Western Elk Part 4: Packing for Elk Hunting
This is a continuation of the conversation between James and Joe from The Fair Chase Podcast, focusing on packing strategies for elk hunting.
You can catch the full discussion here
James: What are you taking when packing for an elk hunt?
Joe: "Assuming now I've gotten to the point now that I’ve decided on if I'm flying or if I'm driving, it's pretty close to the same. I might take some extra like duplicates of clothes if I'm driving or like a couple extra items that I might not need, but for the most part everything goes in a weapon case and a tote. And that's what I fly with. So the tote's going to have my pack frame and that's going to be any sort of pack that's somewhere between that 55 and 7,000 cubic inches."
James: What kind of sleeping system do you use?
Joe: "A 20 degree sleeping bag goes into the tote. All of my clothes for the most part except for what I wear on the flight, which I wear hunting clothes on the flight. Solids, so no one knows anyway, not a big deal. I wear my boots on the flight, that way it's two pounds that I'm not checking. Sometimes I'll use a sleeping pad, sometimes I won't depending on what I'm on. Trekking poles are huge, those go in the tote as well."
James: What about food and miscellaneous items?
Joe: "Any food that I want to take that I can't find in Billings, Bozeman, Denver, whatever. I might buy some freeze-dried meals when I'm there to save on some space flying out. But your freeze-dried meals for the trip and then other things that I'll buy once I get there are like power bars or electrolytes, things that I know I can get wherever I'm going. Then you have your tent and depending on where you're going, it could be as simple as a tarp, it could be a three-season, four-season tent depending on the time you're going."
James: What's your preferred tent setup?
Joe: "Two-person, three-season. It's light enough but I can just set it up, stake it down and be done with it. I do carry a tarp in case I do leave my base camp and I don't have like a super tarp or whatever it's called, a super tarp or a Sawtooth or something like that. If I don't want to come back to a base camp or I'll just run that like if I'm going to Colorado and I look at the forecast I'm like okay I'm going to get a storm every night for an hour whatever I'll sleep in a tarp."
James: How do you pack your weapon case?
Joe: "Don't buy a single bow case or a single rifle case, get the double because you can pack extra clothes and extra gear, spotting scope, stabilized binos, your 15s, your 20s, whatever. Any big glass can go in that case as well, extra clothes, extra food. If you're hunting grizzly country, your handgun goes in there and you can get that 50 lbs a lot easier as a double case than you can as a single."
James: How many changes of clothes do you bring?
Joe: "One change. One wet wipe. One pack of wet wipes. One change of underwear, one change of socks and then you rinse them off in a creek and then you tie them up somewhere where it's sunny. It's Merino so it breathes out and it's fine the next day."
James: What's your opinion on bringing a spotting scope?
Joe: "A spotting scope during elk season I would almost always say leave it in the truck or leave it at home. You don't need a spotting scope to see 700 lb elk with Christmas trees growing out of his head. They're not hard to see."
James: What's your preferred stove setup?
Joe: "I've had the same stove since I've started and we have no affiliation with MSR whatsoever, but the reactor is the perfect stove. I have that and then I have the wind burner just as a little bit smaller one. And both of those are - the reactor is literally bombproof."
James: What's one time where you haven't brought something that you needed?
Joe: "I find myself running out of snacks quickly. So if I'm having a hard hunt and I'm spending a lot more time glassing and trying to figure things out, I snack readily. So I've burned myself out of food pretty quick before. I don't know, to be honest with you, for the most part I felt like I've overpacked and created more headache for myself that way than been lacking."
James: Any final thoughts on packing for elk hunting?
Joe: "You have to pay one direction or the other - either the lightweight fairy gets paid or the comfort fairy gets paid, and it's usually not both. The only other time I can think of that I was left feeling was I often will just take like a rain gear top and not the pants if I look at the forecast like 'Oh, be fine.' This dries out quickly.
A couple times I've got burned. Downpour all freaking day, I'm like 'I'm going to be wet today,' but I know I can dry it out 'cause the material, but would have been nice, would have been more comfortable to just be dry."
Thanks for reading!