Vacum Seal A Rifle

[Sourdough]

I carry a barrel in to the area where I like to hunt Caribou.  The area is off limits for motorized vehicles during hunting season.  I take a 55gal drum and load in a sleeping bag, two cases of MREs, a small tent, sleeping pads, three fresh sets of underwear and socks, raft, air pump, propane stove and bottles, ax, case of water, binoculars, rifle and ammo.  I take the rifle a Ruger M-77 and slip it into a vacuum sealer bag.  I use the long roll of bagging material that you cut to length.  Once I have the rifle inside I vacuum seal it.  Then I seal the ammo, and my underwear.  You would not believe how small a pair of bulky wool socks, shorts, and a tee shirt will get.  Then I seal them inside the drum.  In July I take the drum in by ATV and hide it in the area I want to camp in.  Some years I take the rifle, ammo, and a case of MREs and a case of water, up on the mountain and hide them way up there.  That way we don't have to carry them (heavy items) up the mountain on my back.  Then come hunting season we get flown in and dropped off at or near the camp site.  Airplanes are exempted and allowed in the Controlled Use Area.

By vacuum sealing the rifle and ammo, I can take them out of the drum and place them in a separate area, and not have to worry about it getting wet or dirty while hidden.

Once we are ready to go out, we stash everything except the gun, ammo, meat, raft, and pump.  We air up the raft load the meat and guns and float down the river to the trail outside the Controlled Use Area.  There we get picked up by friends and taken to the highway(36 miles).  Once snow falls and the restrictions are no longer in place we go in and remove our gear, and the drum, by snowmachine.

Oh yea, one other thing.  We are not going unarmed when the rifle is up on the mountain, and we are climbing the mountain.  I carry a S&W 460.

[Dixie Dude]

The drum is a great idea.  I have a vacuum sealer.  I have thought about 4" or 6" pvc to hide stuff at various locations.  I assume the drum has a sealable top to keep out water, etc.  A drum could actually be burried, probably upside down in a hillside to avoid water seaping in even if sealed.  Would make for a nice cache for any kind of goods.  Just seal up all the goods inside seperately.  However it would take some digging to bury a drum, or bury it in plain sight within a brush pile or something.  I also assume this is a plastic drum.  I know someone who took a 30 gal drum and some tricycle wheels and made a pull behind cart that had a long handle angled to attach to his belt or vest, he hands were free to use a weapon and he didn't have to carry this on his back.  He said he packed in the drum about 90 lbs of gear and food for a several day hike in the woods.  In it he had a tent, tarp, some food, ammo, fire starting stuff, fishing gear, water, a water purifier pump, sleeping bag, and first aid stuff.  He said only problem he had was to lift it over downed trees and stuff, but it wasn't too hard to get over stuff.  This was in the Austrailian outback. 

[SHOOTALL]

I once made a portable shower for a group that did a somewhat similar thing for Elk camp. They left it there year round.

[Shu]

I like the way you do things. Makes good sense. The thought of vaccuum sealing the rifle and ammunition is great. Vaccuum bagging the clothing you can really put alot in a small area.  Water proof and air tight should be good for along time.

[cwlongshot]

Taking the ''walk'' up there, UNARMED was my FIRST thought...     Good to hear of the S&W!

I have herd of the vac sealing rifles and ammo as well as britches. Bear proof 55Gal drums are something new.

CW

[bilmac]

Alaskans devise some of the most ingenious ways to bring home the meat. There was a bunch in the area where I lived that took a bulldozer to their campsite.

[Sourdough]

My drums are metal 55 gal.  The tops are held in place by a ring that clamps around it.  The ring is held in place by a 1/2" bolt and nut.  Takes two 3/4 wrenches to open it.  Yes we forgot the wrenches once, it can be opened with two Leathermen, but not an easy task.  Haven't forgotten the wrenches since.

[RevJim]

Great idea! Close as I've had to do something similar was back in the late 70's. My dad had a cabin on 1 acre, 10 miles back in Paper Company woods, which we leased for hunting season. The company was logging during the summer, and the road was really tore up. We caught a dry spell in the late summer, so my BIL took his 4WD in with hay, feed, can goods (we had a well for water) etc and stored in the camp, the feed in barrels ( to keep the rats out) and the hay up high. That November, we took our vacation for a week during deer season. We took his two horses in for the 10 mile trip/hunt and it took over half a day to get in! It had been raining by then ( SE Texas) and the road/surrounding woods was almost impassable. We had to bypass some stretches of the road that the dozers had drug the logging trucks through ( bog holes) and even the woods was rotten, but we got there. It rained everyday, was a bad year for hunting, but a grand adventure, ha. We had our share of "wrecks", miles from camp, but didn't break any bones. We covered several miles a day, tied up the horses and would still hunt areas, then ride to another. I was glad we had stored up the summer before...because we had no vehicles that would make that trip at all. A year and a half ago, I drove a rental car right up to the old cabin! They had drilled some wells in there and the oil companys had fixed the road, limestoned it, drove 45 mph! Times do change for some.