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Bush food

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Bush food

Postby Navesgane » 03 01, 2018 •  [Post 1]

How do you all decide what food and how much of it to take into the bush on your multi-day, other than truck camping outings? Do you geek out and do a calorie-per-weight assessment, or do you just clean out the cupboard and stuff whatever you can into your pack until it looks like enough to suffice? Do you choose tasty treats over nutrition or would you rather chew on soy sticks as long as it provides the proper nutritional level at the least amount of weight? Food packing and rationing is and has always been a weak area for me when it comes to backpacking and hunting and I've been researching making my own food/bars for this year and would like to know how you all deal with it.
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Re: Bush food

Postby six » 03 01, 2018 •  [Post 2]

Breakfast coffee single and 2 packs of oatmeal.

Lunch PBB wrap, or 2 protein bars.

Dinner Mountain House.

Snacks are cheese, jerky, nuts, water flavoring.
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Re: Bush food

Postby saddlesore » 03 01, 2018 •  [Post 3]

Of late,I have started to use Steel cut Oats mixed with1 of the instant ones,Steel cuts stay with you longer ,but takes a few minutes to cook.I supplement that with a few breakfast bars.Lunches are trail mix, granola bars, protein bars, and few candy bars.
Dinners vary, but I refuse to eat out of a plastic bag. Since I have a pack mule, I can carry a more substantial diet . I try not to vary from what I eat at home.To do so, I find brings on stomach cramps,diarrhea, constipation
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Re: Bush food

Postby Swede » 03 01, 2018 •  [Post 4]

Breakfast MH and coffee,
Lunch and snacks, nuts, dried fruit, nutrition bars, trail mix
Dinner MH and water. I would like another coffee, but need to get to sleep.
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Re: Bush food

Postby jmez » 03 01, 2018 •  [Post 5]

Have a plan in place, the just stuff it in the bag option isn't a good one on back country trips.

I put my food for the day in a gallon ziplock bag. That way I just grab a bag every morning and have all that I need. The trash goes back into the gallon bag.

Breakfast: 2 instant oatmeal with dried fruit and granola added or instant cream of wheat with the same. I pre-package with a food saver at home, leave enough room in the bag to ad the water. 1 starbucks via.

Lunch: 1 large tortilla wrapped in a paper towell, (you have to wrap them), 2 foil packages of tuna or foil package of precooked chicken. Pre cooked crumbled bacon. Mayo, or mustard in a little packet. Make a wrap with this.

Supper: 1 mountain house meal and one king sized candy bar. 1 starbucks via.

Snacks: 1 protein bar, 1 granola bar, 1 package of trail mix, 1 package of peanut butter crackers.

I will eat two of the snacks between breakfast and lunch and the other two between lunch and supper.

I eat all of it every day. With this set up I don't have to do anything but boil water twice a day. I don't need any cooking utensils or dishes, just a jetboil to heat the water, long handled spoon to eat with and titanium cup for coffee. No clean up needed. Just put the used bags into the ziplock.
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Re: Bush food

Postby Tigger » 03 01, 2018 •  [Post 6]

Saddlesore, You sound just like my dad when it came time to introduce him to Mountain House!! "I ain't eating some food that has been in a bag for months!" he grumbled. I finally convinced him to try Beef Stroganoff (I think it was) and he loved it. He had all kinds of it over deer hunting and liked it all.

I tend to bring food that I want to eat over some tasteless soy bar. Weight is considered, but does not drive every and all decisions. I make sure to try any of the bars ahead of time to make sure I like them. In the end, a few Snickers bars always find their way into my pack and end up being eaten. I like a good PB&J sandwich, just make sure you squash them immediately upon making them. :lol: They keep well for a couple days. Oatmeal and Mtn House round it out. Some trail mix is good and I am a sucker for Reisen's chocolates.

Last year I tried one of those energy gels. I saved it for packing out elk quarters. Not sure if it worked or not, but I got my elk quarter on my back and then helped my buddy put his pack on his pack with another quarter. Then I picked up my buddy and ran up the mountain. :shock:
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Re: Bush food

Postby jmez » 03 01, 2018 •  [Post 7]

Tigger makes a really good point. Do not take anything with you that you have not tried at home first. 4 miles from the truck is no place to find out that you don't like the food you brought along.

I'd also recommend putting your meal plan together and then eat it, and nothing else, for a few days. See if it is enough, too much etc.
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Re: Bush food

Postby saddlesore » 03 01, 2018 •  [Post 8]

Tigger.
I tried 4 different MH dinners last summer on a pack rip.One was not enough for a meal for me,two was too much. So I spent about $16 for two meals and ate 1 .5 of them. None tasted all that good that I looked forward to the next. Expense wise,I can make less expensive meals and prepackage at home and they taste better. The MH meals I did have,I cooked in a pot and ate off a paper plate.I like to keep some semblance of being civilized while hunting.Eating out of plastic bag is not one of them.I also take a sponge bath every day and change clothes every few days,even if I have to wash them out.
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Re: Bush food

Postby WapitiTalk1 » 03 01, 2018 •  [Post 9]

Whether I'm hunting from base camp or on a multi to many day backwoods hunt, I have pre-packed quart zip locks with enough food for each day to be hunted before I jump in the truck and head out. Each evening, I fill my pack water bladder and throw in a zip lock full of chow for the next day's adventure. Of course, MH and Paleo meals for the evening chow are not zipped into the quart bag but remain at camp on backwoods adventures. I've kind of settled on an acceptable variety of chow for each day that tastes pretty decent and has enough energy packed in to get me through the roughest day. Cup of java and an Erin Baker cookie for Bfast, variety of granola/energy type bars for mid morning/afternoon snacks (Lara Bars, Stingers, Sweet and Salty granola bars), Slim Jim Beef n Cheese combo packet, a few mini snickers, and for the main mid day meal, either Star-Kist Creation Tuna packets or PB and jelly/honey on a chunk of MRE style wheat bread. Jif to Go are small, single serving PB containers; the Jelly and Honey packets are small; and the Star-Kist Tuna Creation packets come in a variety of flavors. When I'm packing up the quart zip locks right before season, I mix up what goes in each bag in an attempt to give me a different combo of chow each day. This combo seems to work well for me.
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Re: Bush food

Postby Tigger » 03 01, 2018 •  [Post 10]

Saddlesore, The Mtn House meals come in 2 sizes and I think you are describing the small ones. the bigger ones are good for everyone in our party. That is too bad you didn't like them, we thought they were great (considering)! You certainly cracked me up with your uncivilized comment. I just had a mental picture of a few guys eating Mtn House with their fingers, a mess all over their unkempt beards, all while grunting and farting. I hope that using a spork to eat out of the bag does not bring me closer to my Neanderthal roots.....

RJ, Do you squash the PB&J immediately so they are thinner than 3 sheets of paper? That way, the jelly bleeds through the bread and gets your hands all sticky.....but the taste is oh-so-much better! It is high time you figured out how the perfeshunal PB&J eaters eat there sammies on an elk hunt.
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Re: Bush food

Postby WapitiTalk1 » 03 01, 2018 •  [Post 11]

Tigger wrote:RJ, Do you squash the PB&J immediately so they are thinner than 3 sheets of paper? That way, the jelly bleeds through the bread and gets your hands all sticky.....but the taste is oh-so-much better! It is high time you figured out how the perfeshunal PB&J eaters eat there sammies on an elk hunt.


Heck no. Civilized elk hunters have a plastic knife in their quart zip lock and every so gently, spread the Jif to Go PB on their single slice of MRE wheat bread, followed by either two containers of jelly or honey, evenly covering the aforementioned PB. This results in a well constructed, non sticky, and pleasing to the eye and stomach mid day snack ;).
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Re: Bush food

Postby CurlyTail » 03 01, 2018 •  [Post 12]

I am like Jmez.

Everything pre-planned, pre-measured, and packaged - everything I need in one zip lock bag for one meal. This prevents you from eating all your food early and not having enough on the last day. This also simplifies packing your pack and splitting the food evenly among partners. Also minimizes digginig around in the bottom of your bag trying to assemble everything you need for a meal.

If you have a group, I always split into groups of 3 or 4, as this is the max amount of dehydrated food you can prepare in a typical 2 liter backpacking cook set. If you have 6 guys, then two groups of 3 and each group with a backpacking stove, cook kit, and water filters.

Typical meal plan for me; Breakfast - 2 Oatmeal packets, Tang in a 2 liter Nalgene, Starbucks via with packet of creamer. Lunch - small tortillas with peanut butter and honey (available in foil packets), triscuits, and Peanut M&M's. Dinner Mountain House, Idahoan Instant Potatos, fruit rollup, candy bar. Snacks - Jerky and Trail Mix, one small baggie per day.

With this food I am not hungry but will still end up losing 10 pounds in a week time.
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Re: Bush food

Postby jmez » 03 01, 2018 •  [Post 13]

Real elk hunters use a stick.
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Re: Bush food

Postby jmez » 03 01, 2018 •  [Post 14]

I also pack a lot of bacon crumbles every day and pour a good portion in whatever MH I'm eating that night, well, because it's bacon.
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Re: Bush food

Postby Mathewsz7-elkridge » 03 01, 2018 •  [Post 15]

I am terrible at eating while hunting always seem to have something leftover. My food is also but in a gallon Ziploc bag. Inside will be two packs of oatmeal, 3 oz of dried bannas and aples mixed, 3 oz of trail mix, 4oz of jerky, clif bar and the 2.5 serving size package of mountain house.
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Re: Bush food

Postby Lefty » 03 01, 2018 •  [Post 16]

I use to geek out,..
now I just guesstimate ,.. I sort of know what Ill eat in a day hunting
this much oatmeal, this much jerky, so much tuna, crackers and tuna,so much dried fruit, nut bars, and lots of nuts, dried eggs, dried soup mix olive oil for cooking or added calories
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Re: Bush food

Postby elkstalker » 03 05, 2018 •  [Post 17]

If I'm setting up a base camp or truck camping I always seem to bring too much, but better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it! Chili dogs are my favorite go to, but steak with mushrooms and onions is a close second. I think I eat better in camp than at home sometimes :lol:

If I'm backpacking it's always oatmeal and instant coffee for breakfast, pre-made sandwiches for lunch, and MRE/MH meals for dinner, with a healthy dose of trail mix and snickers bars mixed in :D
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Re: Bush food

Postby Lefty » 03 05, 2018 •  [Post 18]

elkstalker wrote:If I'm setting up a base camp or truck camping I always seem to bring too much,,....

Generally I do the same,.. but those days when I guy eats like he should you will be out of food a day early :shock: then things get ugly
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