What's the worst piece of equipment you've bought?
12-15-2007, 08:48 AM
#11
Super Moderator
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Southeast Central Illinois USA
Posts: 6,969
RE: What's the worst piece of equipment you've bought?
A cheap fanny pack. Nothing worse than to have the zipper break after using only a couple of times or the buckle to keep slipping so it falls down to your ankles while packing your stand.[:@]
By the way Patti, you still have that Gerber?
I field dressed and skinned a doe with mine the other day.
By the way Patti, you still have that Gerber?
I field dressed and skinned a doe with mine the other day. 
12-15-2007, 09:27 AM
#12
Fork Horn
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 239
RE: What's the worst piece of equipment you've bought?
I'd have to disagree with mobo, the tree umbrella is one of the most useful tool I've ever bought. I have 2 different tree umbrellas, a big one and a small one. I assume he's talking about the small one and that's my favorite. I use it for a ground blind, use it for stalking, and it's kept me dry in some really bad weather, rain, sleet, hail and snow. If it's going to be windy and raining, I then get out the bigger umbrella. I have had the wind turn the small one inside out a time or two, but if it's that windy, it's probobly too windy to be bow hunting.
I agree with cheap optics, and at the top of my crap list is the Bushnel range finder, (the $135 one) followed closely by my Bushnell pocket size binaculars,(the $50 one) both useless at least 1 hour before dark. Another big waist of money was the red dot sight. The kind that doesn't have a tube but the window style that projects a red dot onto the window to look like a laser dot. Absolute junk! I tried it on 2 different hand guns and even bought a holster to fit only to find out that open sights were faster, a lot more dependable and much more accurate.
One other waist of money was my McKensy 3D buck target. It takes a crowbar to get a field point out of it and it isn't muck easier to get a broad head out of it. I have to throw it on it's side, put a foot on it and pull like heck to get an arrow out of it. What a pain. It's too heavy and bulky for A decoy and after a short time out in the elements it rots out, the surface turns to dust!
The only other thing I can think of was a pair of gloves. I don't recall the brand but the slogan was something like," the warmest thin gloves in the world." They cost about $20. I tried them one time, it wasn't real cold out, about 40 degrees but my hands were frozen before I even got to my stand. I took them off and my hands were a lot warmer without them than with. Cheap $5 pair of fleece gloves are a lot warmer than these were. I took them back where I bought them thinking maybe they were cold because they were too tight. Traded for the next size bigger and froze my hands again!
I agree with cheap optics, and at the top of my crap list is the Bushnel range finder, (the $135 one) followed closely by my Bushnell pocket size binaculars,(the $50 one) both useless at least 1 hour before dark. Another big waist of money was the red dot sight. The kind that doesn't have a tube but the window style that projects a red dot onto the window to look like a laser dot. Absolute junk! I tried it on 2 different hand guns and even bought a holster to fit only to find out that open sights were faster, a lot more dependable and much more accurate.
One other waist of money was my McKensy 3D buck target. It takes a crowbar to get a field point out of it and it isn't muck easier to get a broad head out of it. I have to throw it on it's side, put a foot on it and pull like heck to get an arrow out of it. What a pain. It's too heavy and bulky for A decoy and after a short time out in the elements it rots out, the surface turns to dust!
The only other thing I can think of was a pair of gloves. I don't recall the brand but the slogan was something like," the warmest thin gloves in the world." They cost about $20. I tried them one time, it wasn't real cold out, about 40 degrees but my hands were frozen before I even got to my stand. I took them off and my hands were a lot warmer without them than with. Cheap $5 pair of fleece gloves are a lot warmer than these were. I took them back where I bought them thinking maybe they were cold because they were too tight. Traded for the next size bigger and froze my hands again!
12-15-2007, 05:19 PM
#13
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: SW PA USA
Posts: 7,220
RE: What's the worst piece of equipment you've bought?
Here's two that stand out:
Western Rivers electronic Predator call. The sounds suck! The worst is their Owl and crow fight.... Its a crow and a mourning dove!
Buck Wing Bobbin head deer decoy. It looks real enough and the bobbin head is pretty realistic but the thing is made SO flimsy that it's a royal pain to set it up without it popping apart. It even has a warning molded into the plaastic telling you the warranty doesnt cover dropping the head while the weights are attached. Something thats going to be used out in the feild shouldnt be so fragile that it needs warning labels!
Western Rivers electronic Predator call. The sounds suck! The worst is their Owl and crow fight.... Its a crow and a mourning dove!
Buck Wing Bobbin head deer decoy. It looks real enough and the bobbin head is pretty realistic but the thing is made SO flimsy that it's a royal pain to set it up without it popping apart. It even has a warning molded into the plaastic telling you the warranty doesnt cover dropping the head while the weights are attached. Something thats going to be used out in the feild shouldnt be so fragile that it needs warning labels!
12-15-2007, 06:57 PM
#16
Dominant Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Blossvale, New York
Posts: 21,199
RE: What's the worst piece of equipment you've bought?
Cheap optics is a great worst buy... but my funniest and most appropriate end was a "Solar Shower". Supposedly you hang these deals in the sun and you have a nice warm shower. Well, I hung mine, I laid it on the hood of a vehicle for 3 days and finally found out how it works best. The last night when we were ready for bed I threw it on the fire, telling my buddy I figured out how this works. It did heat the water, it burned up the damn thing and put out the fire for the night so the ranger wouldn't get mad. LOL I vote solar shower.
12-15-2007, 09:50 PM
#20
Fork Horn
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Mesa, AZ
Posts: 448
RE: What's the worst piece of equipment you've bought?
Rain gear that was made of really nice camo on the outside and then was lined with that white plastic material that was then covered witha mesh material. I couldn't have gotten wetter if I had stood in the rain without it. I'm reallypicky now as to what I pick for rain gear.