If you’re lucky, you got some Christmas money or a gift card for a present. If so, you now face the decision as to what to spend it on. It seems like that we can’t be successful unless we have the newest, latest, greatest gizmo — or at least that’s what the outdoor marketers would have us believe. But I guess I’m a willing victim to their marketing schemes, and, no doubt, there are a lot of cool new items that can increase our odds. So whether it’s a do-or-die item or an item to make your hunt more enjoyable or rich, there are plenty of items on the market. Well, let’s get started.
- MyTopoMaps make the best maps in the country. I order all of my maps from them.
- SneakyHunter BootLamps. These are a really cool new invention. They’re like a headlight for your feet.
- Smith’s 6-inch Fine Diamond stone
- Smith’s 6.3-inch Edgesport Boning knife. Until now, there was no real boning knife on the market for us outdoorsmen.
- Knives of Alaska Pronghorn or Elk Hunter knife
- Diamond Blade “Surge” skinning knife
- Frogg Togg rain gear for fishing
- Northern Lite snowshoes
- Lodge 8-quart Dutch oven
- Lodge black skillet
- Klymit sleeping pad
- Bushka’s Kitchen freeze-dried meals
- Irish Setter Vapr Trek 8-inch boots
- XGO base layers
- Hi Mountain Seasoning. Hi-Mountain has the best sausage blends on the market. They also just came out with a bacon blend. I’m going to make some deer sausage this afternoon with Hi-Mountain seasoning.
- Adventure Medical Kits own the market on first-aid gear for the outdoorsman. I always have AMK moleskin in my pack.
- Birchwood Casey targets
- ASP rechargeable flashlight
- You have a survival kit for yourself; you also need one for your truck. Make sure you have a chain, a Handyman jack, a shovel and an air compressor that plugs into your cigarette lighter. These three items can get you out of a lot of jams.
- NRA membership. They’re the only ones protecting our Second Amendment rights.
SMALLER ITEMS
- Pautzke Crappie Fireballs
- Cotton Cordell Pencil Poppers
- Flies from flydealflies.com
- Compass
- Of course, my e-books on Amazon Kindle: “Knife Sharpening” or “Survival Tips For The Outdoorsman.”
IF YOU REALLY SCORED A BIG AMOUNT OF MONEY
- Riton Optics binoculars
- Henry’s .22 Magnum
- A guided fishing trip with Plummer’s Artic Lodges. Me and my daughter had a blast fishing up there this summer.
- A Diamond Blade knife
- Sig Sauer has come out with two cool new airguns. The ASP20 break action or the MCX Virtus PCP airguns. I’m just about to start testing both of them.
- Air Venturi’s Nomad II air compressor for your PCP airguns
Well, good luck shopping and hope you survive shopping with the masses. Merry Christmas!
Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana.
