Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting 100 Tips to Lighten Your Trip

This video covers general UL/ L.Wt. backpacking, but many of the tips overlap for hunting. It's the most practical compilation I've found for the time investment.
His basic principles at the beginning certainly apply to just about any trip where distance from your base camp or vehicle is a factor.
After watching it, add your own ideas and tips.
Hopefully, this will be a continued compilation of our experiences that others might consider and benefit from.



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I carry less stuff to lighten my ruck.

100?

Buy lightweight stuff. Don't carry too much lightweight stuff. Two tips sums it up nicely.



60lbs of lightweight scheit is still 60lbs.

Let someone else carry the loads for you.

Lmao. That's 3 great tips already! Don't stop now, you are on your way to a great video.

This is awesome, great pics thanks for sharing

My takeaway was, "go on a lot of trips, try out different stuff, and see what works for you. Then, keep that stuff and get rid of the rest."

Who knew?

Great tip!
That's pretty cool. What breed are those?

those goats are a neat ideal ,how much weight can a goat carry ?

The ones I've packed with can carry 30-40 lbs for a big one. Most carried less though.

I’ve had mine up to 50. I think they can do 60. But those are 300 pounders. The smaller ones can’t do that

They are Alpines and Alpine crosses

No kidding? I should have recognized them. My friend raised a female that had a weened kid. She asked me to help her milk when I visited . She had a gentle personality and good tasting milk, not goatie at all. I didn't know they made good pack animals too.
Do you have to bring grain or do they browse enough along the way?

I’ve never packed feed in but also tend to hunt earlier season with them. Only ever had some emergency pellets at base camp just in case

Ex, I don't know about your goats but the ones I've been around will eat damn near anything.

If you're in an area that will support elk, it would seem that goats will have plenty to eat.

Right, ain’t much they won’t eat on the trail. Seem to somehow know to avoid poisonous stuff, although sometimes they eat toxic things with no I’ll effect. Basically anything from twigs, to bark to grasses, Forbes and normal shrubs are fair game to them. They’ll eat snow and ice too when they need water. Pretty hardy and versatile compared to horses

Tag...

His cheap plastic spoons and gas station water bottle tips are absolutely not something I think are good ideas.
Gatorade and cheap water bottle caps easily come loose, spilling all your water out. That normally isn't a huge deal until you're a thousand vertical feet above your nearest water source. Nalgenes are heavier no doubt, but their durability makes up for it, for me at least.
Never broke a plastic spoon? Hell I have broke several of the heavier duty plastic ones, let alone the cheaper bulk pack spoons.

Maybe I am just rough on stuff.

Well HC for Alaska he has the route to die. Many, many things he is advocating are death.
1) Cotton kills- His shirt and shorts is a very bad recipe.
2) Trail runners can't handle volume.
3) Titanium is better than plastic spoon. It can also be used as a tent stake or a tent stake can be used as a spork.
4) gloves and a toque are mission critical on a glacier.
5) Nalgene is durable. Seeker Soaker silicon water bottles are better, lighter and more durable than nalgene. You can lock it to the outside of your pack with a carabiner.
6) Cuben tarps are nifty but not good for continued rain.
7) You might not be able to dry things out.
8) Trekking poles are a must.
9) Yoga sleeping pad spells no sleep. Sleep is important and he is cheaping out on his set up.
10) Trekking pole tent would not be my first choice over 4500 of elevation. Below that its ok but up on the upper ridges that are good to hunt from would not be recommended.
11) make tooth paste dots.
12) take small sliver of no odor solid deodorant for your feet so they don't sweat and prompt blisters.
13) Think through possible situations and use a feedback chart to make sure that you are prepared for any situation.
14) Bail if you think you could be getting into trouble. No ram or Billy is worth dying for.
15) Ultralight items cost a lot. Simple items might weigh more but sometimes a collection of limited simple multipurpose items weigh less than a pack stuffed with ultralight tech gizmos.
16) You should carry at least 12 rounds of ammo in a secure ammo carrier.
17) Don't overthink your shooting unit. Occam's razor is your friend.
18) Don't cheap out on your tripod and make sure that you have a mounting solution for your binos.

I am not going to get into the really technical stuff but I can say that backcountry hunting is an entirely different enchilada that through hiking.

Thanks for the video though.

For these weight extremists the game is just weight. That’s fine but I don’t play that game. I’m not sleeping on rocks or cactus just to say I saved 3 oz.