Bivy/ Backpack Hunting Mistakes/Advice

[Boxerboxer]

I would recommend packing it with the gear you plan on using. You aren't going to be carrying a sandbag on your hunt so why practice carrying one? Nothing beats practice with the gear you actually plan on using.

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You can and should pack the gear to practice and get the packing dialed in, but the hiking around part is for your legs and lungs, so I don't think it matters a whole hell of a lot once you've got your system figured out. Sandbag is nice because I use my pack for all kinds of things other than walking around with weight so it makes the switch over much faster.

For a guy that does all his hunting in the backcountry I could see just leaving gear in the bag, though. It all depends on what all you're using the pack for concurrently with training.

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[DIY Lifer]

I have two shelter systems I run. I have floorless tarp shelter that I love and it has tons of room and weighs almost nothing and is set up with trekking poles. Which I strongly suggest using trekking poles. My other shelter I run is an ultralite tent with footprint when there is sure to be a ton of bad bugs or really nasty weather. I have a single person bivy i dont use anymore since my gear got soaked twice since i didnt have anywhere to hide it with that setup. I also have a hammock, I dont prefer that method since once weather is bad and I want to cook and lay out gear easily it just doesnt cut it for me. I like the space under a tipi or tarp style shelter.

 

[DIY Lifer]

Also, once I started sleeping from my back everynight and just staying in until I ran out of food. I ended finding way more elk then I have ever seen before. I like the idea of putting elk to bed I couldn't quite reach then waking in there backyard and bugling at 5am. Worked wonders for me last season and I killed my first archery bull that way.

 

[Poser]

No pad? You are hard core my friend!

Left that out. Usually a Xtherm in Oct and Nov. sometimes go lighter in Sept.

 

[207-12A]

An offseason camping trip with your projected 2-3 day hunt packing list can tell you what gear you can leave behind on your actual hunt. I dropped almost 10 pounds off of my 2 nighter list just by getting comfortable having less shit along with me.

25 lb bags of cat litter for $4 make for good training weights. I duct tape them for reinforcement and they last years.

 

[bsnedeker]

Left that out. Usually a Xtherm in Oct and Nov. sometimes go lighter in Sept.

Makes sense...you seem like a pretty tough dude so it wouldn't have surprised me that you just pile up pine boughs for a mattress or something!

 

[JPD350]

Like others alluded to, you don't want to go for 2 or 3 days and not be in elk. I would hunt with day pack stuff and keep hitting different locations, once you find a spot/zone that is holding elk go get your bivy gear and head out for a few days and at least at that point you will also know if there is water in the area.

 

[George Hamrick]

Also, once I started sleeping from my back everynight and just staying in until I ran out of food. I ended finding way more elk then I have ever seen before. I like the idea of putting elk to bed I couldn't quite reach then waking in there backyard and bugling at 5am. Worked wonders for me last season and I killed my first archery bull that way.

I like your idea of the setup of a floorless tent or a tarp. I had your thinking at the end of my last trip. Felt like I would’ve gotten one if so had been staying in the elk instead of hiking in and out 3 miles every morning and night just to get to the elk.

 

[George Hamrick]

Like others alluded to, you don't want to go for 2 or 3 days and not be in elk. I would hunt with day pack stuff and keep hitting different locations, once you find a spot/zone that is holding elk go get your bivy gear and head out for a few days and at least at that point you will also know if there is water in the area.

That is basically the idea, but I just wanted to see what people felt were necessary, or mistakes that were made when people stayed out for 2 or 3 days. Bouncing around more until I find elk is definitely something I am going to attempt to do more this time around.

 

[Yukon Cornelius]

I appreciate the information. Pack and boots were definitely up there in my items not to skimp on. When you say to practice with 50 lbs in your pack, how are you going about doing that? Do you just throw dumbbells or sandbags in the pack, or do you just hike with the gear you plan on using?

I prefer to use what I’ll be hunting with. Might use sandbag or dumbbell to replace water. But a 50lb dumbbell in a pack sucks compared to a full pack wirh 50lbs of weight. IMO.

 

[Poser]

Like others alluded to, you don't want to go for 2 or 3 days and not be in elk. I would hunt with day pack stuff and keep hitting different locations, once you find a spot/zone that is holding elk go get your bivy gear and head out for a few days and at least at that point you will also know if there is water in the area.

A different strategy would be to be ready to Bivy out once you do find elk so that you don’t lose a day or even a day and a half having to go back out and get your gear and come back. If feasible, perhaps having some food staged between yourself and your vehicle would allow you go go lighter initially but still be able to stay out for 3 days or longer. The difference between overnight and 3 days would only be food anyway.

The effort expended on carrying gear vs. hiking round trip to retrieve gear is debatable and varies from one situation to the next, but finding elk that are, say, a 5 hour hike in, is going to, at a minimum, cost you 10 hours of precious time and maybe as much as 24 hours depending on the timing, assuming the elk are still in the same spot when you return. 24 hours out of a 5 day window is a costly amount of time.
Other scenarios that you might encounter where having bivy gear is a big +: shooting an animal at last light and having to wait until the next morning to resume tracking. Killing an animal and finishing the butchering job late at night, say midnight, where you have the option to lay down and go to sleep vs. X amount of hours hiking back to your vehicle. Also, in elk country, navigation in the dark can be considerably more time consuming since you’re having to constantly stop, check and evaluate your location to avoid getting cliffed out etc.

 

[George Hamrick]

A different strategy would be to be ready to Bivy out once you do find elk so that you don’t lose a day or even a day and a half having to go back out and get your gear and come back. If feasible, perhaps having some food staged between yourself and your vehicle would allow you go go lighter initially but still be able to stay out for 3 days or longer. The difference between overnight and 3 days would only be food anyway.

The effort expended on carrying gear vs. hiking round trip to retrieve gear is debatable and varies from one situation to the next, but finding elk that are, say, a 5 hour hike in, is going to, at a minimum, cost you 10 hours of precious time and maybe as much as 24 hours depending on the timing, assuming the elk are still in the same spot when you return. 24 hours out of a 5 day window is a costly amount of time.
Other scenarios that you might encounter where having bivy gear is a big +: shooting an animal at last light and having to wait until the next morning to resume tracking. Killing an animal and finishing the butchering job late at night, say midnight, where you have the option to lay down and go to sleep vs. X amount of hours hiking back to your vehicle. Also, in elk country, navigation in the dark can be considerably more time consuming since you’re having to constantly stop, check and evaluate your location to avoid getting cliffed out etc.

That is one of the main reasons I would prefer to have my gear with me. I don’t feel like making a possible 6-8 mile round trip just go grab some food when I could take it with me or stash it somewhere on my way in.

 

[Poser]

Makes sense...you seem like a pretty tough dude so it wouldn't have surprised me that you just pile up pine boughs for a mattress or something!

I used to do that regularly back in my early 20s. I can’t even get comfortable on a 3/4ths length pad these days....

 

[OXN939]

That is one of the main reasons I would prefer to have my gear with me. I don’t feel like making a possible 6-8 mile round trip just go grab some food when I could take it with me or stash it somewhere on my way in.

Lots of great advice in this thread. I'd also reinforce the saying that sleep is a weapon. If you're uncomfortable and recovering poorly, your performance will suffer across the board- if you do some googling, you'll see that the special operations community, which is fundamentally interested in similar performance to backcountry hunters, has been adopting this school of thought more and more over the past few years. A good inflatable sleeping pad plus a pillow and a sleeping bag that keeps you comfortable are all "musts" for my hunts.

 

[backcountrymuzzy]

Definitely try to find a spot to camp near a water source. I would suggest spike camping first before doing a bivy hunt, you'll be able to cover a lot more ground and you'll still find out what you use/don't use in your pack.

 

[Bighorner]

Always get coordinates on your camp. A tent in the dark, in the trees, during a snow storm, can be very hard to find.

Same if you feel you need to drop your pack. A couple years I dropped mine for a "short" stalk. When I went to grab it, I could not for the life of me find it. My filter, headlamp, water, pistol, and wallet were gone. I searched for about three hours with no luck. I had no way to call the wife at night to check in. I did have a spike camp, but no water or safe way to make it. I ended up hiking about 6 miles back out, drove 2.5 hours home, had to tell my wife what happened, barrow a GPS to grid a mountain side for another couple hours to find the pack. The pack was in the slightest depression and was barely visible. Long story short, losing your gear unexpectedly in the wilderness leaves you pretty exposed.

 

[HunterJoeMI]

Only difference for me from what is in my pack on a day hunt and what is in my pack for bivy hunt is the addition of Big Agnes Tiger Wall 3 tent, insulated inflatable pad, Marmont Helium 15 bag, food for one extra day than expected. I usually go with no cook food so no messing with cooking gear.

I always have (for every hunt) my F1 frame pack with kill kit, puffy, warm stocking hat and reg hat, space rain gear, gortex socks and extra dry socks in case boots get swamped and gators. Add Sawyer filter and water bottle, wind checker, binocs, rangefinder, gps, compass, inreach, headlamp, extra batteries, wipes-TP, emergency kit, day snacks, bow and all synthetic or wool clothes I am wearing with hunting boots.

All that said most of the time I am hunting from a truck camp to be mobile - Bivy gear is always ready!

 

[Indian Summer]

This^ numero uno.

Its a hunting trip not a camping trip.- grin

I’ll third that. In my opinion to bivy is to be in search mode meaning you have no idea where the elk regularly spend time. Actually elk can be close enough to the truck to make a base camp the best way to go. But if they aren’t then a spike camp is a good idea. Bivying is ok to learn areas far from where your truck is. But it’s no way to live. No way to dry gear. Carrying weight all day. Think long term. Bivy hunt if you want to at first but the goal is to locate the ideal spot to set a back country spike camp where you can be comfortable and leave the bulk of your gear while you’re out hunting. Find a spot in reach of multiple spots that hold elk consistently and dig in!

 

[cnelk]

Tip = Always, always hang your bow in a tree during the night.
If you leave it on/near the ground, critters like to chew on strings & cables

 

[Solescade]

Good boots are a must!!