Tent for deer season

[segsarge]

Started putting up the teepee tent yesterday evening. Should have begun earlier but the heat was horrible. Directions aren't real clear. Most of it is just common sense though. It's a two person job. This one has a vestabule on the front and we misplaced one of the pieces for it. We were looking for it with flashlights in the dark and finally gave up until daylight. Went out this morning and found it.
The ad says it's a 6-8 person tent, I think that's optimistic. It's plenty big enough inside for three, but not more than that. Like Krank said, there's lots of guys to be run on it. Comes with a rain fly attached on top so no water gets in, but still has ventilation. There are three clear windows with zippered mesh vent openings underneath them.
Need to go out and tighten everything up so I can let it air out for a couple of days. All in all, I think it will be a usable tent. Not as quick to put up as the Sears tent I used last year, but I like the fact it has the windows and there's more room.

[krank]

I always laugh at tent instructions that show a diagram of 6 people that are 4 foot tall packed in there like sardines.

Divide manufacturers claims X 2. A 4 man tent is right for two guys.

Unless its a quick overnight bivouac, a tent needs to be tall enough to stand in.

I like canvas because synthetic fabric will let a spark right through.

I just remembered I have a sheep herders tent too. White canvas that I had custom built by a Montana company. It is great but it has no ventilation except the flap door and it has a canvas floor so I never went for a woodstove.

The pyramid/cone design bucks the wind.

[krank]

For that last few years, I have been building tarp shelters with the Scouts.
A lot of backpackers are ditching their tents for a nylon fly.
Last winter I made a fully enclosed pyramid tent out of a 10 x 20 poly tarp. An eleven foot pole up the middle and ran the stove pipe out the door. Just an experiment and I left it up a couple days.

[segsarge]

The fabric on this teepee is plastic of course, lightweight but very thin. Feels like it would rip really easy, any kind of flame close to it would be a disaster.

[krank]

Rip stop nylon is great for backpacking but I like a heavy fabric for semi-permanent camping.
Sportsman Guide used to be a good company. They took back anything you were not happy with and issued a call tag. Now they take a hard line. I asked the guy how many people were on the phones and he said 50. Thats a lot.
What really pi$$ed me off was their buyers club. I called them and told them I didnt get my moneys worth in discounts and they said thats too bad and you had to cancel before the time was up. I explained to them that was not what the agreement said. Never got anywhere. Too big for their britches. I blocked their ads on my email.

[bigbob]

They have all kinds of neat stuff, and bought a bunch of it, but, when they just helped themselves to my CC account and renewed with out asking me, I was done with them.

[krank]

They renewed mine too and I lit them up. Sad because I found SG back in the 80's and bought a lot of mil-surp from them. I also nailed them for selling my address for junkmail and charging me insurance when UPS automatically provides $100.

[krank]

I was at the blackpowder range with Ray Waterwells and somehow another member mentioned he had a wall tent he didnt want.

He said it was 8 x 12 canvas and had a wood stove. I asked him how much and he said $300.

Ray said that he would give 300 for it and I told Ray to back off it was mine. Guy said he had a busy week and I said no hurry.

I guess the mice ate the manilla guy lines and one of the wooden poles were broke and the rain flap for the stove jack needed sewn on. I told him no biggie.

My wall tent now is 9 x 9 and WWII vintage with a small homemade wood stove so this will be a step up.

[segsarge]

I'll find out in about three weeks how this new tent does. One of the other guys from camp and I are splitting off to a new site and new hunting spots this year. It will be a two person camp. Went down there again today, no buck sign of any kind. No rubs or scrapes. Ground is super dry and I haven't seen this many acorns in years.

[segsarge]

Going to go with a Mr. Heater buddy heater inside the tent. Gas is just too expensive to run a generator for electric heat.

[krank]

I run a heater right before I go to bed. In the morning, I kick it on a go back to sleep for fifteen minutes. Get up and pull my trousers on and start coffee. Run out and take a dump. Come back for coffee. Sometimes that sequence gets mixed
up

[krank]

Generator is $2 an hour and propane is $3 an hour in little bottles. Difference is mr buddy is bed side and generator is outside at the end of a long cord. I got the mr buddy that runs on a big bottle and it is two years old and still going

[trapdog]

Oct 20, 2022 18:12:43 GMT -6 krank said:

I run a heater right before I go to bed. In the morning, I kick it on a go back to sleep for fifteen minutes. Get up and pull my trousers on and start coffee. Run out and take a dump. Come back for coffee. Sometimes that sequence gets mixed
up

Hopefully not mixed up enough that you take a dump before getting out of bed. 

[krank]

Thats what I mean. I have come close.

[segsarge]

I've got the 10 foot hose to connect to the bigger bottles. Going to put the bottle outside and heater inside.

[krank]

If you leave those rubber hoses hooked up with gas in them (extended time) it fills hose up with an oil. Darnedest thing I ever seen.

[krank]

I'm hosed. Last rain soaked the inside of my trailer. No clue how. Thought I would tarp it when I get to deer camp. Worked all day putting charged batteries and new gas bottles and caulking cracks and stocking drawers and shelfs. Hitched it up to the GMC which had a 4 wheeler in back. Noticed the post jack on tongue was almost touching the ground. Went to air up the tires that I bought new 12 years ago and noticed they are all checked with tiny cracks. Figured out that I have always had 15 x 255 tires and recently dropped down to 230x 15 so I lost an inch and a half of height. Too many strikes. I have the whole traveling circus loaded and I need to forget the whole thing and put it all away.
When I get everything put away then I need to load my truck with gear and hitch up the two wheel trailer with my side by side. I will take a cot and sleep in the kitchen of the cook shack. I will have to be the last to go to bed and the first to get up and move my bed everyday. It will be odd.
I dont need the stress of dragging a rig down the highway with tires that can fly apart with a hitch dangerously close to the ground with a trailer that will leak if it rains and soak my bed.

[segsarge]

Not sure what's going to happen with my deer camp. My hunting partner had to rush his daughter to the hospital last night. She has some sort of brain trama that is causing bleeding around her brain. Supposed to have surgery tomorrow. His deer season may be cancelled. I could go ahead and set up a camp by myself but not sure right now if I want to do that or just drive down each day and hunt.

[krank]

Now the guy that is supposed to cover for me at work the week I am gone tested positive for covid.

[segsarge]

Work is always getting in the way of my hunting/fishing and trapping.