Pack weight: Does anyone actually care?

[mxgsfmdpx]

Do I care about overall weight. Yes. Do I care enough to be an ounce weenie and weigh everything that goes into my pack. Hell no.

 

[sconnieVLP]

Don’t forgot your weight matters. I’m 25 lbs over weight at the moment, and about 5-10 lbs heavier than I was last season.

Imagine dropping 25 lbs off your pack weight? That would personally take me down to a 10lb base weight!

I’ve really kicked it into gear this week… I’ve lifted twice and ran four times so far this week. I realize if I want to drop that 25 lbs by mid Oct it starts now. Like it or not, in my late 30s I can’t just eat and drink beer as much as I please and not be fat.

I’ve “plateaued” with cutting my pack weight within reason. The only part left to cut is me. I also don’t want to have to buy a larger belt for my Kifaru Fulcrum.

Your weight/size matters in two areas, the first being what you pointed out in your post.

The second is just your general physical size. At work we would base our target pack weights based on a percentage of your overall body weight. I’m 225lbs but my RTO was about 140lbs. Him putting 100lbs on his back is very different than me putting 100lbs on my back.

 

[7mm-08]

Well to make a long story short I was hunting with a buddy chasing an elk that had been sounding off. It was getting towards sunset. We had been calling and getting regular responses from this bull and working in on him. Intermittently another hunter would join and bugle. We stopped bugling and listened to the bull and the other hunter and just walked in silent. I was standing on a logging road in the open and could hear the bull occasionally walking around, but it was getting dark pretty fast and the bull went silent. Everything was quiet and we were just standing there. We hadn't heard anything for like 20min or so when out of the shadow at 30 yards I saw a figure come out of the woods at my 8-9 o clock off my left shoulder to the left and just behind me. I could tell it was the hunter and watched him get to the middle of the road and stop. I turned my head and looked at my hunting partner when it felt like something bit me in the shoulder. I saw two holes in my shirt at the shoulder and was confused until I touched it and was full of blood. Arrow essentially cut through the shoulder (no bone) hit my shoulder strap from my backpack on my chest and deflected away from me. He rushed to me and told me later thought I was the elk butt (direct quote). It cut a big "y" shaped hole, definitely using a 3 blade broadhead.

So I've change how I hunt and what I carry in my pack now I think my trauma/med kit weighs 2-3lbs or so? But I never leave home without it.

What a story! Super glad you're alive to tell it.

 

[Phaseolus]

The older you get the more weight matters. I don’t weigh my pack but I buy the best lightweight equipment I can afford. The only good thing about getting old is if you’ve planned well you can now afford great equipment.

 

[AlexNRKC]

I am new to the forum….. but I have been backpack hunting for 9 years now. I had weighed my pack a few times early on and was always in the 50-60 pound range for a 3-5 day hunt. Reading this thread made me throw my bag on the scale again for the first time in years. 27.5 pounds without food and water. I usually have a checklist written down on a legal pad that I go through when packing. I did always take notes on what I didn’t even touch while unpacking and that’s how I was able to get my pack a little lighter I think. It has helped to slowly upgrade my gear to lighter stuff over the years.

 

[Trial153]

The only time I really care is when I have a weight limit flying into someplace. The three pound difference between my SG vs my Kifaru is a lot of creature comfort.

 

[Wyomtnman]

Everyone has a different body that carries weight differently.

I have a smaller frame, soaking wet 150lbs. So the delta between what matters and what doesn't for me is smaller. Ounces matter more for me than someone with 50 lbs more muscle.

I wouldn't use bodyweight as an excuse, there's lots of 150lb guys that'll carry 70+ lbs all day long without complaining

 

[brotherman]

Why not have the lightest within reason? You don't see people running marathons with extra weight just for fun

 

[chasewild]

I wouldn't use bodyweight as an excuse, there's lots of 150lb guys that'll carry 70+ lbs all day long without complaining

Adorable first post.

Certainly not using my body weight as an excuse as I’ve carried 70 pounds in Alaska and BC all day long For several days at a time ending in a much heavier pack out without complaining. But the fact remains the same, 59kg weight class is not putting up the same weight as the 120 kg weight class. Basic math.


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[PineBrook413]

I definitely weigh my pack before a trip and try and cut it down if its too heavy but I'm not cutting tooth brushes in half or counting individual sheets of TP

 

[whaack]

Well to make a long story short I was hunting with a buddy chasing an elk that had been sounding off. It was getting towards sunset. We had been calling and getting regular responses from this bull and working in on him. Intermittently another hunter would join and bugle. We stopped bugling and listened to the bull and the other hunter and just walked in silent. I was standing on a logging road in the open and could hear the bull occasionally walking around, but it was getting dark pretty fast and the bull went silent. Everything was quiet and we were just standing there. We hadn't heard anything for like 20min or so when out of the shadow at 30 yards I saw a figure come out of the woods at my 8-9 o clock off my left shoulder to the left and just behind me. I could tell it was the hunter and watched him get to the middle of the road and stop. I turned my head and looked at my hunting partner when it felt like something bit me in the shoulder. I saw two holes in my shirt at the shoulder and was confused until I touched it and was full of blood. Arrow essentially cut through the shoulder (no bone) hit my shoulder strap from my backpack on my chest and deflected away from me. He rushed to me and told me later thought I was the elk butt (direct quote). It cut a big "y" shaped hole, definitely using a 3 blade broadhead.

So I've change how I hunt and what I carry in my pack now I think my trauma/med kit weighs 2-3lbs or so? But I never leave home without it.

Holy crap man. Glad you’re ok. A miracle for sure!!


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[Marbles]

Well to make a long story short I was hunting with a buddy chasing an elk that had been sounding off. It was getting towards sunset. We had been calling and getting regular responses from this bull and working in on him. Intermittently another hunter would join and bugle. We stopped bugling and listened to the bull and the other hunter and just walked in silent. I was standing on a logging road in the open and could hear the bull occasionally walking around, but it was getting dark pretty fast and the bull went silent. Everything was quiet and we were just standing there. We hadn't heard anything for like 20min or so when out of the shadow at 30 yards I saw a figure come out of the woods at my 8-9 o clock off my left shoulder to the left and just behind me. I could tell it was the hunter and watched him get to the middle of the road and stop. I turned my head and looked at my hunting partner when it felt like something bit me in the shoulder. I saw two holes in my shirt at the shoulder and was confused until I touched it and was full of blood. Arrow essentially cut through the shoulder (no bone) hit my shoulder strap from my backpack on my chest and deflected away from me. He rushed to me and told me later thought I was the elk butt (direct quote). It cut a big "y" shaped hole, definitely using a 3 blade broadhead.

So I've change how I hunt and what I carry in my pack now I think my trauma/med kit weighs 2-3lbs or so? But I never leave home without it.

As a medical person, I will ask some rhetorical questions because training/knowledge will get one further than gear. Can you identify and correct a tension pneumothorax? Know what to do for a sucking chest wound? Know how to pack a wound with arterial bleeding? Know what wounds should not be packed? Know how to apply a tourniquet and when not to? Know how to bind a pelvis? Know how to support a flail chest?

None of those need to be answered, this is not a challenge of personal ability, but if you are going to carry 3 pounds of med kit, is it 3 pounds of function in your hands, or three pounds of blankie? As I have learned more, my med kit has become progressively lighter, yet me today would stand a better chance of saving someone with my couple ounces of med specific kit than me 6 years ago with my 4 pound med kit. But me with that 4 pound med kit was still more useful than me a few years before that. The question real is, do you carry what you personally need for your abilities to address the above problems?

As a side not, I missed a bear last night and lost an expensive arrow buried in the muskeg, I still have much to learn on many things. So, please take this as constructive, and not chest thumping.

 

[billysmals]

As a medical person, I will ask some rhetorical questions because training/knowledge will get one further than gear. Can you identify and correct a tension pneumothorax? Know what to do for a sucking chest wound? Know how to pack a wound with arterial bleeding? Know what wounds should not be packed? Know how to apply a tourniquet and when not to? Know how to bind a pelvis? Know how to support a flail chest?

None of those need to be answered, this is not a challenge of personal ability, but if you are going to carry 3 pounds of med kit, is it 3 pounds of function in your hands, or three pounds of blankie? As I have learned more, my med kit has become progressively lighter, yet me today would stand a better chance of saving someone with my couple ounces of med specific kit than me 6 years ago with my 4 pound med kit. But me with that 4 pound med kit was still more useful than me a few years before that. The question real is, do you carry what you personally kneed for your abilities to address the above problems?

As a side not, I missed a bear last night and lost an expensive arrow buried in the muskeg, I still have much to learn on many things. So, please take this as constructive, and not chest thumping.

I am not offended by your questions and or thoughts and I appreciate you pointing out these ideas. You are aren't wrong. You perspective is accurate. Knowledge and training are far more valuable than gear, nor does gear imply knowledge. I am a medical person as well, for reference and context: I am comfortable to address the questions/situations you have proposed as I have 16 years as a registered nurse/nurse practitioner working in ER/ICU/PACU/OR and currently work as a Trauma/Surgery advanced practice provider in a Level 1 trauma center.

I agree with what you have said and it is wise and something we should all do: self assess in honesty about our skills, knowledge, and ability. Gear is not a substitute for education for sure. Bravado can be just as deadly as ignorance. I have taken out and tweaked my bag/hunting/med kit items as my knowledge has grown as well. I also agree with you that learning never stops and there is always room for self assessment, adjustment and growth.

So I appreciate your assessment and I take your points as a genuine attempt to raise my knowledge and education. Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[Marbles]

I am not offended by your questions and or thoughts and I appreciate you pointing out these ideas. You are aren't wrong. You perspective is accurate. Knowledge and training are far more valuable than gear, nor does gear imply knowledge. I am a medical person as well, for reference and context: I am comfortable to address the questions/situations you have proposed as I have 16 years as a registered nurse/nurse practitioner working in ER/ICU/PACU/OR and currently work as a Trauma/Surgery advanced practice provider in a Level 1 trauma center.

I agree with what you have said and it is wise and something we should all do: self assess in honesty about our skills, knowledge, and ability. Gear is not a substitute for education for sure. Bravado can be just as deadly as ignorance. I have taken out and tweaked my bag/hunting/med kit items as my knowledge has grown as well. I also agree with you that learning never stops and there is always room for self assessment, adjustment and growth.

So I appreciate your assessment and I take your points as a genuine attempt to raise my knowledge and education. Thanks for your thoughts!

You certainly have a greater depth of experience than me regarding trauma. I've been an ICU and ED nurse, but now I'm just a acute care NP who spends my life in a cardiology clinic.

 

[billysmals]

You certainly have a greater depth of experience than me regarding trauma. I've been an ICU and ED nurse, but now I'm just an acute care NP who spends my life in a cardiology clinic.

I think that’s the point tho. I have done some things but I am not the foremost authority in trauma. You have experiences I don’t have, seen things I haven’t, and have skills I don’t have. This is also why I try to hunt with at least one person. Hopefully our combined experiences help us take an animal but also serve to help us in those what if scenarios.

Also full discloser I haven’t been acute care np for super long, just a year, but only working since October, so most of my experience in trauma is as a nurse. So if you have been an Np longer than a year you have more experience I would lean too, even working in Cardiology, which is also ridiculously complex. Truly it’s why I appreciated your post because you could tell it wasn’t from a place of ignorance and it was accurate information.

 

[smithmtva]

Well to make a long story short I was hunting with a buddy chasing an elk that had been sounding off. It was getting towards sunset. We had been calling and getting regular responses from this bull and working in on him. Intermittently another hunter would join and bugle. We stopped bugling and listened to the bull and the other hunter and just walked in silent. I was standing on a logging road in the open and could hear the bull occasionally walking around, but it was getting dark pretty fast and the bull went silent. Everything was quiet and we were just standing there. We hadn't heard anything for like 20min or so when out of the shadow at 30 yards I saw a figure come out of the woods at my 8-9 o clock off my left shoulder to the left and just behind me. I could tell it was the hunter and watched him get to the middle of the road and stop. I turned my head and looked at my hunting partner when it felt like something bit me in the shoulder. I saw two holes in my shirt at the shoulder and was confused until I touched it and was full of blood. Arrow essentially cut through the shoulder (no bone) hit my shoulder strap from my backpack on my chest and deflected away from me. He rushed to me and told me later thought I was the elk butt (direct quote). It cut a big "y" shaped hole, definitely using a 3 blade broadhead.

So I've change how I hunt and what I carry in my pack now I think my trauma/med kit weighs 2-3lbs or so? But I never leave home without it.

that is a good reason to carry some better first aid equipment especially a tourniquet and some stop bleed instead of the normal pills and blister items

 

[Goshawk]

How the pack carries is more important to me than the static weight. I pack only what I need for a hunt, and if that’s 20lbs or 50lbs I go with it.

So what Pack do you carry for a hypothetical 5 nighter in the Rockies 2nd week of September chasing Elk?

 

[pugwylde]

I weigh my pack, but mostly to keep packing my fears in check. I'm not necessarily aiming to get the lightest pack possible, just to keep it from being as heavy as it could be. It's my check to say, "Did I need it last time? Have I ever needed it?"

 

[dutch_henry]

I thought I read here on Rokslide that carrying carbonated beverages lightens felt weight because bubbles float. Can't find the thread, but have been hauling a 30 rack of coors ever since.

 

[bruceleroy]

As stated on page 1 regarding what if stuff, I eliminate all of that. I do not carry extras of anything. I only have clothes I am currently wearing (most of the time) with an extra pair of socks and I dual purpose all that I can. I am at 30 pounds all in with food and water that will carry me for 5-6 days (filter for future water fill ups).