I hope this thread has been somewhat entertaining and possibly even informative. I’m stuck on a 9 hour flight, so I figured now would be a good time to do some gear reviews for some of the items I have used. I have some new gear this year, and some old gear that got put to the test. Lately my gear changes have been more “tweaks” than anything major, although I would consider new boots to be a major change.
In no particular order, while I crush this bottle of airline booze and try to forget that I am sharing an airline cabin with 200 of my closest friends…
Boots: I switched from Meindl Perfekt to Crispi Nevadas, as my Meindls had started to come apart and are no longer waterproof. I had broken in the Nevadas on a few hikes and they seemed comfortable, although heavy and hot. I’ve got to say that so far I am impressed. I was worried that there was unwarranted “Crispi-hype” since all the cool kids wear them. They really got put to the test on two days of freezing rain and sleet. The two guys I hunted with wore a brand new pair of Kennetreks (literally out of the box the day before the hike) and some other brand I don’t remember. I was the only one with dry feet at the end of the day, which really impressed me. My only complaint is they hurt the outside of my foot sidehilling more than any previous boots I have used, but then again, I have never had a big old rand on the outside of the boot, so I don’t think this is a design flaw – I am just not used to it. They cleaned up pretty well after season using NikWax boot cleaner and some wax based leather sealer. The rand has moved about a millimeter on the boot leather; I’m not sure if that is normal, and the soles seem a little more worn than I would like after about 150 miles in them, but that hasn’t affected their function. If they keep going strong like this, they will actually be worth the price tag.
Rain gear: Wow, what a surprise… The aforementioned days of rain really defeated all the rain gear we had. I wore FL Boundary Stormtight (2-3 years old), another guy wore Kuiu Chugach, and another guy used Arcteryx. We all got soaked to the bone and I was particularly disappointed with the DWR on everyone’s gear. The face wetted out pretty quickly. I have used my gear very little and I clean it and treat it yearly with Nikwax cleaner, DWR, and re-waterproofing stuff. I would say I got the worst of it, particularly on my sleeves and pant legs. Lesson learned, next time I will double up with gaiters. We all were wet after hiking 3 miles in the rain and doing some hunting, so some of the moisture might have been perspiration and some of it may have been just exposure to the elements while we were hunting and moving through the brush. Frankly, I’ve done very little hunting and hiking in the rain, so there may be some lessons here for me to learn from, rather than blame it on gear, considering we had some of the best money could buy.
Bino Harness: Switched from Kuiu to Marsupial. The marsupial is more comfortable and well-built, but definitely lets in more water and dust than the kuiu. I heard that Marsupial is making a new version with full coverage, so I imagine I will trade up after season. Also, the front pocket is only good for maybe diaphragms or a lighter. It is very tough to get my fingers in there to fish anything out.
Headlamp: BD Revolt to a Zebralight MkIV. I already love the new headlamp – I’m never going back. Unfortunately, I lost it on the mule deer hunt with my son, so that sucks... I also got a Fenix H-something 60 (it’s the one powered by the 18650). Nice light, but waaaay too heavy. It won’t be replacing my ZL. The little Fenix CLR30 lantern is pretty sweet though, and I recommend it.
Archery: Put 80lb limbs on my bow and added 60 grains to my arrows (482gr at 290fps, about 78-79# draw weight). I was planning on using the SEVRs , but I also brought the 125gr Exodus along as well. On this hunt, I never actually used the SEVRs. I was so busy calling and the shots were short enough that I didn’t want to worry about a mechanical. The Exodus put the bull down in 10 seconds. The blood trail was poor for the 50 yards he ran, which I have become accustomed to, but still – that makes the Exodus 4/4 on elk killed over the past 2 years. The new archery hunter I took out was shooting 380gr arrows compared to my set up, and he never got penetration beyond 2/3 shaft. I warned him, and he didn’t believe me. I was jealous of his “baby-Hoyt” carbon bow. I think his bow weighed half of my mine, or at least it felt that way. Still, my Centergy did well getting drug all over the place through the brush and rain; it may be weigh alot, but it gets the job done. Arrows: I’m shooting BEA Spartans and they continue to do well for me. Jeff was shooting Victory TKOs (I think they were TKOs) and wow, they are total garbage. He had actually called Victory and had the first dozen replaced due to breaking when shooting into the target. The new ones did no better. If he shot an arrow, there was a 100% chance it was broken when we found it. Shooting grouse, shooting stumps, a miss on an elk, and arrows that hit elk – 100% of them broke. I’ve never seen anything like it. Total trash.
Misc: Swapped out the Katadyn hiker for a Sawyer Squeeze. Big, big fan of the Squeeze. My favorite part was filling the dirty bladder with water and letting gravity refill my clean bladder inside my pack while I ate a snack. Jeff used a Steripen and it also worked like a champ. It was my first experience with either and I came away impressed. Added an inReach Mini and it did okay. It takes a little while to send and receive messages, and I had issues trying to figure out how to message another inreach. My wife sewed a 5.0 Apex Woobie for my son to use on his deer hunts and that thing is RAD. She is going to sew another one. Jeff brought along his little JetBoil and I was totally impressed by how light it was and how quickly it could boil water. A JetBoil or similar setup is now on my list of items for next year.
Shelter: I swapped out my tent for a Borah Bivvy and a SO DST. I really like the DST despite barely using it, although it arrived a solid 2.5 ounces heavier than advertised, and that was before seam-sealing. It is just heavy enough that I didn’t carry it daily. I think I might try and get a smaller lighter shelter for emergency use, maybe something in the 9 ounce weight range.
Kenai Gunfighter holster: Jeff let me wear his 10mm Glock and the Kenai when we were in Grizz country. I wore it high, up under my bino harness. It is great gear and very comfortable, but I don’t think it is for me, on account of two reasons: 1. I am not trained for a chest draw and unless my hand happened to be resting on the pistol when we walked up on a bear (happened once), my hand instinctively went to my right hip. I’m not sure if I can overcome that. 2. I wear my LRF on the right side of my bino harness, right were the pistol grip sits. The LRF pouch definitely impeded my hand when reaching for the pistol and would absolutely affect a clean and quick draw. There is no way I’m changing my chest rig set up to accommodate the rare chance I need to draw a pistol. It looks like investing in a belt holster for my pack is the way to go.
Long post, but hey, I’ve got all the time in the world while I’m at 35,000 feet. I’ll be back home in 5 days, then I get 48 hours before I leave for Wyoming one week from today. Happy Hunting to all of you who still have tags in your pockets. Cheers.
