Recommend a Shelter/Tarp/Tent

[Kdkehoe]

Hypothetical type question.

If someone had $400 and told you to buy a tarp shelter, tent or tipi/pyramid shelter what would you buy and why? Or for the money would you recommend hammock and fly/shelter?

Specifics: Elk hunting early to mid season. Weather lows of 20 high of 80 possible. Potential rain and snow. Purpose is for bivy backcountry hunting.  Stove or no stove isn?t, doesn?t matter.  Fits 2 guys and packs.

Already have bags, pads and trekking poles.

 

[Elk Noob]

If you want it to fit 2 guys a hammock is out. I don?t like hammocks anyway. They are comfortable and light, but you need a pad, under quilt and overquiot to get the same warmth as you would with a bag/pad/tent setup. That and the lack of a vestibule on bad weather days kills it for me.

I use a Lightheart gear double tent. It weighs less than 2lbs and has a ton of space for a super light tent. I use it with my wife and our lab during the summer and use my solong 6 when I go solo.

 

[sn.outdoors]

Unless you're hunting in a milder climate like NM/AZ, I wouldn't recommend a hammock setup. They are extremely comfortable and warm with a good underquilt, but in order to guarantee warmth, the weight advantage to a hammock setup starts to go away. The only way to have the warmth without the weight is by using down insulation, which I wouldn't recommend if you're going to be experiencing temps that go back and forth from freezing to above freezing temps. (i.e. cold and wet, but not cold enough to be dry)


As far as shelters go, thinking back on the several hundred day's I've spent in the field over the years, I might only have a dozen days in a conventional tent. Otherwise, I've almost exclusively used tarps of some kind. They're light, pack down to nothing, and though they're not as "tough" as high end tents, they're plenty adequate.


I've used everything from a simple military poncho, to high-dollar cuben fiber tarps, as well as heated tarp shelters like the kifaru supertarp.


If a stove is not a priority I recommend something like the Warbonnet Outdoors Ground Tarp https://www.warbonnetoutdoors.com/product/gt-ground-tarp/ or if you want a nearly indestructible tarp go with the hilleberg tarp 10 XP http://us.hilleberg.com/EN/shelters/tarp/

If you might go with a stove later, you can't go wrong with a Kifaru SuperTarp https://store.kifaru.net/supertarp-p84.aspx
or a Seek Outside Cimarron https://seekoutside.com/cimarron/


Price becomes a bit of an issue once you consider adding a stove, which is why I generally recommend just a regular tarp.