BowCast Blog

My goal in this blog is to help you learn the ropes of backcountry hunting. Whether you are a seasoned veteran or have never spent the night out in the wilderness, I think there will be something for everyone. I invite your questions, comments and critiques. The first several entries I plan on covering gear choices in greater detail than I was able to cover on the podcast. After that I’ll go into some specifics about mule deer hunting in the alpine. As I get input and feedback, the blogs will likely take off on other tangents of the readers’ interests.

Through the years I’ve spent in the mountains, I’ve had more than one fellow bowhunter comment that I put in way more effort trying to fill my tags than I need to. I the west can be hunted without the burden of a backpack, but that is one of the things that appeals to me. My first bivouac trip was a solo venture when I was 17 years old. Since that time I’ve spent the majority of my hunting seasons well off the beaten path. I love getting to hang around a campfire in the evenings with a couple of buddies, swapping old stories, but even more anticipated is throwing a pack load of gear on my back and leaving base camp for a few days. Maybe I was born a couple of centuries too late, but I love the feeling of being the first person to glass a big canyon or distant ridge (even if it is just for that season). Often times I leave base camp with a specific destination in mind, only to get lured further and further. Having a bivy camp on my back gives me the freedom of wandering further and longer without having to worry about what I’m going to eat or where I am going to sleep. It gets me further into the backcountry, farther away from other hunter pressure, provides me the flexibility to be able to move if I encounter hunter pressure and allows me to hunt undisturbed animals. The “work” part of carrying my pack all day has become just another part of the hunt; I don’t think of it as an anchor, rather a liberating piece of equipment. It gives me great satisfaction knowing I’m carrying all I need to survive for up to a week at a time.

While I’ve used bivouac hunting mostly in my pursuit of mule deer, there is hardly an animal better suited for it than elk. For starters, most of the time you don’t need a spotting scope for elk. That’ll shave off 3-8 pounds off of your pack weight when you add in the tripod. Because elk are gregarious and wander over large areas, it is often necessary to cover large tracts of country in order to get into elk. Enter the bivy hunter. If you locate a herd of elk at last light, far from your base camp, you’ll be in good position for a morning hunt without the commute. Sleeping on the mountain will save you a lot of energy from commuting to and from base camp. Longer nights in the sleeping bag translate into a fresher, sharper hunter.

Start thinking about how bivouac hunting could fit into your hunts this fall. Like Aneal pointed out during the bivy podcast, it isn’t just a tactic for western animals. For me, it goes beyond just being a more effective way to hunt. It is a closer connection to the past; less reliance on the civilized world. Distractions from nature, the very reason we spend our time outdoors, are minimized. No radios drowning out the sounds of the night or campers insulating us from the unknown. It adds another element to the hunt, another part to plan, execute and perfect. Now when I go on a hunt where I am not living out of my sleeping bag, I feel like I there is something missing.

The subject for my next blog will cover sleeping bags and pads. What to look for and some of different options out on the market. I hope you’ll check back in a couple of weeks for the next entry.

south@eastmans.com