Gear fails of 2025

[thisguy]

Thermarest XTherm pad, I got it since I tend to sleep cold and it has a slow leak since new. Not terrible but if you air it up fairly tight your butt is just touching the ground in the morning

Victory Shok outserts, spinning them when you build arrows is not good enough. Need to spin before each hunt. They do not tend to stay true

Kifaru Duplex light frame, not a failure but man does it like to squeak. So much so that its the loudest thing when I'm trying to sneak in on something. End up dumping my pack sooner than I would like to on stalks

 

[Marbles]

I learned that if you pierce a primer it can break the balls in a bix n andy trigger and there's no way to get them to fix it or sell you the parts.

Talk about a ball buster.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

Mine was a disaster this year, it’s something with the baffle design, I patched 5-6 leaks over a couple weeks, all on the top of the pad in the dimples of the baffle seams.

Sea to Summit warrantied it and sent me the new model for free. New model is supposed to have fixed that issue, plus it is lighter and packs down way smaller. Haven’t used it yet.

Good tip on the warranty, I should try that

 

[ProStaffSteve]

Vortex Diamondback lost its zero & lost an elk at 100 yards. Got it replaced and threw it on FB marketplace! Giving Maven a shot & happy so far.

Rain gear needs a formal upgrade… I think it rained out lots of guys this year.

 

[COJoe]

Sitka Timberline pants are solid except the sewn in belt wouldn't stay tight. As soon as I bent over or moved, the belt would loosen up. Otherwise, they were very nice to wear in 4th season with the knee pads. I contacted Sitka, told them I purchased them used two years ago on Ebay and they still warrantied them but instead of fixing them, they are sending me a brand new pair. Great customer service.

Sitka Ambient 100 jacket is my favorite clothing and worked so well with no issues but when I got home the zipper wouldn't zip up at all. Don't know what happened to it. I bought it new two years ago so they warrantied it and are sending me a new one. I had the brown color but now they only had black. Once again, great customer service.

 

[BSLugnut]

Its not the only USB-C cable that will work with the headlamp. I have generic UBC charging cord for my Iphone that also works with the Peax headlamp so, that actually simplified things for me as I only needed one charger cable for both my Iphone and my headlamp. I can also charge my headlamp with the phone cable that's always in my truck.

Thanks for sharing their is promise.
Could you share which USB-C you are using, as it would be beneficial for us PEAX users.
I couldn't find any USB-C cords that I have to charge my PEAX.
When I contacted PEAX, they stated that you have to use their cord to charge their headlamp.

 

[MT_Wyatt]

Good tip on the warranty, I should try that

I’ve had really good luck with thermarest warranty on pads, worth a shot for sure with sea to summit. I’m on my third from an original xlite purchase.

 

[Marbles]

Anker 10,000 mAh power bank. It stopped giving power on a hunt with about 90% of its charge remaining. As soon as I plugged it in to a wall to charge it started working correctly again. So, have a power bank that works, but I don't trust enough to carry.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

Anker 10,000 mAh power bank. It stopped giving power on a hunt with about 90% of its charge remaining. As soon as I plugged it in to a wall to charge it started working correctly again. So, have a power bank that works, but I don't trust enough to carry.

How cold was it?

 

[Marbles]

How cold was it?

Not cold enough to frost. Probably 40-60F.

 

[COJoe]

Anker 10,000 mAh power bank. It stopped giving power on a hunt with about 90% of its charge remaining. As soon as I plugged it in to a wall to charge it started working correctly again. So, have a power bank that works, but I don't trust enough to carry.

2024 elk hunt only had frost one night, most nights in low 30s and the 20,000 mah Anker I had wouldn't charge past 80% and that was charging inside my Chilkoot 15 sleeping bag all night with me. At home it would fully charge but not worth taking out of the house anymore. My new Poseidon and Nite Core low temp worked just fine in the high teens this year.

 

[Marbles]

2024 elk hunt only had frost one night, most nights in low 30s and the 20,000 mah Anker I had wouldn't charge past 80% and that was charging inside my Chilkoot 15 sleeping bag all night with me. At home it would fully charge but not worth taking out of the house anymore. My new Poseidon and Nite Core low temp worked just fine in the high teens this year.

I really don't think temp had anything to do with this. It refused to give power, my buddies Anker power bank worked fine. Trading cables made no difference. Sitting on a boat in the sun waiting for the tide made no difference. But, get back to an unheated forest service cabin and plug it in to a 12V deep cycle for 10 seconds and it will suddenly change things again.

It was a gremlin in the USB-C bored in my opinion.

 

[Poser]

Thanks for sharing their is promise.
Could you share which USB-C you are using, as it would be beneficial for us PEAX users.
I couldn't find any USB-C cords that I have to charge my PEAX.
When I contacted PEAX, they stated that you have to use their cord to charge their headlamp.

Amazon.com

 

[Killerhiller40]

Black Diamond Storm 500 R headlamp that was about a year and a half old.
The main bulb quit working in the middle of a pretty nasty pack out. Battery had plenty of charge and recharging didn’t fix it. BD wouldn’t warranty it without the receipt and I bought it in person, and lost it at some point. Maybe that’s standard, but it was a bit annoying

 

[Wrench]

Talk about a ball buster.

Update! I cc'd bix n andy in Austria and my duty email and was contacted by Bix and told they will make it right. Bullet central was no help and they're the official US service center. Bix in Austria does not have the same issue.

 

[rarmitage915]

Was gifted a pair of Danner Alsea boots. Wore them 3 times over a year and a half. 3rd time wearing them the top boot lace hook cracked and broke off so its unusable. Since they were over 1 year old, Danner wouldn't warranty or replace them. Have just been using them as winter work boots since.

 

[northernalpine]

Salomon boots lace. While scrambling/traversing up a dodgy incline my footing broke free and slid about 14’, caught and snapped the lace on one boot. Their “quick lace” system is an extremely thin synthetic lace that is convenient and I’ve used various versions of their boots for years without issues, however blowing that specific type of lace in the field was a dumpster fire.

Sawyer mini filter. Had a pretty good freeze one night after topping off water that evening, likely there was some level of water still in it. Next day the temps continued to drop and were in the teens when I went to refill at a creek the next afternoon, ended up with it being blocked (likely frozen) and water leaking from a crack in the filter attachment fitting.

Battery pack jumpstarter. Like a USB bank but with a special connector for car battery terminals. Mine has sat as part of my vehicle/recovery kit for a few years and maybe been used 3 times total without issues; always charged or topped off before a trip. Same cold snap as above, went to jump a partners car with a dead battery and when I pulled it out it was only showing 25% and wouldn't hold a charge.

Had a few experiences similar to @MT_Wyatt that were ‘me’ failures

 

[NRA4LIFE]

My only Vortex POS I own, I thought I had got ridden of it. A spotter that is absolute garbage.

 

[CarterHunt]

Slik 634 Tripod - one of the leg buttons came off at some point and it will work fine most of the time but sometimes will kick out toward that leg at the most inopportune times. #1 thing on my upgrade list this offseason.

Ollin Snapshot NL Pure adapter - wouldn't stay on the eyepiece of my 10x32 NL Pures at all. Guessing it probably works better with the 42s, but frustrating.

 

[RyanS612]

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.

This might be a dumb question but did you know that rangefinder has 4 brightness settings? You get to it by holding the menu button down and cycling through by pressing it again about 6 times to get to the brightness settings. Press the range button to change the brightness once you’re in that setting menu