Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Carrying Canned Food?

Hey guys,

I'm curious, am I the only one who packs canned food on backcountry trips? I just finished throwing together my food for a 6 day trip coming up, and when some hunting buddies heard I was packing 11 tins of canned stew/chilli/alphaghetti/soups, along with small tins of peaches and pears, they thought I was crazy.

I've always done this though, mostly for convenience sake. When I'm hungry, I just plop down in front of my stove, and heat my food up. I don't have to worry about being close to a water source like you do with dehydrated stuff. 2 minutes of stirring on top of the whisperlite and I'm eating. Plus it always tastes good!

Does anyone else here pack canned food or am I the odd man out?

I've never seen it done that way.

You must be one bad-azz hiker carry all those cans!!!!

I'll still carry tinned meat; deviled ham, chicken, tuna, and spread it on soft/flat bread for lunch. Works very well. Did that in September on the High Buck Hunt. Didn't get a buck, but had some great lunches on the trail!

When I was a kid we sometimes carried canned food, because there was very little avail in the way of dehydrated grub. In The Corps of course we had to carry canned C-Rations, or go hungry.

These days it's just too easy to boil some water over the Whisperlite and pour it into a foil packet... Very easy to enjoy a hot meal with only a few minutes of water boiling.

Regards, Guy

Plus hardly anything to burn the pouch. Steel cans won't melt.

Have you ever weighed all those cans of food? Holy cow! And I'd hate to have to pack all the empties out. Tasty and convenient eats though if you don't mind those two factors.

I do carry foil packed chicken and tuna. Nice and juicy and no hydration needed. Great addition to lots of freezer bag meals and the packaging can be burnt in the stove and if there is no stove, it's nominal weight to carry out.

Actually I haven't weighed my food yet. I'll do an "academic exercise" and try figure out approx what my food will weigh. Give me a little while here and I'll get the results posted. Should be interesting to finally see what I've been humping these past few years.

There's no way in Heil I'm carrying anything in a can unless it's made with hops and contains alcohol.

Alright, so here is my list. This is an estimate, as I just googled the products to figure out weight.

Type.....................Weight.........#Carried....Total(oz)
Campbells Soups...........18.3oz..........11........201.3
fruit tin.................416g............8.........117.39
granola bars..............26g.............18.........16.51
fruit snacks..............18g.............10..........6.35
tea........................2g.............26..........1.83
sugar.................................................6.0
coffee mate...........................................7oz
oatmeal...............................................6oz
powdered milk.........................................6oz
protein powder........................................6oz
snickers bars.............1.75oz..........4...........7.04
.....................................................________
Total.................................................381.42oz/23.84lbs

This works out to 23.84lbs in total for a 6 day hunt. Factor in 5L of water, that's another 11lbs. I was going to guess close to 20lbs of food stuff, so I guess I was close haha. Total calories, not including cups of tea and granola/protein powder for breakfast (it's hit or miss if I bother making this concoction in the mornings), BUT including the trail mix that I always carry in a pocket(not listed above though) is around 1500 calories per meal. Usually I eat a big lunch and big supper, and some snacks and tea in the morning, so I would guess I'm at about 3800-4200 calories consumed per day.

As a side note, the way I tend to backpack hunt though is hump in my tent and gear and what not on my external frame pack, as well as take along my small daypack. I set up camp and get myself squared away, and then put my daypack on and go hunt. So while the trip in and out may weigh a bit, the actually hunting itself is pretty lightweight.

What are your guys' typical food/water weights?

Foil packed meats worst case, never a can. Maybe a small bottle though thats never been used...

wow, two words...



mountain house

Hansol,

I doubt you'll find many folks packing canned foods these days when there are many lighter food alternatives.

Give one of the many freeze dried food meals a try and you will be a converted man. I suggest AlpineAire, Backpackers Pantry or Mountain House.

You'll be doing your body a big favor believe me.

MtnHtr

Ditto!

Thanks for all the info guys, this is certainly a neat thread.

I'm hearing a lot about mountain house food. I have a few buddies who used em, but I myself haven't yet. I've used the military IMPs (Canadian version of MREs), and they were slick. To be honest, if I was going any longer than 5ish days, I'd be looking into those things for sure. Just too much wasted space/weight in the pack I'm thinking. I'll have to try the mountain house stuff too.

Also, I've been hearing that packing 5 litres of water is a bit much, and this really strikes me as crazy! I've always liked to have more water than I need so that I can drink when I'm thirsty. It adds to my initial pack weight yes, but as I hike I find that 5L QUICKLY turns into 2. Do you guys carry a lot of water?

Anyway it's always neat to see what everyone takes in their rigs, and it's always great to learn from guys who have the experience. Cheers!

hansol, well I can't argue your logic when it comes to convenience. My big concern would be if you fell on your back it could be days before someone came along and rolled you back over.

Ray Jardine has a great article on carrying cannonballs while packing - http://www.rayjardine.com/papers/cannonballs/index.htm

Maybe this will shed some light on this topic.

Siskiyous6,

Alright, I can interpret the article you posted in one of two ways:

1) Canned food is like carrying a cannonball: heavy and stupid.

OR 2) Because canned food (or the rest of my gear for that matter haha) isn't the latest greatest whizzbang freezedried titanium everyone-is-doing-it type gear, doesn't mean it's not workable.

Maybe I missed the mark though with regards to it and this post. Regardless, I still quite liked that article for describing the "big picture".

it only has to work for you


but there might be better ways for you

but I'd sure appreciate you going hunting with me before you give up on the canned food gig.

some canned peaches after a freeze dried dinner would be danged good I'm thinking.

rock on

if I was stud enough to carry canned goods on my bp hunts I'd let these hombres know it for sure

but I ain't


and they know it....grin

How far are you packing the canned goods?

Think of it this way. That's the same as carrying 63 mountain house meals or carrying enough for a month long trip assuming your eating 2 a day. If that's for a week long trip that's pretty heavy. MRE's are just as bad for weight but they do pack a ton of calories and trash.

In the end your the one who has to carry it but look at how much weight you can save by just changing your main meal. Its only takes a couple minutes to heat 2 cups of water on a WL so your not losing any time. Plus you dont have to continue to pack out those steel cans.

If you want to look into eating really good and saving a ton of weight take a look at this website.

http://www.trailcooking.com/