Thread: 25-35 litre day packs with scabbard - Recommendations??

Have a look here re mollyme https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....mollyme-45928/

I've been into my local sports shop here in Taranaki (Magnum Sports in Stratford) on Friday and tried on quite a few. They had the Tatonka 30 & 35L stealth packs, Stoney Creek 25L, a host of different Ridgeline bags, plus a 35L one from Bergara of all people.

I ended up with a Spika Drover 25L after all was said and done, but was very close to buying the Tatonka. After a quick 2 hour bush hunt with my boy in stinking hot 27 degree heat on Sunday afternoon I think I've made a good choice. It is a very well made and spec'd bag for what I need.

The pros:
-Light
-Frame type pack with good comfort.
-Excellent Ventilation thanks to an 'arch' type frame and mesh back pad (I didn't feel like I had a bag on from a heat perspective).
-Comes standard with a 2L hydration bladder.
-Still has stash pockets for a conventional water bottle or other items on the side of the bag body.
The cons:
-No pockets in the hip pads for often used items (ammo, knife etc) that you want to access in a hurry.
-The curvature of the frame makes packing bulky/long items a little awkward and does push the rifle out a bit further when using the scabbard. This is only a minor annoyance.

I can see myself using this as my standard day bag for all hunting and hiking going forward, it was just much more manageable size-wise than the 75L tatonka while still being as comfortable to wear (and cooler - did I mention how nice it was not to have my back totally saturated with sweat??)

Originally Posted by NIMROD

On Trade me now.... top of the range Makhor in your price range
https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketpl...9?bof=zi5mwdg9

Thanks for that.

I actually looked at that one on trademe but decided that it was probably too big for tight bush hunting and had too much overlap with the 75L Tatonka. Good value, agreed. If I didn't have the Tatonka (which I won from a FB competition the distributor was running) I would probably have ended up something like that Markhor, since most of my Ruahine hunts tend to be overnighters, not extended trips and I often have a fair bit of free space in the Tatonka.

I use the hunters element 35L pack, works good in the bush and plenty of room to do a light 2 night trip away