Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting List of things to bring to a hunt lodge

Ton of good info!
Good first aid kit as sh*t happens. Also Make sure it has a burn ointment, my boy needed one last year and none of the 5 first aid kits in camp had it.

great advice above.

for breakfasts, we usually eat pre-cooked taquitos or oatmeal
lunches are sandwiches + apple
dinners we normally pre-cook, then freeze in gallon baggies. thaw them the day before, then reheat in a huge teflon stewpot.

agree with Wytex advice on trying to do something to help out while there, and splitting firewood is always welcomed.

If I was driving to this lodge my coolers would be full of frozen homecooked prepared foods that I could cook or heat up for dinner.casserols, stews,pastas like lasagna and baked ziti with meat. Steak for grilling with baked potatoes and steamer vegs.
Sandwiches for lunch
Breakfast I like bagels and cream cheese with smoked sausage. Something quick. If it isnt freezing cold like cold cereal and yogurt with boiled egg.

As for MRE’s; I gave up sleeping on the ground and eating that crap long ago. However, I still take a woobie along sometimes 😂

There's a happy medium in there soewhere. Hunting out of a lodge with a full kitchen would be kind of a rare treat that I'd take full advantage of, at least for the evening meal. It gets dark early during rifle seasons so you have a few hours to kill before bedtime and it doesn't take any more time or effort to broil up a steak than it does to heat up a can of chicken noodle soup. Since he's hunting a ranch odds are he won't be exhausted at the end of the day from hiking 8 miles up and down mountains either so no need to just scarf down something quick and fall into bed.

Amen to that!

Speaking of first aid, about a month ago there was discussion ( on 24hrcampfire or a different forum) about snake and insect bites and stings. Various people were very favorable about the “Sawyer Extractor “. If used soon after a byte or sting it can really make a big difference. I went ahead and bought one ‘cause the older I get, my reaction to wasp stings is getting worse. Just saying.

If you've had your 1st aid kit for a while, it's a good idea to go through and change out the stuff that's old. Antiseptics and burn cream have an expiration date and the adhesive on bandaids and tape don't stick after several years.

Do you know how long epi-pens stay good?

Looks like they expire after 18 months, but a quick google search indicates they are still effective for a few years after that..

Sardines…..

Eat sardines!

One whiff outta a freshly cracked can………

The big bull will be ready to bring the wood to tuna town!

Handy dandy baby butt wipes, a man can eat, drink, sleep whatever, but a clean tailend is king for walking a thousand miles looking for elk, good luck and shoot straight.

Personally the accommodations sound great but in my experience few like to cook after hunting 12+ hours for several days beyond maybe the first day. Keep things really simple & enjoy a padded rack instead of the hard ground. Food should never take away from field time IMO. My .02

If it was acceptable, maybe bring the wife so she can make a sammich?

Ooooh! That’s the kind of answer that will have a guy sleeping on the couch. Darn funny, but hazardous!

go to snakebite foundation.org and find out the truth.

hint: they are recommended by Dr. crappy hamper


mike r

Storage-type 20Gal ziplocks. Get the quarters CLEAN and free from all hair/bloodshot/etc, then drop them into the big ziplocks. The freezer won't ever see a drop of blood.

These:

Big Ziplock

You should be able to get both front quarters into 1 20Gal bag with the bones in. We typically use the smaller 10Gal size for 1 boned-out rear quarter/backstrap/tenderlion in each bag.

The big ziplocks don't have that nasty photo-degrading chemical that garbage bags do.

Most often we'll stack them in coolers or a freezer such that one can leave the tops open while cooling to eliminate condensation within the bag then seal them up before we head home.

Thanks for the pointer! I went to that website and read their .pdf about venom extractors. They describe a controlled experiment and found "The bottom line: the Extractor removed 0.04% to 2.0% of the envenomation " . Basically useless, and dangerous because using it will likely delay effective treatment.

Maybe I can use it to extract ticks from a dog??? Or blackheads from a teenager?

How about a nice bottle of Hooch to leave for the owner?

That’s a tough one. How to thank/show-appreciation to a rancher or landowner for hunting-access/accommodations that quite frankly have a market value in the hundreds of dollars. And greatly increase your chances for future invites to come back.

A lot depends on how far away you live from him/her.

A MAJOR problem for ranchers nowadays is they can’t find anybody willing to work! No way no how. A lot of this work is sporadic, it is for a day or few, on occasion, but when needed, it is NEEDED.

If you live close enough (i.e. a couple hundred miles) for just a day trip and are willing to get there early enough (with some effort e.g. as if you’re hunting), one thing you could do is pitch in for a day of acequia (ditch) cleaning (in early spring, in the weeks before releasing water into the acequia), and/or show up early bright eyed and bushy tailed to “walk the water “ when they do release the water into the ditch, where you pace the leading edge of the mini-“flash flood” coming down the ditch and every few feet scoop a pitchfork load of water soaked twigs/branches/debris up on the bank ... in my acequia you do this for 4 miles!
Acequia has been there for 170 years so you can imagine the thick growth of cottonwoods and brush along it. Do this and you will find out how tough you are. Do this and it will be appreciated!