Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Good pack for High Country Buck Hunt

I'm looking at doing a 7-10 day high country buck hunt this fall. I'm already getting in shape and scoping out good areas to hunt. I have a lot of gear for regular backpacking, but not one where a rifle and carcass are involved.

I've invited my brother, but he may or may not come so there's a possibility I may do this solo (fine with me, I like solo hunts!) The only downside is I will need to carry out anything I kill.

So, backpack hunters, what would be a good pack for a 7-10 day trip that would hold a rifle and could also carry out a carcass? I'm aware that I may need to make 2 trips, 1 for the carcass and 1 for my gear. I have an Eberlestock X1E but thats not near enough for the gear OR the carcass.

Suggestions?

Budget?

Anything with a couple of compression straps carries a rifle just fine for trips in and out. Kifaru gun bearer or Stone Glacier rifle carrier work if you want it handy. If you don't have to one-trip it all out just about any well made backpacking bag will work. One boned out mule deer takes up about 35 solid liters of space.

This is super helpful. Thanks!

Under $500 is my budget

That's the meat of course, no head/hide.

I've decided this is the one for me:
http://seekoutside.com/lightweight-backpacks/

Read this:
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/

And this:
http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/7892509/1/The_Paradox_Pack_Thread

I picked up a used REI XT85 this year on a recommendation from the Hills and Luke Moffat and for my uses it'd be hard to improve for the $ differential. It's light, it fits me well, and has carried everything I've put in it. The pocket configuration is also about perfect and I'll continue to carry it unless a packbag/frame is needed when going well over 100lbs. The rifle fits well in the bottle pocket on the side and my spotter with tripod will jam down into the bucket between the rear pockets.

It sounds as if you are kind of just getting into to backpack hunting and if this is true I would caution to go slow this stuff is crack. It has taken me a few years to dial in what I use and in that time I picked up a bunch of good gear that just is not right for me.

As for a pack I would recomend a going cheap and easy for a begining. I really like the LLBean carry all pack frame. You can strap bags on it and it carries 80 plus pounds very well.

Take a look at utube and see how a guy in Colorado used his

Good recommendation. That little LL Bean frame is great and inexpensive. I have one and it is very versatile! Pack it with drybags. Pack meat out in meat bags. Pack in a treestand. Heck, I use it with a 40 pound bag of rock salt to hike steep stuff with to get in shape for hunting.
Someone posted on here their backpack elk hunt. They packed in and packed the meat out all on the LL Bean.

http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/64392?feat=hunters carry all pack-SR0&page=hunter-s-carryall-pack&attrValue_0=Olive&productId=1077114

I wish I had all the money back that I spent on cheap gear because I didn't want to go all in and do it right the first time.

I've been able to find a Dana Bighorn and Bomb used locally for under $50 and even cheaper for a couple of very large Mountainsmith packs which would work really well for what you are doing. Other than that, I agree with the advice you already have.
There are a couple of Dana ArcLight's on craigslist in Seattle right now for around $100. I'm not familiar with the Arclight. I'm sure if you searched here there would be some real world opinions. The external frame versions show up regularly, too.
Hope you get a great buck! (Are you going on that high country hunt in the Alpine Lakes area here in WA?)

Hey that is a great tip on the LL Bean pack. That looks like a winner and at $80 it would be hard to beat.

That's true, so do I.(see my sig line)

However, if this is his first backpack hunt, what if he hates it? As stated, there are a lot of "backpacking" backpacks that will do fine. But I've found "hunting" backpacks to be either cheap stuff or $500-$600 stuff. Not much in between. However, a lot of guys make do with all manner of military surplus packs etc. I had to give this backpack hunting a couple of tries before I decided this is for me, and this year, my big gear upgrade is going to be a pack. (see my previous post)
He said he had a budget of under $500. If I had a $500 budget, I wouldn't choose a $79 pack either.
But it seems $500 is about the "entry point" for a high quality hunting pack. Maybe $400 for an Eberlestock.

If he just wants to "try it out" on a budget, that LL Bean pack will get him out and back.

He indicated he has a fair amount of backpacking gear. One would assume he has a pack. He may have something that will work fine.

I do the hunt you're speaking of with a MR pack. I have done it with a badlands 2800 which is only acceptable if you are a gear freak and have lightweight stuff. ...you'll run out of space. You might look at proper packs....used mil packs by proper are good quality and cheap.

How about a surplus USMC ILBE Main Pack? Midway has these on offer for $80 at the moment.



They are a lisenced copy of a respected civvie pack, with the addition of molle and a funcy cammo pattern for the USMC. They are being replaced in service at the moment so there are a lot on the surplus market.. It looks like a hell of a pack for $80!

FWIW I did not like the LL Bean Carryall that much. Its a stripped down internal frame and there is a reason it is $80 new.

Pick up a good used pack if you want one to start out with cheap.

I started out with a used Dana Design Terraplane from ebay, which is what I carried a while. It's a fine pack. But carrying as a "daypack" while hunting didn't work all that great. Having decided I like this backpack hunting I decided I wanted something geared toward a hunting pack and found a like-new Eberlestock J107, It's was good pack, completely functional but at 9lbs empty just too darn heavy. I sold it.
So now I'm getting a Paradox.

I suppose I shouldn't say the LL Bean pack would work for his needs, as I've never personally used it in that capacity. I have used it as a daypack for hunting, packing in a treestand, and training/exercise.
However, because of its configuration it helped me to decide the Paradox will work for me.

There's 1 fallacy with using the compression straps on a hunt. Who's to say that you won't jump Mr Humungus on the way in or out? More than once I've headed up toward a high place and found him within 1/4 mile of the bottom. This fall, we found elk right at the bottom on the way out (it was too dark to shoot but we got them early the next morning). If I'm hunting, I want my rifle accessible every step of the way.

That is a great deal! I'm grabbing one as a spare pack for when people tag along. You can't beat that price!