Originally Posted by Jordan Smith
Originally Posted by Mountain10mm
So many variables. If...rain, snow, really cold nights are an issue, I’d go with tent with a floor. For those rare early fall nights in the mountains with none of those issues, you could sleep right on your air mattress. A simple tarp over your bag will keep the frost off you. I look at it, if I need a tent, I need a tent with a tent with a floor.

To the OP. I live in CO. I think in 20 years of archery and rifle hunts I’ve only had one where Mother Nature didn’t dump rain or snow on us. And it’s almost always snow in the mountains. A wet sleeping bag would cut the trip short.
Nah, good floorless shelters do just fine in driving rain, hail, snow, and deep cold. It does take some strategy to pitch them properly for the conditions, though. I'll leave the creepy crawlies out of my statement, since that's a personal and subjective thing to some extent.

The only thing I'd add to this is, if you set up in an area with grass it's a good bet you'll have mice in your tent at night so bring a few mouse traps. Some areas are worse than others but a few mousetraps will take care of the problem.

I've hunted the muzzleloader seasons in CO for the past 20+ years, always used a floorless tent (Golite SL-5). Never had a problem keeping my stuff dry, and almost never have problems with mosquitoes or other bugs. The good thing IMO about a floorless shelter vs floored is, for the same weight the footprint is a lot bigger and you can get all your gear in the tent, under cover. The downside is (at least for single center-pole tents like the SL) most are not good with a snow load but that's rarely an issue during the early seasons.


A wise man is frequently humbled.