WANTED: Your Top 5 Base Camp Tips or Hacks

[cnelk]

A couple of those solar lights you stick in the ground sure come in handy

 

[TaperPin]

I don’t join a group without my own tent. I have no patients for snoring, the dude that should have a cpap, farting, getting up making noise every 45 minutes to pee, the guy with altitude issues who can’t sleep, or the stink. I’ve spent a good portion of my outdoor life sleeping on a bench pickup seat.

 

[Slick8]

Can't agree more. I'm too old to be inconvenienced while trying to sleep on a hunt. We all have our own ways of going about the day so why try to blend them to a single room. JMHO.

I'd prefer a common or cook shack tent them have my own tent for sleeping.

 

[Cameron.25]

Good suggestions so far. Since you said CO, might consider bringing some over the counter stuff and extra vitamins in case someone gets altitude sickness

 

[bsheisey]

Great thread, I'm prepping for similar next year in NM but a smaller group. Still great suggestions for 1 or 10 guys.

I actually started the gear prep this year by organizing my old gear from years past for a cow elk hunt in NM until my wife decided she wanted to go and take her parents.

This hunt is actually for next fall as well, I just wanted to get out ahead of some of the prep and gear accumulation. It will be a little easier to justify with the wife if I can throw it on a Christmas list

I don’t join a group without my own tent. I have no patients for snoring, the dude that should have a cpap, farting, getting up making noise every 45 minutes to pee, the guy with altitude issues who can’t sleep, or the stink. I’ve spent a good portion of my outdoor life sleeping on a bench pickup seat.

I can definitely see that being an issue. I've spent a couple decades worth of deer camps sleeping in the same bunk room as these guys, so it shouldn't be anything we haven't done before.

Good suggestions so far. Since you said CO, might consider bringing some over the counter stuff and extra vitamins in case someone gets altitude sickness

We will definitely be taking precautions to combat altitude sickness. I'm hoping we can get out there a day early to do some scouting and get acclimated. We live at 400' above sea level, so it will be quite the difference hunting at 10,000'.

 

[moewells100]

Highly recommend Dude Glide. It prevents chafing, which sounds trivial but can destroy a hunt.

 

[Indian Summer]

Running a woodstove isn’t like setting the temperature on your thermostat at home. I think you should do a trial run in your backyard. Learn how to set your tent up quickly and properly and learn how to run the woodstove. If you don’t, I guarantee you will be too hot to sleep at night. After that, you’ll wake up to a cold tent. There is a lot to learn about full-time camping in the mountains.

Make sure the tarp over your tent is bigger than the tent. Run it about 2 feet out on both sides to make an awning. You can keep firewood and coolers underneath that edge. But the main reason is to keep the bottom of your tent dry. It sure is nice if there’s no water running down the sides of your tent or hitting the ground close to the edges. Also if snow piles up around the edges of your tent, it will take way longer to dry your tent at the end of the season. A front porch is great for that too. That’s my other tip, make sure your tent is bone dry before you put it away.

 

[bsheisey]

Running a woodstove isn’t like setting the temperature on your thermostat at home. I think you should do a trial run in your backyard. Learn how to set your tent up quickly and properly and learn how to run the woodstove. If you don’t, I guarantee you will be too hot to sleep at night. After that, you’ll wake up to a cold tent. There is a lot to learn about full-time camping in the mountains.

Make sure the tarp over your tent is bigger than the tent. Run it about 2 feet out on both sides to make an awning. You can keep firewood and coolers underneath that edge. But the main reason is to keep the bottom of your tent dry. It sure is nice if there’s no water running down the sides of your tent or hitting the ground close to the edges. Also if snow piles up around the edges of your tent, it will take way longer to dry your tent at the end of the season. A front porch is great for that too. That’s my other tip, make sure your tent is bone dry before you put it away.

Thanks for the tips! My parents heat their house with a wood stove, so we have experience on how to moderate the intensity of the heat and making an "all-nighter" log burn through the night. We will definitely be doing some test runs before the big trip so we can be as efficient as possible when we get there.

 

[db3445]

Bring tire chains.

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[Yoteassasin]

Bring road flares for starting wet campfires . Please don’t use gas .
Prep and freeze meals to be reheated in camp
A good cot pad is worth its weight in gold
I use white so I never have to deal with frozen propane cans

 

[Mojave]

1. Bring hookers or strippers. But stop paying them at some point so they will leave. This is probably a bad idea, then you have to talk to a doctor about how you got a VD from a hunting blind seat.

2. Don't run out of beer, toilet paper, meat, peanut butter, eggs, bread, coffee, whiskey or gasoline.

3. Don't bring any women, at all after you get through the first round with #1. I was in camp with 5 guys and someone's wife. She was absolutely stunning and funny as hell. But a complete pain in the ass. We invited her back and not him.

4. Everyone snores, don't be an asshole. If you don't like my snoring get your own tent or camper.

5. Don't ask to borrow stuff from other people. Show up in camp on time, with all your own shit. No excuses. I can't tell you how many times I have screwed this up. Forgot my spotting scope, backpack, tripod, and everything else earlier this year in Austria. Showed up in camp in Hungary with too much stuff. So there is a balance.

6. Pay for whatever you use in camp, and your share of expenses. If you are not the organizer, make sure the organizer does not come out of pocket for any expense you had.

7. I left camp early in Austria and I called the hotel when I at about 10:00 when I was 300 miles away and checked out properly. Things are different here in Europe. You have to respect that. In Hungary early this year I also left before the front desk staff was on shift. So the agent paid my tab. He was paid back the following day. Don't be a jerk about that. Just do it.

8. Take smaller portions to make sure everyone gets to eat, especially people with health problems or weird diets. Had a guy earlier this year that was gluten free no cheese guy. Another guy accidentally ate his food, and the cook ended up having enough to make more. But communication got screwed up between 3 languages and we had to get it sorted out. If something looks weird ask.

9. Don't assume that because you have Gucci stuff a guide will want to borrow it. I set up.a pair of 15x56 Swaros and the guide thought I was rude because I asked him to look at a buck through them. He wanted to use his cheap Chinese bins. People get proud about weird stuff be careful.

 

[Soj51hopeful]

If you have trouble sleeping I have found zquil works great.

 

[Customweld]

1. If it's later in the year, and you are going to be away from your truck for a while, chain it up before you leave for the trail. You can always take them off if you don't need them, but it sure is nice to not need to sling iron when you get back exhausted and soaked.

2. If you are dragging a horse trailer, bring a set of chains for one of the trailer axles.

3. Clip your toenails before you leave for camp.

4. Clean your flue every 3-4 days if you are choking it down at night. Break off a green branch and run it through the flue sections a couple of times.

5. Cut standing dead trees for firewood. Logs laying on the ground take a while to dry out

 

[WCB]

1.If you can make some at home or you could just cut logs when you get there...build risers for your cots. We used to cut about 12" log sections and stand them on end to put under our cot legs. Nice for sitting on B.S.ing, getting dressed, generally just getting in and out of your cot. It also gives you tons more room for everyone to store their crap under their cots.

1. Sub Section A. While your at it cut one a little taller for a night stand nail a 4ft stick on the back of it and you have a place to hang your hat, headlamp, or whatever.

2. Scrap piece of carpet or cheap door matt for next to your cot. Stand on it with socks or bare feet. Once boots go on put the matt under your cot. Pull it our again when taking boots or camp shoes on or off.

3. Build a hanging rack or something right inside your tent for jackets/hats or right outside under an awning. Same thing for bows or firearms. Make a rack or place to hang them outside the tent.

4. If possible cook out side or have a separate cook tent. Mostly for breakfast. I don't care about smelling for hunting reasons. God made wind and thermals so I don't have to. Lived out of a wall tent for 3 weeks at a time only taking bucket baths and not really washing clothes. I hate the smell of bacon, sausage, or food in general on my clothes and sleeping bag.

5. Good lighting for inside tents and outside. For traffic areas. I.e. to and from cook tent, to and from fire pit, to and from shitter.

 

[Seeknelk]

Plenty of ear plugs.

 

[Titanmoose]

Crazy how eastern guys can always get massive groups of dudes to commit to an adventure 27 1/2 hours away and I live in smack dab in the west and my buddies are lame lol

Poop seat off Amazon.. the best thing

thanks for this..... I have a couple weeks for southern idaho and totally forgot about this lol adding shovel and bucket to list of things lol

 

[Hnthrdr]

Air bnb a cabin or find a friend with one

 

[ScreamingPotato]

Here's a hack for you. Bring some hand warmer packs to throw into a big cooler to keep your stuff from freezing. Sucks when your cooking oil is solid, orange juice ice cubes in the morning don't come out of the bottle well, and hard to make coffee when your water is solid.

 

[Matt5266]

Crazy how eastern guys can always get massive groups of dudes to commit to an adventure 27 1/2 hours away and I live in smack dab in the west and my buddies are lame lol

Poop seat off Amazon.. the best thing

Haha this hits home. Good hunting buddies are hard to find in my area.

Also have at minimum 1 emergency communication device at camp. That's minimum. Never know what could happen. I use Zoleo.

 

[nettereo16]

Propane torch to get that wood stove going. Heat powered fan to put on the wood stove to circulate heat