Choose: High end clothing or high end bow and accessories.

gear everyday of the week. normally I have both, but I can easily make do with average clothes in my comfy Illinois tree stand.

 

Clothing..

There's a much bigger gap between Sitka gear and Walmart clothing than diamond and Mathews. Time in the stand will kill a lot more deer compared to a 50fps faster bow, etc.

 

It's just now getting cold in Illinois and the name brand clothing would have just started coming in handy for me. I have expensive camo, but I really don't need it.

 

Crazy how everyone views this so differently!

Take an experienced archer and give him a 10 or even 20 year old hand me down bow and give him a $1500 fully loaded bow. 9 times out of 10 that archer will hit what he is shooting at with both bows.

Take that same archer and put him in clothing from 10 or 20 years ago compared to what is out there today... He will no doubt be a lot more uncomfortable with the older clothing.

 

Clothes all the way + a comfy stand. I can shoot a deer with any bow you pull off the shelf. Stand time is most important thing.

 

One thing about clothing that you won't find as much in gear is year end clearance sales. I bought scent lok once socks, base layer and outer camo at less than half price at cabelas the day after Christmas years back.

 

Nobody could hunt in the cold until Under Armour & Lone Wolf showed up. Maybe it's a weaker generation? Did I say that out loud?

 

I don't know how old you are but for me the older I get the less cold tolerant I get, just have no desire to spend time out in the cold.

 

This exactly.

To me it has just as much to do with all around comfort, more than just trying to stay warm. I use Predator and Kuiu, but it goes all the way down to the layering system you use. Also, hunting with quality rain gear, completely blows the cheap stuff away.

If you would have told me 5 years ago, I would use this as my answer I'd of told you that you were crazy. You don't appreciate high end clothing until you have some. And I don't necessarily consider Under Armor as high end. For the price, I think most could use that money towards better purchases, even if just slightly more expensive.

Everyone is different though!

 

From my perspective I am totally different. I don't get too cold at all. Down to 25 I'm wearing thin pants with long johns underneath for hunting and a good fleece. I would be too hot in anything insulated so I see no need to pay 1000 dollars in Sitka gear.

But give me these two bows and the difference is night and day. At 20 I can put inch sized groupings up all day with my prime. But with this broqning I'm lucky to get a softball sized group at 20. And shooting any further is out of the question on a deer.


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That comparison is unrealistic. The choice wasn't high tech for one and antiquated stuff for the other.

 

Not for your poll but in response to mnhunterr's post it is.


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That sucker is older than 20 years... You could take that relic to the antiques road show :D

 

Very true but it's the only bow I have that's older then 2 years old.
It's exaggerated but it proves older bows can't hold a candle to newer equipment. Even at deer hunting ranges.

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If you're shooting that old bow... You can still hit that deer within a certain distance.

If you have the nice bow and crappy clothing it will make it much more difficult to withstand the below scenarios:

Steady rain and 35-40 degrees with 15-20mph wind, without decent clothing you will not be comfortable.

Temperature is 10 degrees with a 15 mph wind, making it feel like -10, without decent clothing you will not be comfortable.

It will be a never ending argument :D

 

Hard to imagine any clothing making one comfortable in that scenario. That's nasty conditons no matter what you wear.

 

It certainly will be a never ending argument. But for the climate I hunt in gear wins. If it's steadily raining I'm not going to bowhunt. Too much risk for loosing the blood trail. And like I said I don't get cold easily so I can and have gotten away with insulated coveralls and 400 gram insulated boots at 10-0 degrees. It would be a different story if I lived elsewhere in the country but we rarely get weather to the extremes here.


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Bow gear easily my first choice.

You don't need camo, to shoot a deer. My last buck was a 9 point scoring about 130'. I shot him at 30 yards flat wearing no camo because I forgot to bring a extra set for after the rain. I was walking to my stand, and came up on him he didn't know I was there. He started walking and I grunted he stopped looked right at me and kept looking around me. He walked and I grunted again he stopped and I let a arrow fly hitting him with a double lung.

 

It would be interesting to see if a person's location has much to do with their answer to this poll. I chose clothing thinking of MN cold weather, I was mostly thinking of high quality base layers and boots, the camo outerlayer is the least important as long as it blocks the wind.

I was also assuming that instead of top of the line bow and gear I wasn't going to be using an antique

 

I got more money wrapped up in clothes and boots then I do in my bow setup. So I'd say clothing. I'd keep my bow a long time if I had to decide between it or my heater body suit I just got. I love it that much.