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A hunter's essential: modern camp stoves

Guns Magazine, Oct, 2003 by Carolee Anita Boyles

We've all seen the ads. You know, the ones where the camper is sitting with a look of absolute bliss on his face, sipping his freshly-brewed morning coffee. Or finishing his evening meal next to a bubbling stream. And he did it all on an open campfire. Advertising executives come up with these scenes to conjure nostalgia for camping trips where you cooked your meals over an open fire. But nostalgia and reality are two entirely different things.

"The reality of campfire cooking is that it takes an enormous amount of time and patience to do it properly," says Dr. Paul Kolask, an emergency room physician in St. Petersburg Florida, who's also an avid camper and kayaker.

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Think about it: the last time you tried to build a campfire from scratch, how long did it take you? You had to gather wood, get some kindling started, then add small sticks and finally put on larger ones. The time it takes build a campfire correctly, without any accelerant that can transfer residues to food, and then wait for it to develop into a deep bed of coals for proper cooking takes about 90 minutes, Do it a few times and you can understand why the western chuck wagon went on ahead of the drovers to begin cooking the midday meal only a couple of hours "after breakfast.

And what do you get out of it? A meal that takes three times longer than normal to prepare and always seems to have the taste of ashes in every bite.

For all these reasons, and a few dozen more, we're grateful for the virtues of the portable camp stove. From small single-burner backpack cooking units to multiple fuel source stoves and smokers, they all make our outdoor experiences easier and more fun. After all, an hour after trudging into camp from a day of chasing elk, would you rather still be playing with the fire or eating a hot, hearty meal'? Who wants to spend hours getting a fire ready for cooking, when what we really want to be doing is sitting in front of the fire and enjoying it!

We'll look at two main types of camp stoves. The first variety is the large, usually two-burner stove that works so well in camp for our heavy cooking chores. But another worthwhile piece of kit is the small, minimum-bulk stove of the type backpackers usually employ. This latter type makes a good back up to your big stove, but its primary virtue is for hike-in spike camps or as an emergency stove to keep in your daypack when hunting in winter conditions.

Tabletop Stoves

Most campers who use a cook stove aren't hardcore backpackers or climbers. They're hunters, anglers or family campers using tents, motor homes or recreational vehicles. So they have room for a larger tabletop stove, of which there are many on the market. Let's look at just a couple:

Coleman two-burner fuel stove, model No. 414-700

Remember that old green Coleman two-burner stove your parents had when you were a kid? It's still around, albeit in updated form. The biggest surprise is that although today's version still burns Coleman fuel, it also handles unleaded gas. This means that no matter where you are, you have a fuel source for the stove.

This two-burner stove is typical of what most of us fondly remember from Coleman. The main burner can produce 13,500 BTUs, and the smaller auxiliary burner generates 11,000 BTUs. The fuel reservoir holds slightly less than a half gallon of fuel, and will power the stove for about two hours on high or a little more than eight hours on low. When I timed how long it took to boil a quart of water, the stove lived up to Coleman's claim that it will do so in a little more than three minutes. After my initial disquiet about lighting a match anywhere around unleaded gas, I must admit I developed a liking for the stove's ability to use alternate fuels; it makes it far more versatile than other camp stoves.

The one downside to this stove was that I found it a little difficult to clean, particularly between the burners and the side panels, which is characteristic of the stove historically. Like its predecessors, the two-burner stove folds down to a compact 17x24x8 inches. It's a nice, fuel-friendly camp stove for traditionalists who want a two-burner camp stove.

MSRP: $108.

Coleman propane grill stove with electronic ignition, model No. 9921-750

Besides updating their traditional two-burner stove, Coleman also has designed another version of it that features a grill in place of the second burner. However, the grill is versatile enough that you can put a pot on it and use it for a second burner if needed.

The Model 9921-750 has the same standup Windblock as the original, which provides for a more even flame in the wind. The burner and the grill have separate control knobs, and each side can produce 10,000 BTUs at the same time.

The overall design of this stove makes it easier to clean than the traditional two-burner stove, and the grease management system really does carry the grease and drippings away from the grill's surface without a lot of scraping and scooping. I found the reservoir easy to remove, and just popped it into the dishwasher when I was done with it.

A hunter's essential: modern camp stoves

Guns Magazine, Oct, 2003 by Carolee Anita Boyles

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