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

Smith Products Diamond Stone

MyTopoMaps:

• Order him a map of his favorite hunting/hiking spot.

“In The Wild Chef” by Stephen Weston:

• Great book for camp cooking. Easy recipes and yet great tasting.

NRA subscription:

• We need to support the NRA. They’re the only ones fighting for our gun rights.

Ammo:

• This is a really specific item. You have to find out exactly what he likes or he won’t appreciate it.

Jerky mix or sausage spices from Hi Mountain Seasonings

Targets

AccuMax made by Caldwell:

• It sticks in an AR like a clip and is a fan that cools off the barrel faster.

Rocky Mountain Hunting Calls & Supplies (elk bugles)

Phone Skopes:

• 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.

Mountain House meals:

• All outdoorsmen could use these.

Large items

Diamond Blade knife:

• They have a lot of great options, and they just came out with four new folders.

A knife from Knives of Alaska:

• They have a lot of selections but check out the Elk Hunter or Pronghorn.

Base layer clothing:

• I like XGO

First Tactical:

• I love their pants.

Crosman air rifle:

• They have a million options. The Benjamin Steel Eagle is a good break-action and their Marauder is a great PCP.

Gun cleaning gear:

• I use Otis products.

Fly rod:

• Check out the selection from Rise Fishing Co.

Binoculars:

• Check out Leupold’s Mojave BX4 Pro Guide Binocs.

Rechargeable flashlights by Coast:

• I like their HP7R

Alps Mountaineering

• makes great tents, sleeping bags and sleeping pads

GPS

Dutch ovens:

• Lodge makes the best

Silynx

• makes a hearing protection device that also amplifies your hearing plus it is cellphone compatible.

Irish Setter Boots:

• To get where we want to hunt/fish/backpack, it takes sturdy boots.

Solar panel:

• The Bushnell Solar Panel 400 is good for backpackers.

Montana Decoys:

• They’re lightweight and easy to carry.
• I need a new varmint rifle. I’m looking at a

Mossberg MVP Varmint

• or their

MVP Predator model

• .

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

“Knife Sharpening”

• or

”Survival Tips For The Outdoorsman.”

Flies:

• Check out flydealflies.com

Adventure Medical Kits moleskin

Favorite fishing lure

Mepps fishing lures

Mister Twister plastics

Carbide Fire Starter

Case Stockman pocket knife

Browning hiking socks

Waterproof matches

Fire-starting material

Compass

Tony Chachere’s seasoning:

• 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.