Packing Methods: Backpacks, Horses, Llamas, and More for Backcountry Hunting

Aug 2, 2019

SHOW NOTES:

• The older you get, the less you like to carry—yet the more you appreciate remote backcountry. 

— Condors & lead bullet correlation update: The science behind it. Please listen to Randy Newberg's Episode No. 87 of Hunt Talk Radio. Here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzBbxm2cFhw

BACKPACKS vs. PACK ANIMALS

1. Backpacking favors daily adaptability. Live out of your pack. Hunt extreme terrain where horses can’t go.
2. Pack animals favor major shifts in location, and eliminates restrictions on how deep you can hunt for big-bodied game.
3. Both methods have advantages and limitations

Limitations: 

• How deep can you hunt? How much food and gear can you carry in? How much meat can you carry out?

• Heat and distance: meat's primary enemies when backpacking

• Maintaining and caring for pack animals while hunting

• Weight and distance are limited when backpacking, particularly when hunting big-bodied animals such as elk.

• On-the-fly adaptability is limited when horse packing.

Advantages: 

• Backpacking enables extreme simplicity & flexibility.

• Pack animals enable you to transport meat much more easily.

• Pack animals allow a more comfortable camp, better food, and longer stays in the backcountry. 

Types of backpack:

• External frame packs and their pros & cons

• Internal frame packs and their pros & cons

• Hybrid crossover packs--and why they're a bad idea

Types of pack animal and the advantages and disadvantages of each: 

• Horses: Strong, friendly, capable. The quintessential pack animal. Need lots of care. Expensive. Potentially dangerous. 

• Mules: Just like horses, but different. 

• Burros: There's a reason prospectors and expectant mothers love them. 

• Llamas: Sinister-looking but oh so capable. 

• Goats: Yes, really.