My Backcountry Pack Contents by Rudy Hassall

As some of you head out for your elk hunt this year or begin packing for your upcoming backcountry hunts, hopefully you use a checklist of some sort. I have a spreadsheet with all of my gear on it with multiple columns. The columns dictate the type of hunt, then all I need to do check the items as I pack them and as a bonus, it spits out the total weight of what my pack should weigh.

My favorite style of hunt is a 10 day bivy backcountry hunt for Mulies or Elk. For those that don’t know what bivy means, it’s short for the word bivouac and means you will carry your camp, food, clothes, hunting gear, everything we need to survive those 10 days in the backcountry on your backs. You will not master the bivy style the first time out. This takes time, some thought and a lot of gear testing, which I truly enjoy. Then, over time you find the gear that can be utilized for at least 2 functions, that packs small, lightweight and durable. This is the gear that you will build you bivy camp with. I recommend trying a few test nights in the backyard, then you try a few weekender trips and then on what I call Bonsai Trips. These are the “semi-unplanned” trips, when you get home from work, grab your pack and gear and head out for the night or weekend. For me this verifies how organized I am on getting my gear together, to test setting up camp in the dark and sometimes freezing temps on top of that. This type of trip/test helps me lighten my pack of tchotchke and find the gear that works best for me.

Kevin C Paulson
Founder and CEO
HuntingLife.com
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