Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Svea 123 stove

I can't disagree with either of these statements. They are cool little stoves.

Agreed, a lot of nostalgia connected with this old gear. At my age, I have about 60 years of accumulate camping/hunting gear. Kerosene lanterns to Colemans to LED's. Old army pup tents to modern back pack tents.Big tents,little tents. Several dozen knives,firearms I have not shot in 20 years, old aluminum trails chefs,dutch ovens, cast iron skillets and grills, wood stoves, reflector ovens,sterno stoves. I have about as much nostalgia as I can stand. I have started to dispose of some of it before I kick off and my wife brings in a 30 yard dumpster and sends it all to the dump.

What's to go wrong during a 20 year nap? The only possible thing that could go wrong with it is dust or bugs in the nozzle.

I kind of doubt I'll ever use it again anyway. When I'm packing with the llamas I carry a propane stove which is the easiest of all to light and use. I'm too old to backpack. I can't carry a load heavier than my daypack and rifle any more.

Got to admit the MSR pocket rocket sure is super convienent. It takes some of the mystique out of the whole deal.

Have had one of these little stoves since the early 70's, been sitting on a shelf in the garage for close to 30 years. It's kind of like the old 2 burner Coleman gas stoves of the same vintage they worked no matter what the conditions. I carried that old svea as part of my survival gear when flying around the state working in the bush.

The old Coleman 2 burner stoves were very reliable but not being able to have both burners at the same temp was a real pain when using a griddle. My current 2 burner stove is propane and is a lot less trouble.

The Svea was the best until the MSRs came along. I have used canister stoves since the '80s except when melting large quantities of snow. I can boil a qt. of water w/ my canister stove in the time it takes to light a Whisperlight.

I hate fiddling w/ stuff when I am tired and cold, freeze dried food and a canister stove works best for me most of the time. Lighting a Whisperlight w/ near frozen fingers can be a bit of a challenge for us non-mechanical guys


mike r

Svea 123 stoves, Kelty frame packs (with the metal zippers that never failed!), Sierra Designs tents, ensolite foam sleeping pads, and the list could go on. I can almost hear John Denver singin' in the background.
Those were the 1970's I remember.

I’ve heard of them before.



I’ve used the eye dropper. The Coghlans fire paste is the cats ass for preheat, as well as that little pump in the pic.

It is not that hard. You could learn fast.

I cooked for two on a marathon 14-day AK sheep/goat/bear hunt, using a MSR simmerlite and one 22oz bottle of fuel. This was a cooked/simmered dinner each night (no freeze dried), and boiled water for coffee and oatmeal about half of the mornings. I was astounded, frankly. I kept waiting to refill the bottle, but it kept hanging on.

I can and have done it for years. I just prefer canister stoves for most of my applications


mike r

Saddlesore, let us know if you have a garage sale.

The only good use for an ensolite pad is to put it on top of an air mattress for more insulation. I've spent a lot of nights on ensolite. Good riddance.

I've got a 50 year old Optimus. It saw some use back in the day.

Also good to cut a butt-sized piece to carry in a pack for insulation and waterproofiness when sitting and glassing.

Just make sure the O ring on the filler cap is in good shape...they can spout a good flame from it if they are not.

Ha ha, I know exactly what you’re saying. I started about 20 years ago with a Sigg Firejet, which was a good stove, but one year I had some trouble with it and couldn’t get parts anymore. Then on to an MSR Whisperlite for a bunch of years with no complaints. Both of those stoves worked great but had to shield them well from the wind. Now I’m a couple years into using an MSR Windburner and love it. I can have a liter or water boiled regardless of wind conditions in less time than it would take to get the Whisperlite setup and burning. It just keeps getting better.
If MSR could add an igniter to the Windburner, it would be pretty close to perfection for boiling water.

How does the Windburner work with pots other than theirs? How about setting a can of soup on it without a pan?

I haven’t tried any other pots with it so far. I bought it strictly as a water boiler.