Cold weather Camping/ Hunting

[Ry151]

I'm looking for some insight from people with experience on camping overnight while out hunting. Here's my situation, I have a Bison draw for december and booked a cabin at Pink Mt ranch but now that they have jacked up their rates to almost double the original quote, I figure that I could buy a wall tent and a wood stove and camp even closer to the area the bison are in and still have money left over. How cold can a wall tent be used? Will i have to dig all the snow out before setting up the tent or will one with a floor take care of that? This will be my first hunt that is away from my truck and I want to have a good time and not worry about freezing to death. Or should i just suck it up and pay the price for the cabin?
Cheers
Update; ok, so I've ordered a 14x16 wall tent and now we need heat. From my research I've realized that propane is out. Are the diesel furnaces worth the cost or just get a wood stove and cut the wood? How many BTU's do ya think a guy needs for that size?

[ianwuzhere]

with a stove in a wall tent -20 isnt a problem. shovel the snow away and lay down some plywood or some sort of flooring. wall tents are great when you have a good wood stove!

[Whonnock Boy]

No problems if you have a good stove. Mine is rather large, but it is worth the weight. Minus 30 gaunch and t-shirt. The tent should last you a lifetime too!

Dig out the snow where the tent is going to sit. I have some quarter inch plywood and some outdoor carpet for the floor. We even pile the snow up on the walls of the tent to keep the drafts down.

[Foxton Gundogs]

yep what they said + a really good bag. My old Pioneer Artic down has treated me well to -40 keep your clothes dry a line by the stove is a must Sweat=DAMP=COLD

[Cordillera]

For really cold weather make sure you are insulated well from underneath. I use a down mat in cold weather and it works. It's also really comfy. For the wall tent any stove will run out of wood in the night. So plan to have a bag that can stand the cold or else you'll get cold and be up in the night relighting the fire. A good wall tent is truly awesome and once you have one you have lots of flexibility on where you go including fly in hunts.

[Chironomid_16]

http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showthread.php?44140-Bone-Chilling-Bison-Hunt&highlight=bone+chilling+bison

I was in the same predicament as you, I sucked it up and bought a wall tent. -40 was the coldest, best investment I have made for hunting.

[RoscoeP]

I like to have a cot with a piece of 4" foam on it and a warm bag of course. Cots are great because you can sit on them and put boots and other stuff under them. Have a great trip. Cheers Roscoe

[cameron0518]

not sure that is the best start to wall tenting it. if you are inexperienced, i do not recommend it. i love mine but not sure that is your best option. the floor will not melt all the snow and it will become icy underneath. Good luck on the trip. I look on my wall at my bison every day, a hunt worth doing.

[hunterdon]

Well, I'm originally from northern Ontario. It can get real cold there. The key to staying warm overnight is to have very good insulation below your bedding. What I do, is I bring a set of garden hand pruners which fit nicely in a large coat pocket. I'll take about an hour or so, and cut the tips (about a foot or so) off conifer tree branches. Fir, spruce, whatever. The idea is to lay the branches down forming a mattress with lots of cuttings (about a foot deep), on the ground where I will then lay down my sleeping bag over that.

You won't believe how warm that can be. The needles are hollow inside, trapping air, and the one foot think mattress keeps you off the ground, keeping you dry and warm. I have slept many times under the stars with nothing but this nature provided mattress and a good sleeping bag, and even in the winter, it kept me toasty warm all night. And yes, definitely dig the snow out before setting your tent.

[ultramafic]

I have stayed in a wall tent down to minus 20 in the past and it was no problemo while the fire was lit.. Minus 20 outside plus 30 inside. Very odd temperature change when you step outside to take a leak. I would suggest if your sleeping bag is not quite up to the task then grab another one and use both and double bag rather than blow a crap load of money on a new bag for the temps. I have done this and it works fine.

We did however find that firewood was a bit more difficult to find up there cause the trees dont get very big up there and finding the dead ones was a bit more difficult as they were fewer and farther between. There were enough to keep us warm but we had to travel a bit to find them. It was definitly not like the stands of beetle kill we were used to around PG..

Mike

[recoil]

Perhaps consider investing in a diesel heater as i will not go out in the middle of the night like a wood stove will, been there done that. Everything froze including all out water, beer and even the eggs for breakfast. If you do get a diesel one use plenty of anti-gel otherise your diesel will solidify and be useless if it gets much past -20.

Or if you are cheap like me just get one of those small travelers alarm clocks that run on AA batteries and wake up every couple hours to stoke up the fire.

[srupp]

hmmm if you need, I will loan you a Cabelas cot and the side organizer and a luxurious thick pad for the cot alll meant to go together .also have a setup of 2 sleeping bags..the big canvas woods style and then a second smaller slide in bag.

seeing as 60 % of ones heat is lost through your head I recomend a sleeping balaclava AND keep a complete set of longjohns ONLY FOR SLEEPING..nothing else.

do NOT USE PROPANE HEAT too moist makes things actually worse..imo.

If these can assist I will loan them to you for your hunt..

cheers

Steven

[The Hermit]

"This will be my first hunt that is away from my truck" Wall tents and frames are heavy and bulky... how far from the truck and what plans to get it there? Even with a quad carrying the longer poles would be a trick in the trees and cutting your own external frame would be a hassle in the winter. Don't get me wrong wall tents are the cats pj's but ya gotta think thinks through. Definitely take a cot, and buy a big cylinder stove too. www.vantagepoint-outfitters.com can hook you up with the tent and stove. We even sell insulated wall tents!!

[Moose Guide]

You can build a stove from a 10 gallon drum or buy a good sized hippie killer from home hardware(remember to put sand in the bottom of the stove).

[Ry151]

Thank you surpp for your offer but I may not be able to return it in the same condition so I will have to pass. Thank you so much for the offer.

[pete_k]

@Ry151.
What type of tent and heater did you go with? I'm interested to hear how it worked out for you.
Peter

[Sofa King]

Thank you surpp for your offer but I may not be able to return it in the same condition so I will have to pass. Thank you so much for the offer.

bedwetter? ha.

the good thing about going with the tent, you have something you'll use many times over from now on.
sure it's a little more work, but paying their inflated prices leaves you with nothing to show for it afterward.
and like someone else mentioned, pack snow around the bottoms of the walls from the outside, it will stop all the drafts.

[Ry151]

@Ry151.
What type of tent and heater did you go with? I'm interested to hear how it worked out for you.
Peter
I got a really good deal on a used Montana tent and bought a 26 or 28" air tight from home hardware and it worked great! We could wear t shirts inside with it being -25 outside. The stove lasted about 3 hours while sleeping. The only odd thing was the the stove would start rumbling and puff smoke out the air draft in the front at certain damper settings even though the chimney was set up as the stove manual suggests. Also we cut and split a truck load of wood in September when the weather was nice so we wouldn't have to while out on the trip and this was the best idea of the trip. Was the best hunting trip to date on my résumé

[Ry151]

bedwetter? ha.
Lol sometimes when I drink to much

[harbinger]

Make sure you get a big enough stove. We have the medium size cylinder stove in a non insulated 14x16 and it is not quite enough stove at -20. It works ok but you need to stay near the stove to really stay warm when it really gets cold out.

[marcus44]

If you don't have one already get a stove fan, they help move the warm air throughout the tent

[Jhors]

I have a 14 x 16 from Deluxe Wall tents. It is awesome and stays toasty warm with the wood stove. Usually have to get up once in the night to stoke the stove. With the stove working you can sleep in your underwear. You do want a cot and good insulation on the cot. I use a 4 inch foam and it is very comfortable as well as warm. I would use the tent anytime!

Regarding wood, we take along a few packs of Bioflame briquettes. (www.bioflame.ca (http://www.bioflame.ca)) These are compressed sawdust and really produce BTU. We use them for the first night before we have put in a wood supply and sometimes stoke the stove at night with them if we want to be really warm. They are around $10 for a pack of 16. Well worth it for the amount of heat!