survival blog a few years ago and I found it a great and simple way to have an excellent fire starter at all times. Take an egg carton. Fill each cup of the carton about 2/3 full of wood shavings and then fill with the melted wax. Let the wax cool then tear off a few cups to put in your pack. I place mine in a zip lock bag to keep it dry. Light the paper from the egg carton which will light the wax and this set up will burn long enough to get any damp wood you may have for your fire going.

You need to practice your fire building skills before getting out in the woods. You also want to practice under the type of conditions where the fire is most critical. For example, one of my practice methods is to scatter some fire wood around my back yard to simulate gathering wood for an emergency fire. I put my pack and normal hunting clothes on. I then get a 5 gallon bucket of ice water and place my hands in the water for a few minutes. Then remove my pack, take out my fire starters, gather the wood, and start the fire. If you just go out and practice on a nice warm summer day with no sense of urgency you will find it is much more difficult when the emergency situation comes along. Again you are fighting against hypothermia and you want to be sure you are up to the fight when the time comes.

I also carry an emergency blanket. These compact light weight blankets are very good for keeping you from losing body heat. They will retain nearly 80% of radiated body heat to help prevent shock in case of an accident or to keep warm when caught out in the elements.
 
You also want to be able to tell where you are and where you are going. For this you want o carry a map and compass. You also need to know how to use them. There are a variety of sites on the Internet to find quality topographical maps. After getting your maps I would suggest you have the map laminated to keep it from being damaged by the weather. You can also use a GPS system, but you have to remember that when you get deep in the forrest you do not always get a signal on the GPS and you could end up miles from where you want to be before you do get the GPS working. I carry a Bushnell Backtrack GPS. This is a very basic unit that you set the way point for your car and it will point you back to where you started. You can set a total of 3 way points on the Backtrack so  use 1 for your car, 1 for your camp, and the last one for where you kill that monster bull. Also make sure you have extra batteries. This is another advantage to the Backtrack over some of the GPS units with more functionality because the Backtrack only uses 2 AA size batteries.
 
It gets dark in the woods at night. You will want to make sure you have some form of light to find your way. I carry 2 of the Mini mag light flashlights, A good head band flashlight for hands free work, and I carry a hand crank rechargeable flashlight. I make sure I take enough batteries to replace with a fresh set every day for 3 days. I do not use the mag lights around camp for light, because these are my emergency  lights in case I get caught away from camp for some time.

There are many different size first aid kits available on the market today. Most come in a case and have all kinds of different bandages wraps and antiseptis. I prefer to keep things a bit more simple. I carry 4 or 5 2X2 gauze pads and 2 rolls of bandage gauze. You can cut the 2X2 pads and the gauze roll to what ever size you need. There are not many injuries that you will not be able to deal with using these bandages, and they do not take up a lot of space.

I also keep a spool of fishing line in my emergency pack. This is great for a variety of uses. You can use the fishing libne tied to a stick to fish with. You can use the fishing line to tie on bandages. Or you can use it alond with the emergency blanket to put up a quick shelter to keep the rain off of you. I put a few blacknat flies, a couple of small worm hoos, and a few pieces of split shot into an old film container for the rest of my fishing kit.
That brings us to food. I do carry 6 power bars in my pack. This will give me two bars a day for three days. Not exactly the best eating, but it will keep you going. These are emergency rations and you should not eat them as snacks during the hunt. After hunting season I take them out of the pack and have them for lunch, but I do not touch them during the season.

There are other things that would be a good idea to carry such as a signal mirror, signal whistle, or a Spot locator which will make it easier for rescuers to find you should you get in trouble and your family can keep track of you from the internet as well.

By Jeff Love

Jeff “ke7cjw” Love, was introduced to hunting and fishing at a young age by his father. Growing up in the Cascade mountains of Western Washington Jeff spent most of his time chasing squirrels, rabbits, and grouse. When Jeff was old enough to hunt big game he started a life long quest for Blacktail deer and Roosevelt elk.

Jeff worked for many years in the same sawmill his father worked in and that many of his child hood friends also worked in. After a life altering accident in 1997 that cost him most of the use of his right arm he went back to school to learn computers. Now living in Southern Idaho Jeff is learning to hunt Antelope, Mule deer, Turkey, and Yellowstone elk.

When Jeff is not out in the woods he is working on perfecting his photography or re arranging his antennas for his amateur radio to make contact with other avid radio operators across the country.