Best pack for mountain hunting

Used my mystery ranch most of September and part of October. Elk archery and then any weapon antelope. Wolf and deer next. It's proving to be a great pack so far. I love my eberlestock team elk but this pack has the potential of replacing it for good. The scabbard and options of the team are nice but is a heavier pack.

MR packed out my bull and with front and rear quarter it handled it fine. Bit too much weight for me though so backed it down to a quarter or so at a time. I put the full antelope in the pack.

Which mystery ranch is that?

I've has Eberlestocks and now have Kuiu packs. Here is the problem with Eberlestocks Team Elk, 6lbs 8oz. Kuiu Pro 2300, 4lbs 4.5ozs. That 2lbs 4ozs adds up over the course of a hunting season in the mountains.

I have used and abused my kifaru frames and bags without a problem. Kifaru gives you options with different bag layouts and pockets.

Ok, gonna call Exo on Monday,

I've been searching for the perfect lightweight pack and have gone thru a bunch. I started with Eberlestock; J107, GunRunner, X2. They're well made as noted above…but poorly designed for load. Under moderate loads (45 lbs), the hip belt starts slipping. At 60lbs, I felt like my shoulders were bearing the whole load.
I have 3 Mystery Ranch packs; NICE, Pintler
Pop-up (I keep getting sucked in to buying to find they haven't changed their suspension philosophy). They carry weight well. They won't be the lightest pack and their suspensions are overbuilt…but they do ride well.
I've killed a 1st Gen Kuiu. Shoulder straps blew up. It was light, hauled reasonably well,
…but the light weight comes at a price. The nice lady in Customer Service said the packs were designed to last a guide a season. I believe them. They replaced the pack.
My favorite is the Seek Outside. I've been rocking an Evolution with a talon for about 10 years . I think it weighs around 2lbs. It compresses down to fit on an airliner overhead, and carries loads the best of any pack I've humped. Something about their hip belt design/materials. It's carried dozens of animals across probably hundreds of miles of hunting and training. I liked it enough that I got my son one…(so he can pack game for his dad now).

I've got two Kifaru's. The hauler is ok. I also have a bikini frame with different bags. It handles loads ok. Lots of flex and wobble as the weight gets north of 60lbs. The kifaru internal frame packs don't interest me. Too heavy.

If Seek Outside closed up and stopped making packs, I'd try a Stone Glacier next…maybe an exo after that.

I've probably got another 6 packs like a Dana Design, a Badlands (no bueno) and a USMC ILBE (good but heavy).

…ask away if you have specific questions about any of the above.

I want you to try an exo so you can speak to how they compare. Listening to Steve on the hunt backcountry podcast and getting a look into his testing and design process on the k4 it's kinda hard to imagine any other pack out there has gotta as much attention in their development. But as I know nothing of their development that could be false. Just a guess.

mtnelkhunter said:

I want you to try an exo so you can speak to how they compare.

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…and I would love to try an Exo…but as you can probably tell, I'm pretty fat for packs. There's also not a lot of wanting for better in my stable…but if you want to send one to me, I'll be happy to run it and give you my impressions.

Yeah you have a few packs! I only have one pack myself at the moment so gotta hang on to it!

There's a couple of really good pack reviews on Rokslide where they discuss most of the packs discussed in this thread …well…maybe not the Badlands. I'll see if I can link it here.

Here's my Kuiu experience;

wildbillb02 said:

Which mystery ranch is that?

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That's a pop up. They're underrated packs.

I like mine as well, but tend to use the bigger packs with the guidelite MT frame, as I go in pretty far, often enough.

My Eberlestock J107 (actually I think it was a J10? prototype).

My SeekOutside Evolution;