---
title: "Backcountry Gear: How to Adjust Your Hunting Pack"
description: "Correctly adjusting your pack takes four simple steps. Each are essential to the comfort and enjoyment of your trip, whether it’s to a stone-hut field station on a distant peak or the hoof-trampled meadows frequented by rutting elk."
date: "2015-07-30"
modified: "2015-07-30"
authors:
  - name: "Aram von Benedikt"
    job_title: "Writer"
    link: "https://www.outdoorlife.com/authors/aram-von-benedikt/"
url: "https://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/game-changers/backcountry-gear-how-adjust-your-hunting-pack/"
categories:
  - "Backcountry Hunting Gear"
  - "Gear"
  - "Hunting Gear"
---

# Backcountry Gear: How to Adjust Your Hunting Pack

![](<https://www.outdoorlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/23/ZQK6GNYAF5XPPHLOMEPP2HBV7E.png>)

Correctly adjusting your pack takes four simple steps. Each are essential to the comfort and enjoyment of your trip, whether it’s to a stone-hut field station on a distant peak or the hoof-trampled meadows frequented by rutting elk.

Here are the steps you need to take:

**1.** Remove panel or stay(s) from your internal-frame pack and adjust them to fit the contour of your back. Have a buddy help you and stand in a normal posture.

**2.** Adjust the distance between shoulder straps and hip belt. Shoulder straps should curve comfortably around your shoulders, hip belt should fit comfortably over your iliac crest (hip bone).

**3.** Buckle your chest strap, adjusting throughout the day for comfort.

**4.** Balance the load using your load distribution and load lifter straps.

## Author
Aram von Benedikt is one of *Outdoor Life’s* western writers. He has no formal credentials as a writer, only the authenticism born of a life spent in the backcountry and a library of 3,000 books. Writing for *Outdoor Life* came as an unexpected blessing, and he’s still mildly surprised every time he sees his name in print. He lives on a remote Arizona desert ranch with his lovely wife, a handful of half-wild kids, a dozen horses, half-a-thousand cows, a plethora of cactus, and the occasional, big desert muley.

### Author social links  
[Facebook](<https://www.facebook.com/aram.vonbenedikt>)  
[Instagram](<https://www.instagram.com/aram.vonbenedikt/?hl=en>)