Steve Speck is the owner of S and S Archery as well as the inventor of Solid Broadheads and Exo Mountain Gear packs.

Steve is a brilliant backcountry hunting guru who’s ideas on weight saving on a backcountry hunt take DIY hunting to the next level. Listen in to hear the important how-to’s of backcountry nutrition, pack designs, weight saving strategies, hunting methodologies, tent designs, sleeping bags and dual purpose gear.

Steve Speck’s Backpacking Light Gear List

This is 99% of my hunting backpacking gear list. I like to stay light, taking nothing extra! The only thing that can vary slightly is maybe an extra base layer / long johns in very cold temps or if elk hunting I’ll have bugle tube, mouths reeds, etc with me.

Main Gear for a Backpack Hunt

• Pack: Exo Mountain Gear 3500 – 77oz
• Tent: Hilleberg Enan – 35oz
• Sleeping pad: Therma Rest Neo Air – 12oz
• Sleeping Bag: Hammock Gear 30 Degree Quilt – 14oz
• Stove: Jetboil SOL Ti – 9oz
• Fuel Canister – 5oz
• Utensil: Jetboil Fork – .5oz
• Water Filter: Saywer Squeeze and Platypus 2l – 4oz
• Headlamp: Princeton Tec Remix – 2.9oz
• Camera: Sony RX100 III – 8oz
• Extra Sony Batteries: – 1oz
• Extra SD Cards

Total Weight: 168.4oz 10.52lbs

Gear that is always on me

• Shoes: Salomon XA Pro 3d
• Sock: First Lite Compression
• Shirt: First Lite Llano QZ
• Boxers: First Lite Red Desert
• Pants: Prana Stretch Zion
• Binoculars: Swarovksi 10×42 SLC
• Rangefinder: Leupold RX1000
• Wind Checker
• Chapstick!
• Suunto Watch

Clothes in My Pack

• Socks: First Lite Cold Weather (1) extra pair – 2oz
• Mid Layer: First Lite Chama Hoody – 10oz
• Insulation layer: First Lite Uncompahgre Puffy – 19oz
• Beanie: First Lite – 1.5oz
• Gloves: First Lite Merino Wool – 1oz

I don’t really use raingear because it seldom rains where I hunt, and when it does I hole up and wait it out. I do have the First Lite Boundary Stormtight jacket that I’ll use once in a blue moon but that’s pretty much it.

Total Weight: 33.5oz 2.09lbs

First Aid / Personal Gear

• Baby Wipes
• TP
• Spare Iodine tablets
• Lighter
• Waterproof matches
• Fire Tender: Vaseline Cotton balls
• Tylenol PM
• Ibuprofen
• Bandages
• Gorilla Tape
• Gauze
• (4) AAA Spare batteries

Total Weight of Kit: 5.8oz

Kill Kit

• Game Bags: Exo Mountain Gear
• Knife: Kestrel Ultralite S30v
• Parachute Cord: 25’ Ultralight Dyneema Cord
• Zip Ties

Total Kill Kit Weight: 6.9oz

Optics

• Spotting Scope: Varies (Vortex Razor 50 / Swaro ATX 65)
• Bino Tripod adapter: Field Optics Research – 1oz
• Tripod: Promaster XC525c and Vanguard PH-111v – 46oz
• Extra QR Plate – .5oz

Total Optics Weight: 47.5oz / 2.9lbs

TOTAL BASE WEIGHT: 262.1 oz / 16.38lbs

Food

Consists of: Cliff Builders Bars, Costco Trail Mix, Mountain House meals, Belvita Crackers, Almond butter packets, Misc Granola Bars, GU Energy Chomps and Starbucks VIA packets! The only thing that varies my base weight is the amount of food, which is on the high end 1.5lbs per day, and the amount of water.

1.5lbs per day on the high end. Roughly 3500 calories per day