We had been sitting on the hillside for over 9 hours. Daylight would be fading soon enough, and our hopes of seeing the bull this evening were fading even quicker. Cows began to feed out of the timber patch across the canyon. Eventually, the bull did as well.
I set up for the shot. It was a far shot, but one that I had thought about, planned for, rehearsed, and dry-fired all day. And the conditions were perfect.
My bullet found its mark, and I watched the bull drop through my rifle’s scope. By the time we dropped to the creek bottom and worked our way up the other side of the canyon to where the bull lay, there was just enough daylight to take a few photos and make the first cuts through hide before we used our headlamps to finish the job.
By the time we finished hanging the meat, we were tired, beyond dehydrated, and dropped back into the bottom of the canyon in a desperate attempt to find water. All we found was dust and dry rock. Now well into the night — or more accurately, the next morning — we stopped our search for water, dropped our packs, and threw our bivy sacks out in a game trail that meandered through the deadfall.
Mark's sleep setup from the night described above. Hear the whole story (and see Mark's full gear list) from that hunt
BIVY SACKS FOR BACKPACK HUNTING
We have been using bivy sacks for years now. And they have become our preferred shelter for most backpack hunts due to their simplicity and versatility.
In fair weather, we throw our bivy sacks out under the stars or tuck under the natural cover of a tree. In variable weather, we use a tarp or minimal tent over our bivy to help protect us from the elements. In more extreme cases, we use our bivy sacks inside the shell of our Hilleberg tents.
This article will touch on some of the things you should know about using a bivy for backpack hunting, but if you want to hear an in-depth discussion on the use of bivy sacks, be sure to listen to us discuss them in Episode 511 of The Hunt Backcountry Podcast…
HUNT STYLE
The use of a bivy is the ideal choice for backpack hunts where you are breaking camp every morning, hunting with all of your gear on your back, and setting camp wherever you find yourself at the end of the day’s hunt.
This style of hunting has no doubt made us more effective and allowed us to fill more tags than if we limited ourselves to hunting from a basecamp — whether that basecamp was at the road/trailhead, or even if you “backpacked in” and setup a backcountry basecamp that you hunted from and returned to each night.
The hunt style and the shelter style (use of a bivy) go hand-in-hand. With the freedom to go anywhere and not be contained to any camp spot, you also need the ability to set camp in any location. The minimal footprint of a bivy allows you to find (or create) a flat spot just big enough for you to lay in. And the simplicity of the setup means that you can quickly pitch camp in the dark and get to sleep after a long day moving through the mountains. Then, in the morning, packing up camp also becomes a quick and efficient process.
The freedom to truly roam and pursue game, without worry of “getting back to camp” is an incredible experience, which can also make you incredibly effective as a hunter.
Mark makes a quick camp under a tree on an October rifle elk hunt in Idaho
NOT ALL BIVY SACKS ARE CREATED EQUAL
The bivy sacks that we use are minimal, ultralight bivy sacks, which are not meant to be standalone shelters that protect you from the elements.
Mountaineering-style bivy sacks (such as the Outdoor Research Helium) or military-style bivy sacks are meant to be standalone options that can be fully enclosed and protect you from the elements. These types of bivy sacks will be heavier and bulkier, with reduced breathability and flexibility in their use case. They do offer more protection from the elements but still leave all of your gear fully exposed to those elements.
The ultralight bivy sacks that we use — the Katabatic Pinon and the Hyperlite Splash Bivy — offer a limited amount of standalone protection in the floor and lower side walls while maximizing breathability in the upper portion. As mentioned previously, these bivy sacks can be paired with a tarp or shelter to protect you and your gear in variable weather.
Mark uses the Enlightened Equipment Recon Bivy (no longer produced) on the 2022 Alaska Death Hike
BIVY + “TARP” SETUPS
When choosing a tarp or other shelter to add protection to your bivy, it is important to understand that there is an inverse relationship between the simplicity of the tarp’s design and the simplicity of the tarp’s setup.
A “flat tarp” — one that is simply a square or rectangle, with no other shape or structure — is an incredibly simple piece of equipment that can be used for a wide variety of shelter configurations. But the nearly limitless possibilities are why it can be inherently complex to set up. Only consider a flat tarp if you are willing to invest time into learning how to set it up in a variety of scenarios, with a variety of support and stake-out methods, and if you will consistently use it enough to remain familiar with it.
The next style of tarp would be something like the Solo Tarp or Twinn Tarp from Gossamer Gear, which are still minimal tarp-style shelters, but they have a predefined shape and setup method. There is some versatility in exactly how you pitch them and play with the angles, but there are intentions and limitations to how they are meant to be set up.
As you move up from here, you start getting into tarp-style shelters, such as the Hexamid Pocket Tarp from Zpacks, the Deschutes from Six Moon Designs, or the Argali Owyhee 1P Tent. In this category, you have a very defined and structured shelter with significantly more weather protection, a defined setup and structure, and some method of completely enclosing the shelter while using some sort of door or panel for entry and exit.
As we mentioned previously, the most secure and weatherproof option would be to use a double-wall tent with the inner removed, which we have done countless times with various models of Hilleberg tents.
Steve & Tyler use bivy sacks inside a Hilleberg Anjan shell on a Dall Sheep hunt in Alaska
WEIGHT, WHAT?
At this point, you might be wondering, “Why not just use a minimalist shelter? There are tents are just as light as a bivy + tarp/shelter combination.”
And you are right.
For example, Mark’s Katabatic Pinon Bivy with a Gossamer Gear Twinn Tarp weighs nearly the same as one of his favorite minimalist shelters, The One. (By the way, although we have mentioned Gossamer Gear a few times now, we have zero affiliation with them.)
As we discussed in the podcast, we originally used bivy and tarps as a way to save weight, but over the years, the ultralight shelters have become competitive and are now just as light. However, we continue to use bivy setups because of their simplicity, versatility, and the experience they provide. There are still times where we have slept in such small spaces with our bivy sacks that pitching even a small 1-person ultralight shelter would have been more difficult, requiring more time and effort.
Plus, we have come to love “sleeping under the stars” (or branches) when we can.
The view from Steve's bivy as he wakes up on his Frank Church sheep hunt
MORE BIVY QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
There are other aspects to using a bivy that we have not addressed in this article but did address in the podcast (above). On the podcast discussion, we cover condensation and moisture management, using a bivy in cold conditions, how to pack a bivy and sleep system in your pack, how to prepare a spot for your bivy, ways to stake out and suspend the bivy’s netting, and much more.