Day pack for archery elk

[huntingnt]

Looking for a good pack or combination ideas for archery elk.
Older knees have started limiting my hunts. Starting this last year I now use hiking poles.
I normally park and hike in a few miles for day hunts. I'm carrying a small Camelback pack right now. It's enough for rain gear, lunch, and a optics if I want.
I'm looking for something about the same size that I can carry my bow hands free and still access it in a pinch.
I don't need a huge pack, but need a solution that will hold my bow securely without a lot of noise

 

[ThunderJack49]

My avatar is me packing an elk on a "day pack". It wasn't what I intended to do that day, but its what happened. I don't see the value in a day pack for elk due to how big they are. If i'm hunting elk, i have a pack frame on. Sometimes it's hardly full of anything in the early season but I have it. At the end of the day you are trading a few pounds vs the ability to pack substantially more weight. Ebrelestock and Mystery Ranch offer decent systems.

 

[huntingnt]

To be clear. I have packed out my share of elk. I just go back to camp and get my frame after dropping the gut sack and tagging them. Carrying a frame through the bush of Western Washington doesn't interest me.

 

[cuerro viejo]

Looking for a good pack or combination ideas for archery elk.
Older knees have started limiting my hunts. Starting this last year I now use hiking poles.
I normally park and hike in a few miles for day hunts. I'm carrying a small Camelback pack right now. It's enough for rain gear, lunch, and a optics if I want.
I'm looking for something about the same size that I can carry my bow hands free and still access it in a pinch.
I don't need a huge pack, but need a solution that will hold my bow securely without a lot of noise

elberstock x2

 

[Read1t48]

I’m moving to a lumbar pack this season just to give it a try. An OG Kifaru Daystalker
Hope to take a meat bag out with the head and come back in with a pack frame. Lumbar pack seems great so far.

 

[87TT]

I want to make that first trip count. I use my EXO K2 3500 to hunt with. It packs a heavy meat load out with my stuff on the first trip and comes back empty except for a little water, first aid kit, handgun and flashlight/headlamp. I have a K2 2000 that I bought for a daypack version but so far haven't needed or used it.

 

[Obsessed1]

Kifaru gun bearer can be adapted to sling your bow. Wont have to change your pack at all. Lots of other diy options for bow "slings" that carry hands free and can even be shot without taking the sling off. The bow spider comes to mind as well....

 

[GunsAreFun]

To be clear. I have packed out my share of elk. I just go back to camp and get my frame after dropping the gut sack and tagging them. Carrying a frame through the bush of Western Washington doesn't interest me.

Is it the bulk that causes issues? I only ask because many frame packs these days pack down EXTREMELY small. Like literally a couple inches thick and like 10” wide. You can get a shorter frame that is good enough to pack meat but small enough that it won’t limit range of motion in any way.

To each their own, but I just can’t imagine making an extra 2 mile walk out and 2 miles back empty just to get a pack. That’s 2-4 hours where we hunt.

 

[huntingnt]

Any recommendations with a frame that small?