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Gear that has stood the test of time?

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Gear that has stood the test of time?

Postby WapitiTalk1 » 04 29, 2020 •  [Post 1]

Saw a similar thread on another forum and thought I'd get one rolling here.

Name a piece (or more) of your outdoor gear that has truly shined over the year and has passed the test of time. I have a few myself that have truly shined over the years. I'm really hoping Swede shares the story of how his rifle from his mountain man days in the mid 1800's has and continues to perform well over all these years 8-)

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Re: Gear that has stood the test of time?

Postby Tigger » 04 29, 2020 •  [Post 2]

My1996 Beretta 390 shotgun has seen over 10,000 rounds from all kinds of hunting (including deer). Love it.

My Schnees Beartooth boots are the most comfortable footwear I have. Vintage 2008 and going strong.
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Re: Gear that has stood the test of time?

Postby Swede » 04 29, 2020 •  [Post 3]

A good gun will last a lifetime and still be something you can pass along with pride. The same is true of a good knife. A quality compass or even a bow will last. Other things that are a good value if they are durable includes boots and clothing, but they don't last like a rifle or knife. I like my F150 pickup, but like every other motor vehicle it needs good care to get it to last.
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Re: Gear that has stood the test of time?

Postby 7mmfan » 04 29, 2020 •  [Post 4]

I think the piece of gear that I abuse the most that keeps on ticking, are my KUIU quarter bags. They've hauled out 10+ game animals in 4 years. Been hung in trees, tied around branches, stacked on rock piles, rolled down hills while loaded, washed in rivers, rinse dry repeat. Not a stitch loose or pin hole to be found. Heck the first year I used them I didn't realize my Dad was sawing knees off quarters until it was to late so they had sharp bone edge in them and still no issues. Definitely the best bang for my buck gear item I've purchased.

The KUIU Yukon and Chugach rain gear has been phenomenal as well. Two years ago I spent an agonizingly long day in the pouring rain on the Washington high buck hunt. I covered 10ish miles that day, most of it in knee to waist high blue berry bushes, crashing through dog hair stunted fir thickets, and crawling on hands and knees up avalanche chutes. I was wet, but it was from sweat, and all I had to do was open the zippers in the few dry protected areas I encountered, for 10 minutes or so and I dried right up. Totally sold on that rain gear.

The one piece of gear that constantly surprises me, is my Ruger MKII M77 all weather 7mm Remington Magnum. I bought that rifle 20 years ago this year. There was no "barrel break in", just took it out and pounded a couple boxes of shells through it. Stopped shooting when it was to hot to touch. I've easily shot 2000-2500 rounds through that rifle. I had a scare with it this last summer, when I went to shoot and couldn't get a group better than 3" with no consistency. I thought I'd shot the barrel out. Turns out 19 years of shooting and never doing a good copper cleaning eventually leads to loss of accuracy. Did 2 full copper removal cleanings, and bam, back to .5" groups. Looking forward to many more years and clean kills with that rifle.
I hunt therefore I am. I fish therefore I lie.
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Re: Gear that has stood the test of time?

Postby Lefty » 04 29, 2020 •  [Post 5]

I have this ugly , ugly ugly hooded poly fleece sweat shirt I can’t wear out or destroy
Bought it 1992 for hunting ducks on the farm we hunted the grey matched. Washington States dreary day and the red matched the dogwood and willow we hid in

Its been on hundreds of hunts
Weeks on the trap lines years on construction sites
My wife’s replace three zippers
It is so ugly

But otherwise my Eswing leather handle hatchet Bought it in 78

Edited my post here is the ugly Cabelas $39.00 sweatshirt

IMG_2664.JPG
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Re: Gear that has stood the test of time?

Postby Swede » 04 29, 2020 •  [Post 6]

Another thing that will give you many seasons of good use is a heavy duty wool cruiser jacket.
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Re: Gear that has stood the test of time?

Postby Tigger » 04 30, 2020 •  [Post 7]

Forgot about my Buck 118 fixed blade knife. Got it for my 12th birthday. 37 years old. Still works great and still my "go to" knife for all my hunts. my first year using it, I was deer hunting and I took a leak and forgot to buckle my belt. Walked back to the house. Got there and it was gone. I backtracked myself across a plowed field on hands and knees and found it about half way across.
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Re: Gear that has stood the test of time?

Postby WapitiTalk1 » 04 30, 2020 •  [Post 8]

I have a Lowrance IFinder Hunt-C GPS that's gotta be 14-15 years old? It still works well and hopefully will keep ticking for a few more years. I also have a set of Russell Outdoors rain gear that's a good 10+ years old also... I see no reason to replace it as long as it holds together and keeps performing its assigned mission. I don't know how old my little Clip-shot is but I don't imagine it'll ever break or let me down when it's called upon.
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Re: Gear that has stood the test of time?

Postby Lefty » 04 30, 2020 •  [Post 9]

WapitiTalk1 wrote:
Mman.png

I know for a fact that pic isnt Swede

Interesting You post a pic of that print.
Jerry Schaefer, was a model for many of Marian Anderson's prints, he was on my paper route, and gave me taxidermy lessons when I was 15.
I have a few of her prints , She heard I had trapped a huge Redfox in Nebraska and traded me for a framed Print of "Open Boundaries" and a small remark of a golden eagle
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Re: Gear that has stood the test of time?

Postby Tigger » 05 01, 2020 •  [Post 10]

I forgot about my waders! Vintage 1991 and still waterproof. Don't use the a lot, but they get used twice per year for docks and some for duck hunting.
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Re: Gear that has stood the test of time?

Postby Swede » 05 01, 2020 •  [Post 11]

Lefty wrote:I know for a fact that pic isnt Swede


That character is not near as good looking as yours truly. Besides in the early 1800s my horse and I were too often fighting off Indian and grizzly bear attacks to be out modeling.
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Re: Gear that has stood the test of time?

Postby Lefty » 05 03, 2020 •  [Post 12]

youve seen this before, but not all the stories about this hatchet. And it certainly doesnt shine anymore

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Re: Gear that has stood the test of time?

Postby Lefty » 05 03, 2020 •  [Post 13]

Swede wrote:
Lefty wrote:I know for a fact that pic isnt Swede

That character is not near as good looking as yours truly. Besides in the early 1800s my horse and I were too often fighting off Indian and grizzly bear attacks to be out modeling.

OK you got us on that one

I did an internet check on the guy. Looks like at 83 they moved him to a home. So you have a few years
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Re: Gear that has stood the test of time?

Postby Lefty » 05 03, 2020 •  [Post 14]

Tigger wrote:Forgot about my Buck 118 fixed blade knife. Got it for my 12th birthday. 37 years old. Still works great and still my "go to" knife for all my hunts. my first year using it, I was deer hunting and I took a leak and forgot to buckle my belt. ,,,,.

My fist Christmas 31 yers ago my fahte in law gave me a nice folding knife, lost it squatting in the kilickatat valley,.. "found it the next week, didnt even know it was missing. Now it stays in the side pouch of my pack

I only have a few knifes; ran and checked; I have 121 Buck from 1978?
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Re: Gear that has stood the test of time?

Postby pbgunrunner » 05 08, 2020 •  [Post 15]

Hey lefty, why dont you send that old girl to me for a refurbish? I'll make sure you can pass her on....
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Re: Gear that has stood the test of time?

Postby Lefty » 05 10, 2020 •  [Post 16]

pbgunrunner wrote:Hey lefty, why dont you send that old girl to me for a refurbish? I'll make sure you can pass her on....

Now I need to go ouot and check,, is it in the pick up, ATV, in the kill kit, or lost on the workbench

A couple stories with my hatchet
[i][i]I had just set up a new beaver colony four miles up the river from the bridge a short ways beyond where I normally run an under the ice beaver line. I only found a few locations, both were feeding areas located under fallen trees. Southern Minnesota received an unusually large winter snowfall of twenty inches. I easily located the sets on the first three beaver colonies but had difficulty finding a Conibear set at the last location. I had scooped the snow along the riverbank trying to find the trap location. I was guessing and chopped a series of holes in the ice and didn’t find the set. I had chopped each hole and poked around with a stick trying to find the trap. By the third hole I was frustrated. I was standing in the hole in twenty inches of water, poking around with a stick. I tossed my pack basket away from the hole. On just an impulse I swept my foot under the ice. My foot found the Conibear. The jaws shut across my right foot ankle. The Conibear hurt. And it hurt even more whenever I moved.
I was in quite a predicament. One foot firmly in the 330Conibear and I was balancing on my left foot. My pack basket and gear lay fifteen feet away. I was in trouble, real trouble. Earlier I had stopped at the hardware store and bought a roll of wire, and a pair of shoelaces for my Sunday shoes. The wire was in my pack basket, along with the bow saw and hatchet, however my shoelaces were in my top left pocket of my Carharts. With a couple rocks from the river bottom I cut the shoelaces into shorter piece of string. From the over hanging tree I started braking branches and tying them together. After a few minutes of experimenting I was able to hook the pack basket and pull it through the deep snow to me. Inside the basket were my much needed hatchet and small bow saw. The ice above the beaver run was 6- 8 inches thick. To the sides of the run the ice was nearly 2 feet thick. I was in an awkward position. I was doing my best to keep water out of my boots. It had been 30 minutes. I had tried to split the trap stake and cut it shorter. No luck. My options were getting smaller. My short bow wood saw didn’t reach much of the stake below the Conibear. I couldn’t reach the bottom of the stake without filling my gauntlet gloves. Finally I tied a heavy branch to the saw to extend the reach of the saw under the water. I was able to make 3 or 4 short strokes with the saw, and then take a rest. Three or four strokes, and another rest. Forty-five minutes since my mistake I pulled the pole out and fell onto the ice.

I had been trapping beaver under the ice for a week, and then weather turned Minnesota cold. I enjoy my treks to my traps in the brisk air.
This day the temperate warmed up to –22 below zero before I headed out to check traps. I had a new pickup ordered and was using a 1970 LTD Brougham to trap. The first location was a stop alongside a 4-lane highway. I had an extra set of keys in my pocket. I locked the doors and left the car running.
At the first set I chopped open a small hole with my hatchet. The trap had been sprung. As I was remaking the set I dropped my hatchet, while reaching for the hatchet water had flowed into both of my gloves. I realized too late my arms were soaking wet. I was getting cold fast. I threw the trap into my pack basket. My fingers were cold. I knew was going to have problems before I got back to my car. I put my car keys in my mouth, and took running off for the car.
As I came out of the river bottom a highway patrolman greeted me. He had stopped to check my running car and had spotted me in the distance running for the car. He asked if he could be of assistance as he looked at my keys in the ignition of the locked car. My fingers couldn’t move. He was a little surprise when I spit a second sent of keys out of my mouth.

I returned in May and got my hatchet. The leather has shrunk on the handle from the 3-month dunking and the sheath has been lost for years. The hatchet hangs with my favorite hammers above my tool bench. I still use that hatchet. For the past 23 years it has gone beaver trapping. And that hatchet is always within reach.




[/i][/i]
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Re: Gear that has stood the test of time?

Postby Lefty » 05 10, 2020 •  [Post 17]

Can you redo the handle in leather ?
That hatchet has been in a pack for hundreds of miles on my back, and tens of thousands of miles in a pickup, And thousands of miles in a boat ATV and snowmoble,.. It has covered miles
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Re: Gear that has stood the test of time?

Postby Indian Summer » 05 12, 2020 •  [Post 18]

Is there a piece of gear that gets used on an elk hunt more than boots! They are literally where the rubber meets the road. Pushing forward to get you uphill, holding your weight back as you hammer them on the downhill, twisting sideways when you sidehill. Getting dragged through endless brush. Wet/dry/wet/dry. Seriously the only thing that comes close to putting in as many hours is your brain! My Kenetrek Mountain Extremes have definitely passed the test. They are about 9 years old and show no signs that the end is even close to near. If that day ever comes I’m going to see if you guys can talk me into a pair of Crispis or Lowas but it will be hard not to go with the same boots.
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Re: Gear that has stood the test of time?

Postby Swede » 05 12, 2020 •  [Post 19]

I just retired the Danner boots I purchased in 2003. I wore them on every outdoor adventure I made including hunting and scouting. The key is good boots that fit well. I am sure there are plenty of other good boots out there, but Danner boots fit me well. The biggest bugaboo I see with them is that the Goretex waterproofing does not last near as long as the rest of the boot, so I did not have them rebuilt.
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