What is the single most important piece of hunting gear? If I wanted to be poetic, I would say that it is the hunter: a hunter must be well-tuned, skillful, watchful, aware, patient, and ready. Of course, in truth, the most important piece of hunting gear is the gun or bow. Beyond that, all hunting gear is simply "fluff..." Or is it?

After all, did the hunters of centuries ago have GPS, Gore-Tex, sound-amplifying earmuffs, laser rangefinders, pocket-sized digital wind meters, satellite phones, and other technologically savvy hunting gear? No. Back then, the hunt was a matter of man vs. nature, man vs. beast. Now it seems that it is technology vs. nature.

These days, a hunter does still need skill, but not as much. If he loads up with all of the latest hunting gear, he can go out into the wild and bag a deer during the day and then be back in the city, dining in a fine Italian restaurant by that night.

It seems that hunting is no longer about the hunt and connecting with nature. It seem that hunting is now all about shooting and scoring. Even the most city-bred CEOs can now go on a hunt and expect to "win." After all, they can afford all of the latest hunting gear: and they will buy it, even if they only plan on hunting once or twice.

So, does all of this new hunting gear remove the hunter from nature? I say that yes, it does. That being said, though, many pieces of new hunting gear do have their place.

After all, is a hunter wearing a basic cotton camo jacket really that much more of a hunter than someone wearing Gore-Tex? Just because one hunter prefers to stay warm and dry and healthy does not make him or her less of a hunter, right?

And just because a hunter takes a GPS and a satellite phone and special topo maps does not make him or her any less of a hunter. After all, safety is key, and these new items of "hunting gear" could mean the difference between life and death for a hunter.

And even if a hunter does use sound-amplifying earmuffs to improve his chance of hearing a deer coming, he still has to be able to shoot it. And if he uses a pocket-sized digital wind meter to see how the wind will affect his bullet, he still needs to understand how to use it and where he should then aim.

And so what if a hunter uses a laser rangefinder? He still needs to have spotted the deer in the first place and he still needs to have remained calm, quiet, and patient.

Wait a minute... maybe all of this new hunting gear is not as bad as I thought. Or maybe it is just too easy to get carried away with it. After all, there is some pretty amazing technology that is used to come up with such advanced hunting gear.

As a hunter, the thing that you need to learn is where to draw the line. It is good to use a few of these new items of hunting gear, but you need to decide which pieces to use. If you use them all, hunting becomes less like hunting and more like a video game.