Leaving camp in co backcountry?

[Nathanj]

Just leave a note in your tent on your sleeping bag saying, "now the hunt begins! You have a 30 min head start!" Guarantee they won't be hanging around to pack anything off lol

 

[Botch]

I figured the places I get to, if someone is willing to go there they to are probably like me and wouldn’t touch a thing. And if they got there, and aren’t like me, I guess they worked the butt off for it and.....deserve...it

 

[beginnerhunter]

If you go in a few days early to scout, do you take your gun out with you while scouting? Or hide it at camp? I've never had anything stolen while car camping and really haven't considered it. Never done a backpack hunt but figured theft was less of a risk, not more.

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

I don't leave anything of value in my car or camp ever.

 

[RockinU]

Yeah, I don't leave my gun anywhere.

 

[beginnerhunter]

I don't think so, lots of people do it. I typically leave my tent set up and then stash the rest of my gear 50-100 yards away.

So your clothes, sleeping bag and pad? Do you put them in a dry bag and just hide them somewhere?

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

So your clothes, sleeping bag and pad? Do you put them in a dry bag and just hide them somewhere?

Depends, typically when I’m backpack hunting I just carry everything with me the whole time. But if I do leave stuff I keep the tent set up hang my food and then put my pad and bag in a dry bag and hang them separately.

Maybe I’m just paranoid, but I’ve avoided issues with people and bears so far. In AK I left all my stuff in the tent but there was 0 chance of other people around.

I would amend to say, more careful in CO less in WY and MT.

 

[matthewutech]

Hunted twice in Colorado and never had a problem. We always camped out of sight from a trail if we were near one

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

Ask @T Bone and @chasewild about their experiences.

CO goat scouting

This is shaping up to possibly be another early winter! I hope my September 20th start date on my hunt doesn't result in too much snow problems! Good luck man, ready to see some grip and grin pictures from up high on the mountain!

www.hunttalk.com

Swaro Stolen from Tent

July was an awesome month. Spent nearly every weekend scouting high country mulies and found my areas to focus on in August. Opener rolled around and I spent the first two days with my wife trying to get her her first elk with a stickbow. She walked out sunday and I stayed in to focus on...

www.rokslide.com

Frankly there are enough threads about trucks being broken into at trail-heads/camps robbed on this forum, rokslide, bowsite, monstermuleys, etc that there is no way you could convince me to leave my gear at camp in CO anymore.

 

[elkantlers]

we were hunting in Idaho back in 2004 and ran a cross a guy and his daughter that were on there way back to the trail head. They had packed a nice camp in with horses several days earlier consisting of a wall tent, stove, cots, sleeping bags and such. They returned the day before the hunt started to find everything gone. Now that really takes a low life to do that.

 

[Nick_CO]

we were hunting in Idaho back in 2004 and ran a cross a guy and his daughter that were on there way back to the trail head. They had packed a nice camp in with horses several days earlier consisting of a wall tent, stove, cots, sleeping bags and such. They returned the day before the hunt started to find everything gone. Now that really takes a low life to do that.

The lowlife that did that had horses then. Usually the horse packing folks are respectful so that is surprising.

Or. . .the father/daughter forgot where they put their camp. That wouldn't be unheard of.

 

[RobG]

we were hunting in Idaho back in 2004 and ran a cross a guy and his daughter that were on there way back to the trail head. They had packed a nice camp in with horses several days earlier consisting of a wall tent, stove, cots, sleeping bags and such. They returned the day before the hunt started to find everything gone. Now that really takes a low life to do that.

That happened to my dad and me many years ago in the Bob Marshall. Wall tent and everything. My dad suspected the forest service. I remember at that time there was a limit to how long you could keep a camp up, but we were within the limit.

Make sure you pick up your stuff, I've found several in the past. In fact, I found this the day before yesterday. It was all rotted so it had been there for years. I put it in a pile which probably was a mistake... oh well, maybe someone will find it in the fall and burn it.

 

[Nick_CO]

14 days is the amount of time that a person and/or their property can exist on Forest Service land before moving a minimum of 3 miles away to a different location within the same Ranger District for another 14 day stay. So even if a person puts up a camp and comes back a week later, their time in that location started the moment their personal property was placed there. That being said, the USFS would not remove that personal property after 14 days, even if it was unattended. I believe that they have a policy where they must wait 90 days before they can remove abandoned personal property.