Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire hunting camps

I just got done reading an interesting story about a deer hunt in northern minnesota, and they talked about their hunting camp. I don't have one as I just have to walk outside my door to hunt deer, turkey and coyotes. When I bear hunt I use an old pickup camper and stay at a buddies place up north(minnesota). What kind of camps do you have? Some around here travel up north and stay in camps for the hunting season. Sounds like great fun to me. I'm sure the stories and B.S. flow like beer or what ever you prefere to drink. I have been looking at properties up north with the idea of starting a camp at some point. Thaks for in input.

Mike,
Although I have lived in Alaska the past 30 years, I still have two camps in NMN that I visit every Fall. There are every sort of camps in that country but I wouldn't consider the building as the key ingredient.....location is primary. Our deer camp has been in a remote location for 35 years and we never see other hunters....most seem scared to leave the road very far....and deer hunters tend to sit in tree stands rather than wander the woods as once before....some of the paper companies have hunting camp leases also...

mikeg:<p>Oh this is going to be fun. I'm going to "stir the pot" for fun. Please play along. Every one has their own definition or vision of camping. Mine is a lot more rustic than yours. <p>In order for it to be defined as camping, the camp must be temporary. Sleeping in a cabin is not camping. There must also be some degree of rustic spartanism. Sleeping in a trailer with all the conveniences is not camping. Too soft.<p>There are many types of camping. I first started car camping fifty years ago, with my father before I went to Kindergarten. He was a traveling salesman and I guess he camped to save his per diem. I slept in the back of the coupe and he slept in a hammpock suspended between two trees. The hammock was coverd with a tarp and many mornings I woke up, rubbed the condensation off the windows, and looked out at him snug under that tarp and 1" of new snow. I can still smell the aroma of the Coleman stove (aluminum cylinder) that he used to heat water and the soap that he used to shave. <p>Later, while I was growing up, every other month or so, we would go car camping and visit the national parks and national forests, even the deserts in California, Arizona and Nevada. Thre's not too much limitation on the weight of car camping gear. But you have to limit bulk because your car or truck has limited storage space. <p>Friends and I used to ride our bicycles to spend the hight in one of the orchards which were common then in southern California. We would eat the fruit and kill a few rabbits with our .22s. There's nothing like sitting around a campfire on the beach and drinking a cold beer, listening to the surf. Many times I have set around a different campfire and listened to the coyotes in the distance.<p>I started backpacking as a teenager. That's a whole different kind of camping. I started without a tent, just sleeping under the stars and in southern California you could pull it off. The first summer I moved to Colorado (1976), I discovered why everybody was carrying those lightweight dome tents. You have to limit the bulk and the weight when backpacking because you have to carry everything on your back. So you quickly learn what is really essential. <p>About a decade ago I started setting up a really elaborate spike camp for elk hunting. After a few years of collecting gear we annually setup a camp that had over 1,000 square feet under canvas. It took a couple guys all day to set it up, usually on the weekend prior to the season. Those were great hunting camps and great times. <p>But I'm getting old and lazy. Once I spent the hunting season with friends in a condo in Crested Butte. That was not camping. Last summer I bought a nice modern home (we call it our cabin) in hunting country. I don't even consider that in the same world as camping. Too soft. But my wife loves it.<p>KC

You'll get as many descriptions of a hunting camp as there are hunters. What would be fun is if you guys would all post a picture of your hunting camp. A few years back Texas Parks and Wildlife ran a picture contest for deer blinds and they published some of those in the magazine. The pictures were great.<p>Here, in Texas, we have "deer camps", "duck camps", and "fishing camps". The common elements of these camps are; They are at least semi-perminent camps where we gather to enjoy each others company and whatever activity is centered around it. I do not know of any camps that are not on private or leased lands.<p>My deer camp looks like a "Hoverville" hobo camp. The central feature is the campfire ring. This is an essential element for any hunting camp. We have electricity but no plumbing. There is one plywood "cabin", a portable building, and two used campers for sleeping.<p>We have a refrigated "cooler house" we built to hang our deer in (and keep the beer cold) and a "skinning post" built from oil field pipe. <p>An outhouse sets a short distance away. We have a covered lounge area constructed of the tops from two old pop up campers bolted together and set on top of four posts set into the dirt. <p>We have a "junk yard" out back that stores all our building materials, wire, lumber, t-posts etc.... We really pack rat all the "free" materials we can find to build stands, bilnds, feeders and such. <p>At least one barbcue pit sitts in camp year round. During the hunting season there may be as many as four. There are at least two dozen folding chairs scattered about. <p>Of corse the peak of activity in our camp is during the deer season but it sees use all year long. Just about any weekend you can find some one cooking out, building a blind, or doing a little target practice in the gravel pit close by. <p>My camp is very "rustic" ( and that's a generous description ). I have been a guest at some "deer camps" where the "cabin" was a nicer home than I live in. These type of "deer camps" are ranches that were purchased and the new owners do not live on the ranch. They just "camp" there during the season or lease the place to hunters. Nice if you can afford it. <p>No matter what your hunting camp looks like, one thing is certin, When the sun sets and the campfire is lit, that's when the good times roll. <p>I'll have to look to see if I have any photos of my camp to post. With the pranksters we have, cameras are not often welcome around camp. [img]images/icons/laugh.gif" border="0[/img]
PDS

I'm largely a backpack hunter in August and September here in Alaska. My more elaborate camps consist of a dome tent, pad and sleeping bag, with a poly tarp over the tent maybe, big enough to get out of the rain without being inside the tent. Mostly - we just use poly-tarp fly-camps big enough for one or two people ( 12 X 14), and plenty of bug dope. Temperatures are seldom below 20 or so, however, and usually above freezing and even into the 50's daytime. My brother in Nevada horse packs into the Salmon River country in Idaho most years (we joke that that's just to show his horses what green grass looks like) to the same place with 6 to 10 other guys, and use the good-old canvas wall tents with sheep herder stoves for 10 day living quarters. Way nicer than what I do - I went with them one year. It takes a half-day to set up and tear down, each, but their poles, latrine, etc are already done when they get there. Of course, their "party-hunts" tend to be more party than hunt.......but they are very comfortable.
About 20 years ago I was back-pack hunting a 12-mile-back-in valley for caribou nearly every year, so built myself an illegal side-hill, dug-back-in 9'X 9', 5 foot high shed-roofed "cabin" from deadfall/fire-kill logs, well concealed up on a side hill in an evergreen patch a couple hundred elevation feet above the horse/foot trail in the creek bottom so I wouldn't have to carry an 8 lb dome tent anymore. I had visions of the wife and small kids accompanying me for the foreseeable future each season. Didn't work. They changed the permitting rules the next year, and it was 13 years and three permits before I got back up there. The light-weight sleeping bag in the sealed metal pail was still there, and good-to-go. It was October, snowing/raining, in the low 20's to low 30's. and I was about as snug as one could be without a stove, especially since I'd brought a twin to the bucket-bag with me, just in case. Cooked on an open fire just outside the open door, and used a garbage bag to cover the opening and cut any draft when I was inside. I hope I get another permit before I'm too old to hobble up there again, but I'll probably not use the shelter again, instead going on up the canyon 2 miles to the pass, and tarp camp in the thick, scattered hemlocks there. I still have coffee pot, bag and tarp in the shelter. Don't have to move to be hunting if I'm in the pass. The lower shelter is always there if it gets rough. Oh yeah - the outfitter in the area changed the horse trail, which now passes about 30 yards above my shelter, which is so grass-overgrown it looks like a big, square overgrown rock. I don't think anyone has found it. Only thing that might give it away is the shape. Had a heck of a time finding it myself from the new trail, and I was looking for it.

"In order for it to be defined as camping, the camp must be temporary. "<p>Well I can't really say my hunting camp qualifies with this statement but I like it anyway. It consists of a thirty foot high slab of volcanic ash blown over a hundred miles form it's origin in Southern Oregon. Geologists tell me it left the mountain when Crater Lake was formed. Seems kind of permanent to me.<p>My wife and I found it several years ago while hunting a friends thousand acre canyon. We built a fire ring at the base and set up a camp. The rock acts as a chimney and helps with a draft for the campfire. It is soft and well weathered forming small cracks and shelves making perfect storage for cooking utensils and seasonings so we named the place Kitchen Rock.<p>We usually lay out a tarp, then set out a couple of self inflating sleeping mats followed by our sleeping bags. In real cold weather of if we get a little rain or snow, we just pull half the tarp over the top. There has never been a tent or a camp stove here as long as we have been coming. <p>For convince, if we have others camping with us we have a guys bathroom rock and a girls bathroom rock near by.<p>There is no water of electricity for more that a half mile. <p>Now I know some of you are getting to the age where this kind of camping is too hard and I can respect that. I just hope I never get to that part of my life, I am only 52. [img]images/icons/wink.gif" border="0[/img]

Well when my dad first started taken us four boys out with him, all we had was a canvas tarp strung between two trees and open both ends, with the snow on the ground it could get some cold.
When we were actually old enough to hunt with more than just 22's we started using an old 9x9 tent and eventually moved up to a 9x12 Hudsons Bay house tent.
and that one did us for years, even up until 1994 we were using it when hunting off the Alaska Highway in British Columbia.
We did try one time using a tent trailer up there and a camper one other time, but 99% of the time it has always been a tent, rain, shine or snow.<p>My late brother invested in a good used wall tent in about 93 and upon his death in 95 we inherited it and now have used that for about 5 years, and it is not bad.
We put a wood stove in as it was the only way to get our dad to go hunting as at the age of 78 the cold was getting too much for him I think. But I would say I still like getting out and tenting it.
And really cherish the fact my dad has not missed a season in all these years. Unlike some we have never had electricity or any other fancy gadgets, just us, our guns, food and some means of cooking it. We only use the heat when first getting up and just before getting into the sleeping bags. If I had a way to post pictures, I might try.

Well, it depends...<p>Like "las", I've been know to fly into areas with just a backpack tent and gear. Not very comfortable, but it's usually worth it for the great scenery.<p>Here is S.E. Alaska, there are a lot of US Forest Service cabins you can rent. Some are fly in, but most can be reached by boat. Seems that we end up taking too much gear on those trips though. When everyone brings a coleman stove, food to feed an Army, and two lanterns, etc. It fill up fast! [img]images/icons/smile.gif" border="0[/img] <p>The third way I "camp" is to just sleep in my boat. It sleeps 4 guys, but 3 is much better. It's really nice because everything we need is right there. No need to lug stuff from the boat to the beach and cabin.

I guess I dont have a "camp" either. A house is included in our lease.<p>All the comforts of home including a kitchen and a bathroom with shower. <p>Yall can have the "rustic"!

In Northwestern Ontario everyone refers to their "Summer Camp"--meaning their cottage on the lake. I was at one last week where a tree fell across the power line and we were without bubbles in the hot tub--really rough.

Here in Northern Idaho, most camps are used when referring to elk hunting. This said, camps can range from using cabins, RV's, trailers, pick-up campers, pick-up toppers to sleeping in tents. Personally, my buddy and I take our pick-ups equiped with campers out and park in a wide spot in the road near our hunting area.

Great thread.
Camp is what you like and make of it. I have done many different forms, but love our current set up.<p>I have two hunting buddies that I have been getting together with for over ten years, coming from 3 different states.<p>This last summer we decided to cough up the money for a quality wall tent and wood stove.
We bought a 14X16 with 5 foot walls, a good airtight Cylinder stove, and a heavy oiled canvas floor cloth. An internal frame so we could set it up in environments without trees such as antelope country rounds it out.<p>This last November we took this set up to Wyoming for deer on our annual hunt. We couldn't be happier. This set up is just right for the three of us. Plenty of room for gear and still able to move around without bumping butts. <p>We hunt out of pickups so we can bring enough things to keep us comfortable. Good cots, pads and sleeping bags. Fold up tables and chairs. We brought Coleman stoves but found that the wood stove cooked as well, if not better. The stove has a 5 gallon hot water tank on the side so clean up was a snap. It also holds fire all night ('Course the nights are shorter when you get up real early!).<p>
We bought a quality set up and really enjoyed it.<p>We'll do it all again next year in a new area of Wyoming and be comfortable as heck!<p>Bill

Westman, -- sounds like something from the past, got room for another? Bet you guys have a ball, love a wall tent and wood stove, do you have to haul the wood and water for antelope hunt? -- no

NO,<p>Yes we do have to haul wood and water. One of us has a small trailer that we use for wood, coolers and the like.<p>We brought 7 six gallon containers of water for this years trip and had plenty.<p>If we draw tags we are planning elk in So. Central Wyoming next year. If no elk then we'll try antelope and will need to bring both wood and water.<p>Didn't you make that trip to Wyoming this last fall?<p>There is just something about a wall tent that makes a great camp!<p>Bill