Cutting Weight in 2025

[NealMustard]

There's not a lot more to squeeze out of what lives in my bag itself. My baseweight for all of my gear is in the low 30's for solo sheep/goat/bear hunting.

I could swap my old SG evo 40/56 to a terminus 7000 to save about a pound at a cost of like $30/oz if I buy used.

I could swap my jetboil stash out for a lighter stove/pot at the cost of gas efficiency. In the end I would end up packing more fuel to make up for the efficiency loss and then Im back to square one.

Footwear has jumped around for me. I've used trail runners, lightweight mountaineering boots, and a pair of crispis. I might swap to something like an mid-ankle approach shoe with a spare carbon fiber insole for when I have to pack out an animal.

There also the option of dyneema everything but the $/oz is almost worse than paying a gunsmith to start fluting parts of my rifle.

 

[fngTony]

I went through my kill kit. Now it’s very minimal for mule deer at 7.1oz, it’s strictly a kill kit with no cross over except 2 spare blades for my knife that I keep with miscellaneous stuff. Just taking two game bags because I can use the dry bag from my pack if needed. Saved 7.5oz
New boots are 10oz lighter.

 

[My Name]

That's exactly my approach. The Durston pack is good enough for a first or lighter load, and the K4 frame is in the truck. I would still like to come up with an ultralight, refined DIY version of the MR Pop Up 18 (even if it's fixed height), but have yet to find the time for it. That would be the ultimate pack for me.

A lot of great info in this thread for me to consider!