Mystery Ranch Pop Up 40

[drewhellriegel]

I have recently acquired a MR Pop Up 40 and believe it will be a great day pack/meat hauler. My question is, has anyone used the meat hauler to carry a stuff sack with over night gear to turn the day pack capabilities into a multiple day pack to carry a spike camp or something of the like? Thanks in advance!

 

[Desk Jockey]

Welcome. I have. It works fine. OR makes some good dry bags but anyone will do. Just make sure you pack it so that everthing doesn’t ball up at the bottom.

 

[drewhellriegel]

Welcome. I have. It works fine. OR makes some good dry bags but anyone will do. Just make sure you pack it so that everthing doesn’t ball up at the bottom.

How much extra were you able to pack? How many more days were you able to extend your trip? Do you have any pictures of your set up? Thanks for the reply!

 

[Desk Jockey]

The biggest thing I have packed with a pop up is all 4 quarters plus scraps of a 120# white tail. Figure total weight in the 75# zip code. It does fine but doesn’t carry aLL that weight and bulk as well as a full size frame and pack. In part that is because bigger packs will tend to be taller and place the load closer to your spine, vs the pop up is going to place more load lower and further away from your spine which elongates the lever arm for the load.

mine also handled a 40-50l dry bag on a trip. How many days that gives you is gonna depend on you and how you pack. I am pretty comfy for 1-2 nights in a 40L pack. Once I am out for a couple of nights, the additonal gear is mostly consumables and I could go 7-10 days easily with another 50L of food and fuel. However, my biggest pack is 80L and if I was gonna be in the woods for a week, i would take that instead.

you could definitely stretch the pop up for longer trips but IMO they don’t carry quite as well as a full size frame and pack for those kind of loads. Last comment is that they are kind of sTrappy. Settling the load on the meat shelf and getting it strapped in is a bit of a pain in the ass. You are not going to be wanting to undo and redo all that access your gear all day long That is buried in a dry bag on the lod shelf. More of a convenience issue but worth mentioning.

 

[Macintosh]

Agree with deskjocky 100%. It wont carry weight as well as a “real” load hauling pack, but for lighter loads in a smaller footprint it may be better than the “real load carrying pack” for some—thats why I like them. That said, to me a 40l pack is an overnight size already unless you are talking midwinter conditions and gear. I have a popup 18 and 28 that I use as day packs, the 28 for really cold conditions. You can put plenty in the load shelf to add additional capacity, but imo an entire 40l pack behind a dry bag is going to eat up all of your meat-carrying ability for the trip home (unless you are assuming multiple trips), as well as you’ll have all of the stuff in the 40l pack an additional 8-10” behind your back, its going to carry like crap withbthat weight so far away from your center of gravity. So yes, it’ll work in a pinch, but Id pack differently if doing that, and its not ideal.

 

[drewhellriegel]

ive been looking at different set ups that I can run, will try a few out and see what works best. Thanks for the input!