Anyone cater to the eastern whitetail guys?

Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
5,824
Do you haul a stand or a lot of layers?

Mystery ranch makes a pack called the Treehouse that is designed for stand hunting.

I prefer one of their pop ups. I bought a 38 this year and expect that will be my primary white tail pack. Fairly compact but enough bag to handle my gear and late season layers. Enough of a frame to handle a stand and sticks or pack out a quartered deer. It has some organization but not as much as you May like.
 

NVVAHunt

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Aug 25, 2017
Messages
220
Location
VA
I got a Kifaru Stryker for my whitetail hunts this year. Able to haul a stand and everything else I need. Since you can get a bunch of different bags for the same frame it can also work for just about everything/anything you need


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Joined
Dec 13, 2017
Messages
569
Location
SE AZ
To directly answer your question, No.

In my opinion, no one does it truly well for the eastern whitetail hunter, especially the type that is going to frequent this forum. They make compromises that fill multiple purposes, but they do not cater to them with high end packs.

No offense taken, basically don’t have anymore gear than what you listed, but some packs have pockets to separate those. I used to have a cabelas lumbar pack with separate pockets for flashlight, rangefinder, calls, gps, knife, etc..... I hate rummaging through a bag to find a pouch and then rummage through the pouch to find something else.

The Mystery Ranch Treehouse sounds like it might be decent for what you're describing, but it's a compromise; I absolutely love it for what it does well, and therefore fault it even more for its shortcomings. The build quality is nice, and it has some really well thought out features for organization and quietly accessing your gear. However, if you want to carry much more than what you have listed, plan on hauling a stand, or have to push through much undergrowth to get to your hunting spot, don't go with this pack.

Unlike most Mystery Ranch packs, the Treehouse doesn't handle weight well, and especially not for the price you're paying. Compared to a similar size MR pack I own, the Scree, the attachment points for the load lifters were moved down ~2" to accommodate the flip open lid (a feature I love up in a tree). As a result, unless you have a very short torso, the load lifters are really just to stabilize the top of the Futura yoke to the frame. For reference, I am 5' 9" with relatively short torso length, shy of 19".

The Treehouse was also marketed as being able to carry a treestand strapped to the back. It sucks for that. Not only does the 3/4" webbing work its way loose on a long walk in, but the weight is too far from your back. With a full pack, that stand will be hanging roughly 8" from your back on a mediocre load bearing system.

The apparently discontinued Mystery Ranch Pop Up 18 has a little bit of organization, carries weight really nicely, and really works well with the Kifaru Gun Bearer (a favorite piece of equipment), but it fails much harder than the Treehouse with the next problem 👇

I absolutely love my kifaru packs, but IMHO they don’t make a single pack quiet enough to whitetail hunt. Neither does MR, SG or Exo.

As mentioned by fatlander, one major point of contention with this pack, and most other high end packs is the external material. Mystery Ranch erred on the side of durability over stealth for their external bag marketed to whitetail hunters. I feel a better compromise could have been made. The cordura can be pretty loud when you're trying to slip through the brush. The interior of the pack uses a softer and quieter blend material that might have also been a good choice for the exterior.

The Sitka Fanatic Pack looks nice and quiet (no actual experience with this pack), but it looks like it wouldn't be easily accessible while in a treestand, and it certainly wouldn't carry weight well.

I'm currently in the process of making my own 22" and 24" Kifaru copycat frames as a base for my (primarily) whitetail hunting setup. Afterwards, I intend to rip my Mystery Ranch Treehouse apart to reverse engineer it, add a load sling, and make the pack I believe MR should have marketed in the first place. I will carry the custom Treehouse on my Kifaru copycat frames. If everything goes as planned, I will probably make a shortened version of the Treehouse that rides more like a lumbar pack on the frame for early season hunts.

As is, the Treehouse has two webbing tabs on each side of the back that can be used to mate the pack up with a frame by using split buckles. Removing the existing harness and belt saves 26 oz of weigh--and is reversible--if you decide to pair this pack up with a frame from the likes of MR, Kifaru, SG, etc. You could cut even more weight by removing the padding from the back of the pack, but then you'd be stuck with your decision.

I didn't mention Horn Hunter, Tenzing, or Badlands packs that fill some of the needs you were looking for, because you mentioned you were looking for high end construction.

Realizing that I wrote a lot, I feel I should explain.... For me, a pack is the central piece of equipment for my hunt. It allows me to efficiently organize my gear and perform a check leading up to hunt, carry my gear (to include gun or bow) into the woods comfortably, access items stealthily throughout a hunt, carry a kill out of the woods quickly, and carry weight or gear for training and scouting. A lot of time and money has been put into making really great weapons for hunting, so much so that just about any new rifle or bow will do exactly what most hunters want and need out of a weapon, but the same cannot be said for a quiet, organized, load carrying hunting pack... I will also admit this is absolutely a modern hunter, first world problem.
 
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