Backcountry hunt pack weight

Should be in the 50-60lb mark depending on what you take. Food and water being your heaviest items, try to pack at least 2000 calories worth of food a day. If you know where water will be that will save you some weight as well. Worth while items I’d recommend is a helinox chair zero, only a pound but goes a long way to being able sit back and relax in an actual chair.
 
Best way to know would be to start measuring out what it is you think you are going to bring with you. Exo Mountain Gear has a great Google Spreadsheet that you can input in the items & weight and it will measure it all out for you. Going in for a 3 night trip last year I was right around 50 lbs but I was also unaware of how good the water situation would be when I got to where I was heading so I packed quite a bit of water in to be safe.
 
I bring a pillow case and stuff it with my jacket at night. A very important item is toilet paper in a zip lock bag. The bag keeps the TP dry, and wet rolls of TP are very disappointing.

New backpackers always bring too much stuff that might be needed, old backpackers only carry what they know will be needed. It is not a fashion show. Extra socks and underwear go in the pack, extra jackets and pants do not.
 
I’d maybe recommend going down the YouTube rabbit hole of what regular backpackers carry. Anything not hunting specific (weapon, binos, knife etc.) would be the exact same gear or same principle. And those YouTubers focus on minimizing weight to the ounce. Seems like most hunters aren’t obsessed over it like backpackers because at the end of the day, you’re hoping for a hundred pound pack out, but I think a lot of guys could benefit from that mentality. Think light as possible backpacking kit, then add in your hunting necessities. You’ll find a lot of ‘luxuries’ to make your time better that are pretty easy to implement. Example: Zenbivy
 
New to backpacking and new to elk hunting?

Only way you’ll figure out backpacking is to go backpacking. Only way you’ll figure out elk hunting is to go elk hunting. Don’t try to figure out both at the same time. If the ultimate goal is elk hunting, then backpacking should be dialed to the point that it’s on auto pilot: the only way to get there is to have made a lot of mistakes. The only way to make mistakes is to spend time doing it.
 
Chasefulton said:
Planning on a 5-7 day trip this fall for archery elk. This will be my first back country hunt. As of right now we are planning to pack in and stay majority of the hunt. With that being said, what is a reasonable expected pack weight for something like this? Trying to start training now in hopes of being as ready as I can be physically. I have a Kuiu frame and will have the 6000 pro bag on it.
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For 5-7 days my pack weight would be 40 ish lbs, including my bow. I would prob use my Exo 2000 bag and put food in the load sling for the hike in. This assumes hunting with a partner. There are a very few select places, really only 1, where I would pack in for that duration of time during the elk rut.
 
fatlander said:
Go sleep in the woods for 5-7 days between now and September with all the stuff you think you need. That’s the only way to figure it out. You’re going to have to find your own luxury items, everyone is different. 7 days is a long time to hunt the same area for elk, especially if they’re not there.

There’s countless threads on gear lists you can peruse here. Good luck on your hunt.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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that is a good coment, if the elk are not there becomes a tough hunt.
 
Last fall, on a backpack archery elk hunt, I was 38 lbs including food and water, but excluding my bow and my bino harness. Including binos and bow I was closer to 48/50. This was for 4 days in second week of September in Northern/Central Utah. I was carrying about 2200 calories per day in food, and a 32 oz Nalgene and a filter (TONS of water in this spot). Was splitting camp with a guy I used to hunt with at the time, so add another couple pounds if I was carrying my own shelter 100%.

What I did notice was that food weighed about 1.25-1.5 lbs per day. So I had about 6 lbs of food. Outside my food and fluctuating water levels, my gear would've weighed the exact same whether I was hunting for 3 days or 10 days, the only variable being additional food. So straight up gear ends up being about 40-45 lbs, with food fluctuating depending on the trip length.
 
Chasefulton said:
Planning on a 5-7 day trip this fall for archery elk. This will be my first back country hunt. As of right now we are planning to pack in and stay majority of the hunt. With that being said, what is a reasonable expected pack weight for something like this? Trying to start training now in hopes of being as ready as I can be physically. I have a Kuiu frame and will have the 6000 pro bag on it.
Click to expand...
Not really one answer to this question as you can see

My first backpack hunt I was around 21 years old and pretty broke.

Badlands pack, MRE’s for food, and pretty much zero actual backpacking stuff.
My pack wa saround 70 lbs with out oven packing a sweatshirt or sleeping pad

Over twenty years later my pack is around 40 pounds on a week long archery elk hunt.

Lots of trial and error, and lots of money spent to go from where I was then to now.

Train with 50-60 lbs so at least if your gear is way in the heavy side you have a better chance of being physically ready.
 
Poser said:
New to backpacking and new to elk hunting?

Only way you’ll figure out backpacking is to go backpacking. Only way you’ll figure out elk hunting is to go elk hunting. Don’t try to figure out both at the same time. If the ultimate goal is elk hunting, then backpacking should be dialed to the point that it’s on auto pilot: the only way to get there is to have made a lot of mistakes. The only way to make mistakes is to spend time doing it.
Click to expand...

this^^^^
If you have backpacked then it's just adjusting for elk gear.

Agree with others, do some sort of dry run.

For that 5-7 days, would caution going "too deep", unless you've been there, have easy plan B, C & D from where you pack into...I've made mistake of committing too far on a one way in/out place and so wasted a 1-1.5 days of moving camp.
 
My average for a 5 day run in the Backcountry is 55 lbs if I'm in a really wet area I know well I could shave 3.5 pounds from that and that's for archery later in the season for rifle it goes up to 58 or 60 with a couple of layers to put on when I'm not hiking in or to sleep in I've been at it a long time and I can't seem to get it much under those weights without feeling like I'm on a survival mission when I first started I think my first pack weighed 73 lbs but I was a broke kid with marginal gear life's better now
 
I think 40 is pretty achievable with mid-range gear, that's about where I was last time I weighed, that was with food for four days, but no water, no weapon, no bino/rangefinder(on chest harness). I've got it down some by now.

Once you start going up a mountain, the crap you thought you needed suddenly seems less important and you could do without.

Food you'll have to figure out. I packed too much food my first time out, I can get by easily with 1.5lbs., some guys take 2 or more.
 
Chasefulton said:
What are some things that you would say are must haves in your pack? Worth the weight items
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A long/wide sleeping pad. Falling off a small mummy style one all night isn't worth the weight savings. Also, I typically take some ZzzQuil each night and Tylenol each morning when camping anymore.
 
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The silly thing about these weights is all the exceptions people like to make. Water has weight. So does food (exo guys omit it) weapon, etc.

Skin out is the only apples to apples way to have this discussion, and for that, I'm just a smidge under 70# for a 7 day archery trip.

"Luxuries" I've learned I have to have:
- clean socks and boxer briefs every day
- lots of individual packed diaper wipes
- Vaseline
- pillow (blow up is fine, but it better be thick)
- 3200 calories per day
- electrolyte pills
- small multi tool for changing havalon blades

 
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