Do any of you guys live outta your truck with hounds?

[houndcrazy93]

Hey everyone was wondering if any of you guys live outta your truck or tents with your hounds. Cuz I'm think bout doing that till I got some money saved up for a house in the middle of nowhere to get away from dumb people ha. But was wondering if you guys have lived like that for a time with your hounds and would like to hear about it thanks

[mike martell]

Each Winter I live out of my truck traveling from location to location.....You can get by with reclining seats for several days.....Hound hunting is the ability to be mobile. What that means is no wall tents unless you want to hunt in a local area.....Huge base camps such as a wall tent or cabin makes your hunting very limited, I use a four man tent and a tarp, portable propane Mr. Buddy heater in the door way with the zipper door peeled back for air circulation with my sleeping bag and cot.....Hunt till you collapse in a coma and recline in your truck seat....Sleep when the weather is foul and hunt all day or night when good, repeat until you are sick of hounds and hunting and people start to look good....Been doing it like that for over 40 years....civilization is not all it is cracked up to be.....Life is short, hunt hard! I have a good friend who claims.....Dinty Moore has saved many a man....

[Big Horn Posse]

Easier for you west coast guys to live in a little tent or sleep in the cab of your truck than it is here in the Rockies. Gotta have real heat to survive. Wall tent is the way to go I say. That was my plan. My truck is still packed to the hilt with essentials incase I have to spend some time on the mountain sleeping in my truck. Good luck to you, but in my opinion I would get a good wall or all season tent so you will be way more comfortable than crammed up in the cab. A good sleep is always important when you can get it.

[Lookin' Up!]

It is not to bad. I lived out of my truck and small travel trailer for almost 8 years util I got married. The best way to do it is a travel trailer. If you have a dog box it takes up a lot of room in the bed of the truck, I like the trailer best because you just hook up and go. I dont know your forest service rules up there but down here in AZ you ave to move every 14 days. In the valley that I live in there are 2 national forests so I just moved from one to the other. You will be very surprised how much more you hunt when you have no TV. The hardest part is keeping water for you and the dogs. The reason I like the trailer better than the wall tent is a trailer has a refrigerator a heater a stove and oven a real bed place to store all of your gear. And also a generator to charge all of your collars. I have been mostly a almost year around guide for 15 years. I have lived most of my life in a camp since I have been out of high school so I know how to make it as easy as possible. If you got any more questions let me know I am sure I can help.

[Big Horn Posse]

Problem with camper trailers is they are more costly to run. Gas and propane for your tanks or generator can cost you. A good wall tent with a good wood stove is the way to go if you want to keep the cost down. Wood is always available and even if you dont have a saw you can pick up enough squaw wood to keep it going for awhile. To me that is th
e way to go.

[houndcrazy93]

Thanks for all the help guys it REALY helps me out. Now how did you guys keep your dogs I'm not to worried bout me just want the dogs to be confertible. Cuz I work 5-7 days a week right now. So I can't be with them all the time unless I bring them with in the box to work. So how do you all keep your dogs when you love like this

[mike martell]

Keep your dogs right in the box....If you hunt them like you should, you never have to worry much about keeping them emptied out.....They stay that way most of the time until you return home, when not on a cat they are in recovery mode......As for the wall tent or trailer it will keep you in one location....I hunt on the fly and might end up fifty miles from where I slept the night before.....Small tent is great for on the fly hunting....

Any misconcieved notion that Oregon is some tropical paradise with prime trailing conditions and never drops below 60 degrees is not what I referenced earlier....I sleep in snow country on the East side of the state, high desert around five thousand feet in elevation.... wish it would never snow so a guy could rig but just how it is....Generally conditions resemble those similar to Colorado, Wyoming, Montana etc....My largest carry is a five gallon propane tank and extra fuel so a guy can stay gone! Small toyotas etc. can pack a small tent and all other provisions easily...P.M. me your e-mail address houndcrazy93 and i will send you some pics of my spike camps....Wall tents suck too on the coast when the wind hits 60 m.p.h....

[Big Horn Posse]

stake em out under trees or near your truck so they can get under it in bad weather. You can keep them in the box too, but I prefer to stake them out cause it is easier to feed and they can poop. I NEVER would leave my dogs in camp if I go to town or somewhere. Not only do you have to worry about someone possibly taking them, but they are sitting ducks to predators. Alway take your dogs with you if you leave your camp!! I have a bucket rigged up in my dog box to give them water when they are in there so they always have some available as well. I don't know anything about Oregon wind, but I do know Wyoming is pretty friccan windy and lots of people use wall tents. Another great option is a teepee tent you don't even need to have a frame or a pole. Just hang it from a tree limb with a rope and instant spike camp. Some you can even put a little wood stove in. Do your homework and use whatever suits your needs. Remember you are going to be living there so you want to be happy and comfortable. Another option I just thought of that I did when my son was 3 and we were living rough on the mountain was I had a horse trailer I converted into a place to do all my cooking and washing up next to our tent. Only problem is when I had to take my horse somewhere I had to pack it up. There are always ways to make living on the mountain work for your needs. As soon as you figure out what those needs are then you can make it work. Good luck

[007pennpal]

I've tried a few different way of living out. I always had a home to return to though. I like a canopy on top of a dog box. If you build in a dog box with head holes about 8 inches high and then put the canopy on top of that, you can sleep on top of your dogs. They can rig out of the head holes or off the tail gate, also a front strike rack works well with this set up. I put a twin matress in there with sleeping bags. I've sleep in 17 degress that way with just a bag and blankets. Dogs provide some heat.

[pegleg]

I've tried most of them my favorite is a horse trailer with living quarters they tend to be tougher then a dedicated camper and have plenty of room the drawback is it takes a good truck to move one through our mtns if you get off pavement like I do take some blocks chains three good jacks and use your brain if your not moving every day this works best and there's small wood stoves that will fit in fine

[nait hadya]

i have done it for short stays during the season,9' camper complete with all the amenities. it was nice to wake up and go hunting without the two hour drive. had a few problems with the weather though,woke up one morning with frozen toes,had run out of propane during the night,frosty! with minus 25-30 temps it was still comfortable and the hounds slept on the lower bunk most nights. don't think i would like to do it long term though.

[VALERIE]

Oh my goodness, you guys sound like serious hunters. My husband used to hunt every night and leave me and the kids at home. We lived so far out in the sticks that I would sit in a corner with my back to the wall and hold my old 12 gauge in case somebody came around, cause he never got around to putting a door on our old barn of a house, or running water ...ahhh the good old days lol. Believe it or not I really do miss them.

[Big Horn Posse]

This last month or so I have been traveling long distances to a few of my hunting areas...... I decided that spending the night on the mountain in my truck is the way to get a couple days of hunting in and not paying all that money for gas to go back and forth. The problem I have is the Ford Ranger is a little cramped to sleep in, but with enough blankets and a sleeping bag I manage to stay pretty warm and can get a few winks in to be rested enough to hunt the next day.

[cougar2]

Nothing better than a sheep camp! just use your head on how to take care of dogs, depends on different times of year and weather conditions.

[Lil Joes BigGame hounds]

I have an 1975 18' camp trailer that I just recently bought and it works great. It sleeps 3 nicely and it is cheap to live in and easy to heat. The first couple weeks we would just leave the lantern on all night and it would keep the trailer comfortable till it would run out of propane. I bought a buddy heater and hooked it up to a big propane tank and it really works good. In fact if its not below 20 outside you will only want to run it on low. The lantern kept the camper warm on single digit nights. That's only 5 bucks a night (one pound propane canister)! with a smaller trailer it wouldnt take much at all to keep it heated.

I also have a generator to run electricity so I can charge my collars at night. Since you have electricity you might as well watch a movie! by the time you eat watch one movie your collars are charged and you are ready for bed by 8:30! Life is good and simple on the mountain. If you didnt have to charge these dang garmins all the time life would be even more simple.

Water is always a problem in the winter, but since where I hunt isn't that far from a town I feel up my 70 quart cooler on the back of my truck and just pull the plug to feel up 5 gal buckets. I just leave the buckets in the dog box all night so the dogs can drink when they want. It never freezes in the box no matter how cold it is outside. If its real cold just put the ice chest inside at night.

I let the dogs out as much possible to stretch and clean out and hunt. They dont mind this way of life at all and neither do I.