The Hunting Out West Experiment

A wee bit different from our usual environment

My brothers and I are going to hunt birds in the Nebraska Sandhills.  None of us have ever hunted in the west.  The three of us have never hunted together more than two days in a row.  In other words, what could go wrong?  We're all cautious, as east coast hunters who are used to battling traffic, deep, sucking mud, and briar thickets, but not used to 3 mile walks across cold, blowing sand.

We have the invitation and the guidance of a ranch owner and his dog, which should get us pretty far along.  But it's also hunting long, cold, dry days in an unfamiliar environment.  Here's my attempt to document what I think I need for the trip.  Only time will tell if the gear was the right call.     It won't be primitive hunting, as we have heated accommodations and in fact one heated duck blind out of three blinds on the ranch.  Pheasant and turkey hunts will be long walks through sage and cactus in bitter, windy cold, however.   We are not targeting large game.

Weapons:

• Beretta Outlander 12ga w/Patternmaster Choke
• Browning Gold Hunter 20ga w/Briley Waterfowl Choke
• Bear Apprentice 2 Compound Bow @ 52lb (for turkey)
• (Brothers)  Remington Sportsman 58 with full choke
• (Brothers)  Mossberg 935 Autoloader with Solid gold choke

Ammo:

• Hevi-Shot Non-Tox Pheasant Loads (#5)
• Hevi-Shot Turkey Loads
• Hevi-Metal Waterfowl Loads (#3, #4)
• Gold Tip 3555 Arrow Shafts 
• Carbon Express 3555 Arrow Shafts
• Steel Force Sabertooth Broadheads

Tools:

• CLP 
• Frog Lube
• Multi-tool (TBD)
• Knife (TBD)
• Standard shotgun cleaning kit
• Tru-Ball arrow release

Boots:

• LaCrosse Aerohead knee boots
• Georgia Mud Dog leather/rubber pull-ons

Outer gear:

• Columbia waterfowl shell
• Bass Pro wool facemask
• Camo buff
• Browning blaze orange wool cap
• Mountain khakis
• Oakley tactical gloves
• Smartwool glove liners
• Wool glove-mitts

Layering:

• Under Armour and EMS components

Base layer:

• Smartwool light and medium hiking socks
• Smartwool medium base layer pants
• Icebreaker light base layer pants
• Under Armour cold base layer with hood

Cameras:

• Canon SX710
• Canon SX600
• Backup batteries
• SanDisk Ultra / SanDisk Extreme 32gb cards
• tripod
• GoPro 4 (not mine)

Let the experiment begin!  We touch down in the west just four days after rifle season ends for deer and antelope.