Whats the weight of your camp pack hiking in VS your day pack ?
For clarification, what I meant by hiking in pack is carrying your camp on your back.
THX
The backpacking community who are unconcerned with hunting and the realities with regards to gear that hunting brings to backpacking, have more room to concern themselves with weight as that's their primary concern. These folks have down to a science each ounce because, to be able to average 20 miles per day, 7 days a week, and maintain their energy day in, day out, you can't add any superfluous weight. As such, they have generally accepted weights among them that are acceptable for long-distance hiking and I'm telling you, they're laughing at people with 25 lb day packs because there are people that do the Pacific-Crest Trail, from Mexico to Canada, in 4 months, with food restockings every 2 weeks, and some of their packs weigh as little as 25 lbs. The unofficial upper limit can be as high as 45, but most are far below that.
That's right... People hike from Mexico to Canada over some of the nastiest mountain ranges in this country with 25 lb packs. People do it every year.
That said...
I have a minimalist background, but have given some of that up and am realistic on hunts, I believe.
My waist pack (for day hunts within 3 miles of the truck) weighs about 10 lbs. My bigger day pack (for hunts farther from the truck where I don't want to retrieve anything) is 15 lbs.
My spike camp pack can be as low as 40 lbs. My heaviest spike pack ever was 64 lbs, but I brought a bunch of crap and was solo so I had to carry everything.
I set a limit, pack my pack, then weigh it. Then I start removing things from least important to most important till I reach my desired weight. I've spent more than a year total time in the back country and I've never said to myself, "Oh crap, I'm completely screwed because I don't have XXX."
Remember, unless you're flown in or dropped somewhere (at which point your stuff was brought in anyways), you can always just walk back to the truck and get it if it's truly that necessary.
IMO, 35 lbs would be extremely light for a full size pack loaded with the average type of camping & hunting gear needed for a week's stay!
Pack - 6 lbs
Tent - 4 lbs
Bag - 2 lbs
Pad - 1 lb
Stove & fuel - 1 lb
Optics (camera, binocs, rangefinder, cases) - 4 lbs
Misc tools - 2 lb
Food - 8 lbs
Rain gear - 1 lb
Spare clothes with weather contingencies - 4 lbs
Water 3 liters for hike in - 6 lbs
Trekking Poles - 1 lb
GPS unit and InReach unit - 1 lb
Headlamp, flashlight, spare batteries - 1 lb
Camp shoes - 1 lb
Baby Wipes, plastic bags, game bags, first aid - 1 lb
Bow with full quiver, strapped onto pack - 6 lbs
That's 50 lbs right there. And I'm sure there are guys who will take a lot more than what's listed above. Like a hand gun, more clothes, more food, hatchet, tripod, ground cloth, and other various stuff!
There's certainly high-end ultralight gear that can shave pounds off the items above, but the above assumes average weights on the pack/tent/bag/pad.
My same list of stuff weighs 35 lbs. There are flip flops for camp shoes that weigh 4 oz and they're not a necessity; very much a comfort item.
I'm just demonstrating what you can get down to being a minimalist. Pepperoni and cheese definitely fall into the "comfort item" category. :)
I only bring those sandwiches for 1-2 night spike camps. Still, they don't weigh less than 1 lb a piece and are 1/2 my calories for the day.
2nd TREEESTAND 80-90!! ha ha. Don't think I can even pack 90lbs on terrain, my max while still being able to function would probably be around 75-80lbs
If you haven't actually used a scale to weigh the pack, you're guessing and in my experience, most people guess wrong, just like they over-estimate the size of their antlers, the meat poundage they hauled, and the distance they hauled it.
My preference (for CO and NM archery elk) has been to set up a spike camp several miles in and then to hunt from it for about five days. I don't set up my camp until I'm convinced that elk are near.
Fully packed for a 5 day trip including the clothes I'm wearing, boots, bow, everything is about 47#.
day pack KUIU 3200 icon pro 80 rain cover for day pack 9.7 first aide (bandaids, blood clot, perkaset, vicodine, kodene, advil,duct tape, super glue, imitrex, compression, tweezers, tampons for puncture wounds, quick clot) 15 game bags 21.5 havalon knife, spare blades, rubber gloves 4.9 heavy duty knife 0 6.4 11.2 water bladder w/ 1 liter water 38 water purifying drops 2.6 2-liter platypus w/ 1-liter water 35.1 smart water water bottle (for gatoraide) 0.5 paracord (hanging meat/general needs) 2.6 flagging tape 1.2 fire starter (matches, lighter, vasaline cotton balls) 1 map, compass 2 gps 10.5 range finder 9.2 Bino's 36.3 headlamp 3.8 extra batteries for range finder, headlamp 1.2 back up mini head lamp 0.9 leatherman 7.1 wind indicator (x2) 2 elk calls (diaphram, itmakeadabull, bugle) 9 elk decoy 16 bow repair 0.3 back up broad head and game head 0.5 TP 2 bug spray 1.5 notebook and pencil, sharpie 2.3 hand warmers x2 3.2 space blanket 3.9 rain coat and pants 29.4 gators 14 puffy 12.4 warm hat 1 baseball hat 1 gloves 2 energy bars 9 lunch 16 Day Pack Weight total 277.5oz or 17.34375lbs Overnight Kit sleeping bag 39 air mattress 18.8 tent fly crek UL2 47.9 camp pillow 4.1 spork 1 whiskey 8 Additional Overnight Weight 118.8oz or 7.425lbs Total Pack Weight 396.3oz or 24.76875 lbs
Food is 1.5lbs per day with at least 125 calories per ounce.
Mark
