New Gear Review 2016

[Deertick]

Well, I really liked it. Personally, I really like the 1850 cc pack ... perfect for day hunts/day pack needs. Plenty of room for an insulation layer, gloves, game bags, etc. Seems very sturdy, and yet it is quite lightweight. I\'m sure there are other great packs out there -- but they cost 2x or 3x what the Kuiu does. I can\'t justify those.

I can\'t imagine someone would be real disappointed with it. They may someday want \"more\" -- but I think that\'s actually a pretty small demographic group.

 

[Baby Huey]

Aku Serai ? ice climbing mountaineering boots with Gore-Tex and primaloft insulation. I bought these for my mountain goat hunt (anticipating snow and ice), but used them on my moose hunt. They ran about a ? size bigger than my normal size, and were a little too big for backpacking 6 miles. On my moose hunt it snowed and rained quite a bit and these boots kept my feet warm. Surprisingly even though they were saturated, the Gore-Tex kept all the water out. They are a good cold weather boot that I will use when I don?t have to pack too far in.

Kahtoola KTS Steel Crampons ? These are 1? spike crampons. I thought I would need them for my mountain goat hunt, as there is the potential for ice and snow at 13,000? in Sept/Oct. I had hurt my knee a couple years ago hunting in the snow when my foot slipped on the snow going downhill and I went down like an accordion, writhing in pain - but was able to finish the hunt. I didn?t want that to happen in the future. The KTS units were used on the rain saturated ground, vegetation and rocks. The spikes dug into the wet terrain and were phenomenal in providing exceptional traction to navigate very steep terrain. I?ll use these for very snowy and sloppy wet conditions.

First Lite Grizzly Gloves ? These gloves worked great. They are the ?lobster? style where the trigger finger is separate and the other fingers are in a mitten. The insulation is wool and it worked very well. I used a lightweight glove inside. I didn?t get them soaked from the elements, so I didn?t get to test the waterproofness. But for being a warm glove, they were great. They are pretty bulky, but that is what I expected as I wanted a warm cold weather glove. They have elastic bands on each that has a tether to the glove. You attach the band around your wrist, and then when you need to take them off, just pull them off and they are always with you. You won?t need to worry about clamping them between your legs or stuffing them in you jacket ? they will be attached at your wrists so they won?t be lost.

Black Eagle (BE) Rampage Shafts and Firenock outserts, nocks and vanes. I purchased the 0.001? tolerance and they were/are great. Part of the reason I chose these shafts is that BE measures the tolerances the entire shaft length, and not just a 28.5? section of the shaft. The Firenock components are very good and performed great. I have another post on this arrow build.

Benchmade folding Osborne style 943. Well made knife and held the edge nicely. Used this and a Havalon on my mountain goat and they both worked very well.

FHF Garmin Rhino GPS pouch. This was a great buy for my Rhino; wish I would have found this a long time ago. I placed it on my shoulder strap of my backpack and it worked very well.

Sitka Timberline pants. These are a great colder weather pant, or a pant where you will be crawling or scooting a lot. The knees and seat are reinforced and very tough. The built in foam knee pads are great too (they can be removed if you don?t want them). These held up great in some harsh conditions. A bit too hot for early archery as there are no vents, but a very solid pant.

The only disappointment I had was with a Big Agnes sleeping bag. I purchased the Encampment 15, which is a synthetic bag. The temps on my moose hunt were in the 20?s a couple of nights and I absolutely froze in that 15 degree bag. I had to put on top and bottom base layers, pants and 2 more jackets to stay warm enough. This bag had the sleeve for the pad, which is a nice design, but the bag itself was much colder than it was touted to be. Backcountry.com took it back and I have a Mountain Hardware synthetic bag on the way as a replacement.