Early field testing of gear essential for hunting success
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Perhaps as you are reading this, I’m out in the high country of east-central Washington state, living in a tent, cooking on white gas or propane, and (as Maxwell Smart would say) “Loving it!”
But for any successful hunting trek, one must be able to rely on the equipment one takes along, and that goes well beyond simply sighting in a rifle and putting grease, Snow Seal or Neatsfoot oil on your leather boots.
Two months ago, I took a whole weekend and drove more than 200 miles round trip for the purpose of actually testing some camp equipment in the very area where, right now, I’ll be relying on it to get me through an adventure in some pretty rugged country.
Before a hunt is the time to be doing a shakedown on your hunting gear, and not in the middle of the night when you need it to work or you go cold and hungry.
Along for the trek was my Wenger dome tent—which I’ve had for about three years but figured it prudent to try out since repairing a couple of the flex rods—and a pair of single-burner lightweight camp stoves from Brunton (2255 Brunton Court, Dept. GWK, Riverton, WY 82501; phone: 307-857-4700; on-line: brunton.com). I was particularly interested in making the stoves work at 5,500 feet, after having had them on an earlier trip but not having the opportunity to really test them out.
One is the All-Fuel Expedition model, a folding unit that operates on just about anything that burns—white gas, kerosene, diesel #1, gasoline and jet fuel, or a butane canister—and it weighs about one pound. It’s designed primarily for backpackers, but hunters can quickly fall in love with this unit.
The other stove is Brunton’s even smaller Raptor folding canister stove. This thing weighs 5 ounces, tucks into a little bag that has room for an Isobutane canister, fits into a backpack, and the burner screws onto the top of the canister, which becomes the stove base.
I found that my initial foray with the Vapor model using white gas last year was a disaster of my own making, because I didn’t follow procedure exactly. This year, using white gas instead of hooking the flexible fuel hose up to a butane canister, that baby worked like a champ.
What’s required to get this stove burning properly with the right fuel is a simple twist of the burner cup. Twist left for liquid fuel and right for Isobutane.
Nobody needs to be fiddling around with a stove after hunting hard all day long and being hungry for chow. The last thing anyone needs at that point is a stove that won’t fire up.
Typically, people crank up a good Coleman two-burner or they’ll have a bigger camp stove like Brunton’s husky suitcase-sized Wind River model. I happen to have both, and they do primary duty around my hunting camps.
The test of a stove is to see how well one can cook on it. What else is there? I had “invited a grouse to dinner” and after cutting up the bird and sprinkling the meat with seasoning salt, I popped the breast pieces and legs into a plastic Zip-Loc freezer bag, added a couple of tablespoons of flour and shook the bag until the grouse was fully covered.
Using a cast iron skillet, I first cooked up some bacon strips for the grease and to add a bit of flavor to the grouse. Satisfied that the pan was hot enough, in went the bird.
Now, this is important: Place a bacon strip on top of each grouse piece. It tends to help keep the meat moist. When you turn the grouse over, use a fork to flip the bacon strips up on top once again. Cook the grouse until golden brown, enjoy with some potatoes or beans, and it is a meal fit for the king of any hunting camp.
The Vapor model comes with a fuel canister that has a pump in the lid. Just pump this up 25 or more times to build pressure inside the canister, work the fuel valves, allow a tiny bit of white gas onto a little lighter pad under the burner, and torch that off after temporarily closing off the fuel valve. Once that has burned and heated up the burner, turn the fuel back on and fire that baby up. It roars to life with authority and it will get a pot of hot water for coffee, tea or cocoa boiling in just a few minutes. Best of all, the Vapor is very fuel efficient. I cooked dinner and breakfast on this unit and only burned about a cup of white gas.
The Raptor fires up so fast with that butane mix fuel that one could just about do it in his sleep. I was able to cook up bacon and eggs on this one in about 10 minutes while my coffee pot was bubbling away on the Vapor, and frankly I am impressed.
If you’re a backpack hunter, weight is a critical factor, and either one or both of these single burner stoves belongs in your gear.
A word about the Wind River model is in order. This thing is pretty rugged. It is almost a self-contained kitchen, because you can put stuff in the lid, such as utensils, spices and the like, and it all folds up and locks. It operates off smaller propane bottles or the larger tanks, and it will really take a lot without showing so much as a nick.
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