BowCast Blog

   Adding extra weight to your pack is something we all try to avoid.  If a piece of equipment can be omitted from your pack and it doesn't effect the outcome of your hunt, then it takes a pretty strong argument to carry the extra weight.  For some, the stove is one of those items.  Many make the argument that they'd rather just eat MRE's andditch the stove.  While I'd agree that we're hardly out there trying to have a resort experience, keeping your body fueled is a very crucial part to your success in the field.  I've written more in depth about the weight trade-off for MRE's vs. freeze dried in past issues of Eastmans', and Cam Hanes included a couple of those pieces in his book Backcountry Bowhunting.  The jist of it is, you can carry heavier food (MRE's), or carry a stove and lighter freeze dried food and oatmeal.  If you have ever lived off of MRE's for a week, you'll certainly feel for our troops.  While some of them aren't bad at all, the diet gets old pretty quickly.  A hot meal from the wide variety of freeze dried meals available, plus the bonus of coffee or hot chocolate in the morning pretty well seals the deal for most of us backcountry hunters. 

   Stoves can be broken down by fuel types.  I've used many of them out there and in doing so have found one that works best for my uses.  When looking at stoves there are several different things to consider; burn time-how long you can cook before needing to refuel, boil time-typically measured by how long it takes to boil a liter of 70 degree water, and stove efficiency-how much water can be boiled per 100 grams of fuel. 

White gas and multi-fuel stoves

   For the bulk of the time I have bivouac hunted, this is the fuel I have used.  I started out with a MSR Whisperlite and used it until they introduced the International; basically the same stove, but capable of using a variety of different liquid fuels you might encounter when traveling in a foreign country.  The versatility of this stove actually saved my butt on a trip into Wyoming a number of years ago.  My partner and I were meeting the packer at a little gas station in some ghost town in western Wyoming.  As we were going over my check list, I realized I hadn't purchased fuel for my stove after my plane flight out.  No one sold white gas.  I could feel my stomach hit the ground, then I remembered I'd upgraded my stove to a multi-fuel.  "Watch this", I told my buddy as I walked towards the gas pump.  As I reached for the lever, this hot looking country girl pulled up on the other side of the pump.  I stared into my pint sized fuel bottle, slowly filling it.  As the level neared the top, I lifted the bottle above the pump and commented "$.30 for a full tank, now that is what I'm talking about!"   She laughed, and I walked away thinking I should ditch my buddy and hunt the lower country.

   While I'd never have been so lucky with replacing any other type of stove fuel in a situation like that, I've since retired that stove for a couple of reasons I'll lay out.  First, the upsides of the gas stoves.   Fuel is cheap and it burns hot, giving relatively short boil times.  The downsides are most require priming, which can be messing in a couple of ways.  As the priming fuel is burned, it tends to soot up the burner.  When putting the stove away, it is difficult to keep from getting the black stuff everywhere.  Spilled fuel is quite an offensive odor and no matter how careful I was, I always seemed to get it on my the MSR Simmerlite which solved that problem, but the others were still enough of a negative to keep me looking for something else.

Butane/Porpane/and Isobutane

   My first backpacking stove was actually a canister fuel.  I'd have probably stuck with that one, but it was old school and once the canister was punctured, it couldn't be resealed.  Also, boil times were long with that stove as the design left a lot to be desired.  When MSR introduced the Pocket Rocket, I picked one up and was glad to be rid of my white gas.  Burn times for the PR were almost identical to the Whisperlite at about 4 minutes to boil a liter.  The resealable fuel bottle was convenient and compact.  The stove itself was smaller than a pack of cigarettes.  I used this one for several years, until Jet Boil introduced their line.  The Jet Boil is actually a cooking system as the stove threads onto an insulated cup.  Their "Fluxring" directs the heat from the burner into the bottom of the cup, minimizing heat loss around the sides.  This gives improved boil times while cutting fuel consumption in half.  I used this stove with one small fuel bottle for an 8 day bivouac trip.  Each night it boiled water for a freeze dried and in the morning, water for oatmeal and hot chocolate.  At only 15 ounces without fuel, the stove more than made up for its weight when comparing it to MRE's.  The Jet Boil is dedicated to boiling water, the provided cup is not really suitable for cooking.   It has just a 2 cup capacity (just what is required for a freeze dried meal), so if you are cooking for a group, you'll want to upgrade to their Group Cooking System stove.  The smaller will boil your 2 cups of water in under 3 minutes, while the Group System boil time is stretched out to over 7 minutes. 

Alcohol stoves

   For the ultra, ultra light freaks, it is tough to beat the alcohol stoves.  My personal experience with these are limited, but they are light.  Several are only just over an ounce without fuel.  The reason I haven't played with these much is long boil times.  Most are over 10 minutes.  When I roll into camp, I'm usually half starved and you know what they say about watched pots....

   Until they come out with a new and better mouse trap, the Jet Boil will be my companion.  If you are going to be cooking something besides just boiling water, look at the Pocket Rocket.

  If you are getting ready to buy a water filter, WAIT!  I saw a couple of new ones at the Outdoor Retailers Show that will be released soon and you'll want to them add to your pack. I'll cover those in the next blog in a couple of weeks.  Until then, keep the input coming.  If you have any specific questions I didn't cover, fire away.  I'll do my best to get them answered.

   Also, look in the current issue of EBJ for my Nevada Double.  Two tags, two great bucks!

South