Fall is here and that means we are well into hunting season! The past few months have been spent packing andrepacking gear and also testing out a few new items. Ultimately, all of this work will pay off when trying to find ahole in your backpacking system. Before I go any further, I had hoped to get this article out there a lot sooner, butsome unfortunate circumstances occured that took some time to get out of. You can read more on that here.

Back to gear lists... Gear lists help portray the big picture on aiding you to success. The gear you carry will keepyou comfortable and safe. Ultimately, in the end, the gear you take is a personal preference and can easily be cateredto a multitude of hunting situations. When you make a gear list and test it out on some scouting trips, you willquickly see what you can and can’t live without. Especially when it comes to food and your layering systems.

I can’t stress enough the importance of keeping a gear list. A gear list can be anything. You could keep all yournotes in a notepad, Google Sheet, Excel Sheet or even a Word document. These lists are very valuable over time andwill not only be great for planning for your next hunt, but they will also aid in you fine tuning your setup. Withouta gear list, items may get overlooked, or you will take more than you need.

Before you finalize your gear list, keep in mind that weather ultimately plays a huge part in what you should take.What I mean by this is have some extra items ready to throw in your truck in case all the weather reports you lookedat were wrong, or if a last-minute storm brews up and you’re driving across the country.

So, at the last minute, I might need to add an item to ensure I am safe on the mountain. I like to say that I nevercarry extra gear or clothing that I'll not use. This can only be learned from experience. To do this, it’s best toutilize a quality weather service that you trust before heading out for a week or more of backcountry hunting. Keep inmind, that your clothing is a layering system, you can always add or subtract layers when you are hunting.

Even though the main purpose of my gear list is focused around ultralight gear, I still carry a minimum amount ofsafety items and gear that ensures I can survive in pretty much anything that Mother Nature throws at me. I do carry afew backups, and over the years, even those are starting to get smaller and smaller.

I have stated this before on other articles and podcasts, but my gear list is and always will be a living andbreathing document.

My personal gear list archives are revised periodically when I find new gear that I feel are essential for the hunt.If I don't trust a piece of gear, it will not make this list. I understand the balance between ultralight, safety, andsuccess. I also have several versions of my gear list for different hunting situations: early, mid and late seasons.Along with that I also create truck/hotel camping versions too. That way I know what I'm carrying and know what I'mpacking.

Each year I get very long-winded in these articles as I love talking about gear. But, I'm going to try to keep thetext down in this article, but if you want to hear more on my gear related ideas, you can check out a few of my gearrelated articles below:

Downloadable Excel Link for My 2018 Gear List:

Just like in years past, I’ve attached a downloadable Excel spreadsheet of my exact gear list. Not a lot has changedon the layout of my gear list. This system works very well for me, but if anyone has any suggestions on how to makethis gear list better. I’m all ears. My current 2018 gear list is what I carried on a recent Nevada archery mule deerhunt earlier in August and it is very similar to the gear list that I used on mid-September Wyoming archery elk hunt.

My Excel gear spreadsheet breaks down every category of gear: item name, ounces, pounds and even price per item.

The Price per Item Section in My Gear List...

I list the price per item due to managing my personal hunting budget. I want to know what areas I could spend orsave more money on in order to shave weight if needed. Yes, if you're starting from scratch, a gear list for abackcountry hunt can be very expensive, or relatively cheaper. That is the beauty of backpacking. You can get by withany amount of gear, it's up to you as the hunter to figure out what works best for you. Backpack hunting is myfavorite style of hunting... so my hunting budget goes toward this.

Expanding on Gear Related Data

The pie charts in the Excel gear sheet also provide a great visual to see what category are your heaviest, which ishelpful for cutting weight. Everything you enter in the spreadsheet will be automatically added to the summary tablesand the pie charts. I highly suggest saving a backup copy just in case you make a mistake and erase some formulas.It's also a great idea to make multiple copies of this gear list; one for the early season, one for Octoberhunts, and one for November hunts. Or maybe even a mule deer gear list and an elk gear list because they are totallydifferent beasts in terms of gear.

You will also notice a section on my gear list under the " Function" column in each gear section. I use theletter "p" to know that I have that item ready to place in my backpack. That is sort of my checklistsection. I've also kept the spreadsheet unlocked so you can edit the entire document. I'm very proud of how my gearlist charts have evolved over the years. It seems each year I find something else to add to this Excelspreadsheet.

Currently, my full backpack weighs 38.90 lbs and my full pack at the trailhead (everything but weapon,including water) weighs 43.77 lbs. That total is for a 10.5 day, 10-night hunt.

Brady Miller's earlyseason backcountry mule deer gear list - 2018

Gear Items That I Could Improve on

Even though my gear list has been refined over the years, there are still some holes that I could fix. So what itemswould I change in my 2018 gear list? This is a fairly easy question for me to answer. I definitely want to modifyseveral areas of my gear list, but they all mainly come down to money and if it’s actually worth spending the extramoney to replace some items for a newer model that is a little lighter and has better features.

Upgrade My Inreach Device

As of my August mule deer hunt, I was still running the old style Delorme inReach Explorer that I bought in 2014.This unit weighs in at 6.67 oz and the new inReach Mini’s advertised weight is 3.6 oz. If I didn’t have an inReachalready and was looking at the new inReach options, I would pick up the inReach Mini forthe weight savings and compact size.

Since early season hunt, old Delorme inReach finally saw it's last day on the mountain and broke. So as ofSeptember 29, I'm now running the inReach Mini.

Instant weight savings of: 3.07 oz

Swap Out My Tripod for My Lighter One

This one is easy because I would love to use my lighter weight tripod… but, the leg on my Slik 624 CF tripod snappedon the metal part of the hinge area and I’m still waiting to get it back after sending it in for warranty work. Soswitching back to my “backcountry” Slik 624 CF tripod that weighs in at 28.8 oz and “day hunting” Sirui 1204XL tripod that weighs 31.9 oz, I’d be saving3.1 ounces.

Instant weight savings of: 3.1 ounces

How Do I Determine What Makes It into My Backpack?

I look for the best lightweight backpacking/hunting gear and if it will make me a better hunter or lighten mybackpack without sacrificing something, then I might consider using it. A lot of lightweight gear nowadays is just asfunctional as the traditional heavy backpacking gear that might weigh double. So why carry more weight if less willdo?

So What Benefit Does Weighing Out All of Your Hunting Gear Have?

If you were to ask me if I’m obsessed with ounce-counting, I would probably say yes, but you will notice that in mylist, some things I will sacrifice cutting weight to carry some items that I feel will increase my chances of success.

A lot of people will say that weighing out every piece of gear doesn’t matter. All they want is a gear list and iftheir pack is a little heavier, then they should just get stronger to handle the increased weight. I can slightlyagree with that, but each step you're taking you are carrying that weight. Where counting ounces really comes intoplay is once you have an animal down.

I feel my gear list is a huge helping hand for someone just starting out or looking to change up their setup.

My 2018 a to Z Backcountry Hunting Gear List

My gear list is focused around what I take on an early season mule deer hunt throughout the early part ofSeptember. Keep in mind that if you’re an elk hunter, you can easily modify my Excel sheet to accommodate your hunt.

Once again for 2018 I have been running the Stone Glacier Sky Archer 6200 backpack. This pack is a beast! And I meanthat in a good way. It's the perfect balance between ultralight and durable enough for heavy meat packing trips.

This is the biggest area of improvement of my gear for the 2018 season. I went from a 4.68-pound sleep kit in 2016,down to 3.74 in 2017 and now finally to a 2.98 oz setup. The biggest change for me in 2018 was switching out mytrusted TarpTent ProTrail to a Nemo Spike Storm tent. The Spike Storm weighs in at 17.11 oz after I made somemodifications and added better guy lines.

A lot of unnecessary pack weight can come from this section. I feel people are overkill on carrying extra coldweather items. I’ve seen a lot of people pack 0° and even 10° sleeping bags in the backcountry for August or Septemberhunts. Those sleeping bags are not only heavy but can cause you to sweat at night. My philosophy is I already carry aninsulation jacket and other layers, so if I get cold I can just wear extra base layers. If you’re going on a Septemberhunt and the weather is looking pretty rough, you could always add a silk sleeping bag liner. Most weigh under 5 ozand can add roughly 9 to 10° of warmth.

Overall, this entire sleeping gear kit still weighs less than most two person tents.

In 2016 I completely eliminating soft shell jackets from my early season system. Being able to eliminate a softshelland use other lighter layers with a combination of my insulation and rain gear that I am already taking, I am able tostill be warm and comfortable.

My primary insulation piece on an early season hunt like this is the SITKA Kelvin Active Jacket or the SITKA KelvinLite Hoody. My decision on which to run all comes down to what weather I'll be expecting. Both of these insulationlayers can compress really small if needed due to the PrimaLoft synthetic insulation, which also gives incrediblewarmth.

When I'm running my ultralight sleep system and the temperatures drop, the Kelvin jacket becomes an essential part ofmy sleeping system by adding a lot of warmth rating to my Sea to Summit Ember EB I Quilt.

This is a pretty simple section for me. The biggest thing for me is to keep one shirt in my kit as scent free aspossible. What I mean by that is to save one of your shirts and use it for only stalking on animals. The trekkingpoles are a gamechanger on the hike in to my hunting spot, as well as pitching my tent, and hopefully, they will aidin packing meat off the mountain.

This area has always been my heaviest section no matter what season I was hunting. But ultimately it is the mostimportant in my opinion. You can’t kill a buck unless you find a buck. On my Colorado rifle mule deer last year, Iditched my 10x and 15x binoculars for 12x binoculars and I haven’t looked back. For some insight on my switch to 12xbinoculars, you can check out this article here.

This is why I'm an ounce counter. I cut weight in other areas, so I can pack more weight in others. If you wantto dive into more on the subject of what combination of optics to carry on a hunt, you can check out my recent articlehere: Why carrying multiple are essential for locating more deer as well as the article mentionedabove.

When it comes to my bow, I take the precision side of target archery and turn it into tools for bowhunting. My total bow setup weighs in at 9.58 pounds. I do not sacrifice weight here.

This gear section encompasses my water purification, kill kit, satellite messenger, glassing pad, and a few archerybackups. This was the first year I decided to experiment by ditching my standalone GPS and just using my cell phonefor navigating. In the past, I've explained how I don't like trusting my phone to do all the work. But I am warming upto the idea and the ease of a cell phone for navigation. This also means that I don't have to pack extra batteriesanymore and can fully rely on rechargeable items. Leaving my GPS at home saved me an instant 8.25 ounces and opened upsome space in my pant pockets.

My first aid kit is very basic: Advil, gauze pads, bandage netting, moleskin, toothbrush cut in half, ultralighttoothpaste bottle and band-aids. I also have electrical tape and Gorilla Tape on my trekking poles for emergencies orfor gear repair.

In 2017 I started running a stoveless food method for early season hunts. This food list has worked great for me! Tosave some space, I dedicated a full article to my food list as well as a bunch of thoughts on my stoveless method. Youcan check out that article by clicking the button below. But for a quick summary, I am at 3,307.23 calories per day.

READ 2018 STOVELESS BACKCOUNTRY FOOD LIST HERE

What I Changed from 2017 to 2018 in My Backpacking System

This year the biggest change came from ditching one pair of binoculars and also going to a lighter tent.

Category by Category Comparison from 2017 to 2018

Pack: no change in 2018Sleep system: -12.18 oz in 2018Clothing packed: -4.58 oz in 2018Clothing/gear worn: -51.69 oz in 2018 (keep in mind this was mainly boots vs. shoes)Optics: -37.77 oz in 2018Weapon: -10.00 oz in 2018Gear: -9.65 oz in 2018Cook kit: no change in 2018Safety gear: -11.91 oz in 2018 (removed bear spray)Water: -6.30 oz in 2018

Summary

FULL PACK WEIGHT SUMMARY - 2018 early season Miller

FULL PACK WEIGHT SUMMARY (%) - 2018 early seasonmiller

Brady Miller Full Pack TrailheadWeight Summary 2018 - early season

FULL PACK TRAILHEAD WEIGHTSUMMARY (%) - 2018 Brady Miller early season

Note: That for the full pack trailhead weight this includes my bow. I prefer to start my hike by having my bowon my backpack. So I didn't want to confuse anyone by having my bow weight removed from that total. If you're theperson who carries your weapon in your hand. Then just eliminate that weight from the Excel spreadsheet.

Overall I'm very happy with my current early season backcountry hunting gear list. The great thing about gear listsis they are a living and breathing document that is always changing.