Hall of shame - gear version

jmez

WKR
Joined
Jun 12, 2012
Messages
7,404
Location
Piedmont, SD
Vapor Trail limb driver rests. I had two of them fail on hunts.

Axcel Accutouch carbon pro sight. Wouldn't stay in home position, even after I sent it back and they rebuilt it.

Thermarest U/L cot. Several of the poles bent and poles sleeves tore first year I used it. I'm not overweight.

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk
 

Jherek

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Feb 21, 2020
Messages
147
Any sight from CBE.....

Their quality controle sucks.
And their customer service REALLY SUCKS!!! Never experienced anything like it in the hunting industry.
 

tttoadman

WKR
Joined
Oct 3, 2013
Messages
1,735
Location
OR Hunter back in Oregon
Vortex scope: We hiked in 5 miles for a November elk hunt. We left our guns under a tarp for a night while we scouted and met up with another hunter. My vortex scope was fogged out and dead. My brothers lupy was perfect as usual.

I also gave up the BA fly creek after one trip. Not a bad design, but I would even question "3 season".

Keen boots. Close to ruining my first hunt in the Frank that I spent a lot of money on. I bought a pair of Lowas as soon as I got home.

Columbia anything. Jackets are close to OK, but nothing else has impressed me.

Goretex: I just think it is over rated.
 

Roksliding

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Sep 24, 2018
Messages
244
Solomon Quest 4D Boots. Huge fail! First time hunting with them it rains and the boots are saturated, the sole started to come apart and it ended up causing me to slip fall and bust my backside and bury my sight in the mud.

Then Blackovis front desk dude kinda just blew me off when I went to the store.. I still like blackovis (except that guy) but the thought of Solomon boots gets my blood flowing, infact now when I hear someone recommend them I just assume that person eats boogers and plays video games.
 

jmcd22

WKR
Joined
Dec 4, 2017
Messages
464
Location
Idaho
Muley Freak Bino Harness -

Spent $100 on this thing. Carries my 8x32 bino pretty well. The side pockets are very tight. takes 2 hands to get a windicator bottle in the pocket. My small range finder is a struggle to fit onto the other side pocket. The front and back pockets are only good to carry a couple mouth reeds. The gun holder on the bottom is worthless. i was hoping it would hold my galaxy s8+ phone but it won't fit.

The fit is pretty good, until the strechy bands wear out then it starts to sag alot.

I had the same issues on this one. Two hands on wind checker, tiny range finder wouldn't fit, straps stretched out immediately...if they charged $25-40 I wouldnt have been upset but $100 was not even close to what it was worth. To add a few grains to my saltiness, his "ethics" made it worse. But that it's not a discussion for this thread.

I would have to say the kuiu guide gloves I bought last year were a big disappointment. Even with wearing a base layer glove underneath my hands froze. Maybe my expectations were too high idk I just expected more out of a $70 pair of gloves . This has been the only kuiu item I’ve purchased that I wasn’t happy with.

This was a huge disappointment for me. I have...a lot of Kuiu pieces...actually...a ton...in fact, I am known as King Kuiu in my house :ROFLMAO: but these gloves really missed the mark for me. I wore these in 50* temps and light rain and my hands were freezing and soaked. I also have a pair of their heavier gloves (can't remember the name as they were a gift) that also froze my hands. I wore their heavier fleece gloves underneath and it seemed to make it worse than if I wore the gloves with no base layer. Those gloves did keep the water out though.
 
Joined
Oct 10, 2018
Messages
331
i purchased a big ages ultralight copper spur tent used it on a goat hunt and it got shredded. zippers always got stuck in the door fabric. it was awesome to carry but not worth the money. i used the new msr hubba hubbba 2p last year on my sheep hunt fantastic tent highly recommend it but the ground pegs suck i probably broke 4 of them before my 2 weeks was up. highly recommend the tent, just by different pegs
I bought a used Copper Spur UL 1 person tent used at REI garage sale (reason for return: "too small"). I have used it for 3 years on early season high country hunts and twice on late season/snow hunts. Have not been disappointed and have had no bad issues. You must be careful with lightweight gear , of course. I have had no issues with zippers. Great tent IMO.
 
Joined
Oct 10, 2018
Messages
331
First lite shale gloves for me. Loved the leather palm and breathability, but they fell apart after just a few trips. Really bummed out for what they cost. Had much better luck with a $20 pair of leather mechanix gloves
I use the Mechanix gloves too. they are good, but they get WET quickly. don't like the velcro that much, no cuff to speak of to go over shirt cuff. Gloves are a bitch to get right, eh? have had tons that don't make the grade.
 

Beendare

WKR
Joined
May 6, 2014
Messages
8,247
Location
Corripe cervisiam
I'm surprised no one mentioned a plastic stove in the backcountry- Jetboils.

I've had 3 different buddies melt their older version Jetboils.....then this BIL of a friend on an Idaho Elk has a new latest and greatest plastic stove [I can't remember the model] melted 4 days in- it tipped or something.

IMO, IMG_3192.jpegBackcountry is no place for a plastic stove
IMG_3192.jpeg
 

Mawgie

FNG
Joined
Feb 15, 2020
Messages
23
My gen.1 Kuiu down puffy jacket was utterly useless as an insulating piece. Every time I wore it I slowly or quickly got cold.
 

Mawgie

FNG
Joined
Feb 15, 2020
Messages
23
Then there is my Black Diamond Revolt rechargeable headlamp. I thought I broke the code when I bought this bad boy, but....NOPE. 1) Headband is either loosening or about to loosen at all times; 2) rechargeable battery gassed after one season; 3) the button press sequence to activate the light is agonizing. More than once, I have tried to turn it on low white beam to walk out of the woods, and end up walk-of-shaming-it out under a pulsing red emergency beam because I can't get the button presses right with cold hands.
 
OP
Desk Jockey
Joined
Apr 5, 2015
Messages
5,824
Note from kifaru - my duffle is fixed and shipping back at no cost. Looking forward to seeing it and getting my semi nude photo of Snyder.

Got my duffle back from Kifaru. They restitched all the bad seams and reattached the shoulder strap. Hopefully it will hold up better now. So that is cool.

however, No shirtless pic of Snyder riding a horse like Vladimir Putin was included in the return, per my explicit request. Just another example of their piss poor customer service. Boooo!
 
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2ski

WKR
Joined
Jul 17, 2012
Messages
1,722
Location
Bozeman
@Jordan Budd what is your podcast? I searched your name in my app and didn't see it.

I'll agree with a couple of people. You look through some of these lists and you go well yeah. But I'm guessing alot of folks bought their duds before they discovered Rokslide. (I had an archery shop employee tell me how sweet Badlands were and then I found Rokslide and it convinced me to spend the $900 and all that went with it). Danner pronghorns I'll say, have always been a well known dud since I started paying attention. It doesn't mean all Danners are crap. I'm not sure if it is still the same, but some Danners are American made and last better. And not cheap. But the pronghorns are made overseas. And under $200. So you do the math....

My first big purchase of a hunting item that my parents didn't buy for me was a pair of Cabelas boots. $99 bucks. I was young enough that my credit card I had, was from when I signed up to get a free CD and my limit was only $500, which I forgot to pay the bill for so had to have my friend order on his card and I wrote him a check, and we needed them in two days because you know, planning ahead, so no time to try them on and see what I thought before hiking all day in them. 1000 grams of insulation and I got them in a size 12 when I wear a 10.5 because I wanted to be able to fit a big thick sock in them too. So I could stay warm. You can guess how my feet felt after hiking around in them for a few hours when it was a 50 degree day. We ended up giving up on hunting and playing cribbage back at their cabin with his dad and his dad's friend. His dad's friend offered me BV to swig off. I didn't want to look like a pansy so I took a big pull. He then took a big pull. This continued over the course of quite a few games of cribbage everytime something awesome happened. He later told me, his thought was "crap I can't let him outdo me" so he took a big pull after seeing my pull. So BV. That would be my other Hall of Shame item. But then again, I discovered I play cribbage better when I'm drunk.
 

OldGrayJB

WKR
Joined
Feb 29, 2020
Messages
411
Columbia rain gear.

It was cheap so I didn't expect it to be rugged or quiet, but I did expect it to be rain proof. Got soaked first time wearing it. Water came through every seam.
 

NW307

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Nov 6, 2017
Messages
138
Location
WY
Big Agnes sleeping pad, worked just long enough to lure me into taking it deep into the backcountry.

Eberlestock just one pack, popped several buckles and seams when loaded very heavy, not to mention horribly uncomfortable to carry with the load that far from and low on your back.

Black Diamond headlamps, used to use headlamps for work and those always quit way before the competition.

and unfortunately my Leupold rx1000 rangefinder. It was great but the lack of any real warranty when it quit on me mid hunt was an eye opener. My cheapo nikon I bought 15 years ago is still chugging right along.

Fortunately I've been pleasantly surprised just as many times by gear I wasn't expecting much from.
 
Joined
Mar 21, 2012
Messages
1,164
Location
Missoula, MT
I am a huge fan of First Lite base layers but First Lite Boxers just were not worth the money. I can not remember the name of them but they were from one of their original lines. I wore them two times and the entire crotch disintegrated. First Lite replaced them with a new pair and the same thing happened. Very expensive underwear that just did not live up to the hype.

Glad I'm not the only one- looks like several others on here had the same issue. I blew the crotch out of my first gen boxers in 2 days.

Sounds like First Lite took better care of some of you than they did me. I shot them an email and they never bothered to respond.
 
Joined
Feb 2, 2020
Messages
306
Sitka had a bino strap that they stopped selling. If I remember correctly it was $40 and it may have cost them 50 cents to make it was so cheap and terrible. I immediately sold it.

Black Ovis headlamp. You needed a degree from Harvard to figure out how to operate the dang thing. Wanted to turn on the light.....stand on one foot, use morse code to spell out T-U-R-N O-N using the side button, spin around four times, say three hail marys, bravo.
 
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