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In addition to many excellent comments already:

Show up a full day or two before the opener, stealthy scout the area, locate exactly where you're going to be first light on opening morning. Keep all noise and movement to a minimum.

Don't camp in creek bottoms, the cold air settles in the bottoms and the sun doesn't reach there often. Don't camp on ridge lines even though they may be flat and sunny - the wind will get you most times. Keep your camp clean and food stuffs hung away from camp, bears do show up during the dark of night. Eat fatty foods before bed time on cold nights. Spend extra time to COMPLETELY clear your bed area. Drink water even when you don't seem thirsty and eat lots of calories.

If you're freezing your ass off, get up and work up the fire. Shivering the night away doesn't do you any good.

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Quote
The best way to get in shape for carrying heavy loads on your back in the hills is to carry heavy loads on your back in the hills.


3 1-gal jugs of water in a pack is 25lb. When I'm working my llamas to get them in shape, I load the panniers with water jugs and carry a pack myself. By hunting season, I have some well traveled water and both the llamas and me are much better off, too.


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― George Orwell

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Great idea, I carry the water uphill and dump it to save my knees on the downhill.

mike r


Don't wish it were easier
Wish you were better

Stab them in the taint, you can't put a tourniquet on that.
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Every year for a couple of decades I setup a big base camp using tents. When car camping in a bigger tent, I take a small propane space heater and I place it close to my sleeping bag so, in the morning, I can reach over and start it running without getting out of my sleeping bag. I also take an extra foam pad and lay it next to my sleeping bag so I can stand on it instead of the frozen floor.

These days I may setup a base camp at the trailhead but I do most of my hunting out of backpack camps. The cheaper your gear is, the tougher you have to be. Be sure to protect your tents from the wind. Try to �hunt uphill�. That means set your camp low and hike uphill to do your hunting. Therefore, when you kill an elk you can drag it downhill instead of hauling it uphill. Don�t try to learn to camp on your first wilderness hunt. That�s a recipe for disaster.

I like to organize my group into self-sufficient teams of two people. Two people to a tent. Two to a stove. Two to hunt together (the buddy system). Two people with similar abilities.

I usually carry four or five days of food and no more. I try to return to base camp occasionally to get more food, fuel, clean underwear and cleanup some. Then go back out for another four or five days. I hunt on the way back to base camp and on the return, so I don't lose any hunting time.

I'm not a proponent of using backpacks designed by hunters. When I'm backpacking, I use gear designed by backpackers for backpacking. The most important factor when choosing a pack is to get one that fits your body and is comfortable on the trail. There are lots of good backpacks offered on the commercial market. I use an Osprey Aether 85 because they are offered with taller torsos and I need that for proper fit.

Try to get everything inside the pack. Load the heaviest items close to your body and near the top. This improves balance. Anything hanging on the outside unbalances the pack, makes you lean forward, and stresses back muscles.

I never carry a hatchet when backpacking. Too heavy. A small lightweight folding saw does the same things and weighs less. You don't need a sidearm because you're carrying a big game rifle. You don't need a SPOT. Too heavy.

I go in about three or four miles and hunt the area between those people that day hike from the end of the road and those that horse pack in farther.

Don't camp in a creek bottom. The cold air and snow settle in the bottoms, so it�s colder there. Don't camp on a ridge top either. It may be warm and sunny when you setup your tent, but it will get windy and cold.

There�s an art to keeping warm when sleeping in the cold. Start by insulating yourself from the frozen ground and then use a really good sleeping bag. I suggest that you use both a closed cell foam sleeping pad and an insulated pad like a Thermarest �Camprest� or �NeoAir� or Big Agnes �Insulated Air Core�. You need a mummy style sleeping bag rated at 0� or colder.

A good 4-season backpack tent with a vestibule will make a big difference. It's important to keep the inside of the tent dry and free of snow. So leave your boots in the vestibule. One big advantage of sleeping directly on the snow is that there won't be any rocks, sticks or bumps under you and the snow will eventually conform to your body contours. If you setup your tent on the snow then first put a light waterproof tarp on the inside of the floor. Any moisture will run under the tarp and freeze between the tarp and the tent floor. Next build a nest inside the tent with extra clothes, stuff sacks, backpacks, etc. This keeps you from rolling off the sleeping pads onto the frozen floor of the tent. Wear only clean dry clothing to bed. Wet clothes, even those wet with only perspiration, will take several hours to dry. Wear your knitted hat to bed as a nightcap. Also sleep 2 to a tent and the extra body heat will make a difference. Bring a wide mouth pee bottle so that you can urinate in the middle of the night without leaving the tent.

If your feet get cold, zip up your coat and slip it over the bottom of your sleeping bag. Or you can put a couple of hand warmer packs in the bottom of your sleeping bag. If your chest is cold, put your coat or vest on inside the sleeping bag.

Bring a good thermos with an insulator. I couldn't find an insulator big enough to take a thermos, so I built my own using foam rubber and duct tape. At night first temper the thermos and then fill it with boiling water and put it inside the insulator and then inside your backpack. In the morning you have hot water for instant cocoa and oatmeal without getting out of your bag.

Store your boots with the laces pulled wide open so you can get your feet into them when they are frozen in the morning.

Leave your water bladder at home because the hose will freeze solid. Take a metal water bottle and store it upside down at night so the lid won�t freeze shut. You can thaw the main body of the bottle over your camp stove.

Don�t let your water filter freeze. If it freezes you can�t use it and it might crack the ceramic filter. First purge the filter the best that you can then put it in a ZipLok bag inside your sleeping bag.

Have a backup plan, contingency for emergencies. Expect some gear to break or fail and be ready to repair it or adapt to do without it.

Expect someone to get injured or sick and be prepared to care for them.

You need to be proficient at wilderness navigation so you can hike three or four miles from camp into unfamiliar country and get back to camp at night, in the fog or in a howling blizzard.

Cotton clothing can be deadly when the weather is cold and wet. You don't need to buy the most expensive clothing, but you do need to use synthetic, wool and/or wool/synthetic blends. Dress in layers. Take several layers and leave that heavy coat at base camp.

I've been backpacking for fifty-five years and only recently started using trekking poles. I wish I had started sooner.

A Jetboil stove may be the most efficient outfit for boiling water and if that's all you're going to do that's great. But they're not very good at simmering a casserole or frying fish. I use an Optimus Crux or an MSR Pocket Rocket during the summer, and an MSR Whisperlite or Dragonfly on cold weather trips. I use simple propane appliances for base camping.

KC



Wind in my hair, Sun on my face, I gazed at the wide open spaces, And I was at home.





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Have a change of merino wool top and bottom and socks, for sleeping only. Change into nice clean "jammies" for night. Makes you feel human after a long day.

+10 on baby wipes.

A handy piece of gear I've used the last couple years is a lightweight down vest. Doesn't have to be top of the line, I use an LL Bean. Good extra insulation layer, compacts small when not used, lightweight. I put mine in my bag at night and put it on in the morning, it's toasty warm having been in my bag. On really cold nights, you can wear it to bed and it isn't bulky or uncomfortable to wear.

No way I'd trust a Mtn. House bag to hold hot water inside my bag. A Nalgene bottle on the other hand...

Thermarest NeoAir. Good insulation and comfy.

A pair of camp shoes. Flip Flops, sandles, Keens, Crocs, something lightweight and comfortable. Sure feels good to get those boots off at the end of a day. Also easier to get on for the 3AM pee.

Ibuprophen

Last edited by snubbie; 11/19/14.

Gloria In Excelsis Deo!

Originally Posted by Calvin
As far as gear goes.. The poorer (or cheaper) you are, the tougher you need to be.


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Don't schit upstream....

Tanner

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Or piss into the wind. Or tug on Superman's cape....



A wise man is frequently humbled.

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Originally Posted by Tanner
Don't schit upstream....

Tanner


Ran into this last year. Hiked two miles down to a dry camp a group of old timers set up every year. Friendly guys but they were adamant we drink their water. It was in a 15 gal jug and tasted horrible. They started acting dodgy when we told em we were gonna filter out of the creek. Idiots. Gotta go a long way up stream once you've seen that.


Screw you! I'm voting for Trump again!

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Everclear, tang and filtered creek water= mountain martini
And if you run out of fuel for your alchohol stove you can burn the booze! cool


Originally Posted by Judman
PS, if you think Trump is “good” you’re way stupider than I thought! Haha

Sorry, trump is a no tax payin pile of shiit.
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Originally Posted by Tanner
Don't schit upstream....

Tanner
With my llamas, that's no joke. There's something about getting their feet wet that triggers them to unload. When crossing a stream, I have to keep them moving or they'll pollute the creek clear to the Pacific. NEVER drink downstream of llamas.


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Originally Posted by Rock Chuck
There's something about getting their feet wet that triggers them to unload. When crossing a stream, I have to keep them moving or they'll pollute the creek clear to the Pacific.



I've seen Tanner do that. Must be why he mentioned it.......



A wise man is frequently humbled.

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I feel you can use a pack designed for both efficient backpacking and the ability to carry hunting loads. That is what I do.

You can also go very minimalist and light, or very prepared and comfy. For me the correct way is to strike a good balance of efficiency , comfort and reliability. This balance will be different for everyone based on their preferences. The area where I am least willing to compromise is in sleep gear.

Regarding camp locations, I use higher ridges often , but prefer sheltered areas if available. For me, most of terrain I frequent doesn't have a lot of usable spots not near ridges or saddles.

Instead of hunting up, I prefer hunting down and being near several good glassing spots. A perfect spot for me is one that I know in an hour I can cover several spots where game might be.

One of the downsides mentioned to hunting down is carrying game up to camp. For me that isn't much of an issue, as I am almost always going up from somewhere , very seldom have i had all downhill or level pack outs. Pack outs are usually greeted with a few hundred feet of uphill somewhere.

One of the reasons I often do set up a base camp near the TH is for the reason of if I get something that easier to get to base camp than to my backcountry camp. In my areas I usually frequent, Elk are usually on the backside and the easier to access ridge lines, but sometimes they move into little holes and pockets that are often overlooked and trail less closer to the base camp.

All said and done, I go pretty light. I have a few pieces of gear, that for me , just work. Above and beyond that, my kit is pretty flexible.

There are a lot of ways to backpack hunt. As mentioned, I have some areas I am pretty familiar with and put in a lot of time scouting. My favorite hunts though, are the non scouted ones, in a new territory where I just put camp on my back and walk until I find game (likely solo). Those type of hunts in unfamiliar terrain, really make you take a look at things with an open mind. You just keep moving , until you reach your limit for a pack out or until you find something. I have had good success finding game this way, but often get bit in the rear , by something like a hidden rock chute I didn't know was there. Overall though, the rewards are high for hunts like that.

I'm not a big glasser, often I think boots on the ground is just as effective as glassing if not more. They both have a pace though. I'm not interested in glassing something I can't get to in a reasonable time frame.

Overall , while I think backpack hunting is an alpha sport requiring a culmination of skills much like adventure racing or mixed climbing, I think the most important part is setting reasonable expectations. Determine what your goal is. Is your goal game in the freezer, antlers on the wall, or just the experience ? Match your terrain, gear and style with your goals and capabilities and above all ENJOY THE EXPERIENCE AND HUNT. If you enjoy the hunt and experience then it is always a success regardless of if you are carrying out a pack full of game or not.


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Originally Posted by Kevin_T
above all ENJOY THE EXPERIENCE AND HUNT. If you enjoy the hunt and experience then it is always a success regardless of if you are carrying out a pack full of game or not.
smile

TRUE!




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Don't lose your pack...and always keep some essential survival gear on your person (not in your pack) at all times...

PS if you carry a SPOT etc, then make sure to change the batteries every so often. ..

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Personally, I like to hike into my spot, not carry it with me.......



A wise man is frequently humbled.

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Originally Posted by smokepole
Personally, I like to hike into my spot, not carry it with me.......


LOL

Keep your spot warm as well, either type of spot. I've had new batteries in a spot that failed to send because of battery power. The were lithiums as well, changed right before trip and first time turned on. Overall though, it has usually been pretty reliable especially if you are in more open country

Speaking of which, I have a spot connect for sale $65.00 via paypal. PM me or I'll put in in classifieds soon



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While backpack hunting is a gear intensive game, it isn't about the gear, its about the hunt. The most important thing is to enjoy it - otherwise what was the point? Now, enjoyment can take on weird forms, and if you have masochistic tendencies and own a pair of boots and a rifle, then backpack hunting is almost certainly for you.

Backpack hunting means different things to different people, and that is going to make strategies and tips less transferable. My first thought on reading this thread title was "Always have a tarp and a sleeping bag with you.", but that will just be dead weight to a lot of people based on how they are hunting. Along those lines, take what others tell you with a grain of salt. Its entirely possible that it works perfectly for them and doesn't apply at all to you.

I tend to think of things in terms of resources. Time, effort, food, etc. If you spend all your time climbing a mountain to see the other side of it, you may lose the ability to hunt a different drainage in the other direction. If you go light and only bring 2 days worth of food up the mountain, you are not going to be able to kill something that is a day away from the top and get it back down (that one has bit me before and it sucks). There is an opportunity cost to every move you make, so it makes sense to spend a little time thinking about those before making a move.

Going uphill is a cakewalk compared to coming downhill, and especially with a heavy pack. Don't go up something you can't get back down.

Don't shoot it if you can't retrieve it.

Do what you have to do to sleep well.

Take care of your partner, switch out leading/breaking trail, keep things positive. Everyone needs a cheerleader now and then, but Debbie Downer rarely gets a phone call during hunting season.

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Originally Posted by cwh2
Take care of your partner, switch out leading/breaking trail, keep things positive.


This is especially true if your partner is a llama. If you don't take care of them, they schit in your water supply.



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They gotta drink at some point too, and payback is a MF.

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Originally Posted by Talus_in_Arizona
Baby wipes. You'll thank me later.


If you get anti-bacterial wipes they do double duty; one thing a lot of people don't do a good job on is backcountry sanitation and this means sanitizing your hands before you eat or drink. This is really an obligation if you're in a group and preparing food for others.

So bring either anti-bacterial wipes or a small bottle of hand sanitizer.



A wise man is frequently humbled.

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