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Most hunters think they know it all, particularly when it comes to what type of food and drink to take with them on the hunt. We've done a lot of camping in the wilderness, and here are some basics which have been proven useful over the years. You can easily adapt them to your needs while hunting.
First -- Keep it simple. Keep it "quiet." Keep it well-wrapped.
There's nothing easier to scare off some quarry with the crinkle of the removal of plastic wrap, or crunch sound of things like nuts or most any candy, food, beverage, or whatever. Let's assume you're into trail mix. All well and good. Package it in a soft material container.
Also, try not to use too many crunchy things in your trail mix. Keep it restricted to dried fruits, and maybe a mix of those soft yogurt-type candies, maybe licorice of all flavors, ju-ju type candies, and small shelled pumpkin or sunflower seeds. Leave the M&Ms, and the whole almonds and cashews for later at deer camp. Keep it quiet, and keep the litter to a minimum.
Real food? Sure, no problem. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Cheese and a hunk of bologna... soft, soundless and tasty. Keep the sandwiches fairly dry. Forget the tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, pickles. A little mayo. A dab of mustard, and you're ready. Make sure you cut the sandwiches in half. A whole sandwich can be very unwieldy. Wrapping? A soft, pliable napkin, and that's it. Forget formed paper. Forget foil. Forget plastic wrap.
What else? Popcorn, chips of any type "forgeddaboudid" as Tony Soprano might say. Also watch for the sloppy, juicy stuff... even a cut orange. Apples? No way. You can if you want take along some of the small individual packs of pudding or apple sauce. You'll need a small plastic spoon, but they're easily opened, and make little if any noise when doing it.
And liquids? First and foremost... water! Plastic bottles can be used, but they have a lot of bulk and clutter. My best suggestion is to buy a military canteen. They can vary in size, and hold good amounts of water. And they're easily refillable if there is a viable water source wherever you may be.
Soups? Coffee? Tea? Sure... but be certain that they are fully liquid, and with little if any solids. Try drinking a beefy, noodle and vegetable filled soup on the run. Not possible, with the stuff plugging up the drinking spout, and you pounding on the back of the container trying to get it out. No way. Keep it fully liquid. That means not too thick, either. It's got to flow easily.
Fresh fruit? I'm iffy on that one. Sure, nothing more tasty than a cut up orange or pear (no way on an apple - too noisy), but cut up fruit will be sloppy, with juice running down your arms, maybe onto your rifle or shotgun (liquid always collects when fresh fruit is cut). I'd opt out of that type even though it's real tempting.
Forget about things like hunks of chicken, beef, or any type of jerky? There's one great negative to jerky. It's salty as all you-know-what. Twenty minutes after you have some jerky, you'll be figuratively dying of thirst, and drinking water like crazy. Leave the jerky for later with a cold one. At least I would.
Then there's other liquids. Stuff like Gatorade, or juices. All OK, but remember the clutter and plastic.
Use your common sense. And consider these suggestions. Make everything easy and useful.
