New hunting pack! Killik 2800

[Libby85]

I made my first big hunting-gear purchase for myself after two years of hunting with hand me down and gifted gear (which I have really appreciated!) and got the Killik 2800 pack from Sportsman's Warehouse. Who can resist a good sale right?! It's very adjustable and was comfortable to pack a significant weight around the store to test it out. After watching review videos online it seems like I'm only going to be limited by what I can physically carry, there is certainly room and to spare and an individual pocket for everything I could possibly want to carry, plus meat. I like that the hip belt fit comfortably and kept the weight of the pack from pressing into my tailbone, which I noticed was an issue with some of the non-ladies-specific packs that I tried. And it is set up to carry a rifle or a bow, so hopefully that will get some use if I get to bow hunt this fall.
Five weeks til antelope hunting!! I'm looking forward to trying this out.

 

[Libby85]

I went with the mystery ranch pintler pack and love it. Great comfort and quiet

 

[WesternWyoming]

I'm so impressed right now, I'm exactly half your age and I hope I am as brave as you are when I get there!! I hunt about 50/50 solo and with my family, but it would be fun to have another woman to hunt with. No one has ever given me any trouble about it while I've been out and about.
Keep us posted about how your hunt goes! I'm excited for you to get to do this!!

Rose, Thank you for the boost! I'm happy to have inspired you, as I would like to see more women in the backcountry having the time of their lives. Once the initial fear goes away, it's exhilarating to be reliant on only your own strength and intuition. Do it! See you in the mountains.

 

[IDFireLass]

270Rose, did you get anything this season?

I did get a nice buck, but the first day of the elk hunt I fell coming off the mountain and face planted. Other half said I looked like a tree I teetered and tottered then slowly went over. Hit the new shoulder and felt a good sting. Then 2 days later stepped/tripped over the dog and face planted into the floor in the house. Other half had went elk hunting. By the time he got home I could barely move my arm/shoulder. Long story short this is the last day of the hunt and I didn't get to hunt the rest of the season. Seen my doctor yesterday to make sure I didn't screw up the 80k new shoulder. He feels I've bruised strained and maybe even tore either the scar tissue or a muscle. It will be months before it's all good again. Going back into physical therapy next week. We'll see how next year goes.

Hope everyone had a great hunting season. It's snowing and cold here fighting deer in the yard eating all my berry plants

 

[270.Rose]

270Rose, did you get anything this season?

I did get a nice buck, but the first day of the elk hunt I fell coming off the mountain and face planted. Other half said I looked like a tree I teetered and tottered then slowly went over. Hit the new shoulder and felt a good sting. Then 2 days later stepped/tripped over the dog and face planted into the floor in the house. Other half had went elk hunting. By the time he got home I could barely move my arm/shoulder. Long story short this is the last day of the hunt and I didn't get to hunt the rest of the season. Seen my doctor yesterday to make sure I didn't screw up the 80k new shoulder. He feels I've bruised strained and maybe even tore either the scar tissue or a muscle. It will be months before it's all good again. Going back into physical therapy next week. We'll see how next year goes.

Hope everyone had a great hunting season. It's snowing and cold here fighting deer in the yard eating all my berry plants

I'm so sorry to hear about your shoulder! Hoping and praying that you get a really good recovery over the winter and are able to be back out in the field next fall. That's great that you were able to get a buck before your reinjury!
I am happy with my season, I got a nice antelope buck and a mule deer buck. The muley has been a goal for a while but just hadn't worked out til this year. It was a family hunt and the kids helped pack it out so a great time was had by all.

 

[IDFireLass]

Been back into Physical Therapy for a month now. The shoulder is coming along slowly. The small tear is slowly healing. Don't have much strength for lifting straight up yet which is okay keeps me from doing something stupid.
Washed windows a couple days ago and the muscles told me I did too much too soon. Should be good to go by fall. Haven't decided if I'm going to go back into elk hunting or not. It's a lot of tough work and don't know if the body will handle it. Will see if I can steady down the shoulder to shoot at 400 to 500 yards. If I can't probably won't do the elk anymore.

 

[270.Rose]

Been back into Physical Therapy for a month now. The shoulder is coming along slowly. The small tear is slowly healing. Don't have much strength for lifting straight up yet which is okay keeps me from doing something stupid.
Washed windows a couple days ago and the muscles told me I did too much too soon. Should be good to go by fall. Haven't decided if I'm going to go back into elk hunting or not. It's a lot of tough work and don't know if the body will handle it. Will see if I can steady down the shoulder to shoot at 400 to 500 yards. If I can't probably won't do the elk anymore.

I'm glad you're able to make progress with your shoulder! Hopefully it is fully healed by fall and you can hunt elk.

 

[WesternWyoming]

Been back into Physical Therapy for a month now. The shoulder is coming along slowly. The small tear is slowly healing. Don't have much strength for lifting straight up yet which is okay keeps me from doing something stupid.
Washed windows a couple days ago and the muscles told me I did too much too soon. Should be good to go by fall. Haven't decided if I'm going to go back into elk hunting or not. It's a lot of tough work and don't know if the body will handle it. Will see if I can steady down the shoulder to shoot at 400 to 500 yards. If I can't probably won't do the elk anymore.

Bummer FireLass! Keep up that PT; it will be your friend forever. If you want to come over to Wyo. just to help me pack out, you're welcome! Ha! If I ever get an elk.

 

[IDFireLass]

WesternWyoming or visa versa here in central Idaho.
How's it going this morning? Looked at the webcams for Wyoming yesterday and it wasn't pretty or nice looking over there. Looked like about every road was closed.
Stay warm and safe until this is over. Glad I don't own a lot of cows in Wyoming right now.
This could be another winter like the "Winter of 49". Don't think so but that was quite a documentary we watched the other day about it.

 

[WesternWyoming]

WesternWyoming or visa versa here in central Idaho.
How's it going this morning? Looked at the webcams for Wyoming yesterday and it wasn't pretty or nice looking over there. Looked like about every road was closed.
Stay warm and safe until this is over. Glad I don't own a lot of cows in Wyoming right now.
This could be another winter like the "Winter of 49". Don't think so but that was quite a documentary we watched the other day about it.

Thank you FireLass! We're good here, as long as the fire wood holds out. Was -31 this morning and we have about 2' of snow. I love it! Kills the pine beetles and makes for great XC skiing. I don't go far from home on days like this.
So, I'm guessing you fought fires, eh? Me too, from about '81 - '89. Lots of good memories and some not so good.

 

[IDFireLass]

Mostly a fire lookout, with some wild land fire fighting 40 years worth. Enough to know being a lookout and telling people where and how to get there was better than being on the ground and dirty.
-22 here this morning and about 8" or so snow on the ground. Think we got up to 6 or so today.
32* is going to feel awful warm after this.

 

[WesternWyoming]

Mostly a fire lookout, with some wild land fire fighting 40 years worth. Enough to know being a lookout and telling people where and how to get there was better than being on the ground and dirty.
-22 here this morning and about 8" or so snow on the ground. Think we got up to 6 or so today.
32* is going to feel awful warm after this.

Nice! What an awesome job. I kinda liked fire fighting, the comradery and the challenges. Getting a direct hit on the head from a helicopter's bucket full of water; hiking through the dark trying to find the fire line after a full day on trail crew, things like that are what I remember. On one Initial Attack that we hiked into, we didn't get food delivered for 3 days. The Helitack guys flew in a whole ham and all the fixins for us! '88 was a blast: 5 fires all in one stint. Sleeping in an LDS church in Idaho. I also remember finally getting over it all and just wanting to go back to trail inventory. Fun stuff.

 

[IDFireLass]

The money is good but you earn it. You get addicted to the fire call just like the old fire horses did.
Good times for all.
Froze up the water yesterday morning. Going to call in someone today and see what can be done. I feel like I'm back on the lookout hauling water. Just wish we had the outhouse would be a lot simpler.
Will have to dig out the shower bag for tonight. At least we know how to survive this way. LOL

 

[270.Rose]

My husband went out to start his truck and let it warm up before leaving for work this morning and came back in saying "you know you've lived in cold climates for a long time when you step out the door and think 'oh that's nice and warm' and then you see that the temperature on the thermometer is 9 degrees."
I'm glad we made it above 0 again!

 

[WesternWyoming]

The money is good but you earn it. You get addicted to the fire call just like the old fire horses did.
Good times for all.
Froze up the water yesterday morning. Going to call in someone today and see what can be done. I feel like I'm back on the lookout hauling water. Just wish we had the outhouse would be a lot simpler.
Will have to dig out the shower bag for tonight. At least we know how to survive this way. LOL

Yes, those young bucks I worked with just couldn't wait to go on a fire! They didn't like being bossed around by a woman though. Ha! They learned quick enough.
Too bad about your water. So far only our outside faucets are frozen, but the winter's not done with us yet! We keep the home fires burning.
I used to live in a one-room log cabin with two wood-burning stoves, and we did the same thing with the sun shower hanging over a horse trough. We had a solar-powered outhouse which was quite a shock on the hiney first thing in the morning.
I agree, it's good to be learned in self-reliance; makes you strong in heart and mind.

 

[IDFireLass]

It's a GREAT DAY!!! We have RUNNING WATER and sunshine that hit the well house at the foundation and 80 degrees inside the well house. There is nothing better in this world than HOT RUNNING WATER!!! We think we figure out the problem will have it fixed in the spring when it melts and thaws the ground. This well and well house was put in many years ago by other people so it's been a learning experience on how and what and where. One thing is they didn't bury the line from the well to well house deep enough. It should have been 6' down not 4.5' down.

 

[IDFireLass]

Looks like Idaho Fish and Game has made up my mind. They changed the cow hunt we've been doing from 2500 tags to 500 tags. It'll be a better more quiet hunt but getting a tag will be a free for all now. So won't be doing any elk hunting other than depredation hunts now.
They met their objective of getting the herd down to manageable goal. It took about 9 years to do it.
There is still a lot of changes to several hunts in the area.
It was a good learning experience doing this hunt.
Learned a new area and found some great rocks. So no big loss can still go hunt rocks.