Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Polysil tarp

Looking for a source for these, for longer hunts as potential shelter, rain shield, etc.
Yes, I tried the Search function. No workie for me.
Anyway, where are you getting your tarps?

EDITED TO ADD: I did find a thread re tarps after all. Some of those look very good, but surprisingly expensive. Is anyone aware of an inexpensive version of these that works?

I spent a long time looking for what you're after and found the ones made by UGQ Outdoor for $135. If you're patient, they have sales several times a year. Their stuff is top notch, custom made in America. You pick what color you want. I've got two of their sleeping bags as well. Great quality stuff.

https://ugqoutdoor.com/product/hanger-12-silpoly/

Appreciate that!

If you use trekking poles, you could use a tent fly like the Tarptent Notch or Stratospire. Easy to setup for glassing or windbreak, and obviously an emergency shelter. I think that they are faster and easier to setup than a regular tarp for many people, with really good coverage.

TT sells just the fly but you could buy the whole tent and leave the inner at home. They have deals on blems that don't cost much more than a regular silpoly tarp too.

A plain tarp can be handy though!

Borah Gear has a nice, little 7x9 tarp.

Using the unofficial search engine and the term “silnylon” turns up more hits.

SILNYLON

Seek Outside makes a couple of great flat tarps. The Gunnison tarp is a bit smaller that the DST (I have and use a DST). The DST has a reinforced patch in the middle for propping it up with a trekking pole or branch.

Seek Outside is made in Grand Junction, Colorado

I do a little sewing of my own outdoor gear. I made a 12x12 silnylon tarp a few years back. I wouldn't do it again as fabric prices have skyrocketed. You can buy a tarp as cheap as you can make one now.

I look at function first, cost second. In other words, figure out what characteristics are required to meet your functional needs first, then from among those that meet the functional requirements, choose .. and maybe cost factors in there. It does for me especially if there's something about the use that requires replacement with some frequency. One of the things you've got to figure out is how big is necessary. Anything bigger is unnecessary weight. Anything less is .. not quite getting the job done. How much does weight matter? (In other words, how far am I packing the SOB?) If it's pretty near the truck, I might go with a cheap poly tarp, if it's far, it might be dyneema, and I might have a cheap poly tarp to use at times to save wear and tear on my more expensive stuff.

For most of my use, 9x9 is a touch small, 10x10 can be, but 12x12 is unnecessarily large. The idea of using a small tent rather than a tarp is worth considering. Seek Outside DST is good. I'd rather have one in dyneema. Got a lot of features I'd like in one to pack longer distances but for the amount of coverage it's a bit heavy. Dutch Ware gear sells some hammocking tarps that might suit your need. I've got a couple dyneema tarps from Z-Pack and Mountain Laurel Designs that I use .. monk tarp is pretty minimal, grace tarp is better.

Sometimes I cheat. Don't ignore the functionality of those little use-once-and-discard $5-ish ponchos. Couple of those together aren't any thicker than a wallet and with some thought can be used to cover a lot of needs.

POLY tarps block UV MUCH better than SilNylon .

Amazon has Gold Armour Tarps , Poly 8x10' - $35 , 10x12' - $38

Good to see you posting again ol_mike.

Hopefully you and yours had a Merry Christmas.

Thanks.
Yep had an enjoyable Christmas , hope yours was great !!