Hunters looking for a quality backpack typically know how they will use it. The pack may be for short day trips, like a morning or evening sit for whitetails. It may be for longer hunts out West in rocky, sandy desert terrain with cactus and other sticky-pokey plants. Perhaps the pack will be taken into Southern swamps rife with humidity, gumbo mud and early-season humidity. All areas will experience cold temperatures, even in the Southeast.

Hunters may have an idea of what they want or how they’ll use it, but one question often arises: Just how tough is this pack, especially for the price? They want to know what it will stand up to, what it can handle. Backpack manufacturers typically put their products through the paces with staff members or ambassadors who use them for a year, perhaps longer. By the time these packs hit the market, they’ve been on hunts and whatever internal testing the company does. Joe Lunchbucket looking at packs and prices still has questions.

Being able to relay positive information about a pack is helpful, as with any product. If a customer wants a bow, gun, broadheads, sleeping bag, cooler or something else, they’re looking to you for feedback. Buying something on the internet is easy. Getting reliable information and service is more important, especially if you can provide specific examples.

Last autumn, I emailed representatives of several backpack manufacturers to let them know about this story for Hunting Retailer. I said I’d be torturing the backpacks — the torture was undetermined at the time of the email. If they wanted in, please send a pack of their choosing that hunters would consider. We didn’t ask for the biggest or most expensive; only whatever a hunter would consider. If the company wanted in, great, and if not, no problem.

I had ideas in mind about the tests that hunters probably wouldn’t encounter. The majority of hunters don’t treat their backpacks terribly, although sometimes a backpack will encounter something gnarly. So, I needed to be a bad boy. For example, hunters in Texas and further west encounter sand, grit and cactus. I pondered and conjured a bit. This would be fun.

The Packs

Five packs were sent, all brand new with the tags on them: the Mystery Ranch Metcalf 50, 5.11 Tactical Rush 24 2.0, Alps OutdoorZ Pursuit, UTG Overbound and Sitka Mountain Hauler 2700. I was familiar with all the brands and have used, at times, packs from each company except for Mystery Ranch. Here’s a little about each one:

Mystery Ranch Metcalf 50 – This pack weighs 5 pounds and sports 3,050 cubic inches of storage along with Mystery Ranch’s Ultra Light MT Frame. I’ve heard good things for years about Mystery Ranch, and was highly impressed with this pack. Along with hunting, the Metcalf 50 could easily handle weekend camping outings or vacation travel. www.mysteryranch.com/metcalf-50-pack

5.11 Rush 24 2.0 — A hybrid for field or daily use and available in several sizes and color configurations, from muted shades to camo. The Rush 24 2.0 has a 37-liter capacity and padded 15-inch laptop sleeve. It’s solid for office use or travel, and tough enough to handle outdoors challenges in all seasons. A concealed compartment on the interior face doubles for CCW or special items. Easily adjustable padded shoulder sleeves are nice. www.511Tactical.com

ALPS OutdoorZ Pursuit — Wonderfully quiet and soft material, and light at 4.7 pounds, the Pursuit has a monstrous capacity of about 2,700 cubic inches. It carries more when using the outer straps. It has an organization shelf pocket, D-ring clip for hanging, quiver holders, drop-down pocket for a bow or gun, blaze orange rain cover, and center aluminum rib in the padded back. Compatible with fluid bladders for long outings. www.AlpsOutdoorZ.com

UTG Overbound Pack — If not for the Molle and hook-loop fabric on the front, the Overbound Pack would be about as inconspicuous as a grandmother at a librarian conference. Plain is good, though. It’s tough enough for daily use with laptops or on a work site, or out in the field for hunting. I’ve used an Outbound for both situations the last couple of years. Mine has been to Europe, Singapore, Canada, Bali and throughout the U.S., shoved over or under seats on planes, and tossed in mud, blinds, stands and trucks. The Overbound Pack has 600D nylon construction, reinforced heavy-gauge stitching, multiple pockets internal and external, dedicated and a padded 15-inch laptop sleeve. www.Leapers.com

Sitka Mountain Hauler 2700 — Its sleek profile includes a molded, triple-density foam waist belt and robust shoulder suspension to help with heavy loads. An array of pockets, inside and out, stow gear and essentials. Velcro panels on the waist belt accommodate a wide range of aftermarket accessories. It’s available in Optifade camo or Deep Lichen, supports up to 45 pounds, weighs a wispy 3.5 pounds, and can handle a hydration bladder. www.SitkaGear.com

The Sitka, Alps OutdoorZ and Mystery Ranch packs are specifically designed for hunting. I asked reps with Leapers and 5.11 Tactical if they’d be interested in submitting the Outbound and Rush packs. I consider these to be hybrids, capable of double-duty for work or vacation travel as well as for hunting. Both are big enough and adjustable enough to handle hunting accessories including calls, snacks, beverages and seasonal items (winter gloves, or an early-season Thermacell, for example). They’ve seen duty in waterfowl blinds, too, for toting boxes of ammo and gear.

The Testing

After going over each pack, checking zippers and looking inside all the pockets, I tossed them outside in the winter. We don’t get much snow and ice in the Southeast, but it’s a depressing time of year. All these bags are built to handle seasonal situations, so none of that weather caused any problems.

On into spring, the bags put up with rain, sun, some heat, cold weather again, and so on. Nothing new, no issues. Zippers all worked, nothing amiss. Hunters typically don’t leave their pack outdoors 24/7 anyway, right? It goes into storage, the bunkhouse or cabin, or is in a stow box in the truck.

Finally, on a nice spring day, our grown son’s old aluminum baseball bat got put into use for the first time in more than 15 years. The little blue monster (the bat, not our son), delivered some solid whacks back in the day. It was time to put it into use again. Each backpack got 50 overhead smacks with the bat. I haven’t swung a bat 250 times in more than 40 years, but each one made solid contact. I could’ve been an extra as an enforcer in a mob movie.

After beating them, I attached Nite-Ize S-Biner carabiners to a 20-foot chain and attached each pack to a carabiner. The chain then was attached to a concrete block, and everything was hurled into a pond. The Sitka 2700, with its two vertical front pouches, held a couple of bricks to weigh it down. Guess what? All those suckers float, thanks to the abundance of foam padding. I retrieved the packs, unzipped them, tossed them all back in and they still floated. Even after pushing them under with a stick to fill with water, they still floated. Impressive. So, I left them like that for several days, waterlogged and sort of floating in the hot pond water. 

Who runs over their backpack? I did, repeatedly, with my Toyota Tundra. After retrieving the packs and making sure none had fish or snakes in them, I lined them up in the pasture and drove over them. Back and forth, five, six, seven times each. I lost count. Who runs over their backpack? It’s possible, of course, to have an accident. Who runs over one eight or 10 times? Me.

But wait, there’s more.

The packs still were attached to the chain and carabiners, so I connected the chain to my truck hitch. Time for a ride, boys! The property I was on has a rocky road, fire ant mounds, a pile of gravel and sand, mud and various weeds or grasses. The latter includes some with sticky sap or something. After dragging the bags around on a grand tour, they looked like yard waste. When I got home and tossed them in our driveway, rocks fell out of a couple. I picked up the UTG Overland one morning and ants began scurrying away.

The grass- and dirt-fouled packs lay on our concrete driveway for a month in the sun and rain. I’d flip or shift them occasionally. The sun’s ultraviolet rays aren’t good for fabrics — natural or synthetic. Our high temperatures hit the 80s during that time, although the mildew-inducing humidity never got too bad. Boo. 

The final test involved coating the still-dirty bags with sand, giving each a good shake, and testing the zippers. I also looked to see if sand got inside. Would a hunter’s backpack encounter all this abuse, some of it as over-the-top as it is? Doubtful. But that’s the point, and here’s what I discovered about the bags.

The Pros

Each bag had several common positives, foremost being comfort during use. It’s challenging for some hunters to find a pack with adjustable shoulder and waist straps, padding that doesn’t rub or chafe, and enough room for gear. Fortunately, top manufacturers are doing a greater job with their designs.

Each pack in our test has ample pockets for large and small items. The larger packs — Alps, Sitka and Mystery Ranch — can handle more or bigger items, such as boots, layering clothes or gear, and a thermos or Yeti. Zippers on all packs worked easily and consistently, even after the grass-dirt-sand abuse. It’s frustrating if a zipper doesn’t work; users want to close or open a pocket every time without fail.

As mentioned above, each pack floats. I was surprised, even after they had been in the pond for several days. I figured after soaking up water they’d at least half-submerge or maybe sink. Nope. Even the Sitka with the bricks didn’t sink. I shouldn’t have been surprised about this due to the amount of padding, but I was.

All the packs are pretty quiet, especially the Alps Pursuit. Its fabric is soft, hardly making any noise when brushing against things in the woods. The Rush and Overland are more rigid fabric and are a bit more noisy. The Mystery Ranch and Sitka packs have minor scritchy-scratchy noise if brushed against limbs, but nothing terrible.

Each pack has solid add-ons, such as the grab handle on the Mystery Ranch or pockets on the Rush and Overland. Stick a pen, lip balm, EDC light and Air Pods in one and you know exactly where they are. The Alps pack’s “shelf” is great in a tree so you can access the internal without having to frequently zip-close-zip-close. A nice plus with the Sitka 2700 is the internal zippered pocket for keys, phone, wallet or other stash-stuff. Another is the oversized waist belt buckle; it’s easy to use even with gloves. Also, the heat-shrink zipper tabs are bomb-proof, easy to grasp and quiet.

Packrat hunters who take “just in case” items, or who need more, will love the Mystery Ranch, Sitka and Alps packs. Minimalists will appreciate the Overland and Rush 24 packs. Myriad options exist for hunting and outdoors use with all these packs. For a general, affordable do-all pack for the majority of whitetail hunters throughout the country, the Alps Pursuit would get my nod.

The Cons

After each test, I examined the packs to see what worked or didn’t, if anything was torn or broken, and if it was still in usable condition. With exception of a few things, all packs still are good to go after months of testing.

Being left in the pond didn’t do anything other than get them soggy. Running over them with my truck squeezed out the water and didn’t yield any negative results. I’m sure if I’d put some bricks in the packs and then drove over them, it might have damaged the shells or zippers. Maybe next time. Dragging them through the pasture, rocks and such only resulted in dirty appearances.

Sun exposure slightly faded the fabric on the Alps Pursuit and Mystery Ranch Metcalf; for a hunter, the slight discoloration wouldn’t matter. None of the bags stunk or smelled mildewed, even after the pond soak and repeatedly being rained on in the driveway. Sand on the zippers? Minimal issues, but all the zippers worked after a thorough shaking. The Sitka and Mystery Ranch zippers are sealed when closed, which is a huge plus. Water and grit won’t penetrate.

The baseball bat whack-a-pack yielded immediate feedback: UTG Overland: One poly zipper cord pull was sliced into; all zippers worked, albeit not as easily. 5.11 Rush 24 2.0: Hard plastic zipper tab pulls broke immediately into multiple pieces; one zipper was slightly deformed, but they all worked. Alps Pursuit: No visible damage. Sitka 2700: No visible damage. Mystery Ranch Metcalf 50: Two plastic buckles broke, one on the 40th whack. The waist belt clasp and internal bar on the top grab handle broke, but both still worked.

Final Thoughts

What hunter abuses a backpack with these kinds of crazy tests? No one. I’ve hunted with packs for three decades and never have run over one multiple times, dunked it in a lake, beat the snot out of it with a baseball bat or dragged it behind a truck. While hunting out West, I’ve had bags get grit in the zippers, along with cactus spines or Devil’s spawn sand spurs. That’s common. In the Southeast, the mélange includes briars, locust trees, beggar lice and more.

What stood out during testing, though, despite a few things here and there, was how all these bags withstood these above-and-beyond challenges. They’re designed well and are made with good materials. They meet the stated purpose without a problem. Prices range from “Hmmm, not bad” to “Wow, OK,” but that span fits customer budgets and desires, too.

It’s good to have options for customers seeking top-quality gear. Whether they treat their packs with kid gloves or are more rough-and-tumble than the average guy, offer solid advice and a nice selection to increase your sales this season.