Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting How heavy is your pack?

For multi day late season elk hunt. Mine is getting pretty heavy as I acquire more gear for my budding backpacking obsession. Thankfully I’m running out of more stuff to buy. 😅

Edit- I should specify….
I am interested to hear what your whole kit might weigh. In my mind, I will be carrying a heavy pack to a camping spot, and then dropping gear for day hunts. My hunt bag weighs about 25 pounds. The pack with all my camp gear, sleep system, tent + hunting gear is weighing about 60 pounds right now.

I'm usually near 55 pounds not counting my rifle, for elk. My MR 6500 pack weighs more than most though.

I should add that is for 5 days and water is cached at camp site in advance.

How late season are you talking? The later the season the heavier your overall weight will be. Bigger sleeping bag, higher r value pad (heavier), more insulation that you'll wear. No way around it.

Jackson,

We hunt the bitterroot in November, so I have plenty of cold weather gear for sure.

Mike, I think we’re along the same lines. I have a much maligned Eberlestock that I love, but i definitely carry extra total weight in the pack to make it more versatile overall. Use the F1 mainframe with the vapor 7500 housing a vapor 2500 and dry bag inside. All the extra stuff comes off and it’s just the mainframe with the Vapor 2500 while I’m hunting.

My Mystery Ranch pack compresses down nicely for the week's hunt after the actual pack in which is a very useful feature. I'm probably at 20 to 25 pounds for the actual hunt as well.

Day hunting pack is typically around 18-25 depending on how much water and snacks are in it. Be great if I could keep it under 18, but game bags, game cleaning gear, extra ammo, first aid/fire kits, headlamp, rangefinder, just seems like there's only so much you can do to lighten it and still be somewhat prepared. Scouting in preseason, I can bring it down to 15 lbs.

Overnight hiking trips are different, those are 45+. Not sure how some of these guys can do three nights with a pack that weights 25-30lbs.

My mid-season pack for a multi-day hunt is ~ 30 lbs- that's with my rifle; add 1.5 lbs of food/day and usually 2-4 lbs of water; a 5 day hunt would be in the 40-ish lb range.

I’d have to start shedding some serious gear to get down to 40 pounds.

I do have some duplicity. Binoculars for instance. A set for stalking (8x) and a larger set for glassing.

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Right now my pack is fully packed including food for a 3-night recreational trip. I will be following the creek so no need to carry water. The pack weighs 21#. No fishing gear as I will be occupied by other efforts.

I like to hunt Coues deer in southern Arizona. Temps are mild. The hike in is about 3 miles and there's no water along the way. Although there is water near camp. So I only carry about half a Nalgene jug. We usually carry only three nights food. It's so close that if we need more we will just go get it out of the truck. When I add field dressing gear, range finder, binoculars, extra ammo, my pack weighs about 27#. Plus a 9# rifle.

I hunt elk in the West Elk Wilderness during Colorado's 3rd rifle season. It's common to get some snow and occasionally we can get a couple of feet. We can also get temps in the 60s. The hike in is about 5 miles with more ups than downs. Water is convenient to camp but there is none along the way, so I carry a full quart. We dress warm to start then carry some extra cold weather clothing. I carry four nights food, a 10#, 4-season tent and a warmer sleeping bag. My pack weighs about 34#, plus 10# rifle.

I am no stranger to a 30lb pack for 2-3 days though late season can complicate things. I have no need for a heavy tent. A Walmart 8x10 tarp works if I expect rain or snow. No tarp at all works if it is supposed to be dry. A synthetic sleeping bag and bivy cover works. Sometimes a pad, sometimes not. One knife with extra blades, game bags and a headlamp. Some extra odds and ends as you see fit.

I do pack a water filter and hatchet but some don’t. Tortillas and a premixed PB&J container for all meals, plus trail mix or granola bars. If there are no point restrictions I leave the spotter and tripod behind and only take 15x binos. A puffy for a pillow and one set of thick socks to sleep in. No extra cloths.

If you don’t need luxury then 30 lbs isn’t terribly tough to make.

To those of you carrying 40-50 pound packs, are you carrying a tripod? Multiple optics? Extra clothes? Again, this is for mountain hunting, sleeping in freezing temperatures.

It would be awesome to see a packing list from some of you running packs under 50 pounds.

Thanks everyone for you input! Can’t wait for hunting season to come back around!

this hunt: https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/17064162/tough-hunt#Post17064162

Have seldom weighed my pack. One of the times I did my total carry weight was 26 lb. including a 7 1/4 lb. rifle and a quart of water. I seldom carry water in the PNW but it was a long ways without a water source. That was for a 3 day/2 night deer hunt in sub-alpine in the North Cascades near the Canadian border.

Have carried some heavy packs on fun alpine lakes fishing forays, with lots of great food and cooking gear, and no meat to pack out.

The more serious the hunt the lighter weight I try to go: minimal tarp, minimal pad and minimal or no sleeping bag, no stove nor pot if only for a day or two. But I'm getting too old for backpack hunting, and you men are all way ahead of me with newer and better gear. I live your hunts with you through your stories.

Thanks for sharing your list, MtWarden.

No problem :)- you can see my spotter/tripod is on the "weak" side, but it works well enough for me to tell if a buck/bull is worth pursuing; other hunting (like my upcoming Dall hunt) would dictate a more potent spotter and heavier tripod adding an easy 4 pounds. The rest stays about the same (of course the number of days dictates the food weight)

So do you spend much time glassing with your tripod?

I went through my pack and narrowed it down to about 46 pounds. Having a folding saw, I guess I don’t NEED a hatchet too.

Having a zero degree quilt and bivy sack, I should get by without a sleeping bag liner ….

I was originally loading about 3 skivvy roles (sock and base layer set. I’m going narrow that down to one.

I’ve got a Kuiu refuge tent. Was planning on using that as a base camp and keeping a tarp on hand for day hunting/glassing/emergency. Thinking I may just go with the tent and leave the tarp at home as my two hunting partners have tarps as well.

I did make a few decisions on things to keep too. Do appreciate everyone’s input! Part of the fun of the off-season is the fine tuning.

mtwarden's ruck is representative of my usual ruck equivalent items, particularly in winter.

Add: sidearm, usually loaded revolver with additional 5 to 6 cartridges.

I don’t have my itemized list on me but I was at 63 pounds for my solo sheep hunt into the unlimiteds last year. That included everything (food, water going in, rifle, tag). 9 days solo. I’ll bring less food this year for sure as I only ate 2/3 of it.

I was packing a tripod, rangefinder, 10x42 nl pure binos and kowa 884 spotter

I usually spend a fair bit of time glassing w/ the tripod, but probably 90% with my binos. Elk/deer I only bring out the spotter if it's far enough off I can't tell wether it's worth pursuing.

Clothing is a good place to cut weight, not even so much what you're carrying, but what not to carry. 5 day hunt I bring one extra pair of socks- sleep socks that stay dry no matter what (unless it's the last day of the hunt). Longer I will bring another set of boxers, another base top and another pair of socks (three total).

If you guys are going as a group, that might another good place to look for cutting weight. Possibly share a shelter(s) and divvy up the weight, cut down on the number of stoves/fuel, etc.

We always bring a stove per person, just to have a backup. Otherwise, I am all about sharing weight.

Never weighed a pack without food. Guessing I was right around 40 without food, but thats for 2+ weeks.

You don't need the hatchet, and probably don't need the saw either. I'd spend my lbs and oz on optics, but thats just me.

I was able to lighten my load by going to Lighterpacks.com and doing research on backpacking gear on backpacking web sites and YouTube backpacker videos.