Tips for Packing Your Favorite Stogies in the Field

Few things are more satisfying than a nice cigar. Particularly after the time and effort sunk into a hunt — the early mornings, the long hours of waiting, finding your quarry, and dropping it efficiently. The exhilaration of a successful take or the frustration of coming up empty-handed are both equally good occasions to light up your favorite stick.

Of course, like everything else you take into the field with you, cigars must be packaged and preserved in a way that keeps them safe from weather, water, long hikes, trips to the tree stand, and changing temperatures throughout the day or days. We’ve seen people simply roll up a few cigars in a sandwich bag with a damp paper towel and hope for the best. But hope is not a plan, and it behooves the aficionado to make sure their favorite smoke is ready to light when needed, whether in celebration or consolation.

Anybody who’s enjoyed a cigar in less-than-ideal conditions will tell you it’s a labor of love. Trying to nurse one back to health after it’s been water-damaged or dried out is nothing short of a royal pain in the ass. So as an alternative to jamming a few smokes into the bottom of a pack, we looked for a few examples of dedicated, hard use humidors. Two of the three cases shown are, literally, battle-tested. They’ve survived multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan during the author’s previous lifetimes.

On the low-end are the snap-shut boxes, commonly available from places like Thompson Cigar Co. and Xikar. They usually look like shrunk-down, hard plastic shoeboxes with simple clasps to keep them closed. Some models include a small sponge in the lid to soak with water before leaving on a trip to maintain moisture. In our experience these sponges aren’t a great solution. They typically need frequent re-wetting, depending on ambient climate and how often the box is dipped into.

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