No love for MR Pop Up 38?

[MTSasquatch]

Doesn't seem like a lot of mention about the Pop Up 38 when it comes to people talking about a do it all white tail pack. It seems like the perfect idea for carrying tree stands and sticks in and quarters out. With the Black Friday sales I'm thinking of picking one up. For those that have one, any cons?

I own a 38 and a metcalf. Hauled elk and deer with both. 38 frame handles a full bag of gear plus an elk hind quarter on the shelf no problem.

 

[Dirtydan]

Update: I picked one up. With the sales going on I couldn't resist. If I don't like it I'm sure I can get my money back on the classified forum. My guess is that it absolutely won't carry as good as my full size frame but will be so much nicer as a smaller package while up in a tree. Only time will tell
Thanks for everyone's input.

 

[Maverick1]

OP - sounds like you picked one up, nice! Good luck!

Just to add to this, in the event someone else considers this pack, here's a couple of additional thoughts:

Most of what has been posted in this thread is similar to my experience. (To cut to the chase: I purchased a Pop-Up 38 and ended up unloading it after a dozen or so hunts using my saddle setup this year. Read more if you'd like some additional information......)

Pro's:
+ Handles light to medium loads well, better than I expected.
+ The load lifters were functional; kind of hard to find that on a pack that compresses down as small as it does, and then can expand to a larger frame size.
+ Adjusting the yoke of the frame was easy and made a noticeable difference in overall comfort.
+ It is nice to have the ability to expand or shrink the overall height of the frame with the pop-up feature
+ Plenty of storage space
+ The beaver-tail section was nice. Mystery Ranch calls this the large outer stuff pocket. And it does a nice job of holding large stuff, outside of the main bag. My predator platform fit perfectly inside. (For anyone wondering, the Mission platform did NOT fit inside this section.)
+ The handle was nice. (Weird, I never thought it would be nice to have an handle on a backpack, but it was nice loading it into and out of the truck, canoe, treestand, basement, etc.)
+ The main bag and frame were expandable to be able to stuff a load between the frame and bag. Mystery Ranch calls this the overload shelf. (I tried this feature out at home with both a treestand and bulky clothing, but never used it in the field. This could also be used for packing meat.)
+ There were a couple of extra loops on the side of the main bag at the top and bottom (near the compression straps) where I was able to attach a couple of repair buckles and attach some webbing straps to lash down my heavier outer layers. (This minimized the need for additional pals webbing - and met my needs.)

Con's:
- The lid. By itself, the lids functions adequately: with the main bag relatively empty and the frame in the "down" position, it functions. However, with the frame extended in the "up" position, the main bag full of gear, and the top lid fill with gear, it is very cumbersome to open the top lid. Said differently, it was a PITA. This is ONE of the two primary reasons I unloaded this pack, the second being...
- The snow collar. (Mystery Ranch calls this the "top loading shroud".) Good concept, poor design/execution. - When the main bag is at "less-than-full" capacity, the snow collar folds down on itself, which is a good design concept. This becomes kind of an annoying hassle, though: in order to get at what is inside the main bag, you have to dig through the snow collar, which limits what you can see inside the bag. This was minor, really, but pretty annoying. I like to see what is inside the bag!
- When the main bag is at "full" capacity, and the snow collar fully extended, there really is no room for the lid. (Give it a try....stuff the bag full of blankets, extend the snow collar all the way up, and extend the frame all the way up....what happens to the lid? The snow collar is able to extend taller than the lid is able to go. Without a removable lid, this is a poor design. Either make the snow collar shorter, or the lid taller!) (This is a bit hard to describe: Jump to the 2:00 mark of this video on the Mystery Ranch website and pause the video: the top loading shroud is fully extended, take a look and see - where is the lid of the backpack? ). See next comments below....
- After some trial, I thought about removing the snow collar. - just cutting it off. However, Mystery Ranch installed the side-access zipper the full length of the main bag AND the snow collar. And I didn't want to monkey around with cutting around the snow collar and having a zipper flopping around.
- The "water bottle" pockets on the side of the pack were useless - to me. I attempted to use them to hold gatorade bottles. (I mention gatorade bottles as a size reference).. If the pack was upright, the gatorade bottles sat in the side pockets just fine. The minute I tipped the bag backwards or laid it down (to undo my climbing sticks or the platform strapped to the outside) the gatorade bottles would flop out. And, if I wanted to remove a gatorade bottle to get a drink, I had to loosen the side compression straps, which caused my climbing sticks on both side of the pack to come loose and need to be repacked. Annoying.
- In order to access the gear inside the beavertail, you have to unbuckle or loosen the side compression straps. (This is not unique to the Pop-Up 38; many backpacks share this design feature. Just something to note and consider for those that may not realize it. I found it a bit of a hassle: in order to take my predator platform out of the beaver tail - or to access any gear being stored inside the beavertail - I had to loosen the side compression straps, which caused my climbing sticks to flop away from the pack, the above-mentioned gatorade bottles to flop out of the side pockets, and the main bag to flop away from the frame.)
- The waistbelt does not lay flat; it is constantly sticking "out". What's the big deal? Up in the treestand, the pack seem to stick out from the tree more than I'd prefer. It kind of teeter-tottered around on the tree. Granted, I didn't think it would sit flat like a children's backpack would, but the profile was larger than I cared for, even in the most compact version I could make it. This WAS a nice feature for setting the backpack on the ground - since it stood up by itself - but the pack did not have a very flat profile in the tree, in the canoe, or in the back of the truck with all my other gear (Minor).

Quite a few negatives for me on the pros and cons list above. As another angle (I really wanted this frame and system to work out!) I purchased a mule bag and day pack lid, but this didn't work out, either. Why?
- The mule bag attached to the pop-up frame perfectly, although it did not have the pals webbing on the bottom of the mule bag to keep the bottom of the mule bag in place.
- The daypack lid was too wide to attach to the narrow top section of the pop-up frame. (Sure, I was physically able to attach the daypack lid to the frame, but it was kind of clumsy and there was a lot of "blousing").
- The cost: $350 for the pop-up 38 + $125 for the mule bag + $90 for the daypack lid = $565; that's well into the cost of other high-end packs and frames.

 

[CAD73]

Doesn't seem like a lot of mention about the Pop Up 38 when it comes to people talking about a do it all white tail pack. It seems like the perfect idea for carrying tree stands and sticks in and quarters out. With the Black Friday sales I'm thinking of picking one up. For those that have one, any cons?

My father (69 yo) used a 28 this year for the first time and seemed to really like it. We generally don't quarter our whitetails, hunting in VT. Good ol' dragging and/or ATV.

 

[North61]

I bought one and am delighted with it. I tend to overpack and the small capacity forces me to "gear down" It's comfortable up to 75 pounds or so which is all an old man should carry. I try to get my base weight with camping and hunting gear down at the high 20 pound mark, leaving about 50 pounds available for meat. My son can now be loaded up like a mule while his dad takes it relatively easy. I do use a bigger pack though when the trip is longer than 2 days. I have a long back and the load lifters really work. I do agree about the side pockets but I carry my water bottle on an add on belt pouch. You can make this pack work as a day/overnight pack and a 75-80 pound load limit.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Used my 38 this year. Really liked it. People have hit most of my pros and cons so I won’t repeat.

biggest peeve is the lid. @Maverick1 explains it Well. It just doesn’t seem to work well when the pack is loaded more than halfway full. I wish MR would have designed this pack after the pintler / 3DAP pattern with a zip down the back. Overall, I like the pack and how the new frame functions Though.

 

[Layrk15]

I found the pop-up 28 on sale and for a day pack, it performs well for me so far!