Lightweight meat poles

[swat8888]

Looking for any ingenious and Lightweight meat pole setups y'all might have used with some success. The area we sheep hunt has pretty much no trees and we want a place to hang our meat from. Last year was a pin hanging from the 10 little scrubby "trees" at the strip. We were thinking some sort of PVC contraption. Anyone whose tested something in the field that seem so work please let me know, some pics/specs would be awesome too.

 

[larryschwartz]

How high does it need to be and how much weight does it need to support?

 

[colonel00]

Trekking poles?

 

[larryschwartz]

You could make poles from 7.5 foot lengths of schedule 40 pvc pipe, 2" and 1.5" and lash them together with shear lashings to make your tripod. The 1.5' pipe should fit snugly inside of the 2" pipe and will add strength and rigidity to it. You might need to put a bolt through the tops of the pipes to keep your lashing from slipping down but that shouldn't be too hard. The 7.5' poles will give you a tripod about 7' high with a 4' base. That should be enough to hold up your ram.

 

[larryschwartz]

If 7.5' is too long for you, then cut the 2" pipes in half (2 x 3.75') and the 1.5" pipes into 1x3.25 and 1x4.25 lengths. Put the 1.5" inside of the 2.0" and you will have a piece 1.5" pipe that is 1.0' long to slide into the other 2.0" piece to join them together and still keep the strength you need.

 

[larryschwartz]

I haven't tried this but a discussion with my friendly contractor at Home Depot said that this should work for around 200#-300#. In any event, it's a cheap experiment and lighter and cheaper than buying a tripod. And it will come apart to fit inside of your pack if you need to.

 

[swat8888]

Being optimistic....should support at least two sheep and one bou. Don't care how high off the ground so long as it keeps the meat bag off the tundra. About 4' I'd guess is a good height. Supporting roughly 300#. Would prefer to avoid trekking poles as this will be for the strip once we return with sheep. Will still need the poles for hunting bou/boo boo. Guess an extra set might not be a bad idea.

 

[larryschwartz]

Well then, a couple of the tripods I described should do it for you. You could even make them shorter if you wanted.

 

[Becca]

Is there enough alders or brush to just use that? That's what we usually do in the conditions you describe. If all you need is a way to keep air circulating under the meat than brush should work just fine. Cut it if necessary, and overlay it or stack it against other pieces to keep your game bags off the ground and let the breeze blow thru...

 

[swat8888]

becca, yeah we could do that but we had a bunch of camp raiding fox, mice and porcupines last year at the strip. Trying to get the meat off the ground.

 

[Mike7]

I can't remember where I read it on this site in order to give the proper credit, but one gentleman mentioned mothballs as being very effective for keeping the smaller varmints away from one's meat. I haven't tried it yet, but have filed that nugget away to use if I get the chance.