"Lightweight" backpack hunting is an exercise in frustration. Total weight?

[ssssnake529]

"Lightweight" backpack hunting is an exercise in frustration. Total weight?

I've been an ultralight backpacker and alpine climber a lot longer than I've been a hunter. I'm used to really light packs.

However, the longer I hunt, the harder it is for me to keep my carry weight low.

Even spending top dollar on lightweight gear, I can't come close to a carry weight that I'm used to for backpacking (or even climbing.)

Some of the biggest challenges:

Meat hauling. I'm typically solo, so when I'm hauling meat, I'm carrying a TON of weight. This means I've got to carry a pack with a substantial frame and hipbelt. I've tried lightweight packs. They don't cut it with 100 pound loads.
So, I'm stuck with carrying a pack that weighs almost 7 pounds empty.

Optics. Good glass is heavy. I started out carrying only light weight binos. However, the more I hunt (in the mountain West) the more I realize that I need to see long distances, and I can't get around the need for good glass. I went from small binos, to large binos, then back down to small binos combined with a spotting scope. A spotting scope means I've also got to carry a tripod. My 8x32 binos, while light, still weigh over a pound. My lightweight spotting scope weighs 2 pounds, my tripod and ball head weigh 2 pounds, and my rangefinder weighs half a pound.

Between the weight of empty pack and my optics, tripod and rangefinder, I'm already at the fully loaded weight of my typical ultralight backpacking pack.

Add the rifle, game bags, etc., and I'm no longer "lightweight."

So, I guess I will just have to adjust my definitions of what lightweight means, spend more time in the gym and less in the kitchen, and just get used to carrying a heavy "lightweight" load.

This season's deer hunt, my weight (from skin out, including everything I wore and carried) was 45 pounds.

I wonder what other folks who are doing lightweight backpack hunting are carrying and wearing. What's your from skin out weight?

 

[Graves14]

Yes to all those things. It’s a different activity all together. You need all the things you need to camp and then all of your hunting gear as well.

 

[luke moffat]

So true...you'll definetly change your definition of lightweight backpacking if backpack hunting vs. standard lightweight backpacking.

To keep things on an even keel if not hunting I just take a bunch of luxury items to keep the weights a bit closer together...or just haul the packraft along and pick routes that allow for packrafting.

But if you start backpacking/packrafting/and hunting together...yeah you are looking at upwards of 75-80 pounds at times just starting the trip...but the idea is you float the meat back.

 

[mfllood3800]

I am at 55-60 lbs. But I pack in a stay 5-7 days.
Everything is in there from tent-heat stove- sleep items- cook items to processing animal items- to clean camp items in bear country, to navigation- to sanitary items to filming items. Depending on how, what and where you hunt this weight game gets to be a problem one way or another for sure.... You are going to pay up front , in the middle or at the end, but you are gonna pay.
I would rather pay a weight penalty on SOME items than a comfort penalty.

 

[gabenzeke]

45 pounds all in, including spotter and tripod is pretty light. Not sure how long a trip that is for, but if you're packing food for 7 days or more, that's really light.

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[ssssnake529]

Here's what I take with me on a typical deer or elk hunt. (Only difference is that my elk gun is slightly heavier.)

http://larsonweb.com/SoloDeerHunting.pdf


Clothing Weight in Pounds=11.125

Shelter and Sleeping Gear Weight in Pounds=4.46875

Cooking and Water Weight in Pounds=2.65

Backpack and Poles Weight in Pounds=8.39375

Personal Gear Weight in Pounds=2.68125

Shooting Gear and Kill Kit Weight in Pounds=17.575


From Skin Out Total Weight (not including water or food) in Pounds=49



Food is 1.6 pounds per day.

 

[Owenst7]

I'm just a few ounces under 50 lbs including weapon, optics, water, food for 5 days, and fuel (alcohol or iso depending on season). That's for down to about 20F lows at night, not counting base layers that are worn and boots. In other words, everything I'm carrying on my back while humping it up a steep slope during a warm afternoon.

I'm using an Osprey Aether 85, which is just under 5 lbs. I haven't found the need for anything heavier duty, even doing 8 mile packouts of elk in wilderness areas.

I'm using a WM Antelope, TAR Xlite/Xtherm, MS Mountain Shelter. My rifle is 8 lbs with scope and I could lose some weight there. I'm also carrying a 4 lbs tripod that I'd like to upgrade. My spotter is 65mm, so not exactly ultralight.

I use a hammock and quilt in the summer while scouting and am usually around 30 lbs carried for a 5 day trip. I usually carry 3 liters of water unless I am traveling alongside a creek. My food is about 20 ounces a day packaged and about 2400 calories/100 grams of protein.

 

[RosinBag]

Looking at your list, your clothing weight seems very heavy, but you dind't say what time of year or environment you are in and your shelter and sleeping gear seem very light, but at the end 49 pounds isn't bad at all. I would venture to say anywhere between 50-60 pounds all in with food, water, all gear for an early season hunt where you are not packing for extreme weather is fairly standard.

When you see people saying, my pack only weighs in at 32 pounds for 5 days, they are just keyboard hunters and probably have never done a backcountry hunt where every ounce of your gear is on your person.

I also wouldn't get caught up in the total weight to a certain degree. Every day you hunt, you eat your overall pack weight down and you use some of your personal items. On a five day hunt you could easily come out ten pounds lighter from food and water consumption. And if packing out camp and your deer in one trip is essential, then I wouldn't skip on the quality and durability of your pack at all. Packs that you can depend on to hold up under 100 pounds can be counted on one hand. So their base weight empty should play no part in the equation. A 5, 7 or 10 pound pack means nothing in the big picture as if I put three packs in front of you loaded at 55, 57 and 60 pounds, most people would have trouble telling me which one was heavier.

And lastly since you are new to this game of backcountry hunting, here is how you can cut weight down. Make a list of every single item you take, no matter how small. When you use the item, mark it off the list. Then see what items you don't use. Do that on three or four trips and you will see what items you can leave behind. That obviously doesn't mean first aid stuff or kill kit stuff, but the small items you pack that you never need.

 

[Hall256]

And lastly since you are new to this game of backcountry hunting, here is how you can cut weight down. Make a list of every single item you take, no matter how small. When you use the item, mark it off the list. Then see what items you don't use. Do that on three or four trips and you will see what items you can leave behind. That obviously doesn't mean first aid stuff or kill kit stuff, but the small items you pack that you never need.

This is a big help...for years I told myself to check and update my pack list while in the field....and year after year I would forget. However, Once I started doing it, I was amazed at how much extra stuff I had added to my pack over the years...now I maintain a pretty good spreadsheet with my gear for different hunting situations. Now I am happy with right around 50 pounds.

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[5MilesBack]

Some of the biggest challenges:

Meat hauling. I'm typically solo, so when I'm hauling meat, I'm carrying a TON of weight. This means I've got to carry a pack with a substantial frame and hipbelt. I've tried lightweight packs. They don't cut it with 100 pound loads. So, I'm stuck with carrying a pack that weighs almost 7 pounds empty.

If you're hauling 100lb loads of meat, then 49lbs of hunting pack weight should be a breeze. Have you tried Stone Glacier packs. They're lightweight and will absolutely handle 100+ pound loads.

Everyone has their own preferences, but I don't take my spotter and tripod with me very often.

When I figure pack weights I never count the weight of anything I'm wearing or on me besides the pack and what's in it or on it.......so the clothes I'm wearing, my Glock 20, my binos, elk calls, bugle tube, etc......don't get counted. I'll count my bow if it's strapped to my pack.

 

[AdamW]

I hear you man, it's just a different animal. I posted a picture of my wearing my pack for Colorado elk last year and several friends on Facebook thought my 5200 ci pack was huge and what could I possibly have in there. You leave the hunting-specific items out and you can drop ci and pounds in really short order. In hindsight I could have left all that stuff at home because I came out elk-less, but that's another story.

 

[FreeRange]

Having to have made the same adjustment as you the two suggestions I can give are 1) Stone Glacier and 2) KDC tripod. If you're not particular about judging animals stick to just binos and use a KDC tripod. I've not tried it with the mini-spotters in the 50-55mm range, it may work for those. I refuse to go without a tripod for my bino's and the KDC has been a huge weight savings.

 

[justinspicher]

I switched to a smaller pack last year and that really helped me out. I also went through everything I took and decided that redundancy wasn't really needed because it got really heavy, really quick. I made the decision to forgo some items to lose weight with the thought process that I would be able to go further and stay longer because I wouldn't be nearly as tired. It worked out well, especially if I have someone going with me and you are able to split gear.

One thing that helped out a lot was sleeping in layers and taking a 40* quilt that wasn't as baggy. I also cut back on most of the stuff I had in my kill kit. It's pretty basic now, four quarter bags, a knife, sharpener, a few ziplocs and a couple of zipties. My first aid kit is a few assorted band-aids, super glue and a tourniquet. I don't care a possibles kit anymore, because I kept adding more and more shit to it, and eventually it weighed way too much. I have a lighter in my pocket and a small fire kit in the pack and that's about it. I use a sawyer mini squeeze and one Nalgene bottle. Two gets too heavy. No spotter for this guy, because if I cant see them well enough with my binos, I'll just try and get closer. For sleeping I take a hammock and a tarp from Kammock. I didn't think I'd like it, but I love it. I'd say food is my biggest weight, but I am good with taking a heavier amount of food, because it goes away and I stay fueled and happy.

Its all give and take, at least from my perspective. If you're willing to give up something to be light, you might be riding the edge of safety. Its a personal choice.

 

[mtwarden]

would vary quite a bit depending on when in the season and how long- early season I can get by with a smaller tarp, 30 degree bag and bivy, later (colder) I'm much more likely to use a hot tent, stove, cot, 0 degree bag, more clothing- definitely gets heavier

I keep my clothing to a minimum, the only "spares" are spare socks- I will carry a mid-layer top/bottoms, puffy (varies on expected weather), windshirt, light rain jacket, balaclava, mittens- clothing is usually under 5 lbs

I have a very light tripod and use my 10x42's exclusively- no spotter (for deer/elk- for sheep/goat I'd bring a spotter)

Stone Glacier here as well for my pack

 

[Slim Jim]

Everyone is different and has different wants and needs in their pack. I feel sorry for all the serious photographers and filmers. That weight has to really add up. My pack weight without food is usually around 47-50 pounds depending on season, including water and weapon. Food usually weighs around 1.5 pounds per day.


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[ssssnake529]

I had not heard of the KDC tripod before. Looks great. Just ordered one. Saves a couple of pounds right there.

Having to have made the same adjustment as you the two suggestions I can give are 1) Stone Glacier and 2) KDC tripod. If you're not particular about judging animals stick to just binos and use a KDC tripod. I've not tried it with the mini-spotters in the 50-55mm range, it may work for those. I refuse to go without a tripod for my bino's and the KDC has been a huge weight savings.

 

[FreeRange]

Right on. I do recommend getting the optics balancer with the tripod if your binos aren’t naturally balanced with the stud at the center of gravity. Being such a minimal head it is much nicer to not have to fight binos trying to tip forwards or backwards constantly.

 

[oenanthe]

I come from an alpinism background also. There are a lot of similarities between packing for an alpine climb and packing for a backcountry hunt.
A lot of it comes down to knowing what you need. It's been said that "the more you know, the less you need", and there's a lot of truth to that.

And yet there are sometimes constraints you can't avoid: a pack capable of carrying 100 lbs. can only be so light, and a spotting scope capable of seeing lamb tips a mile away can only weigh so little. For those specific examples (pack and optics) that you mentioned I think you can still go lighter, for example my SG Crux frame with homemade packbag weighs 3#3oz, add the meat bag with a plastic liner it's still under 4 lbs., and fully capable of 100 lb loads. For optics it all depends on the mission: on my solo sheep hunt this year I carried 31oz. 10x42 binos and a 3#13oz. 82mm scope and a 26oz. tripod. That's 7.4 lb. just for optics! Whereas on a north slope caribou hunt I might carry just my light 8x30 binos (16 oz.) and no scope or tripod - that knocks over 6 pounds off my pack weight.

A few specific comments on your gear list:
1)Those pants seem heavy; you could save 8-12 oz. right there.
2) A hoodie plus down parka totals over 2 pounds; not quite sure why you need so much insulation but a Montbell Mirage would save you about 20 oz.
3) Why carry a 4 oz. pillow, when a few spare clothes in your sleeping bag stuff sack will do?
4) Stove and pot seem kind of heavy - 1L 'grease pot' with lid is 3.5oz, and many canister stoves are 4 oz. or less.
5) Why carry a separate trash bag; after the first day you'll have one anyway, right?
6) That bladder is heavy - consider a 2L Evernew and a 1L Gatorade bottle; 3.5 oz. total.
7) Insulated cozy? Leave it at home, and use your pile beanie to keep your MH rehydrating.
8) That's a heavy knife at 7.7 oz. Get a Victorinox paring knife; about 1 oz. with sheath.
9) You've got 24 oz. of watch, Inreach, phone, and battery. Lots of duplicated functions there. Leave the watch, phone, and battery at home. Over a pound saved.
10) Leave the earphones at home, too.
11) Rifle at 146 oz. could be lighter. Kimber Montana 7mm-08/Talley LW/Leu. UL 3-9/nylon sling/4 rounds weighs 99 oz. Almost 3 pounds right there!
12) Does a 13 oz. bino harness really do more than a 1 oz nylon strap?
13) Consider leaving the rangefinder at home. You can use your scope reticle or digital camera to estimate range out to 400+.

A lighter pack and items 1-13 add up to well over 10 pounds of potential weight savings. But you have to be ruthless! It's just like asking whether you need that extra ice screw or tricam on your rack; your experience and knowledge have to guide you. It really pays off to focus on what you really need, as opposed to what you merely want.

 

[Poser]

I also have an alpinism background and like the comment above, see more similarities than differences. You start talking about hauling a rope, ice tools, crampons, cams and nuts, ascenders, etriers, slings... it adds up. You also have to make decisions like carrying an extra ice tool blade or not much like you have to decide about how many rounds of ammo to carry or a cleaning kit.

One critical difference is that "alpinism", by definition is light and fast. Climbs done in a "alpine" style seldom require more than one night out, else it becomes more akin to a siege style climb. More often than not, you're talking about a single effort push out of a basecamp of some type. Backcountry hunting usually consists of at least 3 days, but more often, 5-10 days. Getting in and out of the "Backcountry" usually requires some time. That distinction alone should imply that you're going to have a heavier loadout because you need food, real food, for efforts lasting this long. Alpinism scan skimp for a sustained 49 hour effort and recover later, but going into critical deficit on day 3 of a 10 day hunt is a bad idea

The similarities of course are the inherent weights of necessary "tools", though, these tools seem to be getting lighter (and more expensive) all of the time. So, true, you'll have to adjust your definition of "ultralight" as it relates to hunting and that number will certainly be heavier than UL backpacking, but the same fundamentals apply.



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[Seth1913]

There are packs that can handle well north of 100 lbs like seek outside and stone glacier and be under 4 lbs. My SO pack ways a little ove 3. My 20 deg quilt weighs 17 oz. there’s shaped tarps that way under a pound and offer just as much protection as a tent or there’s hammocks. There’s no need to bring a change of clothes besides socks and insulation and maybe a rain jacket.

My pack is constantly getting lighter as I upgrade my gear to lighter and more efficient gear. Pack weights under 40 lbs including food are not that hard to obtain.

This does depend on season and location of course.