Hunting/camping large day packs

fast14riot

fast14riot

Joined
Oct 27, 2010
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I'm in the market for a new hunting day pack, it will also serve double duty as a camping pack with the family but it will be vehicle based camping for the most part. I like to have a little on the larger size compared to some of the "school bag" sized offerings I see in the big box stores. Will be used for carrying emergency over night gear, predator calls, provisions, etc but would also like to be able to strap on a rifle scabbard, bed roll, tent, etc. I prefer ACU or similarly colored camo as I hunt sage brush highland desert.

Budget is under $100, I'd like to be able to add or it have a waist belt, good suspension and of course be durable.

What are you using?


-Xander
 
I use a 5.11 rush 72. I have enough survival gear, including food, in there with many redundancies to last several days in relative luxury with room to spare. The molle webbing allows you to add whatever you want on the outside Its a nice mix between small storage pockets and big, roomy compartments. Even had a padded waist belt but I tucked mine away. Don't really need it. A little more than a hundred bucks but I love it. I paid $147 in coyote.
 
I don't know if you can get what you want under $100. I have an Eberlestock X2, and its awesome for full day hunts, holds a mini-stakeout blind, folding stool, all my gear, plus has hydration. Brushed fabric so its quiet in the woods. You can strap a bow or rifle to it with accessories. I dont remember what I paid, I think around $230, but its worth it for the features it has for me.
 
My dad has an eberlestock pack and it's great, but I just don't want to drop that much money on it. I was looking at the milsurp ILBE pack in marpat color, I've seen the complete rigs go for about $100 +/-, or the Assault pack.

I'll check out the 5.11 though.


-Xander
 
Danketch said:
I don't know if you can get what you want under $100. I have an Eberlestock X2, and its awesome for full day hunts, holds a mini-stakeout blind, folding stool, all my gear, plus has hydration. Brushed fabric so its quiet in the woods. You can strap a bow or rifle to it with accessories. I dont remember what I paid, I think around $230, but its worth it for the features it has for me.
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The ILBE is a great pack. I've got one my son left behind when he went off to boot camp and earned a new one. It's for load hauling. Big interior, very little organization, tones of straps for tightening the pack around the load. You could easily carry a lot of gear, most if not all inside the thing, but you'd need separate bags, pouches, etc. to organize.
 
This is as close as I could find. 35L daypack in ACU pattern with carrying system that doesn't totally suck. Slightly over budget at 130_ish.
http://www.amazon.com/Source-Tactical-3-Liter-Hydration-35-Liter/dp/B01252ALRM/ref=pd_sim_sbs_468_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0C6A0AE5S11GTWJZFZGA&dpID=51vEvTqWvQL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR160%2C160_
The cambelbak trizip comes in ACU so that would also work nicely. Even more over budget.
http://www.amazon.com/Camelbak-60894-TriZip-Hydration-Pack/dp/B002R246KE/ref=pd_rhf_dp_p_img_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=16BSS9H5EY6347XKMYTF

I use a kelty redwing 50
 
I would take a look at the Easton Outdoors packs in Realtree Max 1, particularly the Pickup XT 3000. The prior version (2013) is still being closed out at around that price range and is an excellent value.
 
I carry an older Eagle A-III (one of the good ones) and a couple of different Maxpedition EDC's for different things. It's a great setup.
 
I have one of the 5.11 packs that I use for this purpose. It is a very tough pack, but heavy. Generally, I take it on longer day hikes or when I am carrying photography gear as I can slip my tripod inside the pack when I am not using it for longer periods of time. Otherwise, I tend to carry the tripod over my shoulder.
 
I'm sitting here at the airport after a spending a week at the SHOT Show in Las Vegas wading through all the latest offerings in outdoor/tactical gear. Of all the hunting packs that I took the time to look at, the new Slumberjack packs for 2016 impressed me the most. They are super light and have a real decent MSRP. With that said, I only looked at MAYBE 5% of all the new pack offerings. There were just too many to see them all (and I was looking hard for a new predator hunting rifle).

There are soooooo many makers out there now, you really have a tough choice ahead of you, but the good news is, they are ALL pretty much competing with each other for your business, so the quality seems to be up across the board. Compared to even 5 years ago, the market is super saturated with QUALITY packs, so the odds are in your favor for finding something affordable that will work great for you.

Good luck and happy hunting!
 
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