Your backpack is one of the three most important pieces of gear you’ll bring into the backcountry. Number one is your body, number two is your weapon, and number three is your backpack.
Outside of those three, you can cut corners, stay on a budget, and buy mediocre gear. But your backpack is a buy-once, cry-once item, and it deserves real investment.
If you don’t know how to pack a hunting backpack properly, or if it doesn’t fit you well, you’re setting yourself up for a miserable trip. Here’s what I’ve learned about packing smart and protecting your back over years of backcountry hunting.
How to Distribute Weight in Your Hunting Backpack
Loading a backpack incorrectly can wreck your back before you ever spot an animal.
Heavy gear goes closest to your thoracic spine. Your hydration bladder, cookware, food, and heavy camping supplies belong in the middle of the backpack, right against your back. This keeps the weight centered over your hips, where your body can handle it.
Lightweight gear goes away from your T-spine but still in the middle. Lightweight clothing, towels, or a camp pillow fill the space further from your back.
Frequently accessed items go on top. Your lid is prime real estate for snacks, calls, rangefinders, and other items you need to grab quickly throughout the day.
Medium-weight gear goes in the bottom. Your sleeping pad and sleeping bag typically live here.
Pack weight distribution matters, and you can find good diagrams online if you want a visual. But the principle is simple: heavy and close, light and far, accessible on top.
Before You Pack a Hunting Backpack, Get the Right Fit
Backpack fit is based on torso length, not height.
Everybody’s got different lengths of femurs and torsos. Someone short could have a really long torso and need a longer backpack. Someone really tall could have a short torso and need a shorter one.
Backpack companies have gotten better at explaining how to measure your torso and which size you need, so take the time to figure that out before you buy. Proper fit is the first step in learning how to distribute weight in a backpack correctly.
A good hunting backpack needs:
- A solid frame that lets you hike into spike camp and haul meat back to the truck when you’re fortunate enough to harvest an animal
- A removable bag system so you can move the bag away from the frame and put heavy meat right up against it
- A proper hip belt that fits around your hips, so your lower back isn’t taking the brunt of the work
- Appropriately sized shoulder straps (many companies now offer short, medium, and large options)
- A load shelf system where the meat sits against the frame
- Load lifters to manipulate how tight that load is to you for comfort
Essential Backpack Hunting Gear: Trekking Poles
I use trekking poles way more than you’d expect.
Even when I’m actively hunting, I have one trekking pole in hand because it sustains me throughout the hunt. When you get an animal on the ground and start hauling meat back to the truck, using trekking poles is like having four-wheel drive versus two-wheel drive.
You’ll fall less with trekking poles. Falling injuries typically don’t happen when you’re hiking up. They happen when you’re hiking down, when you slip or twist.
Injuries occur when you’re decelerating or falling. Trekking poles decrease your injury potential, which means you’re hunting instead of getting helicoptered out. They belong on any backpack hunting gear checklist.
Backpack Hunting Gear Worth the Extra Ounces
A lot of hunters forget essential items. Here’s what I never leave behind:
A rain jacket. You don’t want to be in the high country, above timberline, when those afternoon thunder boomers roll through. They come like clockwork in places like Colorado, and they’re long enough to get you soaked to the bone.
If you can throw a rain jacket on and get under a tree for an hour, you’re still hunting when conditions turn phenomenal afterward. Without one, you’re retreating to camp, wet and done for the day.
A puffy jacket. If you run cold like I do, always keep a puffy in your pack. Even if you’re hiking and sweating, when you stop to glass, you can get cold fast.
A good synthetic puffy helps dry out your base layers while you’re sitting still. Moisture management is crucial, and people overlook it when they think about hunting gear organization.
Gaiters. You’d be surprised how often I wear these, even when it’s not raining. Morning dew can soak your feet, and if you have any foot issues, wet socks make discomfort worse. In the Southwest, gaiters also protect against cacti and other prickly plants that want to stab you.
A beanie. I got this tip from U.S. Special Ops trainer John Barklow years ago: sleep with a beanie on. It keeps the heat in. If you run cold, do what you can to stay warm in the backcountry.
How to Pack a Hunting Backpack for Packing Out Meat
When you’ve got an animal on the ground, your priorities change. Knowing how to pack a hunting backpack for the hike in is one skill, but packing out meat requires a different approach.
First, break out those trekking poles. You need every advantage when you’re hauling a heavy load downhill.
Second, make sure you have a backup headlamp. A lot of harvests happen in the evening, and by the time you recover the animal, it’s dark.
Get a headlamp that has a lock feature so it can’t accidentally turn on at the bottom of your pack and drain the battery. Then, bring a second one. Two is one when it comes to headlamps, because you don’t want to be caught processing an elk by the light of your cell phone that’s already at 20%.
Hunting Gear Organization: The Line Between Prepared and Overpacked
It’s better to have and not need than to need and not have. But you can also pack too much. I did it this year.
Good hunting gear organization starts with understanding what you actually need. Get a gear list from a mentor or someone who’s been in the game. This list will tell you which items need redundancies and which items can serve multiple purposes.
I have a little backcountry tripod I can use for self-timer photos, a spotting scope, or an action camera. Multi-use items like that are gold.
Be thoughtful with your gear. Understand that some items need backups while others can be cut to save weight. Learn to categorize each item as a luxury, a nice-to-have, or a must.
Test Your Backpack Hunting Gear Before Opening Day
Never use gear for the first time on a hunt.
Go camping or backpacking in the summer without your bow or rifle. Test your backpack hunting gear, and learn where each item goes and how it works. Even veteran hunters fail to get familiar with how new equipment works and how it differs from old models.
Complete your dress rehearsal in the summer. When opening day comes, you won’t need to waste time figuring out your pack. You’ll just get out there and start hunting.
by Dan Staton, Elk Hunter, Fitness Fanatic, and Family Man
