Sitting in the Phoenix airport right now heading back to Ca from my hunting partners and I Az DIY Coues hunt. Used my gun metal hooded super down everyday of the hunt in several different situations.
First off out of the package it seemed as if it was not as "puffy" as it seemed to look on the website. No worries though as I would test it the following week.
Next was the chest pocket stuff sack. Awesome idea and really keeps the profile down which makes for easy packing. Although I found that it barley fits into the pocket and I question how long the zipper is going to last with the amount of force it takes to pack the jacket into the pocket. IMO the pocket should be a few Cu in larger to make for an easier pack. Please note though that I did use this feature 6 times so far and have not had any failures just an item of note for possible improvement.
The fit was almost perfect for me. I bought a large which is the same size I wear in all of the other items. I have a slender build and I am tall so the sleeves did come up about an inch short but I didn't have any issues with that. Actually after wearing it with the guide jacket and my 230 I was very impressed how well it all fit together and I felt confident that I would have no issues with bow string contact even with all the layers together.
Temps did not get as cold as I had anticipated but were in the high 30's at night with one night near freezing.
I wore the super down over my merino 230 and then threw my guide jacket over that for the morning hike to our glassing location the first two mornings but had to stop wearing it with any hiking as I would get extremely hot very fast.
Those first two hikes put me on my glassing rock before light with a soaked 230 layer that I took off right away to dry. I then would shed the guide jacket as well and wear just the super down only to glass which ended up being one of my favorite uses for it.
I also wore it to bed in my sleeping bag a couple nights which seemed to add at least 10 degrees to the bag temp.
Overall I really like the product and will be ordering a set of the pants as well for those cold glassing and sitting sessions.
Oh and my buddy killed this nice P&Y Coues buck on the second day!
First off out of the package it seemed as if it was not as "puffy" as it seemed to look on the website. No worries though as I would test it the following week.
Next was the chest pocket stuff sack. Awesome idea and really keeps the profile down which makes for easy packing. Although I found that it barley fits into the pocket and I question how long the zipper is going to last with the amount of force it takes to pack the jacket into the pocket. IMO the pocket should be a few Cu in larger to make for an easier pack. Please note though that I did use this feature 6 times so far and have not had any failures just an item of note for possible improvement.
The fit was almost perfect for me. I bought a large which is the same size I wear in all of the other items. I have a slender build and I am tall so the sleeves did come up about an inch short but I didn't have any issues with that. Actually after wearing it with the guide jacket and my 230 I was very impressed how well it all fit together and I felt confident that I would have no issues with bow string contact even with all the layers together.
Temps did not get as cold as I had anticipated but were in the high 30's at night with one night near freezing.
I wore the super down over my merino 230 and then threw my guide jacket over that for the morning hike to our glassing location the first two mornings but had to stop wearing it with any hiking as I would get extremely hot very fast.
Those first two hikes put me on my glassing rock before light with a soaked 230 layer that I took off right away to dry. I then would shed the guide jacket as well and wear just the super down only to glass which ended up being one of my favorite uses for it.
I also wore it to bed in my sleeping bag a couple nights which seemed to add at least 10 degrees to the bag temp.
Overall I really like the product and will be ordering a set of the pants as well for those cold glassing and sitting sessions.
Oh and my buddy killed this nice P&Y Coues buck on the second day!