Originally Posted by
STC
The harness on the Bison is truly great. I have carried 50kgs with it, apart from me nearly dying the pack handled it. That's about the only good thing about it, whoever designed the bag to go with it is a brainless moron.
- requires an extra rain cover, costing an additional 50$ which is neither suitable in wind nor when bushwhacking, this means you will need an additional drybag.
- pack is incredibly unwieldy, even when nearly empty as it can not be properly made smaller and is absolutely unsuitable for bushwhacking. the harness sticks out behind your head and will literally catch on every branch.
- pack is very heavy.
- dumb design adding additional "side" bags that are completely unusable if the main bag is loaded up and compressed (i.e. packed properly)
- reinforcement of the bag at spots that do not need it and weak in spots that should not be (e.g. the bottom of the bag, ripped a hole in there on the first trip)
- absolutely not suitable as a day bag for multi day missions in dense bush, i.e. you will want to carry an additional smaller backpack that does not catch on everything, which just sucks, so you will just swear all day when bush hunting with it.
- Did I say it is heavy and unwieldy?
I would only recommend the Bison for open tops stuff, when carrying of heavy loads is required, because the harness is truly awesome. As a general-purpose hunting backpack for NZ conditions (bush) it is not suitable.
In the end it has been designed by Europeans for European hikers in the northern alps. Nothing about it is NZ, that is a blatant lie.
The sad thing is that most American Hunting Backpacks have been designed for Boreal Forest. I.e. relatively open stuff.