Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting How do you clean your packs?

I don't think I have seen this question posted in here before so I was wondering what you do to get the blood and grime off them? Toss them in the washer or hand wash? Thanks

Hose, water, peroxide for the blood, a little dish soap and a brush to knock the bits off.

I find that stuff just wears off eventually. At some point a homeostatic level of dirt will exist.

We just bought a new washer and dryer and it boasts a rack for steaming backpacks and shoes and other such things....

I hope to try it soon. Has anyone else seen this in there drier?

Dump out the detritus and hose it off. Air dry in the sun. Anything else will eventually flake off. Actually I rarely even do that much . . .

It's a backpack not a wedding dress.

Car wash, inside and out each year at the end of the season. Advice given to me years ago by Mark Seacat from Mystery Ranch. The combination of mild soap and high pressure wash and rinse works very well.

My packs haven't gotten really dirty. I line them with skookum plastic bags to haul boned out meat. Put the empty bag inside the pack bag and place chunks of meat into it rather than load up a plastic bag and then try to get that into the pack. That's a recipe to tear or gouge a hole in the plastic liner bag, as is loading it while it sits on sticks and rocks on the ground or on a log.

I've had a plastic liner leak a couple of times and get blood on the bottom or a lower corner of the pack bag. Not too bad to wash out. Washing it right away avoids stink. Also, I often take off the bag and lash a plastic bag of meat to the empty frame. We rarely carry out bones in a quarter.

Working with teens years ago packs would come in grimy with soot and dirt and with jam or honey stuck inside. Soak in a tub with laundry soap and use a bristle brush was my solution. Cooking oil is also bad, as would be ground-in tallow.

Keeping it relatively clean is one of my (small) obsessions. Sit the pack on something rather than in mud, don't lean it on a tree with pitch on it, etc.

^^^^^
+1

Pressure washers work. A bathtub, brush, and some unscented laundry detergent works well too.

I once left a ziploc with some food trash inside a bag for a couple months by mistake. It was rank when I discovered it. Some odo-ban from wally world solved it.

Clean???

I have washed a couple pack bags in the washer. I washed my CMBR Crew Cab "bag" in the washer and broke the washer. Rubbed a hole in the buckle, but the pack/buckle is still going strong...

Dealing with blood is easy. Leave it open all winter and by spring, you won't know there's any blood on it. You probably shouldn't store it in your bedroom closet or under the bed, though.

Hike in the rain. Or fall in a creek.