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That's not correct. The XR was a trail bike, the CR was the motocross race bike. CRF is the new motocross race bike nomenclature. The new upgraded trail (kind of a cross over) is the CRF-250X or CRF-450X. It has a different transmission gear ratio built for trail riding and 18" rear tire (more rubber for a softer more comfortable ride and less pinch flats) among some other features making it an ideal trail bike. The MX bikes like the YZ(F), CRF, KXF, RMZ, SXF, FC models from various manufacturers are race bikes and will have a tendency to get hot if you lug them around trails. They are built to go fast and jump things.
I would stick with the YZ250FX (or WR250F), CRF250X, or one of the Husky or KTM trail 4 strokes. Throw in a Rekluse auto clutch and its a nice bike for the backwoods hunting.
If he does go with a more Enduro / Hare-scramble ready machine... he'd likely have to do things like shave the seat foam down, or possibly even need to consider a lowering link for the rear suspension link and possibly raising the fork tubes the max amount in the triple clamps to help lower seat height.
Thing is the heavier all the junk ya gotta lug around on your back or on the seat, the more and more you're gonna need to be able to easily reach the ground to dab with your feet in sketchy sections, typically at the expense of some suspension travel height, if need be.
I freaking love wickedly powerful, tall, long-legged Desert Bikes myself, I mean hell, I rode a KX500. and before that a Husky 250 XC that had like 13.5in out back and a 39in seat height! And me with a 30" inseam. But it'd be a hard sell to convince me to ride any bikes that tall into a hunt. Just because the effect of all that loading it down would have on making slow-going handling be much more exhausting to the user aboard such a tall bike.
Don't get me wrong, when un-burdened, tall bikes usually rock because the plush suspension. if adjusted right, more for offroad rather than MX/SX, lets you chug thru a lot of stuff amazingly well. But... that's when it's just your ody nd maybe a hydration pack at most. So you have high maneuver-ability and not a lot of pendulum effect with a low amount of pack weight and not much radius away from your back. But once the pack and weight starts getting heavier and further away from your back in term of radius it extends from the center of your bodyline? The more that weight will have a pendulum affect fighting against you that your torso strength will have to make-up for during the ride. Not the time you want to also be throwin into the mix the added challenge of only being able to put the just tiptoe of one foot down on the ground when you come to stop and you need to scootch your butt to once side of the seat to be able to do it. With all that weight on your back of a packout? Naw man, that would be brutal on you! Especially if the ride out happen to have a long downhill single-track with a lotta slow turns in it. That kinda stuff makes your forearms BURN from having to be braking the whole way down! And that gets amplified exponentially with more weight or riding two-up! Your forearms on a long meandering downhill will be begging for mercy! So you'll want that extra confidence with packout weight of being able to dab your feet decently while still remaining seated during this slow-going technical sections. Sometimes it's like a trailline cuts thru some rock/hardpack at some spot so there is super deep rut you temporarily have to pass thru where your pegs scrape the top of that rut... times like that it's very reassuring to be able to dab more easily with buncha weight on your back.
I get it though, wanting to buy a bike that you'll be happy with year-round, not just hunting season. But if the suspension is any bit aggressive and stiff like for MX/SX type of setup, it's gonna sap you more quickly of your energy in those tight technical sections, as apposed to a more true trailbike oriented machine where the suspension is sprung more plush intentionally and they try to have lower seat height design, on purpose. Because it inspires confidence in newer or more aging riders. And you basically become that category when you strap on 100+ Lbs of packout on your back. With that load on, it's about just getting back out safely and not falling! It is about easiest to control and most forgiving ride setup for that application. Like right off the bat on a more race-ready type of machine you're likely gonna have to throw on a heavy flywheel to improve low-end tractabillity and smooth how how the powerband on the bike comes on, cause with a packout on you... whoo lawdy Netown's Laws Man! You are soo going to be feeling that hard acceleration amplified in it's affect on your muscles with all that extra weight and inertia your arms are gonna have to deal with when stopping or accelerating. It takes it toll, bigtime by the end of the ride. And like I've said before, on Dirtbikes? Fatigue = crashes.
