Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Tent hunting experience...Yay or Nay?

I spent probably 25 years hunting deer out of a military GP Small tent. I don’t remember anything but good out of those experiences, especially if I trenched in the sidewall flaps and had a good heater. Fun times until I got older, then we built a small cabin to sleep in. That worked well until I got even older (78), now I just sleep in my own bed and drive to my hunting site. My how times have changed. But I wouldn’t take anything for the memories of our hunting trips out of a tent. There is nothing like it!

It rains a lot in AL during the hunting season. Nov not too bad but December, January and early Feb are wet as heck. Tent camping is ok but if its wet ,no thanks.

A canvas wall tent with a rain fly and wood stove will keep you warm and dry in very rainy weather. Just don’t pitch the tent in a low spot or your gear could be floating when you wake up!

Just as a hint: If you use a waterproof ground cloth under the tent, whether it has a floor or not, fold the excess back under or run it up the inside of the walls. Don't let any part of it stick out beyond the sides of the tent. Rain will run off the tent on onto the ground cloth where it will then run under the tent and puddle up. It will keep water in, not out.

This is my second year using an Alaknak 12x12 with a wood stove, and each trip was a little under 5 days at a time. I don’t think I’d bother setting it up unless the stay was that long at minimum. I don’t have any experience with canvas tents, but I’m sure they’re great. We have lots of critters that crawl and bite here, so I like a floor in my tent.

It rained a lot during each trip, and the only water issue was because the low end of our campsite allowed water to run into one corner. Lesson learned on finding a better draining campsite, as that’s an easy fix.

Before that, I’d only used dome tents, so this was a step up. If it’s gonna dip into the 20’s or below, I’ll never leave my wood stove behind again. The wood stove works great without condensation and plenty of warmth. Other heaters just didn’t do the job well for us. Any friends who don’t like to sleep slightly warm can pitch their own tents accordingly from now on. I don’t blame them one bit, but if I wanted to sleep cold, I’d just put my cot under a pop up canopy. It’d be about the same as not having a good wood stove.

My opinion about the Alaknak might change after a few more seasons, but I ain’t complaining much so far.

Ain't that the truth...

FYI western/northern folks, it can get deathly cold in the deep south, 25* and windy along with high humidity = COLD. The type cold that you can't seem to get warm in, or it could be 80*.


Haha haha you call 25 degrees COLD HAHAHA
TRY 7-15 below zero with a 10-15 moh wind like we get here in Montana THATS COLD you can't get enough heat to warm up
25, degrees here we just use a heavier sleeping bag

I'll stick with our lance 1175 slide in truck camper all the comforts of home and portable to

I've done it a lot in Alabama in temps from. Uncomfortably hot to low teens. Tents from a Walmart special to a canvas wall tent with wood stove. The better your tent the more enjoyable it will be.

A tent on a hunting trip caused a total lifestyle change for my parents. Dad and I got soaked in an old umbrella tent on a weekend of solid rain. It started leaking and Dad put a tarp over it. Water started coming under it and we quit 'hunting' and went home. Dad said screw this and built a cheap plywood camper on our '49 F100. A decade later, that morphed from cheap plywood, though several molts where it emerged as a store bought pickup shell, then a real truck camper, then through stages of camp trailers. It eventually reached motorhome size and my parents retired to be RVers. It all started with that tent.

I vote "Yay."

My dad, brother and I (age 17) deer hunted out of a homemade canvas wall tent in 1978 in the Catskill Mountains (south side of the Pepacton Reservoir, NY state). It was great experience.

My dad belonged to a hunting club in the area (nothing posh or high brow about it) . A simple cabin (on stilts) the members built from essentially scrap lumber in the 1960's. Running water, electricity, wood stove, propane cook stove, outhouse. It burned down in 1977.

My dad made a canvas wall tent, no larger than ~10 ft x 10 ft. Old propane heater for heat. Coleman stove under a fly outside the tent for cooking. Kerosene lantern for light ( and a couple of flashlights). Brought in 5 gallon jugs of water. Hunted for 4 days Thanksgiving week. Saw only does, but did not have a doe permit, so nothing was tagged.

It was cold, not "Montana cold." Highs in the 20's, , low teens(?) at night . About 4" of snow on the ground. We were warm enough in the tent with sleeping bags on GI cots. Food was good and hearty (nothing fancy or deluxe). The time spent with my dad and my brother was priceless-and feels like it happened last year.

Dad used his Savage 99 ( 300 Savage, with a 3x Leupold), and my brother and I used Marlin 336A rifles (30-30 with 4x Weavers). We still have the Marlins. My brother still has our dad's Savage 99.

Hope you decide to go tent hunting and fully enjoy the experience. I'd do it again in a heart beat if I could get my dad back- so would my brother.