Jacket Suggestion

[wmp1991]

looking at kuiu guide jacket, kuiu puffy, or the FL uncompahgre. any suggestions from past experience would be awesome!

hunting first week of october in central idaho - not sure how much rain it will get up there and i see where it can get around 20 degrees at night that time of year.

 

[blackovis]

My favorite has always been the FL Uncompahgre Puffy. It's not the lightest option but it has good insulating qualities and the water resistance has been great also. Not waterproof.

Guide Jacket has good DWR, a swift wind seems to cut through it more compared to some other jackets I've owned. My favorite un-insulated outer jacket has been the Sitka Timberline personally which has the seam taped Windstopper and a great DWR. It is also more durable than the Guide jacket although a touch noisier but keeps the cold wind out while maintaining good breathability.

 

[huntnidaho]

Last year North Central Idaho got a ton of rain in October. I spent a lot of time in my rain gear. I teamed a Sitka Cloudburst jacket with a sitka traverse shirt and merino base. It did dip below freezing a couple of mornings and I put on a Kuiu Kenai jacket over the merino instead of the traverse for that. Worked pretty good.

I have the Guide Jacket and would not have wanted that to be my primary shell last year for that week. It sheds water well but when everything is wet for a week straight, it won't be able to hold up. It also doesn't cut wind too good on its own. It's best for somewhat dry weather with intermittent rain/snow that don't last for days on end. It breathes very well for hiking and mild element protection and is quiet. I used it last year for a week on a deer hunt in Montana. The weather was too nice most of the time to keep it on, low 40s in the morning to high 50s in afternoon and sunny. I would really only put it on for glassing sessions and that was it. Kinda wish I woulda just had a more compressible down jacket for that but it worked.

HTH

 

[ColoradoHunterHiker]

The guide jacket is ions behind the other two as far as insulation. It's more of a top layer (so long as it's not dumping snow/rain). The Superdown from Kuiu is small, warm, and light weight. But, it's pricy, down (dwr coated, but not waterproof) and sometimes it feels fragile - although it's not. The Kuiu kenai is a great synthetic that you can wear when you're moving/hunting. That's my go to for cool weather hunts that aren't just dumping. If it starts dumping rain/snow, I grab the guide to put on top, or a rain jacket. The kenai is not as packable, though.

As stated above, for what I'd imagine you're doing, the FL is a really hard jacket to beat. It's warm, synthetic (so not a worry about rain/snow), and pretty light/small for what it is...

I'd do the Kuiu Kenai or the FL.... just my $.02 though.

Good luck.