Tent Talk

In the end you can probably get a motel room near your hunt unit for not a lot of $ which will allow you both to sleep better and ultimately have a better hunt. There is really no need to sleep in the field for antelope hunting unless you just prefer it. Then you don't have a truck full of camping crap to deal with loading, setting up, cooking, etc and can just focus on hunting and having fun.

Depending on how far you are traveling it might cost more in fuel to bring a trailer than a motel. Same with buying tents and other gear. Even food is hard to really save much money on compared to just going out to eat for a few days. And no dishes to do, cleanup, propane stoves, coolers are available for meat, etc..

I guess is just matters how you want to spend your time and money. You can spend it buying tents, food, and other gear which adds up, cooking meals, setting up camp, dealing with wind, etc.. Spend it on fuel pulling a trailer/gear and time cooking, hanging out at camp, etc. Spend it on a motel and a few restaurants, sleep good, travel light and focus on hunting with more of your time.

I disagree with PrarieHunter on the expenses. I say the little items add up. We hunted WY pronghorn last year for something like $12 plus gas and tags. Camped and had frozen meals from home.

Consider this option: store your extra gear in the wind resistant 2 man tent and sleep in the back of the truck.

This thread has been cracking me up... you would think with all the wind talk you were asking about camping on Adak. I have hunted Wyoming and eastern Montana for last 5 years and the wind has never been an issue, maybe I'm just hunting totally different units than the rest of you guys... (67, 25, 23, 113). Definitely had snow, driving rain, sleet, and 50+ mph wind, but also a lot of really nice weather especially during early Oct. I have a couple of good tents but for WY I always bring my bring my big cosco tent 8 man?? Last couple times my wife has come up and we brought our queen size air mattress from our guest bed room and set it up inside. Also given the nature of pronghorn hunting I just bring the corolla and save on the gas costs, I have yet to hunt pronghorn anywhere that I wasn't 100% certain I would be fine with a sedan.

As long as you pick a reasonable campsite that has a decent natural wind break (in the lee of a small hill or something) just about any tent will work just fine. Also $50 gets you way farther at the grocery store than at a restaurant.

I used to think that way as well, then I did the math.

A good example would be lunch. If I go buy a loaf of bread for $2, pound of lunch meat for $6, pack of cheese for $4, squeeze pack of miracle whip for $3 I am at $15 and that does not include any costs for ice to keep it cold, paper towels, taking up space for beer in cooler, etc...

So buying my own sandwiches will cost $15 over a 3 day period. I might have leftovers when I come come but often the bread ends up smashed, meat is gone, and I might get a couple dollars of miracle whip and cheese slices to eat back at home. So at best I come out at $13 and worst at $15, and the sandwiches made on my tailgate are not as good.

Or you can go to subway and get a foot long sub each day ($5 each) for $15. Much better sandwich will all the toppings, no mess to clean up, no cooler space used up, etc... Drop a deuce in their b-room, take a quick sink shower, and get back to hunting.

So maybe in a large group you might be able to save a little bit of $ making your own sandwiches over a 2-3 day period but in many cases it costs about the same and can be more convenient to just let someone else make sandwiches and bring your own drinks, chips, snacks to save some money. At least that is how it works out for me on 2-3 day antelope hunts where saving literally 2-3 dollars by making my own sandwiches is not worth the hassle or mess.


Another example is pulling a trailer. Say you are driving up from Dallas to Lusk WY to hunt antelope. 1,000 miles. Pickup gets 17 MPG on the highway but with the trailer that drops to 11. Without trailer you have just shy of 60 gallon of fuel needed each way for a total of 120. Pulling the trailer that adds up to 90 gallons each way for a total of 180. 60 gallons of fuel will run you about $200. And that's if you have no issues with the trailer like a tire, bearing, or getting stuck.

So you can spend $200 more in fuel and hope nothing else goes wrong, or just get a motel for 3 nights, which also costs about $200 and you will be more comfortable, sleep better, bathroom, etc... Again no real savings to be found when you look at the math IMO and if something goes wrong then it ends up costing much more to pull a trailer. That is the "headache" the OP was referring to wanting to avoid.

We definitely have different shopping habits lol but regardless the major factor in buying food for me is lost time. I have never hunted near a subway... the hunting spot I'm going to this year in WY is 45 miles from a gas station down a really bad road, takes about 90min. Staying in a hotel would add an extra 3 hours of drive time and not packing all my own food would add another 3 so that's 6 hours spent in the car instead of hunting/sleeping/ hanging out in the woods. I spend my life in traffic in Denver so no thank you. I think 1hr- 90 min is a pretty average time from trail head to services for most of my hunt spots, there are a couple that are closer... for elk and deer I back pack in, you literally couldn't access those spots and stay in a hotel.

Motels are great if there is one close, some areas will not have one close.
Better to be prepared than think it won't happen to me.
Maybe consider renting a camper when you get up here, Casper or Denver suburbs will have lots of spots to rent a trailer for a hunt.

wllm1313 said:

We definitely have different shopping habits lol but regardless the major factor in buying food for me is lost time. I have never hunted near a subway... the hunting spot I'm going to this year in WY is 45 miles from a gas station down a really bad road, takes about 90min. Staying in a hotel would add an extra 3 hours of drive time and not packing all my own food would add another 3 so that's 6 hours spent in the car instead of hunting/sleeping/ hanging out in the woods. I spend my life in traffic in Denver so no thank you. I think 1hr- 90 min is a pretty average time from trail head to services for most of my hunt spots, there are a couple that are closer... for elk and deer I back pack in, you literally couldn't access those spots and stay in a hotel.

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It always comes down to math, some are better than others at it, lol.

Shopping Habits??? Many of us eat sandwiches for lunch when hunting antelope. Out of curiosity what do folks like you who have different shopping habits eat when hunting antelope?

Never hunted near a subway?? LOL. Major street cred! Wow that's impressive considering they are all over the state even in most small town gas stations. Good for you, I guess, but so you were aware subway was just an example. You can fill in any other place that has a cheeseburger, sandwich, pizza, etc for lunch and there are plenty in Eastern Wyoming. I am not sure you can even get 90 minutes from a subway from most antelope units in Eastern Wyoming as most have one in the unit.

Did you miss the part about hunting in Eastern Wyoming? This is not a 90 minutes to a gas station type of hunt, thus your example makes no sense in this situation. Between Torrington, Lusk, Douglas, Newcastle, Gillette, Wheatland, Glendo, Sundance, etc there are many choices for gas, food, and lodging.

As far as moving around the unit I prefer to look over a lot of country when antelope hunting. If I get hungry I pick a route where I can look over more bucks on the drive. How do you hunt antelope in Eastern Wyoming?

It sounds like you are taking what works for a Western Wyoming deer/elk hunt and trying to apply it do an Eastern Wyoming antelope hunt which is a completely different situation. My guess is you have not done much antelope hunting as everything seems to be in reference to hunting one trailhead which is not how we hunt antelope in Eastern Wyoming. I have not hunted any "trail heads" when chasing antelope in Eastern Wyoming nor have I ever had to "back pack in" which you also referenced. The public is spread out so you have to move. If you find a big piece you can go for a hike but most of those only last a couple hours as you can look over most of those areas in a few mile walk. There is no reason to hunt the same area day after day unless you find the buck you are looking for so after the first hour everything within miles of camp has been looked over, thus you will have to drive to look over new country anyway.

But is does crack me up to hear your thoughts on how to hunt antelope in Eastern Wyoming. I just hope these guys can tell the difference in who has done this before and who hasn't. In the end none of what you said makes any sense for an antelope hunt in Eastern Wyoming.

Yikes man... pump the brakes:W:

I just meant that I tend to go the dirt bag route and do pbandj and maybe a power bar from Costco. Also I’m definitely not an expert I have 5 trips under my belt and I started hunting in my late 20s. I have been building points so I have been hunting 25,23 and 113 so I can get a point and still hunt every year. The unit I hunted the last two years has pretty limited access so I have to hike in hence trail head. You can definitely road hunt these units as well but the public sections accessible by road can be a bit spread out and like I said I would prefer to walk around than drive, I just sit in a car enough that that’s not the way I want to spend my time hunting. The 90 min example is my spot in 23, closest town is kaycee. I also am totally fine with just harvesting does, I’m sure you have harvested a ton of big bucks I have one decent one. There isn’t a right or wrong way to do it, we clearly just do it differently.

PrairieHunter said:

It always comes down to math, some are better than others at it, lol.

Shopping Habits??? Many of us eat sandwiches for lunch when hunting antelope. Out of curiosity what do folks like you who have different shopping habits eat when hunting antelope?

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No offense man and thanks for the input...BUT...you must have a completely different view of camping/motel life than I do if you think it's cheaper to eat out three meals a day, haul a trailer 1200 miles and stay in a motel for a week vs camping.

Since you asked...and though I've never been antelope hunting, I have spent my fair share of time in the wilderness...for lunch I'll eat jerky, dried deer and sausage that I killed and made with some cheese and crackers so maybe $10 for two people, for the week. Breakfast is free farm fresh eggs from the coup that have been hard boiled and more free sausage so breakfast is free. Dinner would be frozen precooked meals (spaghetti, burritos, stroganoff, etc) that I can make for less than $5 a piece. So realistically I'll have around $60 in food for the week, for two people. No way could I come close to that eating out every meal for a week.

It's all perspective.

llewellinsetter said:

No offense man and thanks for the input...BUT...you must have a completely different view of camping/motel life than I do if you think it's cheaper to eat out three meals a day, haul a trailer 1200 miles and stay in a motel for a week vs camping.

Since you asked...and though I've never been antelope hunting, I have spent my fair share of time in the wilderness...for lunch I'll eat jerky, dried deer and sausage that I killed and made with some cheese and crackers so maybe $10 for two people, for the week. Breakfast is free farm fresh eggs from the coup that have been hard boiled and more free sausage so breakfast is free. Dinner would be frozen precooked meals (spaghetti, burritos, stroganoff, etc) that I can make for less than $5 a piece. So realistically I'll have around $60 in food for the week, for two people. No way could I come close to that eating out every meal for a week.

It's all perspective.

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No offense taken, you are a serious penny pincer, impressive no doubt. I didn't necessarily say it's cheaper overall but in the end for my style of hunting it does not save enough $ to justify all the time spent doing the tasks associated with camping and I would rather drink beer than do dishes, cook, or setup a camp on what will end up being a 2 day hunt most likely. I am amazed that you can feed 2 people for a week on only $60. I spend more than that eating at home so yes you and I certainly have a different view of hunting/camping/eating. Heck every time I make jerky or sausage it costs money just like every time I stop for fuel on a hunting trip I end up with $5 worth of junk or ice cream if there is a DQ.

I will think about you next time I buy a couple cases of beer for a hunting trip, I'll think that guy on HT could feed himself and his wife for a week for what this costs. LOL.

For me it's math and simply does not add up by the time I figure actual costs for meals but to each their own. I am truly impressed with your frugalness. Best of luck on your hunt.

Eric.MN said:

What Cush said. I have the same set up, durable, easy, plenty of room for two and not to bad on cost.

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I'd give my $0.02 for the Kodiak tent as well. I have been using the same tent for 15 years and have used it on WY hunts that had some 'Wyoming Breeze', a bit of rain, and some snow. It is very stable, very waterproof, and is really nice for two hunters with cots, a table, a small propane heater, and gear.