Thread: Show Us Your Bumbag

Originally Posted by secondtry

I've been a bum bag user for many years, apart from a few years using a day pack. It seems to me that at least a couple of you have bum bags sired by the Tardis - I'm buggered if I know how so much can get jammed in.

I'm also a tad surprised at the focus on hydration, particularly in NZ. Nowadays I see the wisdom in carrying some sort of purification, and maybe .5 litre of water - just in case, but 1.5L ? Either I'm part camel or myself and a couple of others in this thread are a bit unusual.

I notice no mention of the TwinNeedle hunters' belt and pouch. Would seem to me to more attractive than the Capsule for a hunter ?

My other surprise is the apparent popularity of the rather pricy Hydrapack Flux, instead of a used PET bottle. What justifies the price ? Is it the ability to squeeze the air out and stop sloshing noise, or is there some other benefit that I am missing ?.

Great questions @secondtry. I do like the Twin Needle and more traditional belt bag systems. But I use the Capsule as I want a really sleek, compact set up without having separate items like a knife or water bottle sticking out. Where I hunt (Kaimai) it is not unusual to crawl through supplejack on the knees to get in position. The Hydrapak is durable and compact. With the Hydrapak filter, I can filter as I go - means I can pack down the flux to nothing. TBH these days I barely ever filter and have taken to using the cap on the Flux. The Hydrapak gear is durable and apart from the odd filter replacement, this will be good for a decade or so I'd imagine. So price is relative. I don't want to carry water when it's plentiful.

Can definitely empathise with the desire for streamlining @Snoppernator. Fortunately I no longer need/want to push through jungle nowadays so am using either Kifaru tail gunner or a Marsupial Gear belt and waist pack. Both with pouches either side, which a re convenient, but a nuisance. The lighter is the Marsupial gear setup and the Kifaru seriously strong, and heavier. I use the kif mainly for thermal hunting and just weighed the thing at 3.8kg without everything in it ! I started out using shoulder straps on the Kif, but trey are pain when one wants to get the bag on and off to access stuff. I found with proper adjustment of the various cinch straps, I can carry over 4kg without the shoulder straps.
Either way, branches and rubbish very easily find their way between the bags and the belt, dragging and crunching, and oft times requiring reverse to avoid damage.
I think @Barry the hunter made some good points, although his minimalist approach is a tad too far for me.
I carry pretty much the same as everyone else, but with a few additions:
Caping stuff, scalpel,blades, screwdriver (always an optimist)
A silnylon day pack which can hold backstraps, the weight of which sits mainly on the bum bag, which reduces the discomfort of the stupid skinny shoulder straps. Meat bag. Garbag (or two)
A silnylon cape. A foil survival blanket. Fluoro surveyors tape - wonderful help when shot sambar run away in bush. Two headlamps, and maybe a spare batttery for one of them. PLB. Compass/map. Phone, Cord (strong enough to stop a dead sambar rolling away down hill while butchering) including a couple of bits with fluoro woven through them to hang up as markers. Sometimes a few spare rounds in a fleece or felt wallet. Probably 400/500 mil of water. Munchies. Two torx keys which will fit all the scope mount screws and the guard screws.
The search for perfection is ongoing, but perfection can never be achieved.