Puffy vs active piece (sitka ambient, gohunt atmosphere, etc)

[guitarpreston]

Have both a puffy and a Final Approach jacket (think Sitka ambient) and debating which one to leave for a sept deer hunt in Co. Last year, I hunted about the same time and the same unit and didn't have the FA jacket, but ended up using both my puffy and my Jetstream. Fast forward to picking up the FA after the fact and really liking it, debating if I should pack it or the puffy or both. Not a huge weight difference, 13oz for the FA and 20 oz for the puffy, a negligible amount in the name of comfort. But both take up space.

 

[WeiserBucks]

I wouldn't be caught without a puffy in the mountains. I take mine everywhere.

 

[patagonialuke]

I bring both.

I always like to have a traditional, very warm puffy with me as a just-in-case layer, primarily because they offer better warmth-to-weight ratios (and often weather resistance) than any active insulation I've tested.

But that traditional puffy only gets used when I'm stationary for a while. When I'm moving and it's cold, that's where I might break out an active insulator.

For CO archery season, my traditional puffy was always in my pack, and I wore my active insulator during most of my early-morning and late-evening hikes. Both stayed in my pack throughout most of the daylight hours, but I was happy to have both.

I'd feel comfortable ditching the big puffy if I always had my sleeping bag with me. I'm gonna try that this year with Sitka's bag since it should work well enough while sitting / glassing.