Couple gear items to review

[7mmfan]

I just got back from 8 days in Idaho and got a chance to test out some new purchases, and also solidify my standing on a couple others.

#1 Havalon Titan: I bought this knife last year and was able to break down a couple deer with it. I was happy. I did the same last week in Idaho. Broke down 2 deer in 2 days and only broke 2 blades. Having the large folding blade made for cutting knee joints and the head off extremely easy, and the rest of the animal came apart quickly with 1.5 replaceable blades. Its the only knife I feel any need to carry anymore.

#2 Kuiu Chugach jacket and Kuiu Yukon pants: I really only needed to wear them 1 day of the hunt, but they proved themselves. The pants were tough, and for how heavy/stiff they feel in your hand, they wore very well. I did some serious climbing that day and did not overheat until the sun came out.

The Chugach Jacket is very lightweight, very comfortable and very breathable. My only issue with it was that its noisy in my opinion. If I was hunting blacktail in a downpour, it probably doesn't matter. But if I'm hunting intermittent rain in semi open ground, I feel it is a little loud. I ended up actually taking it off at one point to make a move on some animals because I was nervous about the noise.

#3 Kuiu lightweight quarter bags: These things are awesome. I carried 6 bags in my pack full time and never knew they were there. I used one of the large bags as a staging area for meat as we were boning the animal out. Could have easily put all the meat from one deer into a large one, or even a medium one, but being able to split the meat up into different bags was great. They cleaned extremely easily. Just rinsed them in the river and they were good to go. Dried quickly and back in the pack for the evening hunt. Also appear to be durable. My Dad is old school and sawed a bunch of bones off before I knew what he was doing so we had sharp cut bone edges in the bags. No tears or sign of wear at all.

#4 Various Icebreaker wool clothing: I used Icebreaker wool boxers, 200 gram wool base layers, 400 gram RealFleece Zip-up, and Ika Pants. Most of this stuff I got on the sale they had so the investment was minimal. This was the first year I did everything I could to go wool and away from synthetic anything on my body. I even got a merino wool hat. The comfort level difference was enormous, especially on the days when I was really grinding and doing lots of sweating.

I got 4 days out of 1 pair of boxers. They still didn't smell when I retired them, I just felt the need to. I've worn wool base layers for a long time, no surprise there.

The RealFleece zip up I was surprised to find breathed and regulated temperature extremely well. When it got warm out, I would take my base layer off and just wear the zip up with the front unzipped halfway down and I was comfortable. I would sweat, and when I stopped I would dry almost instantly. They never smelled.

The Ika pants were tough for me. I wanted wool pants, but not the army surplus ones. I stumbled onto these a few days before a I left and swallowed my pride and paid the $$$ for them. They are a merino wool pant with a lightweight/stretchy almost softshell material over them. I thought they would be to warm most of the time. They ended up being one of my favorite pieces of clothing. They breathed extremely well, kept me cool when I was grinding, but blocked the wind and insulated well when stopped. The DWR finish worked well and I hunted all day in light rain and stayed dry. I will be buying another pair of these, hopefully they offer different color options soon.

#5 Exo Mtn Gear 5500: I got this pack for Christmas last year and was excited to break it in. I loved it. I really enjoyed being able to stuff the bag with all my clothing, my dad/nephews extra gear they had to take out of their packs to make room for meat, and then stack all the meat between the bag and frame, lock it down, and go. Walked 4 miles on night with a very full load, felt great. Also packed a full load down an extremely steep hill and never felt like the pack and weight were messing with me. It all felt like an integrated part of my body.

#6 FirstLite Suspenders: Never going back to a belt. The suspenders were so unbelievably comfortable, especially with a heavy pack on, its a no brainer.


Just wanted to throw those opinions out there for what they're worth. Everyone is always looking for ways to improve their gear. I'm trying to minimize my gear as much as possible, starting with my clothing, and then trying to minimize my work load by carrying good lightweight gear with me. I feel like I made leaps and bounds this year with that.

[swanny]

good stuff. Glad to hear you liked the Icebreaker gear, I love merino and have been slowly switching evrything I can. The stuff eally helps and wroks well fo those multi day trips.

[Sandberm]

Thanks for the reviews. I gotta get some pants before Late Archery and your Icebreaker review helps.

[yakimarcher]

4 days on the same undies!!! I wore the same long johns all last weekend deer hunting and i think my wife burned them!!!

[bracer40]

Great review. Thanks for making the effort to share!

[7mmfan]

4 days on the same undies!!! I wore the same long johns all last weekend deer hunting and i think my wife burned them!!!

   What the wife doesn't know won't hurt her. I was impressed with how well they held up. Like I said, still didn't stink, weren't clammy/sticky when I retired them. Probably could have wore them all week from that standpoint. Mentally though, I had to break it off somewhere. 

[7mmfan]

Just wanted to revisit this. Over the last few days I've thoroughly tested out my Kuiu rain gear (Yukon pants, Chugach jacket). VERY impressed. Wading around in clearcuts in the pouring rain, CRAWLING around in brush in the pouring rain, and hiking hard, never leaked a drip. I was wearing a pack most of the time and no seepage around the shoulders. When I was really burning, I would sweat, it was inevitable, but once stopped, I dried almost immediately. NOTE: I believe this gear functions as stated as long as you are wearing appropriate clothing underneath. One day I was only wearing a merino wool base layer underneath, and another I was wearing a base layer, merino sweater and Ice Breaker merino Ika Pants. Because of the high breathability/wicking of those layers, it seemed to amplify the effectiveness of the raingear.

Well worth the money, never been dry blacktail hunting in the rain, I was dry this year.

[Sandberm]

I wanted to do a followup on an item the op reviewed.

I purchased the Icebreaker Ika pants and was planning on writing a glowing review of them after my late archery season was done. They are REALLY comfortable, breath well and are VERY quiet. I loved them till after the about the 8th time I wore them and the fabric in the seat of the pants pulled apart. Not the seam...the material itself just pulled apart. I thought the pants were a bit thin when I bought them and after the pants came apart I held them up to the light and you can see light through the fabric. Icebreaker doesnt give refunds but did offer to send another pair of Ika pants or give me a credit for something else they sell. I took the credit so I consider myself all square with Icebreaker.

Again, super comfortable, quiet....but not durable....especially for $230.

[MtnMuley]

For those people who haven't tried merino boxer briefs on a backcountry hunt, you're missing out.  They're definitely not the most durable, but can easily handle 10 day trips. Will never use Exofficio's hunting again.

[BULLBLASTER]

 
I just went through my third fall season with 2 sets of Sitka merino boxer briefs. Still going strong!

[7mmfan]

I wanted to do a followup on an item the op reviewed.

I purchased the Icebreaker Ika pants and was planning on writing a glowing review of them after my late archery season was done. They are REALLY comfortable, breath well and are VERY quiet. I loved them till after the about the 8th time I wore them and the fabric in the seat of the pants pulled apart. Not the seam...the material itself just pulled apart. I thought the pants were a bit thin when I bought them and after the pants came apart I held them up to the light and you can see light through the fabric. Icebreaker doesnt give refunds but did offer to send another pair of Ika pants or give me a credit for something else they sell. I took the credit so I consider myself all square with Icebreaker.

Again, super comfortable, quiet....but not durable....especially for $230.

I was actually going to update this as well. I did some heavy brush hunting recently in these pants and the lower legs really suffered in thorny, thick brush. With gators they would do better but anything that can catch them will and they don't seem to hold up well to it. I think for average conditions, they are still great as stated but anything remotely thick or grubby is going to be tough.