Gear fails of 2025

[fngTony]

What was new to you this year or failed on ya this year?

For me it was the naked alpha insulation. I know some are having great results but not me. First thing is that the availability from the cottage manufacturers is crap. It’s cut like a box and has no stretch. The hoods are big and most don’t zip down, feels suffocating. Ok if all that was resolved it still didn’t perform for me, at least not in a hunting scenario and even for hiking I struggled to find a good spot for it. It’s so open that it can’t trap any heat without a layer over it which negates the weight savings.

I tried it over a few light to medium base layers and under a Patagonia Houdini wind shell. Temps were 30s to mid 50s with variable humidity wind and precipitation. When moving it was a tad less clammy than my peloton 97 but when stopped the 97 kept me comfortable for several minutes where the alpha was instantly cooler. Weight savings was only 1.25 ounces compared to the 97.

 

[kswaterfowl]

Marmot precip eco rain jacket. Leaked through on both arms. Luckily my jacket underneath kept me dry.

Outdoor research crocodile gaiters. The lace hook had a rivet pop off. Ive only worn them a handful of times.

 

[SloppyJ]

I had some issues with my Stone Glacier bino harness on my elk hunt this year. Specifically, it was when I added the bottom zippered bag. I imagine it was the extra weight but I'm not a huge fan of how velcro system for that one specific item. The velcro for the phone holder and the mag/garmin pouch have worked great.

The little cam locks that handle the adjustment of the harness had came undone when I jumped off my horse the first morning to get on an elk. I had ran it for over a year prior without the addition of that bottom compartment and had no issues. This was no big deal and a little electrical tape around the "locks" and I was back in business but it did contribute to me not being able to get on that elk.

Fast forward to that afternoon and we had spotted an elk at 1030yds. We made a dash for it on the horses to the next ridge over to cut some distance as the sun was setting. Trotting on the horse, I start seeing a bunch of stuff falling around me. That damn bottom bag had come unzipped somehow and all of my gear in there got sprinkled all over the trail. We did close the distance to 640yds and I shot that one but lost the majority of my mtnops stuff I packed in along with my lighter and a lens cloth.

I still think it's the best option on the market for a non-magnetic harness and would buy it again. I made some tweaks to how it connects by cutting down the length of the velcro straps which allowed me to get it to hold to the main harness a little tighter. But I still don't trust it for carrying important items or anything with some weight to it.

My Zamberlins also sprung a leak where the sole is stitched to the boot and was blowing bubbles every time I took a step on another hunt this year. A little aqua seal fixed it up and they were nice enough to send me a RMA to get them resoled for free.

All in all, nothing that bad. I'm sure my waders will have a hole in them somewhere that magically appeared in the closet when I bust them out this year but that's the story of my life.

 

[PathFinder]

Swarovski NL 12x42 lost collimation on a light drop. Still usable, just feel a bit cross-eyed using them.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

 

[9.3koolaid]

What was new to you this year or failed on ya this year?

For me it was the naked alpha insulation. I know some are having great results but not me. First thing is that the availability from the cottage manufacturers is crap. It’s cut like a box and has no stretch. The hoods are big and most don’t zip down, feels suffocating. Ok if all that was resolved it still didn’t perform for me, at least not in a hunting scenario and even for hiking I struggled to find a good spot for it. It’s so open that it can’t trap any heat without a layer over it which negates the weight savings.

I tried it over a few light to medium base layers and under a Patagonia Houdini wind shell. Temps were 30s to mid 50s with variable humidity wind and precipitation. When moving it was a tad less clammy than my peloton 97 but when stopped the 97 kept me comfortable for several minutes where the alpha was instantly cooler. Weight savings was only 1.25 ounces compared to the 97.

Senchis have a good cut. I think there's a lot of people cranking these out now and the patterns get pretty basic.

 

[ljalberta]

Had a vertical erector fail on a SWFA 3-9 and a second pair of Crispi Colorado's have ridiculously excessive shrinking after use. Also had a Revic BR4 die mid hunt.

 

[bigunit]

Outdoor research crocs. Tore a hole in them the first time out.

Also my health has been garbage all year.

 

[43.6N]

Tricer RP bipod - but read the whole post -

Picked it up so that my wife and daughter could use a sitting height bipod since they both don’t practice frequently enough to feel stable off a backpack or trekking poles. It worked great during practice.

Fast forward to deer season, and my daughter is majorly struggling to get stable. It turns out the pan lever lockout had developed play in the mechanism. We could never get it tight enough to eliminate panning instability.
We were able to troubleshoot the final shooting position and my daughter successfully harvested her deer. But I vowed to figure out a solution to the bipod.

I ended up drilling and pinning the pivoting ball head with an 1/8” steel roll pin. This completely eliminated the pan feature.

Tricer has since listened to user feedback and now offers a much better pan lockout.

 

[khart_6882]

Same as last year. F’ing kennetrek mountain extremes. Every morning 2 patches of Luko tape around my heels and around my big toe. When your foot flexes inside a boot with no flex, blisters appear in record time.

“If they sucked last year then why didn’t you replace them?”

Because I’m an idiot! I guess the horrendous memories of last year had faded and I figured I could just tape my way through another season.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Same as last year. F’ing kennetrek mountain extremes. Every morning 2 patches of Luko tape around my heels and around my big toe. When your foot flexes inside a boot with no flex, blisters appear in record time.

“If they sucked last year then why didn’t you replace them?”

Because I’m an idiot! I guess the horrendous memories of last year had faded and I figured I could just tape my way through another season.

I wouldn't wear Kennetreks no matter how much you paid me. They just are not for my feet. You either love them or hate them, no in between.

 

[MT_Wyatt]

It’s me. I’m the problem, less so my gear, ha.

Tricer bipod - in the field use was a bit of a cluster, panning drove me nuts. Thought I could deal with backwards twist locks but nope. Range time does not = pressured field use.

Another was “me” - not taking a tarp on a deeper exposed hunt where weather was likely. All day beat down in wet snow waiting for fog to clear highlights poor choices.

Backup Elight headlamp - needed fresh batts. Stupid.

Not taking puffy pants and freezing my ass off glassing in high wind. Me.

not carrying something to just lay out meat on and work cleanly de-boning. I thought about it, didn’t do it, and bought myself more cleanup time while trimming.

Last one is not enough wind practice, exposed on antelope hunt shooting at distance. Just need more practice judging speed and applying it on steel.

Hot washes are always good.

 

[Davyalabama]

Sitka traverse pants --- don't get within a 1/2 mile of any briars or such, they'll start showing pick signs, quickly. Ok, the 1/2 mile may be a little facetious, but not by much.

I'm wondering what's going to happen when I actually get to use them turkey hunting? Think of crawling in a ditch or such trying to get closer to a tom, or backing out and running to get around a drove. I may be back to my 42 year old BDU's.

 

[sndmn11]

NL14x

I found just as many, maybe more, animals with NL8x, and still used the spotter to look at antlers with both.

Great view though.

 

[Davyalabama]

NL14x

I found just as many, maybe more, animals with NL8x, and still used the spotter to look at antlers with both.

Great view though.

Yep, I'm an 8x convert, too. Those 8x allow so much more viewing area.

 

[PredatoronthePrairie]

Guess most everything worked how I wanted this year. But I did have one big failure on my part I'd like to point out, so hopefully it might help someone else.

Was on a dry/terrain basecamp hunt so packed all my water for the trip. Had taken my emergency water tabs out of the pack previously casue I usually carried 2 ways to purify water. Well with carrying clean I left both my steri and filter at basecamp to save weight.

Of course the one day we decide to carry a half ration of water and no lunch, cause we planned on the morning hunt, then working our way back to camp. Is the morning we find what we r looking for and end up chasing them them rest of the day. With a animal down at dark, out of water since 2pm. And a 3m trek back to basecamp. Things could of broken really bad. But a kind 82yr hunter bailed my ass out with water an a lift.

Lesson learned.

 

[Turkeygetpwnd38]

SO Redcliff- zipper failed mid hunt. I just had the zipper replaced after it failed on a bear hunt in May. The new zipper had less than 1 week in the field.

Nemo chair- failed in the weirdest way possible.


Mathew’s quiver- hood broke while busting brush. Still usable but annoying considering the price of their accessories.

Sevr 1.75 hybrid- bad penetration, broken/bent blade. I’m going to back to 2 blade sevr/fixed combo

 

[blackhawk219]

I had my Leupold RX 1200i TBR rangefinder take a crap on me during my mule deer hunt. It seemed to work fine when testing it before the trip, but out in the field the screen was unreadable. It was still functioning (meaning the laser was working and all), I just couldn't read the screen in any sort of daylight at all. I could only read the numbers when I put my hand over the objective lens (and even then it was still really hard to see).

I had a new battery in it and it was really warm (in the 50's), so neither of those were a factor. Not sure what happened. I had some quick opportunities at some bucks at range where I may have been able to get a shot off if I had ranged them, but nothing certain so I wasn't super bummed by it. Just annoying. It was bought used in 2020 and functioned fine since then.

I picked up a Maven CRF.1 on sale, so hopefully I'll have more luck with that one performing well and lasting a good time.

 

[TxLite]

My buddy picked up a MDT backcountry bipod right before an hunt and found that it folds up on itself when you load it. MDT told him they are aware of the issue and working on a fix but did not have a timeline as to when it would be available. It was returned and replaced with an atlas.