Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting “If you don’t want to lose it, tie it to you.”

This little scrap of advice from one MSG Steele during an FTX has stuck with me for a long time. I don’t remember who lost what, but it was important enough for me to take notice.

I keep my EDC pocket knife and keys attached to my person at all times with self-retracting clips. On my hunting equipment all of my electronics/handheld optics are tethered to my bino harness via their respective pouches using the stretchable lanyards from FHF. I have taped the fittings on these for added security and noise reduction. My iPhone case is tethered to my bino harness as well with a T-Reign retractable electronics tether.

I keep a backup lightweight fixed blade knife stowed in a pocket in my pack along with a backup headlamp, both tethered with some QD plastic clips and paracord. My water bottle stays clipped to the side of my pack via carabiner.

What items do you guys tie on? What are your favorite tethers and for which items do you use retractable, stretchable, or fixed tethers? Pics welcome

I keep a "safety lanyard" around my neck- little Photon light and and a Fox 40 Micro whistle; one pants pocket has my compass tethered, the other my folding knife (which has a firesteel & tinder attached to the tether)

my inReach Mini is tethered in a shoulder pocket of my pack

all my tethers are small diameter cord- sometimes called accessory cord, most rated ~ 100 lbs

Keys tethered in my pocket, compass around my neck.

I've had things disappear - frustrating for sure , going to look up some tether stuff .

I can't think of a single thing that I tie on to anything. Not against it, I just haven't felt the sting of losing stuff I guess.

Yeah, me neither. Not a fan of the Beverly Hillbilly thing. If you care about something, just don't lose it.

There are good reasons for the military to advocate for tying off equipment. Conducting night movements, lack of sleep, and doing this sort of stuff


all lead to stuff being lost. Plus, some ASVAB waiver 18 year olds have a tendency to misplace anything not attached to their bodies. So it makes a lot of sense in that environment.

For everyday camping scenarios, the need to do tie everything off probably isn't quite so serious.

My mom clips my mittens to MY coatsleeves, too......

I have a compass tied to my pack. But that’s it anymore.

Used to have everything tied to my survival vest, but ejecting into cold water was a good time to keep everything attached I am told.

I used to have my rangefinder and GPS attached to their pouches by a FHF lanyard, but found the lanyards just got in the way. I quit carrying a GPS because it was just dead weight unless I was in checkerboard area, but still carry a rangefinder sans the lanyard.

The only thing I keep teathered nowadays is my compass, which slides into one of the open front pockets of my FHF bino harness. I just loop the cord the compass came with through one of the harness's sewn on loops on the bottom. I'd probably just bury the compass in my pack if I didn't use it so often when hiking in the dark, making sure I am headed in the right general direction to reach a ridge or whatever else. It'll get lost easily in that front pocket, so I make sure it is tied on for sure, but that's it.

I don't tie off anything except my compass.

Water bottle. Saves having to take off a pack to get to it. H20 systems...nope...convenient, but not hygienic.

I use an HPG recon kit bag, car key and some other essentials zipped inside as is my Glock. A Suunto m-9 wrist compass is strapped to my wrist. All go on when leaving the camp/truck and remain in place until I return.
I occasionally remove my pack but never the kitbag. When I carry my LRF it is tethered to its case attached to the kitbag, I once knocked an expensive one off a rock never to be seen again. My compact binos I wear around my neck. I have been known to screwup and believe in prevention on priority items.


mike r

Water systems, and bottles, are as hygenic as you make them.


mike r

FML and all these years I have been using non-hygienic water bladders! It's pretty simple to clean them and hang dry them. If they start to taste funny flush with vinegar and then with water. It isn't hard or rocket science.

That holster is sweet. I think I saw someone making them for AGC bino packs (what I use). I need one for my G20.

Are the FHF packs made in the USA? Edit. Scratch that, I see it printed right on the front! Made in USA 🇺🇸

...and puts bread bags in your boots...

Mom? Is that you?....

The only thing I tether is my model 69 .44 to the chest rig I carry it in. I don’t want it getting away while fishing, alpine hunting, or bear wrestling.

Yeah...maybe in a Las Vegas casino, walking your dog in the neighborhood or mall walk, but not in a rainforest or a climb in the Picket Range.