Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Trecking poles?

How many of you guys use these. I have never done so but I’ve picked a walking stick when hiking across a slope with a heavy pack. Treking poles always struck me as pointless and just another unecessary item to bring. Am I giving them short shrift?

When hunting or leading my llamas, I use 1 pole. I'm pushing 70 and it helps with balance and climbing. It's also a big help going downhill. For shooting, it's very handy to improvise a rest.

One of the most useful items I bring on mountain backpack hunts. Also one of the most used.

Yes. With a heavy pack, especially on a downhill, they are a huge help. Stabilization, balance, and and another foot when the rock under your feet moves are all huge. Even if you are only taking 10% of the weight off your knees... that's 10% of the weight off your knees.

Ditto on that... plus they come in handy as stabilizer for your binos for a quick glassing or shooting sticks.

Yessir. 4WD is only one of their uses...

They are very useful, even almost mandatory depending on how rough the ground. I use Montem, carbon-fiber poles that are adjustable and very strong. I would rate them just short of or almost equal to proper footwear which is very high for mountain hunting.

At 52 with a broken up body, I'm starting to think along these lines...

I have the high grade, super duper carbons from Costco. I've used them for several years and I haven't seen enough difference between those and some of the elite types to be worth the price difference. I do recommend the flip locs, though. In the wet cold, I've had the twist locks freeze to where I needed pliers to loosen them. I have a pair with angled hand grips. Supposedly they're easier on the wrists but after trying them, I prefer the straight ones. Personal preference, I guess.

They reduce the down hill stress on my knees an un measurable amount and add a balance factor that I've grown very fond of.

I wont hunt the very steep rock slopes of Colorado without my poles

BTW..... I gotta give a shout out to my buddy Cody

Congratulations buddy on drawing Colorado Bighorn

I'll be sure and do what I can to help you get him off the mountain come September

About the best thing going for climbing big mountains, especially downhill with weight...

I had the Costco Flip Lock break pretty quickly so YMMV

I prefer either heavy duty carbon, or light non adjustable. They can be super useful for many things, but I have a hard time walking with them unless I them

I didn't know there was such a thing as trekking poles until I saw friends using them several years ago. At first, they appeared to be nothing more than unneeded gadgetry.

I bought a pair and have used them on two five-day backpacking/ camping treks in the mountains of northeastern New Mexico. I'm sixty-eight and wouldn't consider such a trip without trekking poles. Others have borrowed my poles for stream crossings. Don't scrimp on quality; get good ones with flip locks.

I have never used my poles on my annual elk hunts in the mountains, mainly because of a rifle slung over one shoulder. It would be awkward (for me, anyway). One pole might work okay, but I haven't tried it.

I use 1 pole when packing a rifle or when leading my llamas. I don't have enough hands to use both of them at those times. It really helps with the balance, especially in rocks and stream crossings. With a little practice, you'd be surprised at how many ways you can use 1 as a rifle rest. One way that works very well is to grip the pole and a small twig of a bush with the same hand. Pull away from the bush and lay the rifle over your hand. The pole controls height and the pressure on the twig very nicely keeps it from waving back and forth.

Indispensable when mountain hunting, hauling meat, crossing streams, spotting, descending, climbing.

+1

Seems the older we get the more necessary they are.

I wouldn't trust a cheap pair of poles to my safety.

Absolutely a must for mountain hunting. Invest in a good pair and they will make any trek safer, faster and might save you from a nasty spill. I had used a walking stick prior but find poles to be a vast improvement. Money well spent.

I use Gossemer Gear and would not go into the mountains with a backpack without them.

I have a pair. The .. um .. rather well endowed sales gal at REI convinced me I should have some .. but since buying them 2+ years ago, I've never used them. I don't see the need. Their only use for me would be for those sorts of tents that assume you have them rather than using real tent poles. For actual hiking, at best they're just ballast needed because I got my pack too light.

Tom