UKC

So I'm getting together my stuff for this new backpacking adventure that I fancy trying and I thought I'd buy the tent a few extra pegs (I don't like to only have the required number in case I bend/lose one), it then occurred to me in all the packing videos etc. that I've watched that I don't think I've seen anyone pack a hammer for the pegs.  So what do you use - do they make small packpacking hammers, do you rely of pushing in pegs with your booted feet, do you hope you can find a suitable stone to whack them in with or do you take a tin of Spinach and do a Popeye on them?  I've got a half sized capenters hammer that I'm tempted to fit in, but it does seem kind of strange that no-one seems to take anything to belt in pegs with.  I can understand a lack of hook to get them out with as you can often use an extra peg as a T bar to pull with, but lack of a hammer seems a bit odd?  Does everyone manage to find soft ground to pitch on?

If the ground is hard, there are normally rocks about. I don't know anybody who carries a mallet when backpacking.

95% of the time wild camping, I've been able to get the pegs in by hand/foot. Keeping them in is sometimes more of a problem, but a rock can again help; on top of the peg.

I've never carried a hammer camping, just use hands or feet. I do always carry a few of lengths of throw-line or other cord to add to guylines if necessary so I have more options for pegging out in-case of problems but rarely need them.

I also carry an old spoon to help push in the MSR Groundhog copies I use so I don't damage my hands or boot soles as they are a little sharp on the tops.

Never tread on them, you can't transmit the force accurately and are much more likely to bend them. A handy rock usually works. 

I've never taken a mallet backpacking/cycle touring. I'll find something else to hit them with if necessary. Often on campsites it's easy to borrow one if you really need it.

I've bent many tent pegs by stepping on them so don't do that.

I've never carried a hammer, but there was one occasion when I wish I had. I had a cycle tour around Corsica in late September and at the end of the Mediterranean summer, the ground was like concrete. It was also the days before free standing tents and my Saunders Jetpacker needed a minimum of 6 secure pegs to be habitable. Strangely every campsite seemed to have been picked clean of anything heavy enough to help me bash them in. How I longed for a handful of Snargs and a 4lbs club hammer.

If using feet (and we all have to, sometimes) then it needs to be a very gentle, even increase in force along the line of the peg - and stop if any deviation; done by flexing the foot and straightening slowly. Twiddle the advancing peg between rocks as best as possible - it's never going to go through them. 

Rocks above the ground are your friends, below the ground not so much. 

I know MSR do a "tent peg hammer" with a bottle opener on... presumably for the American trailer tent market lugging Yeti coolers of beer on the back of the Ute / more money than sense crew. Looks cool though. And only 312g! 

https://www.msrgear.com/ie/tents/tent-accessories/stake-hammer/03074.html

b

It rains so much whenever I go backpacking there's zero difficulty finding soft ground, the hard thing is finding somewhere that isn't waterlogged.

Maybe take a piece of aluminium plate the size of the base of your water bottle and tape it to the bottom of the full bottle and use that to hammer?

https://www.msrgear.com/ie/tents/tent-accessories/stake-hammer/03074.html

Hmmm. Head held on by a single rivet through a wafer thin tube? Might have to see what can do in the shed, as I like the idea.