alright guys on today's field tips we're going to be taking a look at how
to set up an ultra lightweight tarp shelter two different ways for different
weather conditions
All lright guys so the tarp we're going to be using today is
the DST from seek outside. This tarp is a little over 9 by 9 so it's a fairly
sizable tarp but it only weighs a little over a pound and so it's light enough
you can carry this thing in your day pack while you're out hunting you know
just in case you get into some bad weather it's nice to have a place where
you can set this thing up and and get out of the weather so the the first
shelter configuration we're gonna set up is just a very very simple and quick
diamond fly this is probably the most common way to set up a tarp shelter
because of that because it's quick it's easy and it's actually it's very
effective and there's a ton of room inside this thing so on one of the
corners I've got a piece of paracord I'm just going to take this run it up to a
stob on this tree give myself a couple of a couple of feet of space there and
then I'm just going to tie, doesn't matter what kind of knot you tie. I'm
gonna tie up tight line hitch which I've shown how to tie in another video I
actually did another video with this same tarp showing how I use it as a
hammock shelter I think I covered this knot in there. but if you just Google
tight line hitch it's an adjustable knot
works kind of like a prusik. alright so now that I've got that done when I come
to the opposite corner come right down here stretch it out and stake this one
down. so now we've got this thing stretched pretty tight again find the
corner make sure this edge is tight
stake that one down do the same thing here just making sure that everything is
tight. now all you really need is three stakes but I've got extras and extra
stakes never hurt so I'm gonna go ahead and just throw in an extra right here in
the center now you could leave it like this but if you got any rain that
thing's gonna sag pretty bad and so what it's best to do is take a stick or a
trekking pole works really well if you're using a stick taking an old sock
or t-shirt or something and just stick over the top of this thing so that if
there's a there's actually a reinforcing patch in the middle of this tarp which
you can put your stick up in but if this thing slid off of that if you were
rolling around at night slid off of that and you didn't have your stick padded
you know you could tear a hole in this tarp so it's always best to be safe
so you can see how much space is in here this thing is great for just a
minimalist shelter you know if the weather is fairly good you know it'll
stand up to some rain and and a little bit of wind but you don't want to
probably be staying in something like this if it's gonna be foul weather so
that's it I mean I set this thing up in under two minutes probably there's a ton
of room in this in this thing you could easily sleep two guys in here with a
bunch of gear and have plenty of place you know to have to be cooking or you
know doing whatever you needed to be doing so the next shelter we're gonna
look at is my favorite for when the weather turns south this is going to be
a fully enclosed very well protected shelter and all you need for it is just
a flat tarp like this so the way that this tarp is made is it's got these ties
all around the side and so what we need to do is find one of the corners and
come into the very next tie this is going to be the back of the tent so
whichever way the winds blowing this is the way you want this facing so again
grab the corner come in one tie and we're going to stake this to the ground
come over find the next same same thing on the opposite side so here's the
corner here's the next tie stake this out make sure this is tight doesn't have
to be super tight but fairly tight stake that down now we're going to go to the
front edge and do the same thing
corner next one back now the critical part about this is what we're trying to
get is if we tuck in this corner here we've got this loose corner we're just
going to throw that up underneath there this line that we created back here and
this one needs to form about a 90 degree angle again pull it tight stake it down
now we're gonna do the same thing over here find the corner come one back put
that extra underneath there and bring it in until we've got about a 90 and so if
we form a 90 back here the distance between that stake in that stake is
going to be approximately equal to the distance between this stake in that
stake all right so this is the footprint of this tent we've got probably 7 feet
from here to there and approximately 5 feet wide so it doesn't take a huge area
to set this kind of tent up all right so now what we need to do is just stand our
tent up and to do that I'm just going to use a couple of sticks that I've cut and
I'm going to take a little piece of paracord I'm going to tie these together
up here at the top so about 6 feet or so up
you could tie this off to a tree like we did with the diamond fly but in the
absence of a tree a couple of sticks work it work out really good all right
so now just to make this easy I'm going to take this little loop here just put
right over there so now we've got this thing pretty much stood up now we can
take these and close the tin off so I'm just going to take a steak stake this
about right there in line with in line with the other side and now this one
steaks right there and that completely closes this tin off
so this ten to be perfectly fine like this but if you get some heavy rain
probably gonna sag a little bit especially here on the sides and so what
I like to do is take a stick and just prop up the center
don't forget your stop there's so much room in here I mean you could sleep two
guys in here if you were real comfortable whether you're hunting buddy
but there's certainly plenty of room for one guy and a ton of gear in here even
if you had two guys in this thing you could put your gear up here in the front
maybe a little back here in the back and still have plenty of room I've always
been a minimalist I just don't like to carry a bunch of stuff with me and when
I can I like for the stuff that I do carry with me to serve multiple
functions and I don't think that you can get any more versatile in a shelter than
a tarp just the number of different situations where these things come in
handy the different ways that you can set them up they're extremely extremely
useful and they wait nothing all right guys well there you go there's two
different configurations of the tarp for different weather conditions so if you
had the diamond fly for you know light rain heavy dew sunshade things like that
and then we've got the fully enclosed tarp tent like you see right here that's
going to be useful for more inclement weather maybe you've got bugs or
something like that something that requires a little bit more protection
from the elements I can't tell you how many nights I've spent under a tarp I
don't I do a lot of backcountry hunting out west where you're miles and miles
from the nearest road and I don't even own a backpacking tent this is what I
use all the time just because of the versatility of these things I mean
you've got a very small taste right here of how these tents or how these tarps
can be used they're lightweight they're relatively inexpensive and they're
versatile and that's what I love about them