Bowsite.com

New Tent

So I've started looking for a new tent. This tent will be a base camp tent so will not be humping it in on my back. Want a tent for one to two people. Does anyone have experience with the Cabela's 12' x 12' Alaknak or Bighorn tent? Kifaru Sawtooth? Any other suggestions? I plan on buying a stove for the tent also. I'm getting tired of crawling in and out of a backpack tent. I'll save that for a spike camp. Thanks

I'm in the same boat. Tired of crawling in/out of the tent. I already have a 14x16 walltent, so I am looking something for one or two people tops. Right now I am thinking either the Cabelas Instinct 6 or 8 person.

I have the Bighorn. Works great. The Alaknak is great as well. No complaints.

The larger tipi tents from Kifaru or Seek Outside are great base camp setups. Plenty of room for cots/gear, with headroom and a stove in the middle.

We just bought a 12x12 from the bargain cave. It is the perfect tent for long weekends/quick trips. We added the extra floor liner and the vestible. Total setup time with wood burning stove first time was 28 minutes. Take down was 45 minutes. We will get faster. We are going to use the Disco Bed bunk cots and have plenty of space.

It is way better than our pop up dome tent for room and standing etc. Also much easier and lighter than setting up our big heavy wall tent.

I had a large wall tent- got tired of the size and weight of it. I now have a Springbar tent. Made of canvas here in the USA. Set up time is about 10 to 15 minutes. Wish I had gone this route earlier. Only issue is you need fairly soft ground to drive in the stakes that are needed for it.

We used the 12 x 20 for the first time this year. No complaints at all. We have not picked up a stove yet, but most of our hunts are earlier. It's my brothers tent and he also picked up the extended vestibule. We set up our shower right out the back door. Made it really convenient.

We were going to do the wall tent thing, but these were on a huge sale and he had a ton of points so it made it worth it.

The Cabelas 8 man (or 6 man) Alaskan Guide Geodesic Dome with vestibule makes a heck of a base (truck) camp. I've used two over the past 20 years (the exterior fly fabric deteriorates in about 365 days of sunny use.....in the high altitude intense UV light of the west, then it gets fragile). They withstand high winds well if all the guy ropes are staked and the main tent is staked well. We use ours on fly in hunts in northern BC now, and truck camped while bowhunting and birdhunting in almost every western state. You may be able to get one from the bargain cave as I heard they were discontinued last year by Bass Pro?

I've used a 12 x 12 Alinak while brown bear hunting in Alaska. Not near the tent as the Alaskan Guide Dome, but was functional. The center pole is a bit in the way and the side walls are low but it is decent. The tent I was in was old and suffered from the same issues from exposure to light......fading and getting a bit fragile from a huge amount of use.

Good luck with your choice!!!

Thanks for the input. Since posting this thread, I've looked at the Antelope Package at Davis Tent. Just a ton to consider and think about. I do like the room of a Wall Tent with their frame. No center poles.

'Pretty much the same thing Kurt said about the Alaskan. It's unfortunate the others don't offer the "Lifetime Guarantee". They honored it for my buddy, sending him a replacement rain fly even after he admitted that the damage was of his own doing and even after 5 years of very satisfied use. No wonder they are discontinuing it... ( heads to cave) ( None there. Still being offered & the Guarantee is still listed...)

Took a look at the Alaskan. Lifetime Guarantee - 6' 8" tall. Great price. Don't know about a stove.

Another vote for the Alaskan Guide tent. Was once camped on a beach with a group. Huge wind came up and destroyed every other tent. Tore fabric, broke frames. My 6 man AKG stood strong like the Rock of Gibralter.

We have the 6 man alaskan guide too. Great tent, bulletproop, but only good for two people(with cots). We ocasionally have 3 or even 4 folks in camp, so picked this one up. The alaknak actually takes less time to set up and take down which we thought was pretty funny considering it's size.

For two people search craiglist for a good used walltent. You'll never regret the wall tent for a base camp..

Don't mean to hijack but do you guys know the difference between the Alaskan Guide tent and the Instinct Alaskan Guide tent? I'm in the market for a new family/car camping tent.

Jaq, our first 8 man withstood a 60 mph gale up on Glendo once in the summer. Every other tent was flattened. Cottonwoods were down on the east shore where we were camped due to winds and wave action along there. Pretty impressed with the 6-pole dome design. We did have quite a bit of drifting sand get in though!

Perty impressive your tells of the wind storms.

My buddy had taken his Alaskan to Sturgis. After 3 days of heavy rains it was the only tent around that remained dry, even though it was standing in a pool of water. That ( & the guarantee) is what sold me on mine. I went with the aluminum poles. The headroom is great - one son is 6'5". The other is 6'3". It is just a bit crowded with 3 large men, and all gear, but tolerable. No wood stove jack. Propane heat.

Matt - from the description " Cabela's Instinct Alaskan Guide 6-Person Tent takes 25 years of field-proven Alaskan Guide technology and improves on it – delivering 63% more strength, 6% less weight and 36% more usable interior space. " ( more) "D-shaped door opens up to a large vestibule with 86% more room than the original Alaskan Guide series"...(more). 'Sounds like the Alaskan, on steroids! And maybe explains why they are discontinuing the original.

ColoBull, do you work at Cabelas?

So what about heat? With Propane, aren't you worried about killing yourself in the confined space?

Kurt, our adventure was at Pathfinder and that storm flipped some boats.

I use a Buddy heater in the morning to warm it up if it's chilly. Maybe in the evening too. Those are technically "indoor safe" but I always have some ventilation. Also cheap to run if you refill the 1 lb bottles.

Jack - no, but I probably should. They get a lot of my business. My Alaskan is ~20 years old. The boys still use it. I prefer my trailer. 'Same as Lou - the Buddy's have a low oxygen sensor/shutoff but I don't trust them 100%.

We ran a 20# propane bottle on a stabilizing base with a 15,000 btu Coleman catalytic heater I nicknamed the Flamethrower. Just in cold weather and never when we were sleeping and always with quite a bit of open door/window ventilation. It would warm the tent in the morning in about a minute.

We too like the Aluminum pole upgrade. They are a tad lighter and are tougher in the wind.

A friend brought one once. Over 75 degrees day in the sun in Colorado is a sweat shop. Otherwise worked fine. Condensation was an issue when the stove wasn’t fired up. For what I do, it wouldn’t get out much.

Control condensation by running some of the windows down a bit and the top vent triangular panel open as required. The windows and vent are screened and the fly covers them.

Condensation from cooking is a real problem. We always cooked in the vestibule, never the tent, again with good ventilation open. My wife modified the old style conestoga wagon shaped one to include a zippered vent above where the two burner propane stove always sits on the folding table.

Good luck.

I have a Kifaru sawtooth and a Kifaru 12 man. They are awesome shelters. I use the sawtooth for solo or 2 man hunts.

With a wood burning stove it really is neat!

Wall tents are nice, but extremely bulky, heavy and a lot of time to set up. The Kifaru tipis are much smaller to pack. If you're space limited, like I am with my Grand Cherokee, it's a lot easier to take. And there is nothing like sitting in a tent with a stove during a howling snowstorm, while comfortably waiting on a hot, fresh meal you're cooking on the stove.

Another option is a tent I heard Randy Newburg talking about a few years ago. I found a good deal on one and pulled the trigger about 4 years ago on this one. Its the TurboTent from BlackPine Sports. Its really heavy duty, sets up easy, handles wind really well, and offers tons of space. I went with the 10 man for base camp hunts. Its 10ft by 20ft. and I can set it up myself relatively easily. It doesnt have a stove, but I have been toying with the idea of modding it for a wood stove. Currently, I either use a Mr. Heater, or use an electric space heater when I know I'm setting up somewhere with RV pads and electric. The tent holds heat in really well, as the ripstop nylon has a "reflective" silver colored inner lining. I've been in some pretty gnarly thunderstorms in Nebraska and Eastern Colorado, and have weathered some crazy Wyoming winds in the same haunts Jaq is talking about.

The Big Agnes Ten Sleep Station 6 is another one worth looking at. I love mine and also use the Buddy Heater with ventilation. It's a great base camp tent in my opinion.

Decisions, decisions.

Register here to reply to this topic