Tis the Season
All the preparation, packing, physical fitness…it’s over. The 2025 hunting season is here and the anticipation around the Rucklist office is high. Archery elk seems to be on the top of everyone’s mind and for good reason; it’s action packed and the bulls will be screaming! With all that being said, let’s cover a few of the basic needs of an archery elk hunt and what that looks like from a gear perspective.
I’m not a “What if” packer. I pack for the hunt I’m going on and not a 1 in a million chance of something else happening to us. Many hunters that are taking to the field for the first time think they need to cover every possible scenario. This leads to overpacking and inefficiency. If you pack for the .03% chance of a blizzard on your early September elk hunt, you’ll end up with a zero degree bag instead of a 15 or 30 degree bag, a 4 man tipi and a stove instead of a 1P backpacking tent, and down booties instead of crocs for camp shoes. These are obviously just a couple examples of where people go wrong, but those few things can add unnecessary weight and slow you down.
Let’s run through my early season archery elk list and you can see how easy Rucklist makes packing and optimizing your gear.
Clothing
- Kuiu Attack Pants
- Kuiu Ultra Merino 145-Zip Off bottom
- Darn Tough Socks (3)
- Crispi Summit Boots
- Kuiu Belt
- Kuiu 145 ¼ Zip Hoodie
- Peloton 97 ¼ zip Hoodie
- Sitka Jetstream Jacket
- Kuiu Kenai Jacket
- Kuiu Kutana Storm Shell Jacket and Pants
Gear
- MSR Hubba Hubba Tent
- Stone Glacier Chilkoot 15 degree sleeping bag
- Thermarest Neoair Xtherm Sleeping Pad
- Sea to Summit Aeros Pillow
- MSR Reactor Stove
- Fuel Cannister
- Peax Titanium Spoon
- Peax Duo Headlamp
- Leki Corklight Trekking Poles
- Two BIC lighters
- SOL Fire Cubes
- Windchecker
- Stone Glacier 5900 Pack
- Bow
- 6 Arrows
- Sevr Hybrid Broadheads (6)
- First Aid Kit
- Nalgene water bottle
Optics
Kill Kit
I consider these lists the basics of what is necessary to take on an early season hunt with normal weather. I could easily survive for an extended period of time even if the weather turned for the worst, but I didn’t pack a bunch of gear that’s going to slow me down. RuckList makes it easy for me to visually see what I have on my list and check it off as a go. All of these lists are simple to share, edit, and fine tune.
Good luck this season and reach out to RuckList with any questions or to request any of my gear lists!
-Heath