2013- New Equipment Post Season Review

[Z Barebow]

I like to review the new gear I purchased for the recent elk season and post my opinion. Please post your own reviews.

Big Agnes Fly Creek 2- I tested this tent on an Aug scouting trip and put it in to service on my MT hunt. The tent performed well under some pretty tough conditions. (My previous shelter was a 8x10 sil tarp, which never would have made it on this hunt!). The tent held up under a heavy/wet 12” snowfall. The sides did sag in after the fly-guy lines pulled up. (The snow that I knocked of the tent during the night slide down the sides.) But I re-rigged and everything was fine. When it was above freezing, there was condensation but it accumulated on the fly, not inside the tent. The zippers did freeze one morning, but everything was wet and it was cold (~ 15 deg). Only complaint I do have is when you open the vestibule and you are pitched uphill, moisture can drop inside the tent as you unzip. Grade-A

BA Lost Ranger 15 and BA Insulated Air Core- I was skeptical on the LR with almost no insulation on bottom of bag, as it depends upon the pad. But it is a great combo. The pad slides into a slot in the bag, which helps deal with the reoccurring issue of sliding off the pad. I slept in merino wool long underwear/undershirt which helped stay warm. I also use a sleeping bag liner. (See below). Although I wasn’t toasty warm, I was never “cold”. Grade-A

Sea to Summit Bag Liner- I wanted to keep my new down bag clean and make it last longer, so I purchased a bag liner. The liner weighs in at less than 8 ounces. They claim to add 15 deg of warmth to a bag, but I doubt that. But it did keep my bag clean. You avoid the feeling of your skin touching cold nylon shell of bag. I also pulled it over my face on the cold nights, which kept my face warm. (VS pulling your face into the bag, which is a no-no due to condensation. ) It was worth the softball sized space it takes up in my pack. Grade-A

Trangia Stove- I used this while in the backcountry and had zero complaints. It left no residue on the bottom of my pot. (vs my Esbit stove) It took longer to heat my water (vs my testing) but I attribute this to altitude and very cold water. (Some of my water had slush in it.) I was using HEET and 12 oz would have lasted me ~ 6 days (One day short of my goal). Not a fault of stove. Grade-A

Cabelas Coolmax Sock liners- I bought two pair in an effort to keep my feet from blistering. Didn't work. I think I would have done better with a thin wool sock under a regular wool sock. They were cold on my feet at night as I slept in them. And they STINK. Not in quality but REEK. I used them as bear repellent around camp. I couldn't keep them in my tent. They get burn holes very easily. I abandoned them for a single pair of Smartwool socks since I already had blisters on my toes. I will try find a lightweight wool sock as a liner in the future. Grade-F

Hoyt Vantage- I purchased this bow used this past winter (New to me!). It is a sweet shooting rig. It has a mild cam ½. As a barebow finger shooter, I need something that is foregiving. This bow puts the arrow where it supposed to go. (If I could always do my job, it would be perfect). I did have some issues with mechanical items freezing, but not a fault of bow (My cable slide would freeze and rest/plunger froze). These issues were remedied when I returned to the truck with some lightweight oil. But since I did not draw on an animal, much less shoot, I can’t give you a full report. Grade- Incomplete.

Havalon Piranta- Same as above, no dead critter, unable to use. Grade-Incomplete

Caribou Game Bags- Same as above, no dead critter, unable to use. Grade-Incomplete

Razortrick Broad Head 125G- They fly great in practice. Same as above, no dead critter, unable to use. But I suspect some local whitetails will find out very soon. Grade-Incomplete

One dud in the bunch. Let's hear your equipment reviews.

[cnelk]

I had 2 new pieces of gear this year

1-
Wolverine 8" Realtree Scent-Lok 'Antelope' boots
They were a great asset.
Not much to break in.
Keep my feet the driest I have had - even with all the rain
Looked for them onsale - didnt break the bank
Grade - A




2-
PSE 2013 'Drive'
Absolutely love this bow
Set at 62lb
Its quiet, and light enough
Grade - A

[Swede]

Tasco trail cam, 1 1/2 seasons use, DEAD. At least it was cheap.

[BrentLaBere]

Z barebow,
Right on with the review towards the BA Fly Creek 2. Only thing I really saw different in the snow was the sides collapsing due to the weight of the snow and not the guides coming undone or popping out of the ground. This resulted in condensation inside the tent towards morning. I also had the poles freeze together when taking down the tent. Minor problem overall. I would give mine an A as well. Upgrades might be a tent loft and a foot print. I would like to do away with the 3 bags for everything and wrap them in the footprint. It might be a wash in oz saved and allow protecting from rock and branches that could ruin the tent floor.

I had a therm a rest i used for my pad. I thought it worked great for the price and comparing it to last years model of sleeping on rocks and twigs it was a huge upgrade! I never slid off the pad either. I had heard others talk about sliding off BA products but never ran into the issue with mine.

Sleeping bag is a BA Mcalpin 5 degree. Again a major upgrade for me and glad I made it. Never once was cold and if anything in the first hunt I had I was warm a few nights leaving it unzipped. Very comfortable bag that compresses down very small. One upgrade I would like to make is the suppression straps to save even more room.

All three of these are expensive products but I am happy to say I didn't pay full price on any of them. Waiting for the off season to come up and wait for the right sale is key!

I had purchased some merino layers and worth every penny as well. I did however find I did sweat rather easy in them and was cold until it dried out in the early morning wind. I feel it worked better as a system in the snow than it did in the heat.

Bear spray UDAP 18HP.....didnt use but I feel you could get away with a smaller one to save on weight. This one was rated for 7 seconds at 35 feet

Solomon quest 4D GTX boot was awesome. Best boot I have owned with great ankle support. I typically just wore a mid range smart wool sock and it kept my feet warm. They did however get chilly at times walking through the snow. Early season they did make my feet sweat which made it mandatory to dry out mid day when breaks were provided. They did take awhile to dry out, this was the only knock I had to give them so far.

One item I would love to add is a spotting scope. I do not own a very nice piece of glass yet and it is something I would love to have. I have emailed Paul a couple times talking about the Razor HD and which one to go with.

[Z Barebow]

Brent- RE: Sides collapsing. It was two fold. I think my guys loosened after initial setup and I never retightened them. (I was hunting!) It would have helped keep the snow from the sides. I was also sloppy in guy placement. If I knew it was going to snow like that, I would have been more particular about how far to guy out from tent. I did buy a footprint for my tent and it is cheap insurance. It fits into a sack the same size and tent stakes. I think they do make a loft for it also, but I am content with the existing spots in the tent. My poles were frozen also!

How waterproof were those boots? (I have thought about those also). Like you said, I have a full season of sale watching to buy replacements for my current boots. (Like you, I did not pay full price on any of my BA gear.)

I forgot to add the spotting scope also. I currently have a old Bushnell w/o zoom. But I am hoping to hunt CO in 2015, and the unit has tons of treeline and above elk. Looking at Vortex 11-33 50 mm straight and new compact tripod. But I have two years on that purchase;).

[mtnmutt]

Thank you both for the BA fly creek ul2 review in snow. I dodged a snowstorm for my back country deer hunt, so I had no experience in those conditions. I have had heavy frost and high wind gusts 20-60 mph and it held perfectly.

For the guylines, I do not use the included sliders. I use a taunt line hitch that tightens up the guylines better than those sliders. This however could be user error on my part. I tighten up my guylines once a day and have not had an issue using a taunt line hitch. I use the same hitch on my BA base camp tent when gusts were >60mph.

[mtnmutt]

For your alcohol stove, try using denatured alcohol and not heet. It is a better fuel. A test at lower elevation may not reveal a difference, however, at higher elevation you will see better results with denatured alcohol.

[mtnmutt]

Silk sock liners worked better for me than coolmax liners. This was my first year using liners. Last year on a 5 mile back country hunt, I destroyed my feet. This summer, I experimented after having hunting boots, hiking boots and hiking shoes cause foot problems. I do not need the ankle support and climbing over pixie sticks with heavy footwear gets old. This combo worked for me in rain and light snow.

Trail running goretex shoes - very nimble going through the forest and dry out fast at night if you remove the inserts at night. I am sold on trail running shoes even for backpacking. They held up fine with some rock and sharp branch encounters. My feet were never injured.

Shortie outdoor research gaiters - jury is still out if I need these. My first lite wool pants did a good job keeping rain from going into the top of the shoe. Shoes get wet no matter what gaiter I ever try.

Silk liner. No blisters this year.

Defeet merino wool trail 19 socks. Never had cold feet this year which surprised me. These will dry faster than the smartwool hiking socks.

First lite wool pants - I was surprised that I liked these for the entire season 18-70 degree weather. I never needed to use long underwear since I used rain pants if it was pouring rain or I was sitting for an hour on very cold mornings. In light rain, they did great.

Roll a cot - my first cot. Took practice to setup and sometimes the fittings caused a fit, but it is by far the best unexpected purchase I made this season. Needs something under the feet to prevent wear spots on tent floor and tent footprint.

Cabelas twin size tan foam pad. I had the double and loved it, so I bought the smaller version for the cot. It worked great on my cot, but I put a thermarest between the cot's side poles to get the foam pad to lay flat. Best camping sleep I ever had was with this combo.

[>>>---WW---->]

I'll have to second Z barebow on the little Trangia alcohol stove. Although my little aluminum beer bottle stove will boil water just a hair quicker, the Trangia has the ability to store enough fuel for several boils in itself. After you have boiled your water you can snuff it out, put the cap on it and save what fuel is left for the next burn. Just a good solid little stove!

[Z Barebow]

WW- It was your review that got me going on the Trangia. Thank you!

[bnsafe]

1. Kodiak canvas tent- awesome tent, can set it up with one person, did not leak a drop even in the monsoons
2. assolo sassalong boots- great once I got the right fit, they run narrow so my wides fit well
3. badlands 2200 pack- again, nice, I packed my elk out with it yet used it as a daypack, it worked well an was comfortable(esp to shoot off of )
4. cutco knife- went thru my elk like butter an still extremely sharp
5. closeout crx 32 bow- best bow I have ever owned, feel like im one with it
6. slicktricks- nuff said

7. alps mountaineer framepack- no load lifters, left it at home

[JimKirk]

elk mtn gear slip system umbrella. I put this one thru alot of elements. it was a great sun shelter, a great instant rain shelter in a thunderstorm and a very quickly deployed as a blind as well. the ability to use it as a hiking staff instead of having to just carry it was nice. i will use it on backpacks as well. highly recommended.

[BrentLaBere]

Z,
The Solomon boots were perfect on the waterproofing. I actually thought I was having problems with them right away but it was only from the heat that I was sweating a bit. The goretex is a double edged sword, very waterproof but they don't breathe well or dry out quick. I did add a spray layer of nikwax waterproofing before the later season hunt in the snow. Again no problems at all with water and my feet stayed warm for the most part with just one layer of socks.

[diggerson]

Didn't test a lot of new gear this year, but used lots of the same gear as those above, so I'll add some commentary on resiliency after a few seasons...

BA Fly Creek 2 - Only used this tent once this year during an overnight antelope hunt, and on a few scouting/camping trips this summer. Have had this tent for three seasons now, using it on a few 1-3 nighters in the past. I never took on snow with it, but had some heavy t-storms over the summer and it performed well. IMO it is a great lightweight tent, and though it is not considered a 4 season tent, as Z mentioned, I think with some forethought on rigging it can work just fine for 3.5 seasons. I've actually been thinking about trying to rig some snap buckles in a way to use the fly and poles as an open floor shelter (leaving the actual tent at home), but I have yet to need to shave so much pack weight that the weight of the complete setup is an issue. Grade - A (side note: During a very rainy elk season, I used an 18 yr old Eureka 2-man backpacking tent at basecamp, and never spiked out from there to use the BA. The Eureka is tall enough, and just long enough, that I can fit a short Wal-Mart cot in it to keep me off the ground. This old tent did great and kept me dry, even with sometimes torrential rain off and on for days. Only real problem is the zippers are starting to fail. But so are some of my body components, as I get older... )

Asolo Sassalong Boots - 3rd season in these as well, and they have been great! Bnsafe mentioned the narrow fit, and these have been great for my narrow feet. I read some reviews before buying these from Sierra Trading Post a few years ago (dirt cheap, I might add!) that said some had problems with the sole separating from the upper, but I haven't experienced this. I've used these boots in all types of terrain, from antelope hunting to elk hunting, and they've held up from both miles and mashing. Like any boot, this may not be the best boot for everyone, but they have been great for me. Grade - A

Jetboil Flash - No problems lighting, and boiled water relatively fast. Lost count of how many boils I got out of fuel canister. This stove works good for me, and I have no reason to test anything else. So, without comparison to other stoves... grade - A


New Items:

Core4Element Torrent Rain Jacket - Got to test this jacket extensively this season. It did it's job. Wish I had ordered the pants, I got soaked, but only from the waist down. It packs down nice and compact by rolling it into the hood. I did catch one of the velcro sleeve cuff fasteners on some brush that somehow separated the rubber top of the fastener from the Velcro piece, but that is easily fixed. There are probably lighter and better performing rain gear out there, but for the money and my needs... Grade - B

Wildgame Innovations Axe IR 4 Game Cams - This was my first year using game cams, and that was a fun new element to scouting and hunting. These worked okay. Battery life seemed to be good, didn't have to change batteries all season, and good thing, because they each take 4 C-cells. I did notice after setting/resetting these and taking a test pic that the trigger seemed a little slow. I noticed this on numerous elk pics, I would catch the a$$ end of many elk, not able to tell if it was a bull or cow. These were relatively cheap cams bought on closeout, but for what its worth, and without comparison to others... Grade - B

Montana Decoy, Elk I Decoy - First year using a decoy in my calling setups. I hunt alone and wanted to find something to aid in my solo caller/shooter setups. It is kind of a PITA for cold calling setups to continually take off pack, set up decoy, call set, take down decoy, repack, move on, do over... My only encounter this year happened after I tired of doing the decoy thing, and called a cow right into my calling. Would I have been better off with the deke deployed and positioned ahead of it? Maybe. I may continue to carry this in my arsenal, but doubt I'll use it extensively for cold calling setups. More likely to use it if I've located elk and moved in on a setup, to gain that separation between call/deke location and forward shooter location separation... Grade - B minus

[BrentLaBere]

I need to add a few things after discussions on cooking systems. I am not familiar with the trangia alcohol stove but I did get some experience with a jetboil and MSR cooking systems. The jetboil worked great in all conditions. Saved on fuel, I believe between 2 of us using a 7 oz container we managed roughly 10 meals with fuel left over. It held its flame in windy conditions as well. Elevation wasn't much of a factor because we were never over 9000'. The MSR would have troubles in the wind and went through more fuel as well. Next season I would like to add a jetboil to my pack for solo hunts because neither of the systems were mine.

Side note: If you are using mt house meals go with the pro packs! I had found an online sale through backcountry.com right before the season. A 2-2.5 servings size was down to 5.25$ each. Very good deal and saves on a lot of room. They also have free shipping when you order 50$ or more so on those extended back country hunts. It came in very handy and plan on looking for this in the off season as well. ( just need to find one in the chicken ala king )

[diggerson]

Oh yeah. Speaking of Mtn House I tried a few new ones...

Lasagna - Tasted good, but wreaked havoc on my gut! Good thing I was solo! LOL! Grade - D

Chicken Breasts with Mashed Potatoes - I was pleasantly surprised by this one. In a pinch, I needed to buy a few more pouches on my way up to camp. Stopped at a Wal-Mart and they were all sold out, except for CB w/ MP. Figured these couldn't be that great, since all the others sold out except these. Maybe I was just really hungry that night, but I've had worse meals, and I'll go back to this one in the future... Grade - B

Scrambled Eggs and Bacon - I looked forward to a hot breakfast of something other than oatmeal on my last day. And anything with bacon is awesome, right?! Wrong. Sorry, freeze dried eggs and imitation bacon just didn't cut it. Won't do that one again... Grade - D

[pointysticks]

Big Agnes Q core SL.

you're huffing and puffing anyways. may as well harness the exhale and plump up this fantastic sleeping pad. tad slippery, but of the 3 in our group, none sprung a leak. my brothers and i were both brand new. i hold leak free in high regards.

we got down to the 30's and nobody froze.

that's it for my reviews. my Kifaru's been nothing but luggage for me so far. no blood:( full review when we tip something over, so it could be years.

[elkmtngear]

New Gear This Season:

Elite Pure with 65 lb limbs- Love this bow, shooting better than I ever have with it.

Tight Spot Quiver- This is the first year I have never lost arrows on an elk hunt. Nuff said!

Cabelas Space Rain jacket- Super packable and light, and worked great for me in every imaginable condition, whether just over my merino top,
or layered with my down vest underneath. This was the only jacket I used on my 12 day elk hunt.

Zebra light- Love it, it's very versatile and packable, and only takes one AA battery. Battery life was great as long as I didn't have it cranked up on
high. I especially like the glow in the dark headband mount...makes it easy to find at 4 AM!

[elkmtngear]

elk mtn gear slip system umbrella. I put this one thru alot of elements. it was a great sun shelter, a great instant rain shelter in a thunderstorm and a very quickly deployed as a blind as well. the ability to use it as a hiking staff instead of having to just carry it was nice. i will use it on backpacks as well. highly recommended.

Jim, thank You!

Very glad we were able to make the list