new hunting backpack

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Depends on what I am hunting and what day. I used this a lot last year and it came in very handy. Light weight, and provides a good seat. I do a lot of walking when I hunt. Will use this and a fanny pack. I also have a military carry bag that I use to place inside the seat, Holds a lot of gear.
 
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Like many things I suppose it comes down to how you hunt. Like many I've gone through multiple packs through the years a lot of which had to do with being in the Army and travelling across the country and overseas, so my pack requirements have changed depending in part on the terrain, game and methods. Last few years here in KS I've been doing more open country spot/stalk. Even when still hunting there's been 1-3 mile hikes in to get there. Also the weather here varies sometimes by the hr., so I had to have capacity to hold clothing on the way in and out and enough gear (more importantly water) for a day out. So I need a pack that's comfortable and has capacity (Day pack+).

Picked this up a few years ago, Eberlestock X2 and it's worked out extremely well for squirrels thru deer:

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https://eberlestock.com/products/x2...MInZK3poHB4wIV9JFbCh24gwkwEAAYASAAEgIui_D_BwE
 
Well...

Been using an ACU MOLLE II assault pack for awhile.

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Got a handful of'em from midway on sale.

Big/small enough, foam/plastic sheet padded/protected back, and the straps are flat so you can shoot over them.

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Very rugged nylon and the pattern is not bad.

Just cut out the two-pound jump straps.

Good size for extra clothing and emergency gear/food/water when you are unsure of the weather, or have big temp swings during the day.

With minimal care, should last several lifetimes.




GR
 
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I mostly use a camelbak hydration pack like this one.
camelbak.jpg they are available in various different designs and camo patterns. The only issue is that you need to be sure to drain them after a day and keep the bladder clean- there are cleaning kits available through amazon to do this. Otherwise, any of the various 3 day packs from companies like blackhawk, camelback, london bridge, etc. or US mil surplus will do the job. If that gear works good in afg and iraq, I'm sure it will do fine for hunting. They are available on the used market, but I would only use a new hydration bladder.
 
I like that little satchel. It would be perfect for me if I could hang my coffee thermos off it somewhere. What are the rough dimensions?

Not sure how big your thermos might be, but I had to look it up to see how big it really is. I’ve always considered it a small pack, but I’ve been amazed several times in the last 12yrs how much it can hold. Which is what we want, right? A pack that carries as if it were smaller than it really is? I’m glad you asked, because I have never tested it out for gross volume. I have three of them, I use one for hiking with a DSLR and lenses, one for a hunting and shooting pack, and used the 3rd for my daddy diaper bag when my son was younger - since then, my wife has appropriated it. I bought my first one on a whim years ago, but we find them exceptionally handy. Small enough to haul without being annoying, but big enough to haul everything we need when we don’t need the kitchen sink.

Here are the specs as listed on the site - it’s a 6L pack, main compartment is 8 3/4” x 7 3/4” x 4”, which looks small on the outside, but is able to accommodate a surprising amount of stuff inside. The side pockets are listed as 7 3/4” tall x 4” wide x 1.5” thick (out from the side), but I can tell you, that is the “zipped closed” dimension - see photo below.

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To put some context to those numbers, I had my wife grab mine and throw some stuff inside for reference.

With the side bottle pockets zipped, a 20oz Gatorade fits comfortably - I zip them shut then hook the connected zipper pull over the top of the bottle to lock them closed. It’s never come open without it locked, but it’s a handy trick. With the zippers open, as pictured below, a 1L Nalgene bottle will fit in either side. I add a bungee to corral the top of the bottle and ensure they don’t slip out, but they fit very easily into the expanded bottle pockets.

Pictured in the main compartment is an 8lb jug of Varget. It dropped in without wedging - you can see the slack around the sides, and the nalgenes do bulge just a little into the rectangular space of the main compartment, so something larger than an 8lb powder jug would fit if you had smaller water bottles in the side. The lid WILL flip closed on that 8lb powder jug, and clasp. You can fit taller stuff in the main compartment than I really want to carry in a pack like this, as there’s about 2-3” of extra strap on the buckle from where I normally use it (see bottom middle of the pack in the pic in my post above for the buckle and expandable strap).

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If you have a tall skinny steel Stanley Thermos like my wife uses (and dad, and granddad), it’d be a bit too tall for the bottle pockets to secure, but it would fit. Throw a bungee around the top and anchor it to the bag, or use a shorter thermos, and you’d be fine. I just wouldn’t expect it to stand up when you set the bag down. Any thermos about the size of a Nalgene bottle would be an easy fit, and more appropriately sized for the bag.
 
I have been eyeing this Mystery Ranch Pop Up 18.

When I have the extra funds, I plan to pick on up:
https://www.mysteryranch.com/pop-up-18-pack

The one thing I would worry about that pack is having the pack on at all when carrying a load of meat. Is the pack portion removeable to where one can just carry meat. Normally, it is nice to leave the pack at camp and take only the bare necessities with oneself to field clean and dress the animal to pack out so one is not carrying excess weight. Having a load of meat and then that pack loaded and leveraging out there against me might get old.

Looks like a nice pack though
 
The one thing I would worry about that pack is having the pack on at all when carrying a load of meat. Is the pack portion removeable to where one can just carry meat. Normally, it is nice to leave the pack at camp and take only the bare necessities with oneself to field clean and dress the animal to pack out so one is not carrying excess weight. Having a load of meat and then that pack loaded and leveraging out there against me might get old.

Looks like a nice pack though
I don't think so.

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3-5 day hunts - move into a Medium ALICE Pack:

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...including a small rolled up Cherry Tomato Orange Jansport superbreak for field trips.

GR
Alice?

maybe with "Hellcat" upgrades. The waist belt and kidney pad are a mere after thought.

But even an upgraded one is on the heavy side. That said, I carried a medium alice for my entire career in Scouts and for many years after that.
 
the state land i am thinking of trying is 1500 acres, so maybe a 1/2 mile walk, i don't mind that. dragging a deer or 2 will suck tho.there is 9000 acre spot of state land buy my dads house but like i said new york makes over night hunts hard if not impossible on state land.
 
Alice?

maybe with "Hellcat" upgrades. The waist belt and kidney pad are a mere after thought.

But even an upgraded one is on the heavy side. That said, I carried a medium alice for my entire career in Scouts and for many years after that.

Usually just pack light.

Have the frame, but only use it when I think I will also be haulin' a lot back out.




GR
 
I have a lot of ALICE gear I picked up over the years. For a day pack I use the standard belt, suspenders and butt pack. It's all light, strong and very inexpensive. Literally anything can be attached to a standard web belt.
Tenzing makes two packs that are similar in design (TZ 1250 & Flex) but they're not nearly as flexible plus they're EXPENSIVE!
https://www.tenzingoutdoors.com/shop/day-packs
 
I have a lot of ALICE gear I picked up over the years. For a day pack I use the standard belt, suspenders and butt pack. It's all light, strong and very inexpensive. Literally anything can be attached to a standard web belt.
Tenzing makes two packs that are similar in design (TZ 1250 & Flex) but they're not nearly as flexible plus they're EXPENSIVE!
https://www.tenzingoutdoors.com/shop/day-packs
so the TZ has the straps attaching directly to the main pack instead of the front of the belt (like the flex).

IMO, this is critical for increased weight and skinny dudes (like me).
 
I want to believe.

I do some light backpacking on occasion and this seems like a pretty scalable way to throw on extra gear.

I LOVE the idea of a modular pack. Run a daypack sized pack on the frame, then expand it out and shove a duffle of your basecamp gear where the meat would ride, pitch camp, and carry the same frame set the rest of the week. It’d facilitate running a bino harness on the pack instead of separately, since your base pack and day pack are on the same frame.

Kifaru has the Nomad; Eberlestock has the X1A3, Warhammer, and Just One (and everything they have done in their F1 Mainframe); Mystery Ranch has the Mule, Cabinet, and Divide - and now the two Pop-Up models...

I love the idea of a framed day pack/meat hauler with a daypack sized pack, which could swallow a full basecamp pack, to be dumped during the week. No more hauling two packs into the woods and swapping back and forth.
 
The one thing I would worry about that pack is having the pack on at all when carrying a load of meat. Is the pack portion removeable to where one can just carry meat. Normally, it is nice to leave the pack at camp and take only the bare necessities with oneself to field clean and dress the animal to pack out so one is not carrying excess weight. Having a load of meat and then that pack loaded and leveraging out there against me might get old.

Looks like a nice pack though

The Pop-Up’s aren’t made to come off of the frame for hauling meat. The idea is to have a separate basecamp duffle which rides in the meat shelf on the way in, gets dropped and left in camp, then the only the daypack on the frame goes with the meat. They’re 1000 and 1700ci packs for the two models, so if you’re hauling enough in either to hurt you while you’re hauling meat, something is broken.

Consider a couple other products with the same feature - take a look at the Mystery Ranch Marshall or the Kifaru Reckoning. They’re huge packs, big week to 10day packs, which have the same set up. After harvest, the pack becomes the compression sling. Throw 150lbs of quartered and caped mulie in front of a 50lb 10 day pack and life gets pretty interesting!
 
I LOVE the idea of a modular pack. Run a daypack sized pack on the frame, then expand it out and shove a duffle of your basecamp gear where the meat would ride, pitch camp, and carry the same frame set the rest of the week. It’d facilitate running a bino harness on the pack instead of separately, since your base pack and day pack are on the same frame.

Kifaru has the Nomad; Eberlestock has the X1A3, Warhammer, and Just One (and everything they have done in their F1 Mainframe); Mystery Ranch has the Mule, Cabinet, and Divide - and now the two Pop-Up models...

I love the idea of a framed day pack/meat hauler with a daypack sized pack, which could swallow a full basecamp pack, to be dumped during the week. No more hauling two packs into the woods and swapping back and forth.
that's exactly how I first found it.

Haul a bunch of stuff once. drop it off, have a great couple of days. Haul it out.
 
Never was a fan of the ALICE pack.

For 10-15 miles to a base camp, they work fine. Just a good size bag w/ straps, pouches, and attachment points for axes, shovels, and canteens.

Not the pack for a heavy loaded John Muir Trail adventure.

Now, this baby...?





:D




GR
 
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Never was a fan of the ALICE pack.
I like them for carrying heavy stuff, but as backpacks go they arnt super comfy.
The big Badlands is nice for both, but my rifle slings slide off the straps.

if I don't have to carry a lot of water, I can carry all my other gear in pockets.....sitting on your lunch musubi kinda sucks tho.......
 
I like them for carrying heavy stuff, but as backpacks go they arnt super comfy.
The big Badlands is nice for both, but my rifle slings slide off the straps.

if I don't have to carry a lot of water, I can carry all my other gear in pockets.....sitting on your lunch musubi kinda sucks tho.......
ya if it wasn't for my binos( it's a old japan pair of 6-12 swift.) there heavy, some water my 1/4 roll off TP, 2 knifes. and a few nick nacks, i wouldn't need a pack. ad the blanket i use, it's nice to fold up and use it for sitting on the rock walls or when i sit under a tree.
 
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