Meal Logistics While Elk Hunting

[CJF]

Were you eating the MH cold? I prefer my MH "hot", so it is a hot dinner.

In 35+ years of elk hunting, I can count on one hand how many bears I've seen. And my thumb doesn't count.

Whoa, are you serious? My first year living in Colorado and hunting (2017) I saw 23 during elk season!!

 

[dmc]

I personally feel that bears can smell through factory packaging.... One time in a CO wilderness my brother dropped his big pack to chase some bugles. Ended up gone the rest of the day and came back to find a huge hole ripped in his pack. The bear shredded his sleeping pad to get to the food bag and then proceeded to scatter the food bag all around a 10 yard radius eating his fill. The bear didn't mess with the rest of his pack at all! Pretty crazy I thought.

We always hang our food.

 

[Poser]

Whoa, are you serious? My first year living in Colorado and hunting (2017) I saw 23 during elk season!!

I almost never see them in the Backcountry either. I do see them on my street come trash day, though.

 

[Dos Perros]

There are a ton of bears in the Maroon Bells, but very few in the Holy Cross, so it's plausible to have very different experiences depending where you hunt.

 

[CMF]

We'll be elk hunting the first time this year and backpack camping. I went on a scouting trip a few weeks ago with the wife and first time backpack camping in the mountains in New Mexico. The very first evening we were glassing after setting up camp and a bear pops out only 100 yds away from us and even closer to camp. The wife didn't sleep well that first night. I hung food and trash about 50 yds away, but only a few feet up and we ate at the glassing spot. never had any trouble. I had read this article and found it pretty interesting. https://andrewskurka.com/argument-against-hanging-bear-bag/

Lately I've been hauling corn in game bags in my pack for training and running trail cams for whitetail. Should I try to clean or get rid of the corn smell before heading out for the elk hunt or keep pack away from tent? seems a pack could pick up lots of odors, what do you do with them in camp?

 

[EastMont]

I'm in New Mexico as well. especially if you are N. NM, there are alot of bears. I wouldn't be to worried about them getting into your camp, but I'd still hang that food bag. I don't get real particular about my camp here. I eat/sleep/cook in the same spot.

Again, depends where you are hunting- Bears in NM typically move down into the pinon juniper during the fall so if you are hunting the higher stuff, I doubt you'd even see one.

You should be carrying your game bags in your pack during the day, and I wouldn't worry about them at night.

 

[CMF]

I'll definitely wash the game bags before season, but concerned some about the corn smell in the pack attracting rodents or bears.

 

[njdoxie]

Fortunately I rarely see bears where I camp in SW CO, but I do keep food in a bear proof container just in case. I cook and keep food in camp.


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[FlyGuy]

We'll be elk hunting the first time this year and backpack camping. I went on a scouting trip a few weeks ago with the wife and first time backpack camping in the mountains in New Mexico. The very first evening we were glassing after setting up camp and a bear pops out only 100 yds away from us and even closer to camp. The wife didn't sleep well that first night. I hung food and trash about 50 yds away, but only a few feet up and we ate at the glassing spot. never had any trouble. I had read this article and found it pretty interesting. https://andrewskurka.com/argument-against-hanging-bear-bag/

Lately I've been hauling corn in game bags in my pack for training and running trail cams for whitetail. Should I try to clean or get rid of the corn smell before heading out for the elk hunt or keep pack away from tent? seems a pack could pick up lots of odors, what do you do with them in camp?

That was a really interesting article. I usually fall into the population of folks who do a really poor job of hanging.

For me, I’m almost always in black bear only units and I tend to get lazy. It’s so much nicer to cook/eat a Mtn house from the warmth of my sleeping bag, and I’ve left food inside my enclosed shelter many times (inside wrappers, inside ziplocks, and inside of a dry sack). My biggest concern is not facing a bear at night, but coming back to find my shelter, pad and bag have been completed shredded by a nosy bear while I was away for the day. That could ruin a good hunt, and be quite costly.



You can’t cheat the mountain

 

[Rizzy]

I have a lot of problems with Foxes in one of the spots I hunt, so I hang everything besides what I'm eating that night or next morning. They steal about anything they can fit in there mouth, including gear. No problems with black bears though.

 

[brsnow]

Learn to forage and you can pack light and no bear concerns except competition for food.

 

[Marble]

"Bears are thought to have the best sense ofsmell of any animal on earth. For example, the average dog's sense of smell is 100 times better than a humans. A blood hound's is 300 times better. A bear's sense of smell is 7 times better than a blood hound's or 2,100 times better than a human."

If a police K9 can smell a kilo of cocaine, wrapped in layers of wax, plastic, coffee and whatever else they use for concealment, in a welded tank of gasoline, with gas in it, then I'm sure a bear can smell any food you have in any container.

 

[jmez]

That sense of smell is why I hang mine. We pack in on our backs. I really don't want to come back to camp on the first night and have no food left. That and the rodents.

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[Topo_trekker]

The rodents getting your food is more of an issue than bears. I mainly keep it in a tree nowadays to prevent this. Things chewed a hole though my kifaru spotting scope pocket too..fuckers.


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[DamnRinella]

Anyone do electric fences?

 

[hobbes]

I pack each day's meals (breakfast, lunch, snacks) in gallon ziplock bags. Dinners are mountain house. All are packed in a cheap clear dry bag from Walmart then hung around 15 feet off the ground 75ish yards from my tent. My jetboil, coffee cup, and toothpaste are in there.

Each morning I walk from tent to hanging bag and lower the bag to remove the day's gallon bag of food. On some mornings I boil water for coffee and oatmeal. On other mornings, I just add water to a mixture of grapenuts cereal or granola (both with powdered milk and blueberry craisins). It varies if I do the cereal right there or later. Regardless, the dry bag is rehung.

That night trash from the day (in the zip lock) goes into dry bag. Mountain house and decaf coffee are prepared and eaten, trash stored in dry bag, then rehung untilI restart in the morning.

The area that I typically pack into has a nice boulder for aback rest and a flat top for cooking about 30 yards away (farther from camp) from where I hang my food. I don't have a camp fire. It's typically too dry and I don't have time. It's typically eat then crash.

 

[Marble]

The rodents getting your food is more of an issue than bears. I mainly keep it in a tree nowadays to prevent this. Things chewed a hole though my kifaru spotting scope pocket too..fuckers.


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In 2014 I was taking an elk nap when I heard something right by my ear chewing. Chipmunk was trying to chew a buckle right off my pack. I scared him away and he came back 5 minutes later!!

 

[5MilesBack]

Lately I've been hauling corn in game bags in my pack for training and running trail cams for whitetail. Should I try to clean or get rid of the corn smell before heading out for the elk hunt or keep pack away from tent? seems a pack could pick up lots of odors, what do you do with them in camp?

I cook up 5lbs of bacon every week of archery elk season I'm in there, and wrap it in paper towels and put it in a ziplock in my pack. I carry it every day on my back, and then keep it in the tent at night........but the bacon's usually gone within a couple days. Never had a problem.

 

[mwebs]

Good practice would be to keep clean camp and hang or bear proof store your food. All these examples of people keeping food at camp and not having issues is like saying I don't bring a first aid kit because I haven't been hurt yet. Dumb way to think about it, do it right.

 

[arwhntr]

I sleep with my food in the backcountry and have never had a problem. I will eat in my tent, wrappers and food go back inside their stuff sack and into my pack when done refueling. I would say there's something of a difference between camping in the backcountry vs established camping areas (uneducated vs educated bears). If I was at a Sequoia National Park campground I would be much more hesitant to sleep my food. Same can be said in Grizz Country. I will hang my food here every day.

I also carry camp with me when I hunt never leaving food inside my shelter during the day. I feel like this time would be the biggest risk of a bear ransacking my food supply.