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What do you do with your pack when you're in the tree?

McNamara

New Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2021
Messages
10
Hello all, I'm a relatively new hunter in northern Virginia. Next deer season I plan to bow hunt on public land with a saddle, and I'll be packing everything in and out. My question for those who backpack hunt is, what do you do with your rucksack? Do you bring it up into the tree with you when hunting, or do you camp close enough that you can walk back to it after a kill to retrieve it and pack out your meat?

For background, I've been into archery for a few years and will be hunting with a compound. I've only ever hunted from the ground with a rifle; no experience with saddles, tree stands, or bow hunting. I have extensive backpacking experience and a fair bit of rock climbing too. My camping setup isn't quite ultralight, but when I'm just backpacking, my pack weighs around 20 pounds not counting food and water. I have, however, carried over a hundred pounds on multiple occasions for distances of 3-5 miles cross country.

Thanks for your feedback!
 
Keep your camping related stuff at camp and pare down your kit to just have what you need for each hunt. I typically do not camp-hunt I just go to different spots from my home. My pack has my one stick with integrated platform, my rappel rope, Mammut smart 2.0 belay device and biner, delta link, bow pull up rope and rappel line retrieval line (one tool dual uses), kill kit, extra top or coat, grunt tube, bleat call and depending on time of year rattle bag or antlers, head lamp, hysstrap and hero clip and an extra plastic biner for my quiver to hang off my hys strap. I carry my pack up with me. My bow stays on the ground with my doyle's or bow retrieval line attached to it. I get up to hunting height, attach my hys strap around the tree, pull up my bow and hang it on the hero clip. I then take my pack off and hang it on the extended length of daisy chained webbing loops that hang right down the tree. I position it within reach but below so the pack is out of my way for shooting all around the three. IF you put the pack on the strap at the same height as your bow, that section of area is essentially blocked out from you being able to shoot around it because of the pack. I also have hand muff, extra pair of gloves and my battery pack for my cell phone. Sometimes I pack my saddle in sometimes I wear it. Early season I'm wearing it in usually, later season I'm packing it in as to me its just easier to not walk in with it with wool pants or bibs on.

If I were camping and hunting with everything on my pack, I would probably have my main ruck for my camping gear and have a small pack for hunting rolled up in a pocket and carry most of my stuff in my cargo pockets and the small pack. Really you don't need much if you're camping relatively close to hour hunting areas. I would definetly want a pack that could carry my one stick and platform or my bow/gun and I would carry the other. I don't like not having my bow in my hand so my smaller hunting pack would have to be able to securely carry a one stick with platform.
 
This interests me also, my pack is set up so I can unclip my predator pack from my EXO and use it without the full frame pack or independently, last season there were times I would have used my exo for some of the lengthy sits rather than the predator itself but couldn't come to terms on what to do with the EXO pack while in the saddle.
 
If I’m in an area with somewhat defined deer movement, I like to drop a frame pack a couple hundred yards downwind of my set, on my approach. I’ll get dressed and set to climb here often too, so that I leave minimal ground scent at tree.

If the deer are wandering or could approach from any direction, I don’t like to do this.

as far as leaving woods and returning for a kill, it depends on what kind of shape you’re in, terrain, how much your wife is yelling at you, the shot you made, weather, etc.

I personally like to make one trip in and out. But it’s not always in the cards. I have the ability to do so because all of my hunting setups are capable of carrying a quartered deer. If it’s a 200+lb buck, I’m usually making two trips to be nice to my back.

short answer - it depends.
 
If I’m in an area with somewhat defined deer movement, I like to drop a frame pack a couple hundred yards downwind of my set, on my approach. I’ll get dressed and set to climb here often too, so that I leave minimal ground scent at tree.

If the deer are wandering or could approach from any direction, I don’t like to do this.

as far as leaving woods and returning for a kill, it depends on what kind of shape you’re in, terrain, how much your wife is yelling at you, the shot you made, weather, etc.

I personally like to make one trip in and out. But it’s not always in the cards. I have the ability to do so because all of my hunting setups are capable of carrying a quartered deer. If it’s a 200+lb buck, I’m usually making two trips to be nice to my back.

short answer - it depends.
I bolded the main reason for ya. This is my life in a few words...
 
Thanks for the responses, guys. I like the idea of staging the ruck downwind when the conditions merit. Also thanks for that bit about hanging the pack below your height so you can shoot 360 degrees around the tree. I've considered taking a day pack along with my main ruck, but I'm concerned that any day pack large enough to fit a boned-out white tail is going to be unwieldy in conjunction with the main ruck. I'm thinking my default method may be to leave the tent or hammock and sleep system back in camp, cinch the ruck down tight, and take that up into the tree with only what I need for the day's hunt (I intend to use the 2TC method with a ROS, by the way). Then I can pack the meat back to camp, pack up the rest of my gear, and head back to wherever I parked. If I have far to walk and it's almost night, I can hang the game bag up in a tree and spend another night in the woods.

Fortunately there's no wife to worry about; I can stay out until I fill a tag or have to go back to work.
 
I put my pack in a garbage bag at the bottom of the tree. Twist tie it closed.


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Fellow Northern Virginia hunter here. Depends on which parcel I’m hunting. I’ve got a couple I rotate, one in which I’m hanging about 300 yards from my truck. For that one I just leave my sled in the truck and use a drag to drag the carcass out. For my other parcel it’s a longer hike, has a creek to cross and has lots of nasty, gnarly junk to fight through. That parcel I’ll walk back to the truck and get the sled cause there’s nowhere for me to stash it. I would just field dress it but as it’s on a farm spreading around blood is not an option.
 
I’m also new to saddle hunting, but I’ve done some backpack hunting, and I plan to try and join the two this coming season. My plan was to leave my main pack at camp or nearby downwind and use my pack lid as my hunting daypack to carry what I need up the tree.

I don’t know what kind of pack you have, but I bet you could buy a Mystery Ranch daypack lid or another similar lid and get it to fit your pack with minimal modifications.
 
I'm late to this one... So I made a strap with my own gear hooks for specific things like pack, bow, Thermocell, etc. But I'm kinda picky and you guys might not be lol.
 
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