Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting sleeping in wall tents

That's funny---I can see that happening.

A bag I've used for a few years and I really like is the 3-D Bag, by Cabela's. It's discontinued, and therefore discounted, and comes in different weights and sizes. Of course, I bought mine just before they discounted them...

I don't think the wall tents are all that hard to set up- especially if you don't try to use those complicated angles.

I don't mind going outside to take a whizz and I only have to do it once a night- I restoke the stove at the same time. Makes climbing back in the bag that much better!

A wall tent with a wood floor and a good stove is a pretty good camp- much roomier than the Kifaru. I don't know why a wall tent would smell any moldier than a Kifaru tent treated the same way. For a 2-3 day hunt I can put up with any kind of camp, but on a week and a half elk hunt in the late season, a flimsy camp, makes for a lousy hunt.

The best hunt I ever had involved 2 12x14 wall tents with a common area between them; one tent for cooking and socializing, the other was for sleeping only. Both had a wood stove and I had a big stack of hardwood for each.

For those of you camping in places like Montana, where there is no such thing as HARDWOOD, you have my condolences. A big walnut log will burn for hours and is quite aromatic. I rarely burn anything but hardwood in my stove at night. During awake time, I will burn aspen or juniper as it is hotter and easier to light.

One of my duties as junior member at elk camp has been to bring about 1/8 cord of oak or ash... burns at night much better than the tamarack we cut up there.

I'm trying to decide between a 10x12 and a 12x14 tent. Any thoughts?

I agree about the setup you mention; that's how we do it. Two tents, then a ridgepole between them and a tarp stretched and guy-lined to form a covered cooking area between the tents. Pretty slick!

-jeff

Jeff- I would go with the 12x14 and also with the highest sides you could get.

Dennis-I totally agree with you about putting up a wall tent, ours is a 16x20 and with the frame that we have it isn't tough at all to get it up in short time

As for drying it out we're really lucky as the fella who store our camp for us has a garage about the size of the Superdoom and we can just put up to dry for a few days in that. And or he also has a big warehouse at work that we've used from time to time to put up and so for us drying is a non issue.

JB did a story a while back for SH that was called "Hunting Camp" and it is for sure one of my fav reads. I really enjoy things like this and the writing on cooking for hunting camps by his better half more than any of the gun gack anymore.

Later

Dober

I found a quick and easy way to dry my alaknak, I pull the tent out and open the door, I aim a big fan into the door, the tent inflates like a baloon and is dry in an hour when I do this in my living room...a bit longer in the cold shop.

I just set it up in the back yard if I have to and build a fire in the stove. Most hunts, it's dry enough when we put it away.

Try that in wilderness BC and see how well it dries, believe me, it won't and it will mildew. Kifaru tipis are synthetic and do not mildew as well as being far easier to set up in a hurry.

I have set up many wilderness camps using wall tents, these were where we lived for as long as three months and in sub-zero weather that went below -25 for days on end. When you see wall tents coillapse under a huge, sudden snowfall that happens within a few hours, you tend to feel better about sleeping in a Hilleberg Saivo, one of the premier mountain and arctic tents available.

Hunts in dry Arizona in the late season for 10 days where you drive to your campsite are a bit different than longterm working camps that are over 100 air miles from anything in the northern Canadian wilderness. I find that the severe weight restrictions of the aircraft necessary for access makes my setup far better for this than aany wall tent I have yet used.

But, WTF, the idea that my camp is ...flimsy...., well, that is funny.

Mark,

Can you recall which issue that is? I've just subscribed this year and would like to get that article if it's available as a back issue.

Allen

Sleeping in Wall tents?
depends on who is stoking the stove. When my buddy bill was hunting he never fell asleep long enough for it to get much more than a little cool, most of the time I was sweating my @@s off. Be ready for major temperature swings. Once everyone falls asleep and the fire goes out most people just sink down into the sleeping bags and wait for someone else to start the fire. We use a propane mister heater, but only to knock the chill off or warm up before we head out in the morning if the fire has died. I can go about a week on 30# bottle if used that way. So I recommend a good large cold weather bag. You can always unzip when the stove is being stoked, then can sleep comfortable if everyone gets worn out and lets the fire go out.

Pugs-it is May/June of 05.

Dober

Broncolope-great pic!

Dober

You covered it pretty well and that is a very nice picture!

George

IMO, comparing a Kifaru tipi to a canvas wall tent is apples and oranges. I own and use both, and I like both.

One is made lightweight for backcountry use, and one isn't. One can have a cast iron airtight stove that will hold a fire for hours and hours; one doesn't. Both stoves will get hot enough to almost run you out of the tent though.

Neither shelter is flimsy, it's all in your perspective. A wall tent in zero degree weather with wood floors, cots, tables, chairs, etc. is great, but it just ain't gonna happen any distance from the road. A tipi with a woodstove a few miles in is a godsend, and it's bombproof as far as weather.

Well, I agree, my point was not to compare as I clearly stated where I have and do use my camps, it was simply that wall tents are not very adaptable and are damp in the wet Canadian climate.

Properly set up, with a liner and especially the auxiliary Hilleberg Saivo sleeping tent, the Kifaru tipi is as weatherproof as anything I have ever seen, much less prone to mildew and it is simply easier to use and live in in remote wilderness.

We will be heading into northern BC this month on a prospecting-Moose hunting trip; it is not possible to pack in a wall tent and all that goes with it, while a K-tipi takes little space/weight in the plane and mine has certainly not been fragile.

With the road restrictions, air access and jetboat access involving weight issues that are now commonplace in BC hunting, a wall tent is not a particularly practical choice and there are alternatives as I have mentioned.

Thanks much,. I just ordered a back issue

You'll love it, it is a super read a ton load better than ballistic gack 101!

Dober

Oh come on, let's argue about the difference 100 fps makes, or how much better or worse a .280 is than a .270... or the granddaddy of ALL gack, 30-06 vs. 270! (30-06 is, of course, better... heh heh...)

-jeff

Maybe "flimsy" wasn't the best word, but I would be more comfortable in a large wall tent where I could stand up, walk around, change positions etc, than a small tent in which I couldn't. I can't stand waking up in a tent so short that I can't stand up to get my pants on. Call me a sissy I guess.Can comment on the wall tent collapsing under a sudden large snowfall as the most I have seen in one storm was 16" over night. I stuck an additional post in the middle of the ridge pole and it held fine. The only time I have had one collapse was when a horse got into the lines and pulled one end down.

How does a tent mildew in -25??? I guess if you put it away with all that snow and ice on it then don't take care of it again until spring, it would be a mess.

Since I have never camped north of the 54th parallel in the winter, I may never know!!

Your considerations would require a different camp for sure, I think if I had to stay 3 months in that kind of weather, I would spend the first week building a cabin!!

Dennis, not to belabor the point becasue it's totally off-topic, but the tipis are pretty big, plenty big enough to walk around in.

Four of us did a late November hunt last year and pulled our gear in with sleds. We had the 12-man tipi. Actually, 3 of us had sleds, one had a backpack. We pulled the three sleds inside the tipi to unload, rolled out the sleeping pads, and just left the sleds inside to hold our gear because there was no need to put them outside the tent. That's how much room we had.

The tent and stove were hauled in by two guys right around 60, BTW (along with the rest of their gear), uphill at 10,000 ft. through knee-deep snow so the light weight was a big plus.

broncolope, neat pic. I don't get the golden glow from green canvas........But the neighbors left the lights on for me when I was late to come in....

couple more for you guys. My house.

Camp with high-lined ponies.Night shots.



Come on, elk season......Don