Water Filters for Backwoods Hunting?

[WapitiTalk1]

I've got an MSR mini-works.. Works great but is slow as Moses to fill my 10 litre MSR bag for camp, and, my pack bladder. My hunting partner last year used some type of Katydyn that outpumped mine (volume) almost two to one. What do you cats use for your water purification and in your opinion, is it better to use a pump that purifies better (eliminating all the nasties), or, is a filter that pumps faster OK in the Rockies (not gonna die from the high mountain bacteria, etc.)? RJ

[dotman]

I really didn't mind the speed of the Sawyer Squeeze filter, not the fastest but will get out the nasties. Thinking about putting it on my hydration line and just filtering when I drink. In this mode I can still use it as a normal function to fill water for MH and Coffee but then all I have to do is submurge my 6L and 2L bladders and filter when used

[ElkNut1]

Rory, Lol!!! I have the Hiker Pro & it seems to pump water at a fairly reasonable rate, I'm not looking to replace it! Mine is the pump style & seems to do just fine!

ElkNut1

[WapitiTalk1]

Rory, Lol!!! I have the Hiker Pro & it seems to pump water at a fairly reasonable rate, I'm not looking to replace it! Mine is the pump style & seems to do just fine!

ElkNut1

Paul. Do you use your pump to fill only your bladder or do you use it to fill dromendary bags for camp (coffee/dehydrated meal water/etc.)? The pump you use looks pretty similar to the one my buddy Joe used last year. It was quite a bit faster than my MSR. You're obviously still alive so yours must filter out the bad stuff adequately..

[ElkNut1]

Rory, I've used it in the field very little but it seemed to work plenty fast & I trust it to remove all bacterias. I did quite a bit of research before I settled on it a couple years ago. So far so good! It is a Katadyn, not sure if your buddy had the Hiker or Hiker Pro Series? The Hiker Pro has the double filter on it, the secondary filter is a foam mesh!

ElkNut1

[WapitiTalk1]

Rory, I've used it in the field very little but it seemed to work plenty fast & I trust it to remove all bacterias. I did quite a bit of research before I settled on it a couple years ago. So far so good! It is a Katadyn, not sure if your buddy had the Hiker or Hiker Pro Series? The Hiker Pro has the double filter on it, the secondary filter is a foam mesh!

ElkNut1

Good call.. I just checked the internet and Joe's filter was the hiker pro (white in color).. Big difference in volume pumped compared to mine for sure.. The challenge is where I hunt, we hunt and camp pretty high and the water sources are limited so we need to keep camp stocked (can't be doing the water supply thing but every few days) with drinkable water for our bladders, DH meal boiling, etc. I may look at one of these as we take in a few MSR dromedary bags to store our water in camp. There's another method Tim (Dotman) has looked at which is a water bladder that you fill and it filters as you use it.. Another option.

[WA Backcountry]

Gravity bags are the way to go. We hunt in an area with really tannic water and have an issue with clogging filters. I use the msr bag with a prefilter. Fill the bag up with water and let gravity do the work. I'm telling you this is the way to go. Even if your filter clogs up it will eventually fill your bladder. Has anyone else used one?

[JohnFitzgerald]

I use both a MSR pump filter and a gravity filter. The pump I use during the day if I run out of water in my bladder. The gravity filter is great for spike camp. Usually only takes minutes to fill my 10 liter dromedary which I use for night and morning meals.

[ElkNut1]

I've never seen a "gravity bag" sounds pretty cool! Thanks guys, I'll have to find one!

ElkNut1

[WapitiTalk1]

Starting to get really interested in the hanging bag filters. Reviews are good on the Katadyn Base Camp Water Filter. They hold 2.5 gallons which is pretty large (largest I've found so far). They're $66.68 on Amazon. Couple this product with a collapsible 5 gall water container to fill at the creek, and I think it would answer the mail. Much less time required (no pumping) to keep camp and hydration bladders stocked with water. Of course, the hand held pumps and/or purification tablets (Slim swears by the Aqua Mira think they're called) still are the clear way to go for straight backcountry hunts, or, for daily filling of bladders when hiking.

Katydyn Base Camp Water Filter.jpg (5.96 KiB) Viewed 13374 times

[WA Backcountry]

My hunting partner has the katadyn and we don't like using it. The reason why is there is no way to put a pre filter in line before your primary filter. I'm am a firm believer using the pre filter especially if your water source is not running hard. Take my word for it. We struggled for 5 years with this issue. Now that we are running a pre filter life is good. Msr sells a good pre filter with replacement filters that are relatively cheap, especially when you consider the price of the primary filters. I hope this helps.

I will never pump my water again!

[ferris bugler]

I use a gravity bag. It's the only way to go. Sit back and have a snack and let physics do the work. I bought an MSR filter and retro fitted it with two Platypus bags. Saved a bunch of cash.

[Broken arrow]

Iodine tablets for me. Cheap light effective and where I'll be hunting lots of running water so I don't even treat water for cooking/coffee. As a matter of fact I know someone that got beaver fever from bottled water! that's all they drink so it had to be from that.

[MTLongdraw]

Phantom the Base Camp is awesome. I'm asking for one for my birthday. We fill up gallon blatter bags in just a few minutes. They pack down very nicely too. Hold off on buying one from Amazon.. I think you can save you about $10 at Wholesale Sports. I may be mistaking but I'll let you know.

[JohnFitzgerald]

Starting to get really interested in the hanging bag filters. Reviews are good on the Katadyn Base Camp Water Filter. They hold 2.5 gallons which is pretty large (largest I've found so far). They're $66.68 on Amazon. Couple this product with a collapsible 5 gall water container to fill at the creek, and I think it would answer the mail. Much less time required (no pumping) to keep camp and hydration bladders stocked with water. Of course, the hand held pumps and/or purification tablets (Slim swears by the Aqua Mira think they're called) still are the clear way to go for straight backcountry hunts, or, for daily filling of bladders when hiking.

Katydyn Base Camp Water Filter.

jpg

RJ - if you get the Katadyn Base Camp Water Filter make sure you pick up a dromedary. Attach the Katadyn drain hose to the dromedary. Fill the Katadyn with water. Come back 5 minutes later and you have 10 liters of fresh water. Usually enough spike camp water to last me 2 days.

http://www.campmor.com/msr-10-liter-del ... keyword%7D

[WapitiTalk1]

Starting to get really interested in the hanging bag filters. Reviews are good on the Katadyn Base Camp Water Filter. They hold 2.5 gallons which is pretty large (largest I've found so far). They're $66.68 on Amazon. Couple this product with a collapsible 5 gall water container to fill at the creek, and I think it would answer the mail. Much less time required (no pumping) to keep camp and hydration bladders stocked with water. Of course, the hand held pumps and/or purification tablets (Slim swears by the Aqua Mira think they're called) still are the clear way to go for straight backcountry hunts, or, for daily filling of bladders when hiking.

Katydyn Base Camp Water Filter.

jpg

RJ - if you get the Katadyn Base Camp Water Filter make sure you pick up a dromedary. Attach the Katadyn drain hose to the dromedary. Fill the Katadyn with water. Come back 5 minutes later and you have 10 liters of fresh water. Usually enough spike camp water to last me 2 days.

http://www.campmor.com/msr-10-liter-del ... keyword%7D

Yeah John, I've got the 10L MSR bag. Gonna get this thing figured out Where I hunted last year, and, will again in 2013 has limited water sources so I've gotta keep camp stocked with a filtered supply of water every few days. Dotman (Tim) has a Sawyer system he's playing around with to see if we can get the desired results... Limiting "pumping" water every time we need it and stocking camp with good water to last us a few to 3 or so days is the goal. I really like the idea of filling up the Katydyn Base Camp Filter with water and letting it filter clean potable water into the MSR bag(s).

[WA Backcountry]

Phantom,
I see that you say your water sources are limited. Seriously consider the pre filter. These are cheap and easy to swap out. You can't use that with katadyn and once you clog the filter you are stuck buying a new expensive filter. We have one and it is A pain to use. I also don't think you can back flush the katadyn filter. Back flushing the filter is key to making it last as long as possible. Make sure you check into that before you make a purchase. Good luck with your gravity bag search.

[LNGBOWFLYER]

Has anyone tried the UV sterilepen. Do they work pretty well.

[pointysticks]

one of our hobbies is traveling the world. i love me a 3rd world country. (my wife is getting weary and wants more luxury now )

anyways. i got a water Purifier. i got the FIRST NEED unit. some water treatment professor wrote a blog on it, he filtered out polio! i was told by my own water treatment professor, that with a water purifier, all water is fair game. it is certified to some EPA standard. (this may or may not mean a darn thing)..
i was told by my old professor that he filtered water from a cattle tank. i havent used it yet. the scary water i thought i would find in LAOS never materialized. hehe.

if i have running clear water, i use a hiker pro. if i am filtering downstream from a herd of camels, i am using my First Need.

[foxvalley]

I also use a bag filter,sure is the way to go.I hang the filter above my 5 gal. water jug and go find something else to do while gravity does the work.Between cooking ,showering,washing cloths,we really don't have a lot of extra time to pump water.

[WA Backcountry]

This may sound kinda wierd, but we bring empty 1 gal water jugs/milk jugs for catching our water from the gravity bag. They are super light weight and disposable. We just strap through the handle to our packs and away we go.

[dotman]

Just a quick fyi... an easy way to prefilter without having a prefilter is to use coffee filters either wrapped around the filter intake secured with a rubber band or to use a coffee filter over the mouth of any jug/bladder you are filling directly from the water source to later filter. Cheap way to get the larger particles filtered so that that there is less chance of clogging your filter.

[WA Backcountry]

Thanks for the tip. That is a good idea. I will give it a try next time i go up there.

[nobull]

Bar-None, MSR Gravity bags with pre-filter is the way to go for base camps and or solo bivy hunts. I see to many folks in the woods struggling to filter water with a pump and or a crappy gravity bag setups. I've tried everything on the shelf and MSR Gravity is the ticket. Look online at amazon or wait for sale from another outfit, they are not the cheapest setup but you get what you pay for. I like the coffee filter idea, I would be printing money if I didn't have to use a pre-filters. Thanks guy's.

[foxvalley]

This may sound kinda wierd, but we bring empty 1 gal water jugs/milk jugs for catching our water from the gravity bag. They are super light weight and disposable. We just strap through the handle to our packs and away we go.

WA,What about just useing a couple 5 gal collapsable water containers?

[dotman]

Bar-None, MSR Gravity bags with pre-filter is the way to go for base camps and or solo bivy hunts. I see to many folks in the woods struggling to filter water with a pump and or a crappy gravity bag setups. I've tried everything on the shelf and MSR Gravity is the ticket. Look online at amazon or wait for sale from another outfit, they are not the cheapest setup but you get what you pay for. I like the coffee filter idea, I would be printing money if I didn't have to use a pre-filters. Thanks guy's.

My setup will be close to this, it will consist of a dromedary bag with spigot that has inline attachment points for a Sawyer squeeze filter. My hydration bladder whch is a 2L dromdary will also have the inline adapters for the squeeze filter so that I can just fill it and then filter while I drink. This entire setup costs are around $120 but I have all the stuff anyway other then the $5 adapters. I'll use coffee filter over the mouth of the dromedary bags and fill them in seconds and then filter as needed

If you already have dromedary bags all that is needed is a Sawyer Squeeze filter $40, 2 sets of inline adapters $5ea and a MSR spigot for the dromedary $10.

[Indian Summer]

I must have bad luck with the Base Camp gravity fed ones. I've had 2 and they were REALLY slow like drip..... drip..... drip. Had a new one this year that clogged in an hour. hmmmm

This year I bought a Katadyn Vario. Wow! It has the prefilter that goes on the end of the intake hose as well as an internal ceramic prefilter. You can bypass that to speed it up but I never had to. It was so fast to fill a 5 gallon collapsible I was amazed. We were all set to take turns pumping but I did it myself in no time. The specs say 2 liters per minute but it sure seemed faster than that.

I REALLY like the lever action pump instead of the in & out plunger type on their Hiker & Hiker Pro which are also in Katadyn's Backcountry series.

It came with a nice cleaning kit and multiple replacement 0 rings.

It's by far the nicest of all the filters I've owned. I'd highly recommend having a look at it.

[Haulin'Quarters]

I have all-ways used a pump filter for backpack hunts ( using a Hiker Pro right now). In 2008, 8.5 miles in my pump clogged from using it on the only puddle of water I could find (probably bear pee) any ways, I had to pack back to the stream that was 5 miles down the mountain to unclog it. By then I was really irritated and decided to get back to the truck and drive around to the north end of the unit and pack in. Well 2 days later pumping water I snapped the pump off the filter completely and had to boil my water for 6 days. Moral of the story is that I always carry iodine tablets with me period, and if I am trying to save weight and know that I will have running water I don't bring the filter. Anywho.... filtered water tastes better, I just hate pumping water for 5-10 minutes. I might have to look into using the gravity bag as well in certain hunting spots.

[bowhunterty]

Used the MSR Works for years but like the Playtpus Gravity works by far. No pumping, easy to use and clean. Light weight. Can fill up your water bladders with ease and takes no time at all to fill water containers.

[High Country]

I don't even pack in a filter anymore. I just use Aqua Mira drops -- sometimes the water is still a little cloudy but I haven't got the chits yet.

[Lefty]

Ive been with a fellow that got sick once,. Ever see a grown man cry, puke and crap himself at the same time.

Im not bivi hunting
Im seldom more than 90 minute to clean water; but I carry a lot of liquids,.. Ive also cached treated water in a few of my places for emergency

[Ridgernr]

I have been using the Aquamira frontier pro and 2 platypus bags and made a gravity setup.
Or you can just screw it on the bag and drink right from the bag.
Here is a picture from when we packed into Seven devils a few years ago.
It also comes with a tube so you can drink out of a stream. I forgot the tube on this trip so I had to balance the bags to get it to work.
It is very light weight and packable. I also carry Aquamira tablets.

[BobcatJerry]

I used the MSR mini works several times, and it is kinda slow but does a good job. The area we hunted the past 4 years has cattle running on it, so we pick our places to draw water. I bought a MSR gravity bag from Cabelas thinking I was getting one with a filter and it was just he bag. I bought the Sawyer water bottle filter, removed the filter, and some latex tubing and adapted it to the gravity bag. It worked great. We would fill a 5 gallon collapsible bag and use both filters to fill it for camp water. Then haul one gravity bag back to camp, with the tube pinched, and when we use our first gallon, we start the gravity process on the bag. 2 guys have enough water for 2 days maybe 3.

I was skeptic of the steri pen at first, but tried it late in the hunt so if I got the squirts, I would be near a bath room. It did the trick. It's a good thing to put in your pack with a quart bottle so you can quickly grab some water out hunting and sanitize it and not have to carry so much. Only takes about 2 minutes for a liter. Turn it on and stir it for about 1.5 minutes. I will be using it more often, especially as my trust grows..

[elkmtngear]

Has anyone tried the UV sterilepen. Do they work pretty well.

LNGBOWFLYER,

Been using the steripen (http://elkmtngear.com/blog/steripen-quick-and-easy-water-sterilization.html)for 4 years now. No issues, and it is quick and easy. You have drinkable water in about 90 seconds.

One set of batteries (lithium) is good for about 5 days. I always carry a spare set.

[Vanish]

Ive also cached treated water in a few of my places for emergency

I started doing this last year. Rather than cart tons of water around every day. I took one morning with a bunch of 2 liters of water and stashed them in areas I would be hunting. Oh man was I glad when I was packing out meat and had accidentally stepped on my water bladder spigot, quickly emptying it.

Thinking of how I could apply this to a remote backcountry hunt, I would do as above and take empty 1 gallon jugs. Stop and Filter some water after a few miles in and stash in the shade. On the way out if you need water, just fill up from the gallon jug. If you don't just empty it out and pack it out.

It isn't for everyone.