Ever had an issue with theft while tent camping off forest service roads during hunting season?

[MeatInTheFreezer]

Never had an issue in Colorado or Wyoming.

 

[Rich M]

I'm kinda dense and wonder what you are talking about? I know what a zip tie is but what else are you saying?

Most tents have 2 opposing zippers, two tabs w holes or string loops. Zip tie em together to monitor access.

 

[signing off]

I saw a real jerk move once in a state park. We were having a family reunion visit and a couple drove thru with a BIG RV, probably a 40 ft pusher or similar. They saw a site that would work and set a small red cooler down in the drive to claim it, then drove off. Maybe to the office.
Other campsite had a guy walk over and swipe the cooler as soon as the RV was out of sight. Short time later when the couple came back, we shared what we had seen. I think they ended up leaving and don't think I would have stayed either.

 

[Pony Soldier]

I spent 39 years camping nearly every night - may through Oct. I typically built my camps at the end of logging roads and then parked my truck about 50 yds up the road so I had plenty of warning for incoming traffic especially with me blocking the road. I had a couple of visitors but never lost anything.

All my elk camps were in a couple miles. Each of them had a trail I built to them. I especially hid the access to the trails and never used the same entry twice. I never had my camps disturbed.

 

[Pharmseller]

I haven’t yet, but I always worried about it.

 

[westslopelaker]

The only problem I've ever had was a bear ransacking my food cooler while I was out hunting! Or another time a snowshoe hare chewed on the cork handle of a fishing rod.

 

[CarterHunt]

I always worry about someone taking the coolers out of the back of my pickup, so I use a python cable to lock those up. Other than that I just keep anything valuable concealed and locked in the truck and hope someone isn’t brazen enough to break in. Never really worried about my tent/camping gear and everything else stays on me.

 

[Terrapin]

I had an acquaintance that had a secret hunting spot way back in the mountains. He did pretty well and was very tight lipped about where he was hunting. One day, while hunting a new area, I was pretty lost and a long ways from my truck. I stumbled down a brushy canyon & walked right into his camp. He had brushed out an old fire road and found a way to camp way back in an area that would have been very difficult to access other wise.

So I stole a sandwich and a beer and left a hotel key card from Cactus Pete’s Casino in his cooler… I figured a clue from a thousand miles away would throw him off.

I didn’t see him for about a year

On your topic, the best thing we ever bought for base camping was a 5x8 enclosed trailer. There is enough room to do all of our cooking and getting out of the weather. When we are out hunting, all of the valuables go in the trailer with a beefy padlock on the door & locks to prevent the trailer from being stolen.


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[insanelupus]

For elk hunting, I simply sleep in the front seat of the truck, living like a nomad during my hunt.

The truck looks like it's being lived in, starts to smell like it to after a few weeks.

But it is rare anyone wants to stop and visit at my "camp". From hunt mode to camp mode takes about 10 minutes to arrange. All very convenient.

I usually hunt the work week and go home on the weekends. Sleep quality varies, but in elk season I'm often tired and there aren't a lot of hours to sleep anyway.

Plus the midday naps stretched out in the woods feels real comfy.

I've got my usual spots I stay, but they frequently change depending on where elk are or aren't. I've found such a value in being mobile that setting up a "base camp" seems more limiting to me than advantageous.

But there's always a chance of vehicle break in or vandalism while hunting.

The risk is always there, it is simply assessing the risk to see if the juice is worth the squeeze.

 

[dtrkyman]

Some douche stole my cooler full of food first day on a trip and my water on a desert hunt!

Got a couple gallons of water from some kind folks passing through and made it a few days on dehydrated meals, 3 plus hour round trip to a grocery store to stock back up!

With all the times I’ve been out and about that was the only incident, really pissed me off at the time but not a big deal in the grand scheme!


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[Sitkaspruce]

When I was guiding, we had a bunch of stuff stolen on one trip.

We had two moose down, so we got back to camp late and the first thing I noticed was a dog running around camp. My dog was the only one in camp and she was with me.
The next thing I noted was that all the coolers on the front porch of the cabin were gone, including the beer cooler.
Then I noted that the front door had a bunch of axe cuts around the lock and the lock clasp was pried open. A quick search noted that all my stuff had been gone through, but my extra gun, fishing gear, ammo and other personal stuff was not taken. The clients cabin is always left open for anyone in need of an emergency shelter; they had the same thing with all their stuff gone through, but nothing was taken except some food.....

Meanwhile, the dog was running around playing with my dog, but was timid around us. I wondered how the dog could have shown up as we are about 7k up a river with boat access only. I had a spare cooler with some food in the cabin they left and with fresh moose meat, canned veggies and KD, we had dinner. When I went back down to the river to grab some water, I then noticed that the kicker motor was also gone off the spare boat....

In the end, they took 2 100 quart coolers and a smaller beer cooler, the kicker, some dry goods and an empty gas can.

The next morning, as we headed off to retrieve the rest of the moose, the dog was on the porch, so I fed him before we left. We were back 3 hours later and there was no dog.

What I think happened is some aholes came up the river on a jet boat and we came back early, so they took off and left the dog and possibly some other stuff they planned on taking. Then they probably waited until we left the next morning and picked up the dog. We had taken everything of value and put it high up in the bear cache and took the ladder with us.

Reported everything, but never heard anything back.

That was the only issue in 15 years of guiding that I had when it came to theft of stuff.

Cheers

SS

 

[Zeke6951]

I should have added to my other post. A couple of years ago I modified a 16 foot enclosed trailer for camping. I don't have to leave anything of value out and unlocked at camp any more. Works great. I do sometimes set up a cook tent and leave all the food and cooking stuff in it. This elk season we had am bear come into camp the second night an destroyed all the food and coolers, ripped hole in every side of the tent. We ran him out 3 or 4 times during the night. He still made a mess. We restocked and put all the food in the enclosed trailer and in the back of a new pickup under a hard cover. The bear came back a few nights later but only got into the charcoal. He did $4,000 damage to the pickup paint job and the cover trying to get to food inside. Damn bear!!

 

[douglasfir]

Would be helpful if folks have had problems to provide some context, ie season, approximately where, proximity to city/town, etc. Do you think this is people out to steal stuff, wandering trouble-making kids, etc?

We have issues on the Grand Mesa in western Colorado. Some of the campsites there are just a short drive away from towns that unfortunately have some lowlifes. Stealing stuff seems to be the primary motive. It's rare, but one or two people a year raiding campsites can ruin a lot of trips. I'm more vigilant out on the mesa than I'd be in more remote locations.

 

[Rock’N Tacos]

Side note - I worry way more about stuff getting stolen from my truck in hotel while traveling to and from the mountains.

 

[BowBaboon]

After a couple days of hunting without much luck I pulled into a small-town bar in southern Wyoming. I overheard a group of hunters talking about how they'd come across a guy packing up his wall tent early in the morning and stopped to talk to him about what he'd seen in the area. Not giving a lot of detail, he said he was packing up in a hurry because his buddy was in elk a few units away and was going to meet up with him.

A few days later, they drove down the same road to find a guy stopping any group that passed to ask about seeing anyone in that camp. Turns out the second guy was the rightful owner to the wall tent and it's possessions but the first guy had stolen his camp in the early morning with nobody thinking anything of it.

This was down a fairly well-traveled road on forest service land with an occupied forest service campground not more than a mile away.

I don't have a lot of experience at this, but since then I've been much more diligent about keeping a camp as simple as possible with anything beyond a sleep system in my truck. Haven't heard of any issues since then.

 

[CaribooBC]

Would be helpful if folks have had problems to provide some context, ie season, approximately where, proximity to city/town, etc. Do you think this is people out to steal stuff, wandering trouble-making kids, etc?

The area that we have issues with is remote enough that there is seldom any law enforcement in the area and a certain ethnic group claims the land as their’s. Very high level of poverty and drug abuse within the local communities. Locals steal vehicles and belongings. They can then go to the city with the vehicle and buy drugs by fencing their illegal loot. I hope that I have not crossed any rules with this post.