Tent Setup for Hunting Season

[Olympus]

Hey everyone, looking for some opinions on a tent setup for deer season this fall. My property is only 25 miles from my house and the last few years I have just been driving back and forth each day and night. This year I’ve decided to just camp out and stay for 2-3 days at a time. The gravel road to get to my property is terrible and rough as a cob. I’d like to just set up a camp and leave it all setup for about a month. I would take home anything that has a potential of being stolen, but I don’t expect any problems.

Essentially what I’m deciding between is tent choices. Either way, I’m going to buy a cabin style tent where I can stand up inside. 10x10 minimum size. I will be camping by myself, but probably within the next 4 to 5 years, my son might start joining me. So here are my current thoughts:

Option 1 - buy an inexpensive “summer style” tent at Walmart for say $100-$150 and since those are not typically waterproof, also buying a 10x20 car canopy from Harbor Freight for $100 to put the tent under for guaranteed water protection and to also give me a covered area to do my cooking and sitting in case there is rain. So total setup cost of about $250.

Option 2 - buy a more expensive canvas “wall tent” for $250-$500 and have something that will last a good long while and also be waterproof and better withstand the elements. Then also buy the Harbor Freight canopy that I can use for a covered kitchen area and either set the canvas tent up under too or leave the tent out and use the extra room to park my ATV under.

My property is in southern Missouri and it’s a wide range of temps during deer season. Some years it’s hot enough to wear shorts during the day and other years it’s in the 20s overnight, rainy, and snowy.

 

[EddieWalker]

I've gone thought too many cheap tents to be able to recommend them to anybody else. I came back to camp one time and it was torn to shreds, so I slept in my Bronco the rest of the trip. One thing that I did that worked out really good was connecting two packing blankets together with clothes pins, and putting it over the top of the tent, and then putting the rain fly over the packing blankets. That little amount of insulation made a HUGE difference!!!

Friend of mine bought some land without a house or anything on it, so he built a wood deck and put a couple of canvas wall tents on the deck to stay in while he and his wife where there working on the place. They did this for well over a year.

I've been on several guided hunts where they used Cabela's canvas wall tents and they are very nice. Be sure to get the wood stove for it, they work great!!!

The problem with tents is they are so temporary. I really liked the wood deck to put the tent on. That was very nice. If you build the frame for the tent out of wood, and make it all permanent on a wood deck, then it should be simple to take down when you are not using it. Being able to store it out of the elements would allow it to last a very long time.

 

[Olympus]

Temporary is the key for me. I’m only going to be staying in it for about 10 days total a year. I’d like to leave the tent set up for about 3-4 weeks total and just go back and forth to use it. If it was a cheap Walmart tent, I would leave the big canopy set up and just take the tent itself down each time I left.

The platform idea is nice, but I have a nice flat level space for a tent now. The place Is camp used to have a house trailer but it’s long gone. I’ve got great parking, it’s close to the gravel road, and it’s nice and flat.

 

[skipperbrown]

I had a place years ago similar to yours. I built a 20x20 pole barn shed and permanently parked my popup camper under it. It was high enough that I could pop up the camper under the shed. The camper always stayed nice and dry and took up about half the room. The other half was used for a picnic table, living room/kitchen, and firewood storage. The shed was great during inclement weather which always seems to find you when you are camping. You could do something more modest and always have a dry place. Plus your tent, whatever type you decide on, will last much, much longer out of the weather.

 

[Olympus]

I don’t really have the funds to build any kind of permanent structure right now. Plus it’s just me, so I can’t hardly justify anything like that even if it was. My son is 3 years old right now, so if he decides to get interested in hunting later in the future then something like that may be an option. But I’d really like to get by for the next 3-4 years on something cheap and temporary until I can see whether it’s going to keep being just myself or whether my son will want to join me or not.

 

[TheMan419]

I usually think spend a bit more up front. Whatever it is will last longer and you will spend less in the long run. Having it under the HF car canopy will provide extra protection and like you said give you some extra space in rainy weather.

Just remember if you are using a wood burning stove or generator to make sure you have enough separation so you don't die of CO2 exposure.

 

[Einthewoods]

I have a cabelas Alaknak wall tent 12x12. I have used it in summer as well as full on winter in the rockies. I use a tent stove in it during the cold. The tent is great. Has lasted many winter hunting seasons without any trouble.

Of course, quality costs money and this is no exception.

 

[Groo]

A shed would be about the same cost as a wall tent, last longer, and be a better base-camp. Then you also have a place to grab a meal when you are out on your property throughout the year.

Our deer camp gets used more during the off season than during deer season. we've even started plowing to it in the winter.

It was built 50 years ago or more.

 

[Olympus]

I’m looking at spending $350-$500 total. Pretty sure I’m not gonna be able to build a pole barn for that much.

Walmart has an Ozark Trail canvas wall tent 10x12 for $280.

 

[Olympus]

I usually think spend a bit more up front. Whatever it is will last longer and you will spend less in the long run. Having it under the HF car canopy will provide extra protection and like you said give you some extra space in rainy weather.

Just remember if you are using a wood burning stove or generator to make sure you have enough separation so you don't die of CO2 exposure.

Don’t think I’ll need a generator for anything. I’ll have my truck that I can use to charge my cell phone. I don’t get any service where my camp would be anyway.

I planned on using a Mr. Heater Buddy propane heater inside the tent along with a battery powered carbon monoxide detector.