feederwatcher

Had my first elk hunt this past year and one of our biggest problems was keeping warm. We had two tents, one with propane heater and one with wood stove. The propane heater couldnt get enough air to burn very hot and the wood stove had to be rip snortin hot to draft enough, which made it too hot in that tent. Is there something else that burns better at altitude ? Like maybe coal............

Would welcome advice from some seasoned pros.............

txhunter58

Are you talking about keeping the tent warm during the night when you slept or just when you were in from hunting? I have never been lucky enough to hunt at 11,000 ft with heat of any kind in my tent, so unfortunately I can't help you unless you slept cold. While I have not slept in a heated tent, I have never slept cold, because I have made it a priority to have a quality sleeping bag. Usually take my 0 rated polarguard 3-D bag to that kind of altitude. I also sleep on a thermarest pad. Equally important for not sleeping cold. There is nothing more miserable than sleeping cold in the moutains. Been there, done that. Not sure I have helped. Hopefully someone else can.

huntinglife

I have used coal before in a wood stove before and it works great. If the stove does not leak smoke, coal is fine and will last through the night. If it is a smoky stove though, do not add the coal because the smoke is not really good for you! Also Coal is a pain in the butt to pack in unless you are using horses.

That being said.. Check out the stoves at:
http://cylinderstoves.com/catalog/stoves-c-21.html?gclid=CJeM-uDtnYoCFQQRgQodTh28fQ
and buy the best one you can get your hands on! Burn it really hot and then shut it down to Medium just as you get into bed and it should draft fine! I have never had much problem with these stoves. Buy the stove according to the size of your tent!

No matter what, every day you get the opportunity, run a pine bough through the pipe to clean it out and keep it soot free!

Good Luck.. Better to be too warm then too cold!

wyotimberghost

Sleeping pad and a good sleeping bag. I have a 0 degree North Face bag with a draft collar and Polarguard Delta that keeps me plenty warm.

feederwatcher

Thanks for the info, I didnt sleep cold but it was plenty cold in the mornings, the weather turned on us and it was about 17f one morning in the tent. The problem lies in that everything you own except what you slept in, or with, is frozen to the table (so to speak). I have looked at the therma rest pads but have yet to get one, I guess its time.

thanks for the info............

txhunter58

You will kick yourself for not getting a thermarest sooner. Not only does it keep you warmer, but you won't wake up with a stiff back. Also, I don't like to sleep in long johns (rubs my hair the wrong way)! But I do keep them and my first layer of clothes in my sleeping bag with me. That way when I wake up, I am putting on warm clothes. The only problem then, is your boots. Nothing quite like putting on cold boots. The best advice I can tell you there is to waterproof them as much as possible on the outside (snowseal). If they are wet, even just on the outside,it takes a lotlonger to warm them up.

RMA

My camp is at 9500 and we use a two burner propane without any problems. I don't even use a sleeping bag and get hot on most nights. The canvas tent I have is 16x20.

AmericanBwana

Huntinglife is on the right track.
I use a medium sized cylinder stove to heat my 14x16 tent. It's fairly easy to regulate the heat output by messing with the damper. This last year it was zero one morning outside, and nice and warm inside.

I've tried coal in the past but never was very satified. I could never get the danged thing hot enough. On the other hand, I can run you out of there if I'm using pine.

Pine burns for about 3 - 4 hours on a full stove, and will retain enough coals to fire start a fresh load of wood up for about another hour and a half. Not a problem since the call of nature usually gets me up anyway.

Plus there is a lot of standing dead trees available within a mile or two of camp. A single 1 hour run and I have enough wood for about 4 days.

Don't go with one of those cheap fold up stoves. You'll freeze.

Oh, and another side benefit. You don't need a gas stove to cook on. We cook everything on our wood stove. Eggs to steak.

AB

feederwatcher

thanksBwana, the problem we had was all related to elevation. We burned pine for a couple of days but if you didnt have the damper wide open the flame would die and within minutes you were choking in smoke.

I have read about the cylinder stoves and they may do a better job, even thought about bringing wood with me from home, seasoned oak, it doesnt seem to smoke as much as pine.

what elevation is your camp ?


hey txhunter, I can fully relate to the cold boots. I saw a new product from Peet, a boot drier that runs on small propane bottles. i will have one before I go back.

AmericanBwana

The camp I referred to was at 10,500 (up on the CO flattops).

Now I've also heard of people using Charcoal briquettes to heat their tent. I'm thinking of trying that next fall.

I used to buy hard wood in Denver then take it up, but have since stopped for the most part (may take enough wood for the first few hours, for some reason its either raining or snowing when setting camp up).

I've also used one of those Alaskan stove's from cabelas. Those are great if you want to warm up real quick, but just can't hold the heat.

My stove is probably on the small size for my tent during a winter hunt. I'd probably opt for the next larger size if I hunt 3rd or 4th season a lot.

AB