Hunting multi day pack or backpacking multi day pack?

[mnoland30]

Flatbow, it does look like a very nice pack, and only two pounds heavier than mine. But the price! I've probably owned 15 packs over my lifetime, and the K3 costs more than all of them put together. As soon as I win the lottery, I'll try one.

 

[Flatbow]

I hear yeah, the price on these new packs is a tough pill to swallow.
For several years now I have been "upgrading" my gear. So for Christmas, birthdays, fathers Day and so on all I do is hopefully another gear upgrade.
Be well, shoot well!

 

[RockyRandy]

You need to check out Initial Ascent IA2K . I was at the western hunting expo in Salt Lake City and was planning on buying a mystery ranch pack and I went by Initial Ascent booth and listen to there sell pitch and then they had a pack there loaded up to 50lbs. and I put it on and was amazed at how good it felt. They use a carbon fiber frame and with the design of it it leave a air pocket in the middle of your back so that you never get all sweaty. I hunt the desert here in Idaho with temp all the time in the 80's and have never taken my pack off with my back soaked. It has the meat shelve so if you get something you can bone it out and get a-lot of it out on your way back. I have hunted with for 2 years now and have no complaints. Worth a look.

 

[Pdvdh]

Mnoland30,

This was hard for me to believe but with a properly fitting hunting pack there should be NO WEIGHT at all on your shoulders. Your hips carry the load. Even with a quarter of an Elk on your back the weight on your shoulders should be minimal.

An exaggeration. I've backpack hunted in Alaska for 42 years now. Never had a backpack that didn't suspend loads on the shoulders from the shoulder straps. And I wouldn't want a pack that didn't.

The heavier the pack, the greater the load on your shoulders.

I suspect the weight distribution on my heavily loaded backpack is 75% shoulders, 25% waist belt. And never less than that on my shoulders.
Hiking in to hunt, with only food, equipment and rifle in/on my pack (a 45-50lb pack weight), still 55-65% of the weight is on my shoulder straps.

When I try to transfer excessive loads to my waist belt, the heavy load and the tight waist belt required, cuts off blood flow to my legs. Miserable...

 

[ofbandg]

To those who can carry heavy loads on their shoulders, you have my admiration. My first backpacking experiences were with military cargo packs in the infantry and they had a thin web belt around your waist and somewhat padded shoulder straps. They were just a large bag and your shoulders carried the majority of the load. When I got into recreational packing with a real padded waist belt it was almost too good to be true. Those were external frame packs with some adjustments and I eventually learned I could set the straps so all the weight was on my hips if I stood up straight and the more I leaned forward the more I took on my shoulders. I have done that with every pack since. I know the old time packers didn't even have waist belts on their packs, so hauling heavy loads fully on your shoulders is possible, but I don't think I could ever have enjoyed packing if that were the case.

 

[brcfo_outdoors]

An exaggeration. I've backpack hunted in Alaska for 42 years now. Never had a backpack that didn't suspend loads on the shoulders from the shoulder straps. And I wouldn't want a pack that didn't.

The heavier the pack, the greater the load on your shoulders.

I suspect the weight distribution on my heavily loaded backpack is 75% shoulders, 25% waist belt. And never less than that on my shoulders.
Hiking in to hunt, with only food, equipment and rifle in/on my pack (a 45-50lb pack weight), still 55-65% of the weight is on my shoulder straps.

When I try to transfer excessive loads to my waist belt, the heavy load and the tight waist belt required, cuts off blood flow to my legs. Miserable...

I would highly encourage you to look at alternative pack options because a good fitting and well designed pack should put the weight on your hips without cutting off circulation to your legs. This hip pads should sit right on your pelvic bones where there are no major blood vessels and articulate as you walk. There are a lot of great options on the market right now and lots of guidance on how to get them to fit properly. 25% on your shoulders and 75% on your hips would be a more reasonable/realistic minimum by what I would consider today's standards, even more so in favor of your hips. I met a guy backpacking who had a recently broken collar bone and had the load lifter straps on his Kuiu pack synched up so that the straps didn't touch his shoulder. While that is an extreme example, I also run a Kuiu and can still work my shoulders with the pack on, I would say maybe 10% of the weight in on my shoulders max. You've been doing it for long enough that it seems like you have a system that works for you, but I still think you would benefit from a change and it might keep you in the woods longer. It will help with fatigue and long term wear on your back and body.

 

[Pdvdh]

I and my son both have quality packs and harnesses. Has never been our experience carrying 75% of pack weight on hips and 25% on shoulders, when our packs weigh 125lbs.

It's the reverse: ~75% (~94lbs) on shoulders.
~25% (31lbs) on hip belt.

I can't imagine any pack hip belt gonna carry 94lbs of weight. No belt could be tight enough to carry 94lbs on my hips. They slide off my hips, and the weight is transferred to my shoulder straps. When I've tried to tighten my Barney's Sport Chalet hip belt to carry additional weight on my hips, it has to be so tight that it cuts off blood supply to my legs.

I'd have to have female hips to keep 94lbs of weight on my hips.

That's been my experience over more than 4 decades of packing out Alaskan game.

 

[dave_halsey]

Let's get this post pointed back in the right direction. So far im looking at packs that are light, durable, can carry 100 or a little more pounds. Let's hear your vote between Exo, Stone Glacier, Kuiu, Kifaru, Sitka or any other hunt brands.

 

[sp6x6]

I like to stay lite.But exo is a good compromise.The 2000 my favorite payroll top expands and lid make it 2950. I run without lid til late fall.The 3500 goes to 4200 with top and lid, good for weekend or more type trips.My Kuiu ultra is the lightest ,but not as rugged

 

[Flatbow]

An exaggeration. I've backpack hunted in Alaska for 42 years now. Never had a backpack that didn't suspend loads on the shoulders from the shoulder straps. And I wouldn't want a pack that didn't.

The heavier the pack, the greater the load on your shoulders.

I suspect the weight distribution on my heavily loaded backpack is 75% shoulders, 25% waist belt. And never less than that on my shoulders.
Hiking in to hunt, with only food, equipment and rifle in/on my pack (a 45-50lb pack weight), still 55-65% of the weight is on my shoulder straps.

When I try to transfer excessive loads to my waist belt, the heavy load and the tight waist belt required, cuts off blood flow to my legs. Miserable...

Not an exaggeration at all. No offence but as stated by another on here the at most should be 25% on shoulders 75% on hips.
If you do have a quality pack then I would tend to think that the hip belt is too low for it to be cutting off circulation. Might need to adjust (shorten) the torso section of the pack.
Please do yourself a favor and talk to the manufacturer of your pack or watch a video on how to properly fit a pack. I know EXO Has one that I am sure works for many styles.
You will still have to have the belt pretty tight so be sure to were a very thin belt with your pants, like a webbed belt. I use Kuiu belts.
You really can get most the weight off of your shoulder with a good pack such as EXO, Kuiu, kifaru, SG, Etc.

 

[Wyo37]

Let's get this post pointed back in the right direction. So far im looking at packs that are light, durable, can carry 100 or a little more pounds. Let's hear your vote between Exo, Stone Glacier, Kuiu, Kifaru, Sitka or any other hunt brands.

Mystery Ranch works for me. (Beartooth 80)

 

[dfanonymous]

Let's get this post pointed back in the right direction. So far im looking at packs that are light, durable, can carry 100 or a little more pounds. Let's hear your vote between Exo, Stone Glacier, Kuiu, Kifaru, Sitka or any other hunt brands.

If you don't already have a preference then you're not going its probably going to be a coin toss for you.

I use the mystery ranch Marshall. It's "heavy" at around 7 lbs, but since most of the packs all use similar materials, its clear material thickness and layers can be attributed to "durability."Basically in my opinion, if it's too light then it's not as durable.

That said, I thought this was for multi day pack hunts, I didn't read through all the post but I don't know if going for 5-7 days without resupply, a 4500 size pack is going to be good enough…you'd probably want a pack around 6000 ci at a minimum.

I have the Marshall by Mystery Ranch, and anything after 5 days of food starts to really limit space for gear…

 

[cahunter805]

Let's get this post pointed back in the right direction. So far im looking at packs that are light, durable, can carry 100 or a little more pounds. Let's hear your vote between Exo, Stone Glacier, Kuiu, Kifaru, Sitka or any other hunt brands.

Packs are a personal preference and fit is IMO most important. If you have the ability to go try on a few different brands you may find one fits your body type better than others.
If no local stores have any to try on you might have to order a few and test them yourself. A few dollars for return shipping is well worth getting a pack that fits properly. Be sure to measure your torso and get a frame that works for you.
I run a Kuiu Pro and find it fits me well. Stone glacier is another great choice.

 

[GabeC31]

I'm currently running the kifaru fulcrum. Love that I can run it in day mode at 1800 CI with the 2 wings and if I need to pack out I have 6000 CI in the main bag plus the load shelf if needed. I backpack quite a bit and it has worked really well.

However I have liked my stone glacier sky archer and sky guide as well. But I just can't stay away from kifaru.