Saving weight in the pack

[bobhunts]

Comparing a Jetboil mini mo vs a pocket rocket 2 and a Toaks 750 ml pot I can save 8.1 ounces not to include fuel. Any other suggestions on stuff we already carry in our pack other that obvious ones like knives etc? No longer carry anything I don't need or a backup and stuff that never gets used. Food and water seem to fill the weight thing the most.

 

[mt100gr.]

The stove was a big one for me. I went from a jet boil to a burner and a cup. Then to a soto windmaster and a ti cup. Close to a pound saved from the jet boil I was using. My pack cover is now a zpacks cuben instead of a silnylon/lightweight ripstop - saved a couple ounces on something I only occasionally use.
My puffy gear saved me about 20 Oz when I switched from super down jacket and pants and baffin booties to enlightened equipment apex puffy jacket, pants, and booties.
A cuben ground sheet saved a little over tyvek.
The savings get more expensive per ounce as I get picky but it all adds up.
My pack is a heavily hacked/kifaru argali on a SG krux Evo frame at just under 4lbs. If I need more room I add a heavily hacked guide lid at another 7oz or so.
I use a SO dst tarp until the weather really turns - this saves over my tipi and serves double duty for glassing shelter.
The greatest tradeoff I encounter is weight loss at the expense of comfort. I could get away with a narrower, lighter pad but I usually still pack my wide xtherm.
Glock vs bear spray only is a constant debate for me.

I have also found that accompanying a buddy with a special tag saves about 8lbs in that I don't pack a hunting weapon!

 

[fngTony]

Last couple of years I’ve been trying to reduce bulk so I can reduce my bag size. Started with a xcurve frame and a talus 6900&lid. That was about six pounds including some pockets. Took a gamble going to the krux evo but it’s more comfortable while being ten ounces lighter. Replaced the bag and lid with a 3000ci bag from Pods8. Between the bag and frame I’m down about two pounds. For longer trips I’m strapping stuff to the outside but once camp is dropped I don’t need more than 3000ci. Also put kuiu pockets on my stone glacier frame, a hair over an ounce saved each.

I scrutinized my clothes. Two kuiu peloton 97 shirts is a total of 9.5oz vs my old zip up fleece and merino totaling 18.9oz. Puffy is 18oz but I need the 4oz of down fill, can’t get past summer with the 2oz fill stuff. There’s around 4oz to save with buying a lighter but similar fill jacket. Another loss around 3oz would be switching out my 200 bottoms with the peloton 97 bottoms, just not worth the cash right now. Rain gear is very climate dependent but I’m at 17oz combined top and bottom for Colorado.

No more stuff sacks for clothes, just roll em up. Ziplocks for the little stuff. Rain fly was 4.5oz and kuiu makes a nice clip feature for high winds but like the other member said I rarely need it so I’m looking at a simple cuben fiber option.

Bought a tiny stove so I can nest it with fuel in my pot, cut 6oz and the bulk of a fuel canister.

Tried the ryo bino strap thing, won’t go back to a bino pack that weighs 7-13oz unless the weather is consistently crappy enough to warrant it.

Looked through my first aid, possibles and kill kit. Had a lot of redundancy. This stuff is way too personal for me to elaborate on, but I don’t carry what I don’t know how to use for first aid and last year I was more concerned with burning in a forest fire than being able to start one.

I’m just not a replaceable scalpel blade knife guy. I’m happy with my 5oz combined weight of a pocket sharpener, mora companion and sheath. Pretty light for a fixed blade set up.

 

[belnicki]

Bump

 

[Desk Jockey]

Interesting topic

I took a 5 day Grand Canyon hike earlier this year and ended up hauling 15# more than my brother who is a hyperlite guy. Here are a few of my learnings.

Pack - My MR Metcalf and pouches were 8# compared to his hyperlite mountain gear pack at 2#. Not a trade I can make for hunting but their are lighter options.

I bought a Cuban tarp and ground cloth. Swapped my OR bivy for a borah gear and got a lighter sleeping pad. That dropped 2# and a lot of $$$.

I use ti pots already but now use a pocket rocket and the smaller fuel cans when I can get away with it.

Clothing is trip specific but I am going to try and trim a couple of pounds here.

 

[Mosby]

I am going through my cook kit and water container right now for savings. A 33 oz Smart Water bottle weighs about 1.4 oz empty. A Nalgene weighs about 7 oz. I am switching to a Smart Water bottle this year and loosing about 5.6 ounces. I am also adding a sports cap to it which will attach to my water filter to back flush if it gets clogged. I don't need to bring a syringe for that now. This also frees me up to take the Nalgene bottle holder off my pack(haven't weighed it yet). A nice weight savings without any loss of comfort.

 

[AK Troutbum]

Some good stuff here. So, where do I begin? When I really started getting into the light wt. mountain hunting game my initial pack/bag was a SG Krux with a Terminus bag. I really like the SG packs, and have been through the full spectrum, using many of their bags and a few frames. After selling my original set up, my current set up is a XCurve frame and I ended up going back to the Terminus bag (although I had to buy another one of these bags after selling my original one). I also use a Sky7400 bag for longer, solo trips. I really like the no frills/simplicity of these SG bags. All said and done with lg. hip belt pockets, Sky lid, and Kifaru gun bearer is 86 oz.

My UL wt. bivouac shelter is a MLD solo Patrol tarp in .75 DCF and Zpacks Solo+ bathtub ground cloth. Combined wt. with stakes, guy lines, and stuff sacks is 15 oz.

My UL solo and two person spike shelter is a LG DCF Hapi, wt. with everything is 17 oz., and including BG DCF bivy is 21.5 oz.

BRS stove, 650 Toaks pot/lid, long ti spoon, sm lighter, and 100gr. fuel canister is 12 oz.

35° EE reg/reg 850 down quilt and small Xlite pad is 22 oz.

I supplement my sleep system with GooseFeet down pants, Kuiu down zip-T, and Black Rock down hood (as needed), at 15.5 oz. total wt.

Food and water is what it is, can’t really cut wt. there.

I have several sets of Kuiu rain gear, but typically take the Chugach at 31 oz. I wish this wasn’t a necessity, but it is.

As far as dry bags/stuff sacks go, I really like separating things out and keeping things organized, so I use DCF for everything and those probably weigh around 3-4 oz. total.

I’m always looking for ways to get the wt. down so any good ideas, I’d love to hear ‘em. Let’s keep this thread going!






Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[wind gypsy]

Some of the primary ways I do or will chop weight when the application calls for it:

-nunatak apex insulation (jacket, pants, sleeping bag) - on par with all but the lightest down options without the same care needed.
-using trekking pole supported shelters - MLD DCF duomid, supermid, tarptent stratospire
-Kowa 553 spotter
-seek outside revo pack, with the new custom bag off their builder should be around 4.5 lbs all up for a 6300 cube bag.

 

[arwhntr]

I love the game of pushing the envelope of ultralight hunting. Once you're light it gets tougher and tougher to find where you can cut that next ounce. I'm always looking to the future. I can't wait for the day of 2lb packs, being able to pull water out of thin mountain air, 300 calorie per ounce menus, etc.

In terms of pack I'm more of a rare breed. I still really like my old Kuiu and it's as light as they come at 73oz.

I love my shelter/sleep setup and have saved a ton of weight here. I'm running a home-brew 0.51 DCF tipi much like the Locus Gear Khufu (all-in with 12 stakes, guy lines, stuff sack, 15.13oz). An enlightened equipment quilt at 18.1oz, just picked up the Therm-a-rest Uberlite sleeping pad (~8.8oz) and doubling my glassing pad as extra insulation/protection under my sleeping pad. This is a cut-down Gossamer gear thinlite pad (2.5oz). 45oz total.

A few season ago I start with a stove-less menu. This has been a constantly evolving aspect of my hunts with lots of trial and error. Right now, I'm widdled down to 16oz of food a day (including ziplocks) providing just shy of 2,200 calories per day. May not be enough for some people but for my 150lb frame I do or have done well on this menu (only 1 hunt of data to draw from).

I'm still seeking that perfect optic set up. I really dislike one-eyed viewing (aka nearly all spotting scopes) which really limits my options. Currently, 8x42 on the chest and either 15x or 20x binos in the pack. The Sirui T-025x tripod has been as good and lightweight as anything I've used at 26oz.

Fortunately/unfortunately I never seem to find myself hunting anywhere that I feel I need to pack my rain gear. Always in the truck but never in the pack. I have an old Kuiu Teton set (14oz total)

One place I'm chosen to add weight is my footwear. I use to hunt with trail shoes but have tossed those in the trash to go with a Solomon Quest 4D GTX boots. My feet thank me after every hunt.

Other ways I try and save weight:
-double clothes for sleeping warmth
-no extras (two shirts, etc) except socks
-either a solar charger or backup battery (never both)
-rarely use down pants so leave in truck but down jacket is nice (Kuiu Super Down Ultra)
-really have enjoyed the Sawyer squeeze water filter and
-Outdoor Edge onyx lite knife

That's all I can think of for now. The wait till season starts is killing me!

 

[young7.3]

I am going through my cook kit and water container right now for savings. A 33 oz Smart Water bottle weighs about 1.4 oz empty. A Nalgene weighs about 7 oz. I am switching to a Smart Water bottle this year and loosing about 5.6 ounces. I am also adding a sports cap to it which will attach to my water filter to back flush if it gets clogged. I don't need to bring a syringe for that now. This also frees me up to take the Nalgene bottle holder off my pack(haven't weighed it yet). A nice weight savings without any loss of comfort.

I'm also thinking of ditching the nalgene for smart water bottle. What is this sports cap you speak of?

 

[Split toe]

I'm also thinking of ditching the nalgene for smart water bottle. What is this sports cap you speak of?

Yeah interested in this cap as well?

 

[Sterlingsilva]

 

[5 shot group]

Anyone know of a pouch that will hold a 1L smart water bottle but fit on a waist belt? Hopefully under 1 ounce

 

[renagde]

Anyone know of a pouch that will hold a 1L smart water bottle but fit on a waist belt? Hopefully under 1 ounce

Get pods8 to sew one up for you. 1 oz might be pushing it though.

 

[5 shot group]

I see zpacks has waist belt pockets under an ounce. I figure a water bottle pocket should be as well, since there is no need for a zipper

 

[Mosby]

A Smartbottle seems to work in my Stone Glacier Hydro Holster. It also fits in my SG Approach bag front spotting scope pocket, so I think I have a solution to carry them in my primary day hunting bag. I also have an Outdoor Research water bottle holder that is 7 inches high and it seems to work in that as well. You can also cinch the top to a degree. The OR holder weighs 1.6 oz's so it's not too bad weight wise. I think I am going to put the OR holder on my weekend backpack. Here is a picture of the OR bottle holder.

 

[5 shot group]

To me at least, it seems water bottle holders are over built. My kifaru one weighs 3.1 ounces and seems to be made of 2 layers of fabric.

I'll have to look into that OR pouch. I just replaced my small kifaru pouch with a Gossamer Gear one. Saved 2 ounces and only cost $13 shipped.

 

[tdot]

I've been conscious of weight for along time as most of my gear does double duty when I'm ski touring. But alot of my lightweight gear from 5 - 10 years ago is now mid-weight at best. Last few years I focused on clothing, this year it's all the other personal gear.

Here's a quick list:

- nylon stuff sacs, replaced with homemade DCF, between 8 and 16 ounces saved, depending on the amount of organizing I did. A 40L DCF drybag for carrying meat is the biggest savings over a nylon dry bag, 75 grams in that one bag.
- extra batteries deleted, everything has been replaced with USB chargeable options. I carry a single USB cord with a USB mini, USB micro and USB-C end on it. I start every hike with full batteries, never a question if they are at partial charge and never wasting batteries
- Spare USB battery is now either a single 18650 Cell and a magnetic charger off of Amazon or a Nitecore F2 and either 20700 cells or 18650 cells. I can have 10,000mah for 180grams total. A savings of 250 grams from previous battery packs. Need more power add additional cells at 140grams per 10,000mah.
- 2x Nitecore NU25 headlamps. 70 grams total. Savings of something like 200 grams off my petzl Tika RXP and Zipka + spare batteries that I was carrying
- I've used small fuel cans forever. I have a bunch that are half full that I only risk taking on day trips. I bought a tiny transfer valve so I can refill them from larger tanks, now I dont waste the small tanks and save some money... I think it was from Soto
- switched all paracord and tent tieouts to 1.5mm or 1.8mm Dyneema, didnt record the weight of the old stuff, but space alone was substantial, and I would guess 50 - 100 grams
- knives- full handled Knife plus sharpener plus Havalon and spare blades have been replaced with a Kifaru Helium and a Kestrel. Saved about 200grams. Start the hunt with sharp knives, should last multiple animals and any camp use, an additional blade weighs similar to a sharpener
- Inreach mini and Galaxy S8 have replaced a GPS and an older InReach and iPhone, 150 grams saved
- Gear and clothing that I wear. Actually weighed the stuff I wear and made some surprising and free selections based on that.

Actually unpacked my Pack and stuff sacs after every outting. All the little odds and ends of food or waste can add up.

 

[renagde]

To me at least, it seems water bottle holders are over built. My kifaru one weighs 3.1 ounces and seems to be made of 2 layers of fabric.

I'll have to look into that OR pouch. I just replaced my small kifaru pouch with a Gossamer Gear one. Saved 2 ounces and only cost $13 shipped.

I would agree. That's why I would contact pods8. I'm sure he has access to some kind of lightweight material that he could use. I had him make one for me, but it's more like a copy of the Kifaru one so it's made of Cordura. He does excellent work.

 

[5 shot group]

I plan on sending my frame in to Native Textiles for some custom work, so maybe I can just add it on to the order with them.