Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Carrying Canned Food?

I don't recall your stating anything about alot of trail mix, type unspecified.
Canned goods need to be weighed. The weights shown on the cans are for net weight, not the added fluids and weight of the empty can.
Calories are suppose to be stated on the can. Since I don't have that stuff handy, I can't do the math. Since your figures appear to be pretty general, apparently you didn't add them up either.
All I'm trying to suggest is that you'll do better in the calories vs. weight department if you look elsewhere. You are carrying alot of fluids and metal that you need not carry.
The other problem is that it's tough to get the complex carbohydrates that you really need from canned goods. Fats, yes. But almost all of us carry plenty of fats for a 6 day trip.
Proteins are easier to get, but even they can be gotten from lighter sources. E

I'm with those who sure would like to hunt with you if you bring in the meals.

I lean the opposite way, as light as possible while staying safe, but a few years ago my son surprised me by packing cans of superb beef stew nine miles on a scounting trip. He stashed them where he and I planned to camp and hunt on opening day. A week or two later, the night before opening morning of a high buck season, we slogged into our camp site at dusk in a cold rain. He surprised me when he pulled out the cans of stew. Hot, hearty beef stew prepared so quickly was a treat I'll never forget. Much of the value was knowing what it took to carry such cans nine miles and 6K feet higher.

No need for apologies, just felt the need to offer a differing opinion and I too would be happy for you to pack the vittles on any shared outing. I'll bring the air for the sleeping pads.

haha I hate packing air, so feel free. Too heavy and what not.

I'm just throwing together the finishing touches on my gear tonight. Tomorrow I'm off on a 6 day hunt for whitetail/elk, so I'll make sure and get a few pictures of me enjoying my canned peaches for everyone here!

Again, regarding food weight, if you have a different figure, feel free to post it. I reckon I'm pretty damn close, as I can't see a can of food weighing much more than the weights I listed. I don't have a scale at home here, so I'm as intrigued as the next guy to see what the "real" weights are.

Del Monte Cut Green Beans (Net Wt. 14.5 oz.): 17.0 ounces 70 calories

Tagg Chili Silverado Beef (Net Wt. 15 oz.): 17.1 ounces 500 calories

Chunky Sirloin Burger w/ Country Vegetables (Net Wt. 18.8 oz.): 21.4 ounces 260 calories

Calories are for entire can, not per serving. Net Wt. is the weight on the label. The other weight is on my scale. Sorry but I think we're out of peaches.

Hans,

Good luck on your hunt, ole Chef boyardee would've been proud of ya!



MtnHtr

OK, don't take this wrong, but how old are you, late 20's early 30's? At some point most everyone makes the jump from brawn to brain.

I used to pack heavy like that, not anymore. I stick to the 100 cals per oz. It just plain works better, for me. That doesn't really mean expensive yuppy food either (well sometimes). There are a bunch of options at the grocery store. If something works better for someone else, go for it.

Wow! And I thought I was going all out packing in a roll of bagels and some foil packs of tuna or chicken to give a break from the freeze dried stuff.

When I was a kid it was top ramen, jerkey, mixed nuts, dried fish, and bannanna bread.

All my years and I never thought to bring a can of anything.

Most if not all canned food is mostly salt anyway isnt it?

One thing that was never mentioned/discussed was: Does camp have water? If you are dry camping, or need to hump water to camp, the equation changes considerably.

To answer the original question, Have I humped canned food? No, not really. Have I seen it? Yes. Was he the king of camp for the week? Yes.

I wish I was king of the camp...

Well guys, the trip was a bust. The weather was perfect the first day out, but after that it turned hot and stupid windy (50mph winds), so not a lot of game action. Saw a coyote, woodpecker, and a few mulie does, but no whitetail or elk. And it's looking like that will be my only time out this year, so I'm thinking I'll be chowing down on tag soup this year...

Definitely the pack was heavy, no doubt about that. If I was packing any long distance (ie greater than 2km) I don't think I would have taken as many cans and instead gone for rayman noodles and rice and camped near a creek. It certainly was nice to be able to go wherever I wanted this time and not worry about needing a water source for dinner.

About the salt thing, from my army days we were taught that you sweat out a lot of salts when you're working hard. That's why you get sweat stains/salt stains on your shirts/boots. And if you don't replace that sodium, it can be trouble. Obviously that doesn't mean you gorge on salt, but you should replace it somehow. I don't know the scientific reasoning behind this however, so maybe someone else can fill those details in.

Lastly, I think the hardest thing I found on this trip wasn't the heavy pack, it was that you have so much "alone" time, huddled solo in your sleeping bag in a dark 2-man tent. I was up hunting at 6:30am, and done eating dinner and "in bed" at 6:45pm due to not having anything to do. So that was close to 12 hours of doing nothing/sleeping (no books, no buddy to bullshit with, no campfire, sleeping on a crappy foamie). That was something very new to me, as I was used to guide camps where you had either your dog or other hunters with you, as well as work that needed tending. This time out there was none of that, and I found it hard to hang out in a sleeping bag with nothing to do for 12 hours. Anyone else had this happen, and any advice to counter it? I'm thinking I should have humped in a small candle lantern and a trashy small paperback novel.

I tagged out Saturday and had 2 days with zero to do except build a fire and throw twigs in it. It was strange but kind of relaxing too.

I pack a small sangean radio and listen to stupid political talk shows for a couple hours, that gets old real quick so I listen to the playoffs. Thinking of a Zune with downloaded movies would be cool but the ole timers will frown - I'm suppose to listen to the woodsie sounds to be a real mountain man!

Another option would be an Ipod, some really like them.

MtnHtr

Radio is actually a really good idea. Less of a chance of burning down the tent too...

It's always the good stuff you find out AFTER your season is over haha.

Anyways just wanted to give a big "Thank You" to everyone who participated in this thread. Definitely learned a lot, as well as received a lot of good advice. I really appreciate it.

What are you doing for water? Carrying 5 liters is not enough for one person exerting for 6 days and weighs a little over 10 pounds. Surely you have water nearby that you could filter or treat? It's a lot easier to carry a filter and pump water as it is needed.