• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

Leave frame pack at the ground or bring it up

T

Teamclark

New Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2019
Messages
24
For guys that bring in a frame pack to pack meat out: do you leave the frame pack at the base of the tree or do you bring it up with you in the tree? I have been bringing my pack up for scent purposes but the size of the pack up in the tree can sometimes get in the way. What’s everyone else doing?
 
I don’t hunt with a pack that has an exterior frame, but could you use it as a backband while in the tree?
Just thinking it could offer a lot of support and would eliminate the need to bring an actual back band.
 
I’ve struggled with this also. If I’m walking a long ways in I like to take my Kifaru with me so I can bring meat back. It’s so big up in the tree though. I’ve thought about carrying the pack most of the way in and then ditching it along the trail. At least I wouldn’t have to walk an extra two miles to go to the truck and back.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I struggled with this myself. I eventually decided that I don’t usually meat hunt deep in on rough terrain. I’m not a great trophy hunter either so the annoyance of carrying a frame pack in every time outweighed the annoyance of having to go back to the truck once a year to get it.
 
If i bring mine in with me, I leave it on the ground. A friend who also runs a frame pack gave me the idea to just bring the lid up, tried it for the first time on Saturday's hunt and really liked it.

Normally, I leave it in the car and will go back for it while I give a deer time to die. Only brought it into the woods with me this weekend because it is so warm where I was hunting and I didnt want to waste any time if I shot one. I will bring it later in the season when it gets colder cause its easier to bring the extra layers in there, will leave it on the ground then, too. I almost always have my mesh ghillie jacket in it and will lay it over too ofnit if it looks too out of place. Not a scent control guy, I play the wind, so I'm not worried about it blowing scent at ground level.
2fde1e2b9639475eb55e0fb6f4533516.jpg


Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
 
gameflogger said:
I always hang my pack up high on my weak side.
Click to expand...
X2 or place on back side of tree. I attach my bow to the backpack so i do not need to pull bow up. If it is secure you don't notice the weight difference. Tether, strap, hang backpack hang bow you're hunting.
 
Napali said:
X2 or place on back side of tree. I attach my bow to the backpack so i do not need to pull bow up. If it is secure you don't notice the weight difference. Tether, strap, hang backpack hang bow you're hunting.
Click to expand...
I have a routine that works well for me and I have been doing the same thing for years, I have just become more efficient at it. Routine is as follows: I have a hawk folding jab hook in the right side waist pocket of my pack, a rubber coated hook attached to the left outside of my pack as well as my wind indicator cotton capsule, my doyles hoist is connected to the Back left area of my pack waist belt. I attach my bow to the doyles at ground level, I wear my pack while I climb the tree, once I reach hunting height, I pull the jab hook from my right side pocket, screw it in the tree on my weak side, take off my pack and hang it on the jab hook, I then take the rubber hook from the left side of the pack that is now facing me, screw it in the left side of the tree slightly above head height, pull up my bow, knock an arrow, and disconnect my quiver. Then I unhook the doyles from my bow and hang it to my left, once my bow is hanging I strap my quiver to the left side of my pack. It becomes like second nature once you get a routine.
 
deertrout said:
If i bring mine in with me, I leave it on the ground. A friend who also runs a frame pack gave me the idea to just bring the lid up, tried it for the first time on Saturday's hunt and really liked it.

Normally, I leave it in the car and will go back for it while I give a deer time to die. Only brought it into the woods with me this weekend because it is so warm where I was hunting and I didnt want to waste any time if I shot one. I will bring it later in the season when it gets colder cause its easier to bring the extra layers in there, will leave it on the ground then, too. I almost always have my mesh ghillie jacket in it and will lay it over too ofnit if it looks too out of place. Not a scent control guy, I play the wind, so I'm not worried about it blowing scent at ground level.
2fde1e2b9639475eb55e0fb6f4533516.jpg


Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I have had so many deer that I was not going to shoot walk right under my setup. I once had a decent 8pt sniff my bow pull up rope and haul butt about 40 yards off and snort for an hour. Once he started snorting I would have let the air out of him out of spite to shut him up, but he never gave me the opportunity. I try not to leave anything at ground level, if it is unnatural deer will sniff it then comes the snorting!!!!!
 
They know when something wasn't there last time through. Look at cameras on trees? How many times do they look if they are not high enough? Take it up and then you have options on what to do with it.
 
I used to leave it hundreds of yards from hunt site on path in. Then I started hunting too randomly for that to make sense. I bought a more compact frame pack that would stay with me - sometimes at the base of the tree. I have a video on youtube of a deer that should've walked into a lane and I would be able to kill him. Instead he either sees or smells my pack on the ground(i think it's my camera bag and a jacket maybe). Now nothing stays on the ground when I bowhunt. If I'm gun hunting and have little chance of deer being within 20 yards of my tree, i could leave it down there.
 
If I leave anything on the ground I put it in a plastic bag


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I leave it at the base of the tree. Put it inside of a plastic bag (contractor grade), and cover with leaves.
 
I learned, in a round about way, that putting my frame pack about 6' up and at the perfect shooting distance is the way to go. I have used trail cams extensively for years. Because of bears here, I've always used the "bear boxes" to protect them. Well, there are far more elk and deer than bears where I live, and I have dozens of videos where the deer like to smell my cameras, and the bull elk just can't help themselves when they see those little padlocks dangling from the bear boxes. They come straight to them and knock the living crap out of them with their antlers! I swear they just love the sound of that lock banging into the metal box! I cannot......make that will not......put out a trail cam anymore without a bear box. All the animals love to come over and investigate them, with differing amounts of enthusiasm! By putting my frame pack out 20 to 25yds and about 6' off the ground, the animals see it readily and while they are over there thrashing it around, I just wait for the perfect shot! I'm always facinated by all the things I read about everyone worrying about scent, but I make NO effort to cover up any scent on the pack, and for some reason, the animals go right for it every time. I know there will be those that find what I say here incredulous, but give it a try, you may just be as amazed as I was.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top