Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Surviving a cold wet night

Nice to hear back from you. Anyone IMO who enjoys hunting in the rain and cold AND gets wet should have a "Come to Jesus meeting". They get what their craziness deserves. So they carry all this 'stuff' just in case they get stupid. Well, give me a freaken break. 'THERE IS NO SUBSTITUE FOR BRAINS'. How in God's name did we ever live before all this high tech stuff? How can a duck float in water???? Their feathers layer them to stay dry!!!

Too often we try to make the enviroment adjust to us by manipulating what we wear and it's totally against the way of nature. What do the deer and elk do in bad weather? They stay put but no, we intruders into their world want it our way. Go figure that one.

our outfitter used to want us out of camp all the time (mainly so clients wouldn't snack )

our motto was : we hunt in all weather


later I changed the motto to : we try to at least be as smart as the critters we're hunting


if it's nasty enough for them to hole up, the least we can do is imitate them.

god I love to sleep in a tent in a hard rain when the cloud cover
is on the deck!

Maybe sleep good for a day but that [bleep] will drive you crazy when there's tags to be filled.

Now that is what I'm waiting for!!!! Except could you have it run on AA batteries so that the extra's I carry for my GPS could be used on this too?

I've done 9 days in a very small Kelty Windfoil tent, that was the year of the Siberian Steamroller.

you know times are hard when you're trading paperback books for the 2nd time and it's the same books!

"hey we about outa food?"

my god that was miserable.

And that's why I always had a plastic sheet about 12x12 with nylon cord to string between two trees. Put some small rocks in the corners and tie it off to the ground. Makes a comfortable hide out or tent to while away the hours of watching the fog roll in and the rain come down.

I always haul a paperback book when I am going to be in a tent for any length of time, that and nowadays, an Ipod.
On some of those days, even 'War and Peace' or the 'Iliad' are interesting!

Boy do I AGREE on the Ipod. It was raining so hard it was driving me nuts. Turned up the Ipod and entered my own little world. Seriously thinking to purchase a solar charger.

For clarification, I don't carry an Ipod on backpack hunts but do like one in camp if the gear is hauled in.

I'm just beginning to wonder what weight you guys carry in these backpacs when hunting? I would occasionally make a spike camp out of my main camp where I would carry maybe 40#s of gear to the main camp. On a spike camp I'd carry my sleeping bag, food for a day and a plasitc sheet to hang b/t two trees. Fir boughs on the ground and I'd be fine.

I traded in my horse for a Rokon and now I'm in heaven at 64. What the hell is an Ipod? You're there in nature but can't give up what you left in civilization??? This is just crazy to me. Slow down for Christ's sake. You're there to enjoy what nature provides and if you regard happiness solely with a six point, then I feel sorry for you.

Forgot to mention: If you get bored with hanging around under a tree (heaven forbid) and you have a tent, put on your jock strap and boots and walk around nude in the woods. You won't be bored for sure

lmao, I'd rather run into Bigfoot out in the woods than
Bareazz! YMMV (but I hope not)

liar

Jake, hope all is going well, sensing a little hostility here. To answer your questions, I've nevered weighed my hunting pack but go through it before every hunt with a goal to make it as light as possible - never been caught out in the woods overnight but have returned to camp awfully late. I hunted for many years off a motorcycle spike camp, it take me two trips to haul my gear in and I'm guessing 50-60 pounds total but thats with a 4 man tent, tarp, large sleeping pad, stove,etc. I enjoy riding my bike and could see no reason to jam it all into one trip.

An Ipod is a solid state music player, sort of the current generation Walkman. FWIW, I don't like sitting in a tent when its pouring down rain and a little music is relaxing.

I have no clue what you mean by, "...if you regard happiness solely with a six point, then I feel sorry for you." Care to enlighten me?

yeah so.....what's yer point?

Boise,

I'd say it falls under the "different strokes for different folks" category.


old school likes to make the young bucks think they ain't getting it cause of the new fangled stuff.

plus I'd like to see WTF he'd do with a 12x12 sheet of plastic where I bp hunt, you got to walk a long ways down to find a tree!

I could care less of what anyone thinks of the way I hunt, if it makes me happy, mission accomplished.

I couldn't wait to get an Ipod, asked and received one for fathers day 3-4 years ago, skinny little white version that only plays songs, but lite as a feather (well heavy feather) and holds beaucoup songs on it (I guess) as I don't know, it's sitting right in front of me, have never downloaded a song on it and never taken it with me hunting.

you know, maybe I'll drop a few bucks and put some music on it, the boys would probably enjoy it while in the GC!



bender make yourself useful and tell me where to go to download songs, do I have to pay a buck for each one off Apple's site or are there cheaper alternatives that do as well for less?

That's how the wife and daughter get their music (I think). I think you can "burn"? your CDs onto an Ipod. I really shouldn't be speculatin' on dis chit as I don't have one. I had a mini, portable, cassette player one time (that's how old I am) It was hell on batteries and I don't really like being disconnected, and having music mainlined down my hearing holes. I'm more of a radio guy.

Don't weigh my stuff usually but a good many years ago I carried 26 lbs. total gear for a two night three day late Fall hunt in the North Cascades of WA right along the US/Canadian border. That included rifle as well as sleeping bag, food etc.

I like to hunt with bivvy gear and sleep wherever the hunt takes me, but I don't do that as much as I used to. Last week, if I hadn't had a committment the next day I would have stayed on a lion track in snow and bivvied on his trail without sleeping bag if needed. Excellent opportunity but in the time I had, I never got close enough though I cut it from being 8 hours behind him down to two hours behind. Tried to call him twice but don't think he was within earshot either time.

The reason most of us here discuss gear is not to load up heavy but to take as little as possible within our preferences.

As to sweating, I use sweat as a gauge that I'm moving too fast (or wearing too much) when I'm still hunting timber. But on an approach hike of maybe 1 to 8 miles uphill to get to a place to start hunting, I sweat like a pig. Same when packing out meat. Like several here, I often hike up in minimal clothes then strip down, scrub down and put on my hunting clothes.

Good point, I agree and have found info. here that I have seen nowhere else that has helped my enormously in reducing pack weight and getting better gear, often LESS gear, to help my elderly bod hunt the hills.

Some of the software for the IRiver at least(like an older Ipod, but with no hard drive) you can record directly from CD's but it is kind of slow.
Generally, what I do, using the software supplied with the IRiver is just buy songs off of the internet, they load faster that way, seems like.

Mine is an older unit, I have around 150 songs on it, I think it will hold close to 300?
I guess some of the new ones will hold several thousand!