cooking & staying warm in no fire zone

[Still Hunter]

We just hunt the last week of September. We primarily truck camp. We precook all our evening meals before the trip and hard freeze them. We use creek water to boil water( 5 gallon bucket with lids), Boil water on a propane stove, drop meals in boiling water, cut the bag open and after eating use the boiled water for a sponge bath. Little to no mess, minimal trash. We have a 10 x 20 tent we set up as our main gathering spot/kitchen/folding chairs & table. We keep our gear in it and have Lil Buddy/Propane heaters inside, on 20 gallon propane heaters. The boiling water /cooking warms the main tent along with the propane heaters, we eat, sponge bath and hit our individual tents for sleeping. Keeps the food out of our sleeping tents. If it gets too cold I warm up my tent with a MSR stove, I can always bring in a Lil Buddy but have not needed to do that yet. Never been colder than about 15 degrees. By precooking the food we never need a campfire, we warm the meal, clean up and hit the sack. We are also generally so completely worn out, if we did not have precooked meals we probably would not even eat before hitting the sack. Allows us time to get some rest before the next early morning. We do two eggs a piece every morning on a small cast iron skillet and drop in a frozen precooked mixtures of potatoes, bacon and mushrooms in the pot to boil and dump it in with the eggs.

 

[rodney482]

Jet boil in my vestibule.... when I wake up I fire it up and boil water for coffee/oatmeal. The jetboil warms my tent right up.

 

[Jakerex]

Those that run the buddy heaters, do you run em all night while you’re sleeping?

In our wall tent We had a big buddy heater this year and ran it on low all night. It kept the nip off and just barely kept the water from freezing on 0 degree nights. We were to scared of carbon monoxide to run the heater any hotter. We had the two gable vents open in the tent.


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[Jakerex]

No buddy heater input? ^^^^^


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[fmyth]

Those that run the buddy heaters, do you run em all night while you’re sleeping?

In our wall tent We had a big buddy heater this year and ran it on low all night. It kept the nip off and just barely kept the water from freezing on 0 degree nights. We were to scared of carbon monoxide to run the heater any hotter. We had the two gable vents open in the tent.


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Yes I run my Buddy heater all night long in my 10x14 Kodiak and in out 14x16 wall tent. I used to have a roof top tent with the optional annex and ran the Buddy heater in it all night. I'm still alive.

 

[JPeters218]

We just hunt the last week of September. We primarily truck camp. We precook all our evening meals before the trip and hard freeze them. We use creek water to boil water( 5 gallon bucket with lids), Boil water on a propane stove, drop meals in boiling water, cut the bag open and after eating use the boiled water for a sponge bath. Little to no mess, minimal trash. We have a 10 x 20 tent we set up as our main gathering spot/kitchen/folding chairs & table. We keep our gear in it and have Lil Buddy/Propane heaters inside, on 20 gallon propane heaters. The boiling water /cooking warms the main tent along with the propane heaters, we eat, sponge bath and hit our individual tents for sleeping. Keeps the food out of our sleeping tents. If it gets too cold I warm up my tent with a MSR stove, I can always bring in a Lil Buddy but have not needed to do that yet. Never been colder than about 15 degrees. By precooking the food we never need a campfire, we warm the meal, clean up and hit the sack. We are also generally so completely worn out, if we did not have precooked meals we probably would not even eat before hitting the sack. Allows us time to get some rest before the next early morning. We do two eggs a piece every morning on a small cast iron skillet and drop in a frozen precooked mixtures of potatoes, bacon and mushrooms in the pot to boil and dump it in with the eggs.

Our set up is very similar to this. Except we pack in to spike camp with horses. We bring precooked, frozen meals that can just be heated up (typically over the fire, propane stove this last year).

As for heat, just bring a good sleeping bag and it won’t be an issue. (Getting out of bed in the cold mornings isn’t any fun, but I can honestly say I’ve never been cold at night).

 

[JPeters218]

Our set up is very similar to this. Except we pack in to spike camp with horses. We bring precooked, frozen meals that can just be heated up (typically over the fire, propane stove this last year).

As for heat, just bring a good sleeping bag and it won’t be an issue. (Getting out of bed in the cold mornings isn’t any fun, but I can honestly say I’ve never been cold at night).

I should also note that we hunt 1st rifle. So 1st or 2nd week of October. Typically gets into the teens at night 9k ft)

 

[davsco]

As for heat, just bring a good sleeping bag and it won’t be an issue. (Getting out of bed in the cold mornings isn’t any fun, but I can honestly say I’ve never been cold at night).

yeah i think i have enough sleeping bags to not literally freeze to death in the small 2 person tent. with the extreme cold we had last october in 2nd season i'm just thinking everything food & water-wise will be one big frozen chunk and not sure how to deal or prepare for that.

 

[JPeters218]

yeah i think i have enough sleeping bags to not literally freeze to death in the small 2 person tent. with the extreme cold we had last october in 2nd season i'm just thinking everything food & water-wise will be one big frozen chunk and not sure how to deal or prepare for that.

I haven't dealt with water freezing solid yet. Possibly just bringing it in the tent with you might be enough to keep it thawed. Otherwise i'd imagine you could put it in some kind of soft cooler with some hand warmers and that might stay warm enough

 

[ZH1]

For warming up the tent, I haven't had anything beat this little guy. Call me cheap but it works, though it chews up fuel. You can put it outside and it will light up camp no problem.

 

[Mosby]

No buddy heater input? ^^^^^


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I normally don't run my heater all night. Warm up the tent before crawling in and turn it back on for a while when I get up to go the bathroom. I have a CM detector in the tent but I don't want to take chances. Now if it was single digit cold or worse and we had to leave it on to get through the night, then I probably would...which is why I bring a CM detector with me in the tent...just in case. Always pays to be safe.

 

[BRTreedogs]

yeah i think i have enough sleeping bags to not literally freeze to death in the small 2 person tent. with the extreme cold we had last october in 2nd season i'm just thinking everything food & water-wise will be one big frozen chunk and not sure how to deal or prepare for that.

Run coolers with no ice. They will insulate from the outside cold.
If its real extreme point the heater into the cooler before bed and close it up with heat inside.

 

[Mosby]

For warming up the tent, I haven't had anything beat this little guy. Call me cheap but it works, though it chews up fuel. You can put it outside and it will light up camp no problem.
View attachment 269363

I have a similar light. Works great in my one man tent to take the chill off.

 

[BRTreedogs]

Canvas tents breath pretty well if that is what your using. I vent near the top and don't worry about Co to much.
I personally have not had great luck with buddy heaters.
What I suggest as long as your not so high in altitude that it won't light.
Blue flame propane heater. It takes a little doing usually buy them as a local fireplace store. And have a custom hose made up to go to a tank.

I believe they usually have a low oxygen sensor.

The nice thing about blue flame is they have alot of settings and a thermo stat so usually if we are up in the tent its on notch 1 to 1.5 at night its on .5 and it will shut it self down to pilot then back on when the temp dips.

The thermostat sensor is near the bottom I had to put a pice of foil tape over the opening to hold the heat to it. Otherwise it says on so long it will run you out.

 

[BRTreedogs]

We did not like the ceramic plate ones because the way they work is 1 plate on 2 plates on 3 etc.
So one plate may be to cold. 2 may be to hot.

 

[Tbonespop]

We run the heater buddy in our camper when its really cold. We always leave a roof vent open for ventilation and have CM detectors in the camper. The heater buddies also have low oxygen cut off detection as well as tip over detection - they shut off automatically if low oxygen is detected or they get knocked over. We have never had a CM detector go off. I have friends that have used in the heater buddies in truck camper/topper camping with no issues of shutting off or dangers of CM.

 

[hutty]

Another vote for the Mr. heater buddy in the tent. I hook a 20lb tank up to mine for 7-8 day hunt. I run it at night on low. Helps dry things out and nice waking up with some warmth in the tent.

 

[Indian Summer]

My brother ran a Mr Heater in a 10x12 wall tent one night and he woke up to go to the bathroom and he was so dizzy he could barely find the door. He said he’s sure if he hadn’t woken up he’d be dead. He uses a co2 detector now but the alarm has never gone off. Those things make me nervous since then.

 

[Jakerex]

We ran our big buddy on low each night in our 12x16 wall tent. The low setting on single and teen nights was enough to keep water from freezing, well, some of it.

I was wondering if anyone runs one on medium or high throughout the night. I know it’s not necessary, but to keep the tent at 50+ degrees would be pretty sweet.

These buddy heaters are made to run indoors.

Again. Our tent has two ridge openings in the Front me back for a ridge pole if we elected to use that instead of a frame. We keep these open.

Any recommendations for battery CO monitors?


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