, is that the few external frames i tried rubbed my shoulders way too much (blame the linebacker width i suppose)and Mystery Ranch rides down the dead center of the back. It does "shift or rock" around the center pad but not horrible enough for me to notice the wear on my lateralis muscles (outside of the thigh). Wondering if this is what you noticed on trials with other packs.
Thanks for the detailed reviews Josh. Based on your recommendation, I went out yesterday and cleaned out a couple 3 Bears of their Peak Refuel meals. Really looking forward to trying these out next month, and the fact that they use so little water to rehydrate, I'm thinking that's going to cut my fuel consumption down considerably.Swarovski STX 65mm Spotting Scope:
Wow, just WOW!!! My old scope is an STM 80mm HD. Before season, I had decided to look for a 65mm In the old style Swarovski scope with the intention to save weight. Well, I was faced with a deal I couldn't refuse and ended up buying a brand new STX with the 65mm objective instead of an STS 65. While I self defeated my purpose of saving weight as the new STX 65 is essentially the same weight as my old STM 80, it is a beautiful piece of glass. When testing it side by side against my old 80, I found it to be crisper and clearer, which is saying a lot because I've always been extremely happy with the old STM. I was very impressed with the STX and unfortunately for my wallet, I can see myself picking up a 95 or 115 objective in the future for my non backpack hunts.
Zeiss Victory 10x25 Pocket Binoculars:
While I have had these binoculars for quite a few years this was the first sheep season I have used them since 2015. The past few years I have been using 8x30 Swarovski's coupled with a Marsupial gear bino harness. In my never ending quest to save weight, I decided to go back to the Zeiss's this season and see how I liked it. This allowed me to ditch the bino harness, which I've never been a big fan of anyway, and it saved me a little weight. I carried the 10x25's in either a pant pocket (Fjallraven Keb trousers) or the new Barney's hip belt pouch on my pack. I very much preferred carrying my bino's this way and was glad not to have the cumbersome harness to deal with. It gets old taking the harness on and off every time you want to shed a layer of clothes so I was definitely glad to be without it. The Zeiss's did very well and they will be with me on my sheep hunts in the future. Since I am packing around a spotting scope, big binoculars aren't necessary on sheep hunts and the pocket binoculars are just fine.
Smith and Wesson M&P340, .357 Magnum:
Once again, this hard headed sheep guide is trying to save weight. I don't pack around a rifle when guiding sheep hunters, just a pistol. I have been carrying a lightweight .44 Smith and Wesson in a Diamond D leather chest holster. The past few years, between the sternum strap of my pack, my bino harness, and the Diamond D chest holster with pistol, things were pretty busy on my chest. I decided to start looking for a lightweight .357 and when one popped up on the classifieds last winter, I grabbed it. I was getting tired of the .44 and chest holster system, which when in the Alpine, ended up staying in the tent most of the time anyway while I was out hunting. A lot of good that would do me if I ran into an ornery bear. So I picked up the Smith 340 which saved quite a bit of weight between downsizing pistols and eliminating the chest holster all together. With a little good fortune, the new Smith just barely snugged into the new hip belt pouch of the Barneys pack which was a great way to carry the pistol. The pistol was now quickly accessible and I didn't have a reason to leave it in the tent while I was out hunting for the day.
I picked up some buffalo bore ammo for it, and while quite painful in recoil, I hope to never have to use it for it's intended purpose. I plan on picking up some .38 Special +P rounds in the future and testing those, hopefully making it a little more pleasant to shoot.
Peak Refuel:
Goodbye Mountain House....This season was the first that I tried these meals. They lived up to the hype. While they may be a few dollars more expensive than Mountain House I would say they are well worth the cost. First of all, they just tasted better. And while the portions seemed to be a little smaller than Mountain House, they packed more calories which is another great benefit. Between tasting better and more calories, they are a win win, but the biggest benefit I found was the fact that they use significantly less water than Mountain House. Often in the sheep hills, especially when you get up above brush line, water can be a hard commodity to find. We will often pack up a few days supply of water up the mountain when we know we won't be able to find any up high. With these Peak Refuel meals using less water, it's a no brainer. And did I mention, they taste wayyyyy better than Mountain House. Chicken Pesto Pasta for the win!!
Leukotape:
I wear plastic boots and while I haven't had many foot problems over the years with plastics, there is the occasion that I develop a hot spot or two. On my first hunt my feet/boots got wet while packing a heavy load down hill. The constant pounding of my big toe on the downhill led to a blister. Fortunately, I had a little time between hunts for it to heal up, but the biggest thing I learned from that blister was how well Leukotape works. My hunter had brought some along and let me try it out. It did a great job of alleviating the development of any other hot spots with the wet boots. On the last two hunts, I pre-taped up my feet in the area's I knew I might have issues and the leukotape worked great. I didn't have any problems the last two hunts and will be pre taping my feet on all my backpack hunts in the future.
Vortex 1800 Rangefinder:
When a hunter shows up, we go through their gear and eliminate anything they won't need in an effort to save weight. In order to avoid redundancy we also only bring one range finder. In the past, I usually like to let the hunter bring their own rangefinder, simply for the reason that they are familiar with it and hopefully knows how it works, and in this age of precision shooting (turrets, fancy scopes, etc), I figure it's best to let the hunter use what they are comfortable with.
I am re-thinking that policy. On my first hunt the hunter brought along his vortex rangefinder and I left my Sig behind. Bad idea. Simply put, the vortex sucked. I could barely get it to read, and when it did pick up a reading, anything over 400 yards wasn't happening. Not having a rangefinder that could reliably provide information while we attempted to close the distance on the rams almost cost us. Luckily it didn't and we were able to get close enough that a rangefinder was a moot point, but from here on out I am bringing along the Sig, weight savings be damned.
I think that may be all of the new gear I used this year, at least that I can think of at the moment. If I think of anything else I'll try to add it. There was a lot of new gear for me this year and I am mostly pleased how it all worked. It was a great yet demanding sheep season and as you guys know, having the right gear can make or break a hunt. I know I probably babbled on too much, but hopefully some of this will help out if you are in the market for anything new, and if you all have any questions on my experiences this sheep season, I am always happy too talk all things sheep.
Josh
Ha, ha! A picture's worth a thousand words, eh?I think you’ll like them as well, if you don’t I’ll take them off your hands for what you paid for them.
They’re still hard to wait for when you’re hangry
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Great reviews Josh and will take some notes from this.
Out of curiosity, on the pack, i never did look close enough but with the barney pack, have you had any issues with the top of the frame fitting on the shoulders? The reason i went Mystery Ranch (internal frame) and as you call it "yard sale on feet"
With the Swaro, with the reduced objective lens, light is a small issue in Alaska in early season. The improvement in clarity could be huge as i saw on our hunt last year. Could you tell the difference in judging age on rams as a significant change? Your line of work is way more important and curious if that is where you noticed the difference. I went large and got a Meostar S2 this past year for elk, for future mountain hunts i am throwing the idea around on glass and seeing what i may need in certain situations.
The one i am looking at now is a new sleeping bag and the slick bag was going to be a big contender for me. Weight and synthetic seemed to be your 2 constraints. I am curious if you looked at other things since those 2 limitations still leave huge amounts of options? I am poking at Marmot...expensive i know...but this sparked my interest since i also heard that regular length works well for you as we are close in height...gets old looking at specs and then realize you need a long model that is heavier
Hope all is well and happy hunting!
. YOu'll love them compared to other freeze drieds.
