Wow, I’ve had a great year and it was action-packed. But I still had two backpacking trips and a horse packing trip I wanted to do and yet I look at the calendar and Christmas is quickly approaching. Whoa, I’m not ready for summer to be over and yet it is long gone!
So if you’re like me and haven’t bought any Christmas presents yet, don’t panic. Outdoorsmen are easy to shop for. We love our gear, so you can buy something from $1 on up to $100,000. Let’s start off small and go up from there. I’ve tested a lot of gear this year. Here’s some items that have tested out well for me.
Small items
- Order him a map of his favorite hunting/hiking spot.
- Great book for camp cooking. Easy recipes and yet great tasting.
- We need to support the NRA. They’re the only ones fighting for our gun rights.
- This is a really specific item. You have to find out exactly what he likes or he won’t appreciate it.
- It sticks in an AR like a clip and is a fan that cools off the barrel faster.
- Here’s a cool one. They attach to your cellphone and you can attach them to your binoculars or spotting scope to take pictures of animals way off.
- All outdoorsmen could use these.
Large items
- They have a lot of great options, and they just came out with four new folders.
- They have a lot of selections but check out the Elk Hunter or Pronghorn.
- I like XGO
- I love their pants.
- They have a million options. The Benjamin Steel Eagle is a good break-action and their Marauder is a great PCP.
- I use Otis products.
- Check out the selection from Rise Fishing Co.
- Check out Leupold’s Mojave BX4 Pro Guide Binocs.
- I like their HP7R
- makes great tents, sleeping bags and sleeping pads
- Lodge makes the best
- makes a hearing protection device that also amplifies your hearing plus it is cellphone compatible.
- To get where we want to hunt/fish/backpack, it takes sturdy boots.
- The Bushnell Solar Panel 400 is good for backpackers.
- They’re lightweight and easy to carry.
- I need a new varmint rifle. I’m looking at a
- or their
- .
Really big item — Home run deal
n Give him a coupon stating that you’ll go hunting or fishing with him in 2018. I love it when Katy goes with me.
Stocking stuffers
This is where you can really hit a home run and not spend much.
- Invaluable gift! Buy him one of my Amazon Kindle books
- or
- Check out flydealflies.com
- It’s a Cajun seasoning and I love it.
Here’s a cool idea. What if you bought him a backpack and hung that up instead of a stocking?
Another twist you could do is to tell them to give you a list of 10 items. Then you can pick what you want to buy off that list and that way it’d be a surprise. Or grab his favorite catalog and have him mark some items. That way you can select one in your price range and still know that he’ll love it.
Today is my anniversary. I better whip out an anniversary list right fast!
Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.
