Fair enough on the crossover use—a big pack makes sense in that case. For sure I get that. Im still wondering about some if the other responses though.
For what its worth you all had me questioning my sanity—I just pulled a bunch of stuff together to make sure it fit the way I remembered. i might have forgotten something, but this should give a picture of amount of space required:
This is a fully packed 28l mystery ranch popup. Twenty eight liters. That is 1700 cu in.
In the above pack is the following:
A stove, fuel and a meal
A softshell jacket (fl catalyst)
Puffy pants (fl uncompagre)
A mid-weight down jacket.
A 200-weight fleece
A small first aid kit
A 1-liter thermos
A .75-liter water bottle
A heavier gore tex jacket
Rain Pants
A full pack of deer-sized game bags
A rattle bag
A grunt tube
A space blanket
2 pr gloves
A warm hat
A headlamp
A flashlight
Spare batteries
2 lighters
A few snacks
2 tikka magazines
A plastic tarp 3’x5’
Toilet paper
30’ of 550 cord
License, baggies, rubber gloves, sharpener, zip ties
A spare knife
A full sized knife
A compass
Again this is a 28l pack. This is at least as much gear than I would take hunting for a slow day in the woods at 0 degrees f, ex I usually would not take both hard and soft shell jackets. What are people bringing with them that they need half-again as much or double the space?