What food do you take when you're going elk hunting for a week or more?

[WA Mtnhunter]

Forgot to mention the tag soup. Those plastic tags are pretty chewy. Better to parboil for a day or two... Don't ask me how I know that.

[Safado]

WAM wins the prize for best elk camp followed closely by jhjimbo!
DakotaMan,
Sorry to hear you had tag soup. Sounds like an adventure all the same.

[jhjimbo]

Gary, If you go like OH and have your phone you can always order a pizza.
Cold snap coming Sunday, should kick any deer into rut if they haven't been there yet. Gun season opens Dec 2 for 7 days.

[Greenhead]

That list sounds like they were doing a backpack trip. That is very similar to what I take on trips like that. Oatmeal for breakfast, granola bars and jerky for lunch, freeze dried dinners. Throw in a bunch of snickers and hard cheese and some extra ramen noodles and you are good to go.

[WA Mtnhunter]

"It was cold enough at night that we used more ice in beverages than keeping the foodies cold."

Most of the frozen stuff stayed frozen enough in ice chests with ice and had to be thawed before cooking. None of the refrigerated stuff spoiled at all. Ice chests parked in the shade by day.

[M.A.T]

I meant, I was wondering how you kept it from spoiling.

[WA Mtnhunter]

Forgot to add Brother Wayne's pancakes, French toast, and eggs cooked on a Coleman gas stove griddle and steaming pots of cowboy coffee to wake up to.

M.A.T. - How did we get it there? 2 Suburbans and a crew cab Chevy and kept outside in large coolers. No electric appliances. It was cold enough at night that we used more ice in beverages than keeping the foodies cold.

No beanie weenies for our camp....

Beekeeper is nominated as best elk hunt chef for his brisket and Texas short ribs, not to mention pulled pork butts. Mrs. Beekeeper has laid on good grub in past years, as well!

[jhjimbo]

One guy in the party is a cook so we eat like kings on a week trip. Ribs, steak, chops, sausage with peppers&onions, etc.
At another camp, first person that gets a deer donates it to the group and we cook it in a pig cooker. Everyone brings something so it is a group effort.
Single hunting for several days it's sausage meet including salami, pepperoni, venison, bologna, etc, a couple kinds of cheese and an MRE every other day. Venison chili first day or two. Daily snacks are reeses's cups, nuts, sausage sticks. Beverage is coffee, hot chocolate and tea. Some long necks and a brown bottle are available.

[Gary Devine]

I forgot one of our meals was hotdogs and beans.

I was like the movie scene of Blazing Saddles around the campfire.

[Gary Devine]

I going to follow Ontario Honker's Montana pheasant hunt and take nothing for an entire week.
Hey, I have my cell phone, I can eat snow all week or I can even crawl out to a ranch house if needed.
Just joking Honk!


M.A.T, I mostly hunt on guided hunts and they have a camp cook who takes care of the food.

One time six of us hunted elk in Colorado in tents including a kitchen tent with table and chairs. We broke up in two men teams every third day your team did the cooking and cleaning.
Food was eggs, bacon, bread, lunch meat, cheese, brownies, and six cheese crackers in a pack, small boxes of raisins, fig bars, candy bars, granola bars, pasta, hamburgers, beef stew, chicken, chili and small plastic juice containers.
I almost forgot the main item, alcohol liquid refreshments at night. LOL

[M.A.T]

WAM, how did you keep all that stuff?

[M.A.T]

I just read an article in a magazine about what these people eat on two week elk hunts, and they eat oatmeal, granola bars and instant coffee for breakfast, sandwiches made of bagels( bagels instead of bread because they said it's indestructable and has more carbs), granola bars, and raisins for lunch, and dehydrated meals(MREs) that you ad 2 cups of boiling water to for dinner.

[WA Mtnhunter]

Let's see, this year's menu entrees included:
Fried Wild Turkey (2x)
Steaks
Lasagna
Fried Gulf fish
Chicken tenders
Low Country Seafood Boil
Seasoned Pork Loin
...and all the fixin's including pecan pie and Miz Kathy's cakes and homemade bread.

[DakotaMan]

I forgot... I keep my pockets stuffed with Slim Jim type meat sticks and nibble all day as I sneak around he woods. My favorite is the ham sticks but I eat a lot of beer and deer sticks too. I like to bring things that can freeze solid for a week and be brought back to life inside my coat.

[DakotaMan]

I just did that and filled a giant cooler with snacks, food and water. The most popular was salami and Triskets. Sliced off pieces and ate them a lot. Various soups and small cans of sardines, tuna and chicken that could be carried in coat pockets were a favorite too. Full roasted chickens were popular too. They were pre-cooked and unfroze over the tent heater and tasted wonderful after a long day of sliding down canyons. I also ate more Snickers in a week than I have in my lifetime. They taste great on the trail and give you energy just about the time you are weak enough for wolf fodder. Bottled water was great too. I could transfer the frozen bottles to my coat or tent to thaw for fresh water all week even though the temp rarely got above freezing.

At the end of the hunt the epicurean delight was a half bottle of water boiled with $1200 of elk, deer and wolf tags. It wasn't very tasty but I knew I was dining in style to end the 10 days on the mountain.