Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Were you a backpacker or hunter first.

hunting first with small daypack setups , more serious later, esp as I moved into the mountains.

Do any of you hunters go very light with smaller pack, no tent or sleeping bag, just bivouac at the end of the day wherever you end up? I've often thought of this but haven't yet.

I just combined backpacking and hunting when I started bow hunting about ten years ago. Like some one else said I did it to save the five mile hike into elk country from the end of the road each day.

Hunted first in areas where backpacking served no real purpose but also became interested in backpacking as a separate activity. Now that I'm in Colorado, the two mesh nicely.

When I lived in Fairbanks, I remember a friend's 18 year old son (did a sheep hunt solo theat way one time. He just slept in his clothes. One morning he woke up after the rain turned to snow and his clothes were frozen stiff.

He said he fought his way out of the pants and hiked in his skivvies with the pants tied to his pack until they thawed out. Must have been quite a sight! He did shoot a ram though.

I was a hunter first.I didn't start backpacking hunting till i took up archery hunting about 6 years ago.Now I can't get enough backpacking in.I have started my kids on backpacking and every summer we do a few backpack trips.
BBJ

loading up the packs to take the boys to America, we're gonna do some around these parts.


http://www.havasupaitribe.com/waterfalls.html

Is that planned for spring break? Should be freaking awesome! Of course we'll expect a full report. Oh, and take a dang camera, willya?

oh one more thing to add to the list!


Tks Mike!

The only time I backpack is when I want to hunt some out of the way place.

1akhunter,

I did that very same Havasupai Falls trip back during spring break 1970. It was awesome! I hadn't even seen the Grand canyon before that. You can read all you want about the Grand Canyon, memorize how deep it is, how far it stretches, all the geological facts, see it in pictures posters and movies, but nothing prepares you for standing on the rim at sunrise, it just takes your breath away.

And that hike down into the Havasupai is the closest I've ever come to a "Lost Horizons" Shangrila experience.

BTW, I lived in Fairbacks from 1974-78 was last there in 79 but am returning this summer to judge a retriever field trial. My best friend Dave still lives there, he and his wife Maureen raised two great kids and put them both through UAF, his daughter is getting her MA in comminication this spring.

Thats why you carry a space blanket. I actually made a special rucksack that I still use. It has a ripstop nylon extension that allows you to use the ruck sack as a half bag with your feet down in the bottom of the pack and the collar pulled up about mid chest. I've used it a few times and it helps keep you warm enough in snow conditions to sleep.

tis why I now have a sueded type fanny/daypack combo


a few more bits of gear sure make an overnighter much more pleasant.

poncho being one of em if it's raining.

Hunter first.

I hunted deer for 10 years (since the age of 12) without ever considering a backpack an essential piece of gear. Then I picked up a used EMS frame pack as a "just in case" piece of equipment. That Fall I packed out my first ever whitetail deer, boned out, and my perspective changed.

Over ten years after that first hump out of the river canyon in Idaho and only now I am beginning to realize the potential of carrying camp on my back.

Needless to say if it wasn't for hunting, I wouldn't consider backpacking.

That's a great idea for a ruck! Also, in the right weather window, I think it'd be no big deal to go super-ultra light and sleep in what one is wearing, but my gear selection is governed (probably too much) by the "what if" school of thought.

The kid I mentioned did not get "caught out". That was his plan! He didn't know that it couldn't be done! He took 1 nalgene of water and some sandwiches. Both were gone pretty quickly. He survived, brought out his ram - head, hide, and meat, and learned A LOT!

Oh, to be young and dumb!

At least he was packing light.

I hope one day I can make it down there, it looks like it could be one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

"use the ruck sack as a half bag"

Used to use an Army wet weather bag as a half-bag, pretty effectively (well, kept my feet warm anyway).

I also remember that many large daypack mountaineering bags (2000-3000ci) with the long extendable collar on top could be used for that purpose, by design, at least according to friends who were serious mountaineers.

Funny that use - an internal frame pack as a half-bag - has never come up on this or other backpack hunting forums, at least that I've seen.

I always carry a small bivy for this reason. And on a few occasions, hunkered under a tree when I got into the critters just before dark. It doesn't make for a comfortable night. But it works. This is also a good time to take one benedryl and a melatonin. It's non-narcoticic, and will help you sleep when you aren't comfy, without knocking you out.

One of my old TNF bags had an extra long collar on it, and I've spent a couple n ights with my feet jammed in the bag and my rain jacket overlapping on the top. Again not ideal but it works.

I have scored on several elk that I spot at last light, by just listening to where they go throughout the night, and getting them in the morning.

I started backpacking at 11 and hunting at 13. Rarely combined them until the last 10 years.

"I have scored on several elk that I spot at last light, by just listening to where they go throughout the night, and getting them in the morning."

I find I can put my camp pretty close ( < 200 yds.) to where I plan to be in the morning as long as it is a stealth camp. Sometimes a stream and a few trees is all it takes to make the elk comfortable with you being there.