Critique My Gear for August NWT Dall Hunt

[buffybr]

I did a backpack hunt with Gana River back in 1999. GREAT HUNT!!

Great base camp. I was really impressed with their water powered electric came generator.
If their hunter cabins are still the ones when I was there, I signed the ceiling for my ram, mountain caribou, and wolverine.

If you can still buy option tags for caribou, wolf, and wolverine, DO IT! I did and had an opportunity for a wolf the first afternoon in base camp, shot a wolverine while packing out my Dall ram and our spike camp, and I shot a mountain caribou in velvet after I got my ram.

I'm old school, and didn't take half the gear in the OP's list. The only name brand cloths that I took were a Cabela's Dry Plus camo rain coat and pants, and a pair of 10" Cabela's hiking boots. I had a lightweight camo jacket from Wall mart. My hunting cloths were 3 pr of white cotton socks, 1 pr of Levi's, a couple cotton T shirts, and a couple of Wall mart long sleeve camo shirts. I probably took a set of long underware. I rarely wear any kind of hat, and didn't take any on that hunt.

In recent years I have "upgraded" some of my hunting cloths to include a lightweight Sitka jacket and pants, and a Kuiu puffy coat.

My pack frame is so old that I don't have any idea what brand it is, but I have packed a pile of deer, antelope, 3 bighorn rams, and a bunch of elk quarters out on it. I did buy a large Cabela's pack that fit over my frame.

My sleeping bag was a down mummy that I got in the early '70s. I still use it today. I did have a Thermarest pad.

My rifle was my .257 Ackley that I built in 1977 on a Mauser Mark X barreled action, topped with a Leupold M8 6x scope, and shooting my 117 gr Sierra GameKing reloads.

I did have a Nikon range finder, and my binocs were Nikon 9x25s. My guide had a little better binoculars, we didn't have a spotting scope or a tripod, and neither of us had trekking poles.

I shot my ram at 206 yds, my caribou at about 150 yds, and my wolverine at a little under 100 yds.

Take at least one paperback book. We had a bit of rain time in our tent and we ended up reading our books and each other's books.

 

[Mykolaivka887]

I was limited to 50 lbs in weight. That is plenty considering it doesn’t include food and cacamp.

Sound Advice /\/\/\ Today's modern hunters need to keep in mind that they're only going to be in the bushes a total of 10 or 12 days, typically. You don't need a bunch of s**t along.

 

[ReddingArcher]

I have kicked around leaving the tote, and having my pack loaded and in a kuiu taku bag. Then on my return trip I can hopefully have my horns and cape in the taku bag with some clothes wrapped around the horns and the rest of my stuff in my pack. I have a few different books I havent started and plan to take one of them. It sounds easier to just have my gun, one checked bag and then a carry on for the flights up.

 

[OMB]

I have kicked around leaving the tote, and having my pack loaded and in a kuiu taku bag. Then on my return trip I can hopefully have my horns and cape in the taku bag with some clothes wrapped around the horns and the rest of my stuff in my pack. I have a few different books I havent started and plan to take one of them. It sounds easier to just have my gun, one checked bag and then a carry on for the flights up.

Last time I went up, I flew up with my pack more or less loaded (SG 6900) inside of the Kuiu 10400 duffel, rifle in a Pelican roller case, and a strap to connect the duffel to the top of my rifle case to roll it around. Carried on my rain gear/boots/bino harness in a normal size North Face backpack. Flying home, cape and horns went in the duffel with all of my pack contents, took the lid off and compressed my hunting pack and carried that on. I did need a luggage cart for the meat cooler I flew back with but that's not a big deal at any airport you're coming through.

Just rebooked for an upcoming season and I don't anticipate changing anything with that system.

Ditch a bag in base camp with street clothes, nothing worse than that first hot shower and having to throw dirty cammies back on. If you're a dipper, double what you think you'll need, because the selection in Norman Wells is neither great nor reasonably priced. Best of luck, take lots of pictures.