Shedding weight, what juice is worth the squeeze

[guitarpreston]

Tinkering around with my load out for September muzzle loader deer and toying with the idea of shedding a few lbs in the pack, it’s definitely doable but could/would involve spending a bit more money which I am very against. Currently I have a 27 oz chair, I can easily swap for a glassing pad, can drop my 8 oz silky pocketboy, and that’s got me 2 pounds down without spending anything. Then it get tricky, I could drop my active insulation piece or puffy for 13 or 20 oz respectively. I’ve looked at it quite a bit and if I dropped all that, and spent a few hundred bucks getting a lighter tripod (currently have Aziak front country) and a lighter stove, I could shave almost 5 pounds.

Now I’m just sitting here wondering if that juice is worth the squeeze or not. Pack weight 39 lbs without food/water. Assuming that will put me at 60ish.

The saw is an easy cut (not planning on building a fire and have a multi tool for an emergency) but the big free weight cut of the chair and active insulation jacket I’m not sure of. Comfort while glassing should yield more time behind the glass therefore better chances of finding a buck. Puffy, active layer, soft shell, and rain jacket and pants seems like overkill but all very useful tools.

https://lighterpack.com/r/ndh95x

 

[mlevimadden]

39# with no weapon, wearable items, water, or food is definitely a heavy pack that has plenty to trim. Especially for a September hunt.

Low hanging fruit

• 17 oz of TP and wipes seems like double of what's needed (-8 oz)
• Ditch the silky saw and tarp (-17 oz)
• 27 oz is a heavy stove unless you're packing a ton of fuel. A jetboil could cut that in half (-12 oz).
• 2# med kit is double what you need. (-16 oz)
• Why a rain jacket and a shell? Should only need a rain jacket (-23 oz)
• 25 oz power bank and 34 oz solar is a ton of weight. You can take a 20k mAH Anker for under a pound that will charge your phone 6 times. (-43 oz)
• Ditch the chair and take a stealthy hunter pad or 1/3 of a zlite cut up. (-23 oz)
• 9 oz pillow is heavy for backcountry. Could get a 3 oz Aeros from Sea to Summit.

That cuts out over 9#

Optional upgrades

• You could shed a couple pounds off the pack frame by going exo or stone glacier, but it's a high cost.
• 3# bag is heavy for September. You could save over 1.5# with a 20 degree quilt.
• 3# tent is heavy if you're solo. You could drop a pound by going floorless.

 

[WaWox]

I'd argue the higher the starting weight, the bigger the gains from cutting even a little bit.

Every pound compounds and makes every subsequent pound worse and worse.

+1 to all the suggestions above

 

[JohnB]

Levi nails it. There are also some other things I'd quibble over. 6 oz of sharpener seems like a lot. I've got a pocket stone that weighs an ounce. DMT makes some slick credit card sized diamond stones which would also be quite light. If Schrade is referring to a knife you could take a Victrinox paring knife or Havalon for about an ounce. They both seem stupidly small but have worked for me to cut up an elk and deer.

Some Argali or other techy game bags would be somewhere around 9 oz, add some rubber gloves and call that your kill kit and save a pound there.

Sheel, rain coat and FA jacket could likely be pared down to 1. Take an extra fleece to wear if concerned about cold and you'll still be lighter.

Most other items you have could be anywhere from a half to a pound or more lighter. No need to try to do that all at once but pick away at it for a few years and you'll be pumped how much lighter your pack is.

 

[CoastalOR]

Not sure what you're thinking about in terms of water but I wouldn't pack any in. I'll fill my nalgene at the beginning but everything after that is going through my water filter. I have the sawyer mini filter and it weighs almost nothing. Have drank some pretty questionable water and come out fine

 

[willfrye027]

Sept deer I don’t think you need a stove and hot tent. You’re not going to be spending a ton of time in your tent..Sept I am cooking dinner on a jetboil quickly to get in bed for more hours of sleep.

In general clothing is one of the biggest areas to cut weight easily and without spending hundreds to cut ounces. Personally if backpacking I plan to be dirty and bring very very few extra clothing items.

What part of the country are you hunting and what are the expected temps? That might help hone in on what “fears” you are packing,

 

[guitarpreston]

Central CO.
By stove I mean cook stove not wood stove, weight includes fuel canister.
Shell I could see cutting, the FA jacket (Sitka ambient equivalent) is a super comfortable piece that breathes/dries well.

I may try and pick up the fire maple petrel stove, that would cut 9 oz out for not too much money.
That’s technically 2 power banks and a solar (last year I just had a crappy solar one and it ran out of juice but my phone battery was also tanked and has been replaced. I can cut down to my 10mah anker and solar.
Will start pairing down a bit on some redundancies and see if I can get closer to 35.

 

[JohnB]

Here is my gear list for September/early October. https://lighterpack.com/r/xp2cz7 It's got a few areas where I could trim some weight but I don't like being cold. Take a look at some of the gear lists that @mtwarden has posted. He has posted some helpful threads that helped me over the last few years as I've slowly picked away at a lighter setup.

 

[mmac]

It is also helpful to start with one of the lists of really light and then ask yourself what do you really need to add instead of working yours down. Look at the video on Exo about the 22 lb pack dump.

 

[guitarpreston]

Cut first aid kit in half, pulled a sharpener, the silky, the chair, and jetstream jacket. Down 6 pounds.

 

[TaperPin]

I had a spreadsheet with the weight of everything, the cost to upgrade the item to one of lighter weight, and the cost per ounce of savings. That governed my purchases for a few decades. If you use alkaline batteries, switching to lithium is one of the biggest surprises on paper, but every ounce counts.

Today’s rifles are often very bloated, even for those that don’t shoot very good. The easiest way to shed weight was leaving a bipod at home, and using a light scope, but an entire accurate light weight rifle with light scope is an easy sell when it shoots better over a pack than the heavy gun did with a bipod and scope the size of a wiener dog.

I used to treat all weight the same, but now I think of it in terms of how many days the item is carried on a trip. Tents, cooking gear, and sleeping stuff is only carried part of the first and last day, so it’s not nearly as important as everything else, and food is only carried one way so it matters even less. Trekking poles make things easier so they don’t count at all.

At some point many folks just need to accept even 15 year old city girls can carry 35% of their body weight backpacking so the absolute lightest weight isn’t needed.

 

[guitarpreston]

I had a spreadsheet with the weight of everything, the cost to upgrade the item to one of lighter weight, and the cost per ounce of savings. That governed my purchases for a few decades. If you use alkaline batteries, switching to lithium is one of the biggest surprises on paper, but every ounce counts.

Today’s rifles are often very bloated, even for those that don’t shoot very good. The easiest way to shed weight was leaving a bipod at home, and using a light scope, but an entire accurate light weight rifle with light scope is an easy sell when it shoots better over a pack than the heavy gun did with a bipod and scope the size of a wiener dog.

I used to treat all weight the same, but now I think of it in terms of how many days the item is carried on a trip. Tents, cooking gear, and sleeping stuff is only carried part of the first and last day, so it’s not nearly as important as everything else, and food is only carried one way so it matters even less. Trekking poles make things easier so they don’t count at all.

At some point many folks just need to accept even 15 year old city girls can carry 35% of their body weight backpacking so the absolute lightest weight isn’t needed.

Scopes are dead weight, open sights for the win! RIfle is sub 9 lbs with bipod. Its those 340 grain bullets that add the weight quick.

I will say this, I have roughly $200 cash invested into my sleep system. Durston x mid 2, nemo disco, sea to summit ether light xt. The rest I got with cap 1 shopping points, so I couldn't be super picky just go with what was available at a decent price.

 

[htlt_surfboards]

An alternative to the chair could be a crazy creek hex 2.0. I started using it this year instead of 4 sections of a z rest pad and can’t believe how much of a comfort improvement it’s given me. Mine weighs 16oz so you’d cut 11oz and still have a chair.

 

[mtnbound]

Tinkering around with my load out for September muzzle loader deer and toying with the idea of shedding a few lbs in the pack, it’s definitely doable but could/would involve spending a bit more money which I am very against. Currently I have a 27 oz chair, I can easily swap for a glassing pad, can drop my 8 oz silky pocketboy, and that’s got me 2 pounds down without spending anything. Then it get tricky, I could drop my active insulation piece or puffy for 13 or 20 oz respectively. I’ve looked at it quite a bit and if I dropped all that, and spent a few hundred bucks getting a lighter tripod (currently have Aziak front country) and a lighter stove, I could shave almost 5 pounds.

Now I’m just sitting here wondering if that juice is worth the squeeze or not. Pack weight 39 lbs without food/water. Assuming that will put me at 60ish.

The saw is an easy cut (not planning on building a fire and have a multi tool for an emergency) but the big free weight cut of the chair and active insulation jacket I’m not sure of. Comfort while glassing should yield more time behind the glass therefore better chances of finding a buck. Puffy, active layer, soft shell, and rain jacket and pants seems like overkill but all very useful tools.

https://lighterpack.com/r/ndh95x

How many days are you planning to go for?
Are you backpack hunting for all of the days?
How far are you planning to travel from your vehicle, and will you be going solo?

 

[guitarpreston]

How many days are you planning to go for?
Are you backpack hunting for all of the days?
How far are you planning to travel from your vehicle, and will you be going solo?

5-6 days, will be likely within 5-6 miles from the truck at any given time. Not sure if I will carry everything in or come back out to resupply.