Cant wait for animal packing forum

[rayporter]

that pic was a test of aluminum arrows with heat shrink for insulated posts. the heat shrink had 4000v volts jumping to the tester in the pic. the black heat shrink only had 2000 v shorting to the tester. trees will pass most voltage. until you have 10 trees shorting out the line you will get voltage. most animals run against the fencer will learn to listen for the click of the short. no click no voltage and away they go. so yes they do know if it is on. just not like most people take that.

 

[PNWGATOR]

Appreciate the insight. I'll see what I can put together. Definitely like the idea of the packable hotwire.

 

[wyosteve]

I prefer picketing because I've seen too many animals miles down the trail while wearing hobbles. Not saying all do that, but if they want to go, hobbles often won't stop them. At least that's been my experience/observation.

 

[rayporter]

DTDT

my first trip i spent opening morning tracking down a mare that was headed for ?????

and a few years ago i met a couple guys looking for a 'show morgan' about 10 miles from the trailhead. i called them a month after season and it still had not surfaced.

and one time i watched a guy trying to rope a mule as i was headed in. a week later someone was still chasing that mule as i left.

 

[yama49]

Heres a pic of our horses hobbled, never had any go that far. this camp spot they never were more than 400 yards from camp

 

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

I beleive my system is the gallegar all in one set up. It uses the 4 d cell and its plenty hot but hotter never hurts. I do use the poles and nylon strings to tie to trees as well. My whole kit weighs 12 lbs and I can usually get 40 ft diameter or so depending on where I am. I like having the poles for dead space with no trees and its good for the gate section. Just do an online search for portable electric fenceing, or try outfitter supply and trailhead supply, they both have the package deal that comes with everything you need. I wish I could find where to get the 2 pc poles that came in my kit, I cant find them seperate anywhere, only the one pc poles. I will get a pic of mine in here as well.
Make sure you put your animals in it at home several times before packing it. Mine are to the point where if I just pull out the tape they back off. LOL With my tape I just roll it up on my arm like an extension cord. No roller or fuss. it gets messed up sometimes but nothing bad. Good thing is you can cut this stuff and knot it back up and its fine.

 

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

Zareba Kwick is what I bought to start with, 239.00 right now for everything you need.

 

[PNWGATOR]

Appreciate the tips!

 

[PNWGATOR]

Debating building my own or purchasing a kit. Haven't found 'the' backcountry package that is lightweight, functional and reliable. Plenty of kits offered that would work great traveling with a trailer and staking out a corral, but not many lightweight,, proven and packable options that I've discovered.

 

[charvey9]

As long as the vet check goes well, my wife and I will be road tripping to NorCal next weekend to pick-up our first mule. 11yr old draft mule that has some packing experience, but not much under saddle. She'll be hosted at my in-laws ranch in Eastern Oregon with their horses. My main reason for purchasing was just having a way to get my elk out in one shot, so initial trips will be on foot with the mule in tow.

I'll have time for a few multi-day practice trips over the summer, but big plan will be for up to 9 days in September roughly 7 miles back. Base camp will be in a huge meadow with lots of grass. Would love to be able to hobble her during the day and not worry as much about food/water, but heard too many stories of animals getting loose and heading back to the truck. There is remnants of some old horse camps up where I'll be hunting. No corrals, but spots to high line and picket. I guess I'll plan to picket, cause that seems like the most reliable option. Would be open to electric options if a good back country kit were available.

Looking forward to getting in to packing. Should really expand my hunting opportunities.

 

[robby denning]

Hi fellas,
hoping to have the new Backcountry Stock forum up before July 1. A few things:

1) Since Mulepacker brought it up, here's a video on how I use a picket stake. Someone asked "why not just hobbles?" Because I've walked back to the truck too many times after a horse figures out to run in them (and they can run in them)
[video=vimeo;76114024]https://vimeo.com/76114024[/video]

2) Need some ideas for a name for this new forum. It needs to definitely capture the mules and horses but I don't want to exclude the goat guys (sheep guys can find another site I'm thinking something like "Backcountry Stock Packing" or "Horses, Mules, etc Packing" "Pack Animals for the Backcountry" or something along those lines.

3) Also, Ryan likes to have a catchy descriptive or humorous subtitle so if you look at the forum page, you'll see for the Optics forum the subtitle is "You can't shoot 'em if you can't see 'em! Discuss spotting scopes, binoculars, rifle scopes, etc". I'm thinking something like "All topics for the backcountry stockmen, sheep excluded!" but most of you are more creative than Ryan and I put together
Post up some title and subtitle suggestions.

I started a new thread so we don't hi-jack this one, so please post your suggestions here:

http://www.rokslide.com/forums/show...need-your-ideas-amp-votes&p=351821#post351821

 

[PNWGATOR]

Found a used Gallagher b11 portable fence kit locally that I couldn't pass up. Will get it set up in the pasture and train my animals. Looks like a pretty simple system powered by 6 D batteries.

 

[rayporter]

now pay attention close to that little twine trick. cause if you tie up hard and fast the repercussions are serious. and depending on the lay of the land very serious.

i took an ol guy once that had some mules and he tied up the packer to the the saddle horn. i pissed him off telling him to untie the rope. anyhow as the story goes the next year i had a camp set and he rides by on his own and bout 10 minutes later here comes his stock down the trail. saddle under the horse-still tied to the mules lead rope. rifle flopping, saddle bags streaming gear and the mule headed for the truck dragging the horse.
he had a fellow with him that rode to catch the runaway. [ not his first run away , he had 2 others ]

he did not get hurt [ and i did not help] i could tell a couple more about him.

 

[charvey9]

So...this will likely by my first of many stupid questions, but I'm a newb to packing really looking forward to getting into it. I've been reading up on it a lot, watching videos, and ordered a few of the books suggested. Lots of good technical and how-to stuff out there, but not much in the way of walking you through a typical day in the backcountry with a pack animal.

What do you do with your pack animals during the day when you're off hunting, and/or how often do you need to come back to check on them? I don't think I'll have the electric fence just yet, so I'm assuming a highline would be the best option? Worried about keeping them properly fed and watered.

 

[rayporter]

that is the problem we are discussing. if your stock is secure you can head out before dark on foot. but when you get back you have stock to tend to. and they may not have had food or water all day long. at least you are thinking about it now. if you cant move a highline often they wont have much to eat. if you picket they can get tangled. when alone i come back about 4. if i have a partner i try to alternate the duties. i prefer to stay out late but there has only been one shot late in the day so the odds say to go take care of the animals.

and they are herd animals. if you take out one you could have a revolt or at least a lot of noise.

if you ride out you must still tie somewhere, somehow. and you have to decide whether to saddle the packer or not.

what ever you choose, do your practice at home, a lot. there aint no free lunch.

a DIY guy does not have someone to watch stock all day.

 

[WyoHnt300]

I like the highline/hobble combo. We split our string so there is always two good riding horses on the line. We rotate on 4-6 hour shifts so there are a couple of opportunities a day for each animal to get some movement and H20.

 

[charvey9]

Thanks for the input. That at least gives me an idea of somewhere to start, and that timeline would actually work well where I plan to hunt this fall. An electric coral isn't out of the question for me either, I was just thinking that an 18lb system for one animal might be pushing it. Of course, if I could graze her all day though that would mean packing less feed...so need to figure out the tradeoff.

 

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

One of the things you can learn from books is just like the story of the old guy tying his mule to the saddle horn. Big no no. This little things are what you Lear from wrecks others have had. After doing some camping, packing, riding with all the old timers I could find I picked up a lot of those little items not to do. After reading many many back country stories I learned more. Then I emailed several lifelong packers who did it for a living, in the end I decided the safest way to contain stock was the fencing. Its still not perfect but I feel it is closer than all other choices. Basically its always that way when you choose to use stock, you have to weigh all options and choose what is the best possible technique for the animals, it will never be perfectly safe but you can get close. One of the best things is to use them a lot and expose them. If they only go out occasionally they will react in flight mode to a lot of small things, if they are around these items a lot they will work through the flight thing better but even then they are still prey animals, you never ever know for sure. I have seen animals I would have never in a million year thought would be flighty and bam they blow up. Lots and lots of pre thought needs to go into using stock.

 

[rayporter]

much wisdom spoken above.

each roll of wire weighs under 2 lb and the fencer in the army surplus bag with both rolls of wire weighs under 10 lb -batteries included. that's all i carry when i leave the truck.

the H shaped blue extension cord winder is carried by walmart. the ski rope winders [black] are not easy to find but they sure make life easy.