New Backpacker/Hunter

[Cahogan]

I am new to this forum and it is great. I love the outdoors and will be moving to Montana in a few weeks from South Dakota. I am really excited to get into backpacking and eventually back country hunting.

What are some tips/recommendations when first starting off and learning to backpack/hunt.

 

[Jordan Budd]

Check out the Rokcast. Here's an episode I did about Newbie Gear..

Gear List for a Newbie

In this lengthy episode, host Jordan Budd goes through all of the gear items you would need for a backpacking trip. This episode was created to not only give newer backpack hunters some gear options, but also explain in depth why some options are better than others and which have more...

www.rokslide.com

 

[FLAK]

Well, you've got location covered. Welcome.

 

[Wapiti1]

Good for you. Say hi to my home state for me. I won't be back until this fall. Where are you landing there?

Don't bite off more than you can chew starting out. Hit the close national forests and do some simple overnights, or two day excursions. Take a fishing rod and hike into some of the great fishing. Get the Bear Aware info, and follow it. Learn clean camp habits early.

Lot's of folks go there and decide the Bob, Absoroka Beartooth or Metcalf are where to go. They get humbled very fast. And for gods sake don't pronounce the second O in Absoroka. It's silent. You can say either Absorka (no second O), or Absorky (not sure why). The show Longmire annoys the holy heck out of me on that one point.

Jeremy

 

[OldGrayJB]

Welcome, you came to the right forum.

After you finish that podcast, Jordan has a lot of other informative episodes. Also the high end backpack companies have good info. Stone Glacier has a bag dump video on YouTube. Exo Mtn Gear has gear lists on their site. Firstlite has clothing/layering lists on their site. Blackovis.com has almost everything you can imagine for hunting.

There's so much info it can be like drinking from a fire hose.

 

[Jstolte]

Fellow newbie here. Thanks for making this post I’m excited what others have to say.

 

[Rob5589]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[GunsAreFun]

Just go backpacking first. Don’t spend a lot of money on gear. You can get everything you need to be comfortable for about $500 and only weigh ~30-32 pounds with food and a liter or two of water. Some people love the idea of backpacking but don’t like it in practice and then have to sell all their expensive gear at a loss or leave it sitting in storage.

Take two or three trips to see what you like and dislike. Don’t buy anything high end until you do this. Ideally, join a Facebook group that does local backpacking trips so you can learn from experienced people and see their gear in use to help you decide what you want to invest in.

 

[AZsniper]

Just go backpacking first. Don’t spend a lot of money on gear. You can get everything you need to be comfortable for about $500 and only weigh ~30-32 pounds with food and a liter or two of water. Some people love the idea of backpacking but don’t like it in practice and then have to sell all their expensive gear at a loss or leave it sitting in storage.

Take two or three trips to see what you like and dislike. Don’t buy anything high end until you do this. Ideally, join a Facebook group that does local backpacking trips so you can learn from experienced people and see their gear in use to help you decide what you want to invest in.

couldnt agree more. Take your time with purchasing gear and guns. enjoy the process of learning. And ask a lot of questions.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Just go backpacking first. Don’t spend a lot of money on gear. You can get everything you need to be comfortable for about $500 and only weigh ~30-32 pounds with food and a liter or two of water. Some people love the idea of backpacking but don’t like it in practice and then have to sell all their expensive gear at a loss or leave it sitting in storage.

Take two or three trips to see what you like and dislike. Don’t buy anything high end until you do this. Ideally, join a Facebook group that does local backpacking trips so you can learn from experienced people and see their gear in use to help you decide what you want to invest in.

Welcome. Thirds on this. Do some backpacking. Start with overnights and then 2-3 nights. That will help you get up to speed on eating / sleeping from your pack and prep up you for hunting. I started with military surplus gear and slowly evolved and acquired better stuff.

Backpacker magazine and their website put out some pretty good info on backpacking and much of it applies to hunting. Be a little weary of ultralight gear. It is great and serves a purpose but doesn’t always hold up to hunting abuse in all cases. My fast packing pack would get torn to shreds busting brush and there is no way it could haul an animal for instance.

 

[Fowler530]

As you can see, there’s lots of great information and experience to draw from around here! Welcome aboard and Congrats on the pending move!!

 

[Cahogan]

This is pretty great! I didn't know what to expect posting something and its pretty cool to see so many people posting on this. I appreciate it!

 

[Cahogan]

Good for you. Say hi to my home state for me. I won't be back until this fall. Where are you landing there?

Don't bite off more than you can chew starting out. Hit the close national forests and do some simple overnights, or two day excursions. Take a fishing rod and hike into some of the great fishing. Get the Bear Aware info, and follow it. Learn clean camp habits early.

Lot's of folks go there and decide the Bob, Absoroka Beartooth or Metcalf are where to go. They get humbled very fast. And for gods sake don't pronounce the second O in Absoroka. It's silent. You can say either Absorka (no second O), or Absorky (not sure why). The show Longmire annoys the holy heck out of me on that one point.

Jeremy

I will be heading to Billings. I accepted a new job there.

 

[RazzleDazzle]

I would advise the OP to invest in the best gear they could afford from the start. Nothing has ruined a hunting/hiking backcountry adventure faster than having gear that's sub par for a quality experience. I'm not advising the OP to go buy everything high end but I can promise you that you will have a more enjoyable experiences if you are comfortable and have quality gear. You have nothing but what you have back there OP, I would gear up on decent stuff and upgrade along the way. Lots of quality gear can be purchased used at low quality prices.

I think the key to a quality backcountry experience is physical shape. It's not easy and by no means a stroll. You can have the best gear money can buy but I guarantee you will still not be happy and will most likely be miserable if you're not up for the task physically.

 

[Poser]

If you’ve never done any backpacking, you should do some backpacking because you need the experience before you start trying to combine the two. Things get infinitely more complicated and heavy when you start adding in a hunting load out and learning the ins and outs of the two at the same time is too much to bite off.

I would recommend buying most or all all of your gear used and know that you’re probably not going to get it right the first time with a portion of you gear (and you can’t know that until you actually use it), so you’ll resell the gear that doesn’t work for you and upgrade and experiment until you are dialed in.


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[Catahoula]

Welcome!

 

[jmagnumw]

I will have to agree with just about everything “gunsarefun” all great advice!! I personally started with a second hand kelty external frame pack. I have since owned a mystery ranch, Exo mountain gear, and a Kifura bag, and first of all they were much better then my old kelty lol. But between the three the Exo and Kifura are in a league of three own. Both the Exo and Kifura are amazing bags in all aspects ( I have packed out deer, bear, and elk with both bags) I ended up keeping the EXO because it was Easter to access the load panel.


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