Elk Camp

[Swede]

I have a list of things I need to pack up for scouting trips and another for hunting trips. Those lists change over the years and I use them not just to see if I have forgotten things. For years my list continued to grow as I added items to make camp more comfortable or to make some part of the hunt work better for me. Over all I see a trend for the list to shrink, as I don't want to be bothered with things I rarely use. I am taking fewer stands and fewer pieces to prepare a tree to be climbed, etc.
What I am curious to learn is what kind of camp others have. Is it the comforts of home put on wheels or a blanket under the stars? Is cooking and cleaning like home or very rudimentary? Do you have the latest and greatest of hunting items or just the old tried and true.

Personally I have some of all, but tend to keep things simple. I have the GPS, and electronic rangefinder, but most is basic but reliable. I have a lot of old stuff, including clothes.

[Lefty]

[quote="Swede"]Personally I have some of all, but tend to keep things simple. /quote]

I would like to believe Im ready for it all no matter the camp. My wife was a hard core backpacker. Her dad did some backcountry hunts, an likely hunted more than most avid hunters. You soon realize what you need or want, and what you dont need or want.

My frst few years this is what camp looked like whne My truck needed work

car

Ive spent hundreds of nights in the back of a pickup,.. all I need is in the back of my pickup right now
My daughter slept a lot of nights in her back seat or shared the back of my truck when cold

julies at moose miss

November moose camp with my wife,... Just a fly

AM Nov moose camp

[Lefty]

I sleep very comfortable A ground military hightech clossed cell foam with cheap indoor out door carpet then 3 1/2

On the hot desert hunts , plenty of water and ice and two spare tires

desert water camp

Way back in
All my food fits in a 3 gallon cooler, pre-made sandwiches and fruit , nutbars 5 gallons of water

Murry big buck

This is a bear camp,.. but elk camp 4 miles away and 2200 feet up looked much worse.
Site of the crazy coyote The coyote escorted me to and fro from camp every day. That coyote made sounds that only Sasquash makes
$5.00 tent, spent well over 100 nights

[Lefty]

Middle of November moose camps. That little trailer is a my wifes ATV trailer that we used for moose hunting
Last day of a bull elk hunt, I put my neighbors on two huge bull elk,. they put me on my bull moose -10 at camp,.. much colder up the canyon

Camp shower

Slept 13 nights of elk season in the toy hauler. I keep it simple. Plenty of good food,.. maybe enough to feed two for a couple weeks easy. All the comforts my wife wants, if she comes up to camp.
I still use the grove of trees for the bathroom. Next year Ill have a toilet seat on a molasses barrel in the trees.
I use the heat but dry camp otherwise. Still shower outside on warm days or super sponge bath in the camper.
I do miss the night sounds of a tent. . I would guess of the nights in a tent nearly a third I heard elk
Being able to stand up to put clothes, sit comfortable to put on boots and Im good to go

[Swede]

Personally I have some of all, but tend to keep things simple.

What I am referring to there is that I have enough of everything I need for when, where, and how I hunt as I followed my checklist. That list has evolved over many years. The Lord knows there are possibilities that could arise that could mean I would need something, but it is not a regular occurrence.

[Swede]

Lefty, my camp would look a lot better if it had a cooler like the one shown in the last picture you just posted. I don't quite see one coming in my future, so if you just drop one off at camp while I am out hunting ......

[Lefty]

Maybe I miss understand the question, I want to be comfortable, hunting and sleeping. Eat good and satisfying food and have an enjoyable hunt


$75.00 35 quart Canyon cooler , the other water cooler is a military surplus, $5.00
Lifetime makes one larger cooler and can be bought at Walmart for under $100
Somethings are worth spending money on. That cooler in three years has been to all the western states. Kept my fish clams and crab fresh three days on ice in hot desert temps.
With a lb of dry ice everything remained frozen for 11 days

[Swede]

Maybe I miss understand the question, I want to be comfortable, hunting and sleeping. Eat good and satisfying food and have an enjoyable hunt

I think you understood it perfectly. I enjoy looking over your camps. My camps change to over time and based on the situation. If I am on a weekend hunt I don't bring the whole shooting match either. If I go for over a month, there is more included.
I am sure I could get a top quality cooler, but the 160 quart one I have is decent, and I can set it in the creek near camp and retain ice quite well.

[Lefty]

Lefty, my camp would look a lot better if it had a cooler like the one shown in the last picture you just posted. I don't quite see one coming in my future, so if you just drop one off at camp while I am out hunting ......

From Wikipedia

The tenth commandment forbids coveting the goods of another, ,,,,,,,,,,. envy be banished from the human heart.

And Im not apologizing for never showing pics of my wife because, well; Swede again from Wikipedia

"Thou shalt not covet" ,,,consider the prohibition on coveting one's neighbor's wife as the ninth commandment while Lutherans make it wife, servants, or anything else.

Our daughter won a Yeti. We were impressed but unwilling to spend that kind of money . Her cooler was too much (too big) for us . My wife an I did lots of research on top end smaller coolers I wasnt hunting the desert and no longer hauling 120-150 lbs of ice each trip for meat.
We bought that cooler for the future and at a reduced clearance price .
Our typical 3 day trip doesn't need ice in that cooler, so we never need to buy ice or make ice. Smaller cooler less hassle. It should last the rest of our lives.
Ive used the top end Igloo coolers at scout camp,.. they just dont make it even with ice. One pic shows a green Coleman cooler, same problem . Yeti was overpriced Cabelas took up way more room than necessary. Those coolers had a five year heavy use life.

My wife and I are not minimalist by any means. But I discovered a long time ago what I like to do, and do not keep a bunch of unused clutter, including gear and as mentioned early My list is limited on what I want and need. and have done it so often I seldom forget anything of even small importance for camp

[Lefty]

This should maybe go in the gear reviews.
The big plastic black Contigo boxes are generally empty and are my meat boxes. Ive seen a few others use them the same way

[Swede]

Lefty's comment reminds me what I heard Sunday listening to Charles Stanly if I remember correctly.
A certain older fellow went in to have his taxes prepared a few weeks ago. The tax lady was looking over all of his receipts which were neatly bundled. Finally she came upon a bunch that were stapled together and clipped to a note saying "beauty product and treatment costs". The tax advisor said "you can't deduct these items." "Why not" was the reply, "they were a total loss"?
I am sure Lefty's wife looks very nice. At least to him see should look as beautiful as my wife does to me.

[Lefty]

Ok Swede I'll back down. Redirect yourself to elk camp

When hunting the desert it took me 22 minutes to set up any of 4 different tents, and lay out sleeping gear and everything ready for heading out of camp then or in the morning

Sleeping in the back of a pickup time was spent changing into sleep wear and he morning hunting clothes. Maybe a minute or two if the bags needed rolling.
Or little toy hauler RV the hardest thing to do was roll out the generator if we need it. May a couple minutes to haul in gear and turn on the heat

[Swede]

Lefty's camps remind my how much they can change over time and due to the situation we are dealing with. I would like to see some more posted here.

[saddlesore]

Swede.
1960's: Bed roll, tarp to sleep under cooking on open fire

Early 70's.Stock rack on pick up, Bedroll, a bit of food, old army shelter half for tent, Single burner SVEA brass stove to cook on, me and on a horse camped where I ended up at night.

1980's' Truck slide in camper pulling a horse trailer. Hunt from truck and was fairly comfortable,but no heater and an ice box.

Late 80's ,1990's thru about 2010" newer truck, 20ft gooseneck stock trailer and hauling 4 mules. Packing 3 mules, riding one, full back country wall tent elk camp.Wood stove, gas cook stove,lanterns, airbed and better bed roll.

2010 -2015 Same gooseneck/truck, but only two mules.Made camp in gooseneck with wood stove as before, no pack in ,but hunted from truck,riding in every morning 4-5 miles to hunt area.

2015-present: Slide in pop up camper , 3 horse slant trailer. All the comforts of home.Heater, freezer,refridge, real bed.Shower tent and warm showers. Rode mules in 3-6 mile every day to hunt area.
I don't have any digital photos of early days.

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[saddlesore]

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[Tigger]

[quote="saddlesore"]


Early 70's.Stock rack on pick up, Bedroll, a bit of food, old army shelter half for tent, Single burner SVEA brass stove to cook on, me and on ehorse camped where I ended up at night.


Man, Vince, you were WAYYY ahead of your time if you were riding an ehorse in the 70s! I thought I was fairly up to date on new technology but even now I have never heard of an ehorse. Or is an ehorse an ATV perhaps?

[saddlesore]

Early 70's.Stock rack on pick up, Bedroll, a bit of food, old army shelter half for tent, Single burner SVEA brass stove to cook on, me and on ehorse camped where I ended up at night.


Man, Vince, you were WAYYY ahead of your time if you were riding an ehorse in the 70s! I thought I was fairly up to date on new technology but even now I have never heard of an ehorse. Or is an ehorse an ATV perhaps?

Fixed it

[7mmfan]

Like most of you guys, our camps have morphed over the years. The very first hunting trip I ever went on with my Dad was when I was about 7. In the Methow Valley, WA state end of October for Mule Deer. We had a Coleman tent, no heater, and slept on old couch cushions. The last night we were there, October 30, it snowed 18" over night and collapsed our tent. Slept the rest of the night in the truck, packed up and left that morning. If that was me today, I'd be drooling anticipating a day of hunting late October Mule Deer in 18" of snow. Dad made the right call though.

We pretty slept in the truck or that Coleman until I was about 14. My Grandpa had an old 10x12 Rainier Tent wall tent with a well ventilated (rusted) wood stove. We inherited that and started elk hunting. We cheated death in that setup for 4 years, and then Dad's employer bought him a complete 15x18 Davis Tent setup for his 25 year work anniversary. Boy, we were in the lap of luxury now!

Since then, that has been our main camp setup. On short hunts, we will still set up small dome tents, or sleep in the back of pickups, but for any duration longer than a few days, the wall tent comes along. It's only in the last couple years that I've started backpack hunting and have acquired all the gear to do a back country backpack hunt with a hot tent. I bring it with me on every hunting trip just in case I get an itch to go deep and stay there.

One theme that hasn't changed in all these years, is fires. Massive fires are still a mainstay of every camp we hold. One theme I plan to maintain into eternity.

[7mmfan]

Few more.

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Late archery hunt in the back of the truck.

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High camp

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Multi purpose wood stove

[7mmfan]

Typical O'Connor elk camp fire.