Back during the summer I was given a pair of Hothands Heated Mittens by HeatMax to try out and was finally able to with winter upon us and it still being deer season here in the northeast corner of Connecticut.

Let me start by saying that these are very comfortable to wear and by all appearances are made good and tough. Being that I am a gun hunter the blaze orange is an added plus. The flap that fold over to cover your fingers is also held back in place my small magnets unlike other brands that I have tried that use velcro and are noisy the magnets are very quiet.

I tried these mittens first without the Hothands heated packs and they do work well just by themselves. Then I tried the mittens with the heated packs and they worked very well distributing the heat evenly over and around my fingers.

The hand warmers are odorless and air activated so once you take them out of the package and give them a shake they will begin to heat up and stay warm for up to 10 hours. If you are like me once my hands and fingers get cold they don’t work very well so keeping them warm is important for the circulation.

They are made of fleece and and have 40 grams of thinsulate insulation. HotHands Heated Mittens sell for a suggested retail price of $19.99 so for this amount they are very well worth it. Staying warm so I can stay out in the deer woods pursuing my passion of deer hunting is important and these mittens will help to accomplish that and I would recommend these for that purpose.

I had purchased one for a hunting trip to Maine after the Outfitter had recommended I do so. On his suggestion I did a little research and found one that was very affordable and easy to operate with a little practice. What I decided to go with is the Garmin Etrex Handheld.

The suggested retail price from their website was $106.00 and I had located this model at our local Walmart which had a retail price of $98.99 which I went with. What came in the box was ( etrex, wrist strap, owners manual, quick start guide ) and it is powered by two “AA” batteries which should last approximately 22 hours at normal use. What I decided on was rechargeable batteries to get the most for my money.

After reading the manual and quick start guide I headed out for a walk of an area that I was very familiar with which is the lake that I live on. My wife an I walk around the lake almost everyday. The unit can be operated by five basic pages or display screens as they are also called.

Waypoints are locations that you can mark as destinations to navigate to later. This can be done on the “mark waypoint page” and each waypoint is assigned a number or if you wish you can assign it a name like ( home, camp, tree stand ) any of which can be entered by yourself if you do not want to use the assigned numbers.

Once you have entered a waypoint you can continue walking. Then when you are ready to find your way back to your starting point you would end up going to the GOTO page. This page once you are there will tell you the location you are heading to and the approximate time it will take to get there and the approximate distance you will have to travel. Basically you just follow the arrow on the screen, if it points to the left you go left and if it points to the right you go right and so on.

If you want to see your trail in map form than go to the map page which will give you an overview of your trail such as the picture below will demonstrate.

This unit will give you the time of day and even the date. There is also a screen that will show you how fast you are walking and how far you have walked plus how long you have been gone.

I am very pleased with this unit and it proves that you do not need to spend a lot to get a lot. I am confident that with more time and practice I will be able to operate it with out using the quick start guide as a cheat sheet. I would recommend this to anyone who is in the market for a handheld GPS. I would like to recommend a battery charger to go with it. It will save a lot of money in the long run because it will have many other uses as well. This is the one I chose and works very well.

The Energizer Compact Slide Battery Charger Kit comes with what you see and has a suggested retail of $29.99

The Bushnell Sport 450 Laser Rangefinder , I originally bought this for my upcoming hunting trip to Maine. I went with this product for two specific reason.

1. - Basically it fit into my budget at a modest price of $149.99 from Cabela’s

2. - I ask around and received quite a bit of great reviews

This is their product description:

Even though it’s the lowest-priced rangefinder on the market, it still has features like a weather-resistant design and textured surface for sure handling in foul weather. One-button operation gives distance in through-the-lens LCD readout (±1-yd. accuracy). Uses a 9-volt battery.

I have had a chance to take it out a few times to get accustomed to it’s operation and I am impressed. It’s textured surface is comfortable to the touch and it felt very secure in my hands even when wet. To operate all I did was put a 9-volt battery in the easy access compartment and it was ready to go. Right out of the box the first object I ranged was accurate to within the 1 yard like they claim.

To range it is very easy. Just look through the eye piece like you would a camera but instead of pressing a button to take a picture you press a button to see a instant yardage to your target from the view finder. Another nice option is that the last yardage taken will stay there until the button has been pressed again.

It is small enough to fit in a large coat pocket or you can hang it with the neck strap that comes with it. I feel this product is well worth the price and for the added cost of a 9-volt battery the guessing of yardage is not a guess anymore. I would and will recommend this to anyone who asks about it.

I was going through some of my hunting gear today and found a tool that should be in everyone’s pack.

Two years ago my wife gave me this handy tool as a stocking stuffer at x-mas and last November I use it for the first time and let me tell you this tool I would recommend to anyone.

This handy item is called the EZ Zip from Gerber. It came with a tough durable case that goes on your belt and the case has a seperate compartment that stores spare blades.

We all know how difficult it can be to field dress a deer especially by yourself. I lost count how many times I have punctured the stomach or cut myself while trying to open up a deer. With this tool all you have to do is start a whole then put this tool in and slide it up toward the brisket just like butter, it is as easy as that.