Huntin' Camp 09

[jollyroger]

Just a few pictures from our Huntin' Camp 09. The Deuce, "Major Payne", loaded for Bear.......and Elk.......and Deer. Stuff for 8 guys and 10 days. The cook tent, white wall tent. My GP Small with cozy liquid fuel heater, AKA the R2heatyou unit. Gotta love Star Wars. My friends outfitter tent with wood burner. 4a.m. wake up call in that tent sucks compared to my sweat lodge. However it is a really nice tent. They have windows. Our two room shower tent in the background with a cedar floor. I have to say the floor in the shower tent kick's a**. Thank's Jimmy. And lastly. What's camp without a fire?

 

[srodocker]

man...i want to camp! i had to cancel my 3 camping trips this summer because of the new job

 

[wb1895]

And I wasnt invited............. why?

 

[jollyroger]

You didn't miss much other than counting satelites at night and having long cold walks in the woods. They have been grazing sheep in the forrest where we hunt and they don't pull the sheep out until we are coming in to set up camp. The sheep drive the Elk and Deer out. The big game don't start to come back until we are getting ready to leave. This year we got totally skunked. Nobody got nuttin'. That is rare for us. We had to drop back to shooting grouse and fishing to get meat in camp. We weren't the only camp that got skunked either. What few animals that were there were hangin' out in the dark timber on steep slopes with a crap load of blow down. Very hard to get to. It kinda sucked. The camping is cool though and we had a big fish fry one night with battered and fryed grouse for an appitizer. We live like kings while we are there. Don't tell my girlfriend though. She thinks we are roughing it.

 

[M1075]

Got any more pics of the heater setup?

 

[jollyroger]

I can take some pics of the R2HeatYou unit if you like but it is the 35,000 BTU pot belly stove.....I can't remember the military designation for it. I will have to get out the manual. Then it has the liquid burner element installed. The thing works kick a**. I can burn wood or coal with the standard grate and any kind of liquid fuel with the liquid element. I will try and get the designations and pics for you guys.

 

[jollyroger]

It is a Heaters, Space: Radiant Type, Portable (Type I, Model M1941, Solid Fuel) FSN 4520-257-4877. I also bought the Type II liquid fuel element for it so it will do both solid and liquid if we have to. It came in the crate with the manual, heater body, grates, tools and stove pipe with spark arrestor. The only modification we made was to weld two tabs to both halves so we could bolt the bodies together. They just sit on top of each other right out of the crate. Our thinking was that if a big wind storm came up or a tree fell on the tent or a bear attacked the tent it is possible for the stove to tip over spilling the contents into the tent catching everything on fire. We thought that would be bad so we wanted more security with the heater.

 

[jollyroger]

The thumbnails saved as PDF's. Just realized I did that. Now they don't want to enlarge on the site. I will try and rescan and save them as Jpeg. Crap.

 

[atankersdad]

I want an invite for next year. I love to hunt, but suspect i would shoot more with my Nikon collection that with my Ruger #1 300 mag. That is beautiful country. I love your campsite. You have a good life.

 

[jollyroger]

Life is what you make it. It's not always milk and honey. There are always more valleys than peaks is the problem. We did a lot more picture taking than shooting. The bad thing is one of my friends got up close and personal with a bear and her cubs for about an hour and a half. The bad part is the batteries on the camera ran out before he could take pictures of the three bears. He was ANGRY when he got back to camp. Anyway. I would make invites however I am an invitee myself. We are hunting an area that my friends family has hunted for about 50 years. I manage to get invited because I have been paying my dues for sometime and I get the equipment that gets us in and out. Last year we trucked in with two Jeeps. My Waggy was loaded to the roof. My friends CJ-7.5 (stretched 7) was loaded with so much kit he took out the seats and still had stuff on top of the roll cage and a few atv's and some atv trailers. That convoy sucked. My alternator took a crap. Then we had trailers rolling over and breaking up. Then I almost burnt my Wag to the ground half way out to the highway cause the new alt went haywire and burnt up wiring in the truck. Had to get pulled down a one lane trail down 10-20% grades around switchbacks for 7 miles with no power brakes or steering. We got home and found That the spring perches on the CJ had punched through the axle tube. I had been looking for a deuce for a long time and that trip sealed the deal.

 

[50shooter]

That looks like one heck of a setup. To me that is the most fun part of the hunt anyway. Everytime you shoot somethin then you have to skin, gut, cut, bag, hang etc. etc. That takes so much time away from the fire pit, cigar smokin, beer drinking and b.s.

 

[jollyroger]

I hear you cluckin' on that one. The hard work starts after you get an animal down. We have to pack our meat out to the road on foot with frame packs. Depending on where we are it could be 2-3 miles out over tough terrain and through timber blowdown up and down big inclines at 11,000 ft +. We camp at 10,400. Elk quarters can be 100-150 lbs. per quarter. That's one quarter per frame pack. Then when we get back to town we gotta make the sausage. All told I enjoy the sense of accomplishment and the commrodery after you have the meat in camp and especially when you are eating the summer sausage all year. The whole huntin' camp experience is just a connection with our cave man instincts that are ingrained in our DNA. I think everyone should have to camp at least once in their lives and have to butcher an animal at least once in their lives. In my opinion we are getting too disconnected from subsitance living. Too many people just don't know or care where their food comes from. Like my Dad says there are a lot of people that think chickens come in parts and milk is from a carton and it's all made in the back of the store.

 

[scooter01922]

Amen brother, campin and huntin should be more mainstream. I don't think i could stay sane without frequent trips to the backcountry of maine for peace, quiet and solitude. Not to mention the drinking, bonfires and man time with the guys, no frilly coasters and NO BS. I don't always score a deer but i value my time in the woods with my bow more then a **** of a lot of modern convieniences.