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THE Perfect Saddle Pack

kyler1945

kyler1945

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Dec 4, 2016
Messages
6,917
Location
Willis, TX
… For me!

I picked up a MR-PopUp 28 last year. It is an amazing bag, and it allowed me to hunt the way I like to hunt, in the places I like to hunt, with no fuss.

I can come up with exactly two complaints - A - Its just a little noisy for dead calm, still, and cold mornings bowhunting whitetails. and B - MR wouldn't sell me 10 buckles to sew up my own "quiet" pack.

I embarked on a very long journey to find the exact buckles they used on the pack - I could've bought another pack with the money for the time spent on this...

Anywho, I attempted to sew up a pack. I have great ideas for gear, but sewing a backpack is a bit above my paygrade. I got almost all the way through the pack, and sewed myself into a corner so to speak. I essentially made an irreparable mistake, and had to scrap the first draft. I was really not looking forward to a full day of sewing on the second draft.

This morning in my wonderful REM Sleep/slow drift back into consciousness, the image of my day one fleece pack rolled across my brain, and a little spark ignited.

I grabbed the pack and sat with it and the MR frame for about an hour, and came up with a way to mate them. I essentially just had to rip a few seams on the shoulder straps, and then make 4 new seams. I sewed the backpack straps to the bottom of the rear panel of the pack, and sewed in buckles to the top of them to mate to the frame. If I decide I want to reverse this process, I have four short seams to rip, and it's serviceable again as the plain ole day one pack. All in, it was about 1.5 hours of thought and effort.

I now have an absolutely silent backpack, that can haul out any deer I kill. Every now and then, I get something right. This my friends, is as right as it gets. Pics to follow
 
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Pack strapped on, with the pop up not deployed. Super low profile and silent.

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Pack strapped on with load lifters deployed

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Here’s the pictures of the modifications and how I attached it.

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We are all (three of us) big fans for the Pop-up 28 for saddle hunting. Your work is excellent!
 
The perfect saddle pack is the one that fits your body frame correctly and all your gear wit out having to be ocd abut how you pack it...but doesn't have too much extra space :)
 
Wow, and to think I already had my sights on grabbing one of these.


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@kyler1945 it looks good. I can’t believe we don’t see more pack mods with all the diy stuff going on here. Especially people looking for packs with stick carrying capabilities. Most packs that come with cinch straps for packing stuff on the outside are bigger than most of us want. It only takes a little while to sew on a little webbing and buckles.
 
One of these days I’m going to get taught to sew. And I’m gonna start making custom gear for outdoors, hunting, fishing etc. One day. Big demand for it!
 
Really nice work! I have the mr cabinet and love the bag....I think as close to perfect saddle pack as I can get off the shelf. Might have to do something like this some day
 
Nice work! I still contend there are not perfect packs, BUT ...if willing to make and design specifically what you want, then that's another story!

Looks great!
 
I've been shopping for a pack for a month or so. It's difficult when your local store only has a couple of options.

I thought I had my heart set on MR pop up 28 but then I've heard some concerns about durability of the frame. And started looking at the MR mule.

Is the pop up frame sturdy enough to get a whitetail and gear out of the woods in one trip? Is the mule too big to share a tree with?
 
SomthingOriginal said:
I've been shopping for a pack for a month or so. It's difficult when your local store only has a couple of options.

I thought I had my heart set on MR pop up 28 but then I've heard some concerns about durability of the frame. And started looking at the MR mule.

Is the pop up frame sturdy enough to get a whitetail and gear out of the woods in one trip? Is the mule too big to share a tree with?
Click to expand...

I've packed 70lbs+ over two miles twice in the popup. I had no issues, and see no reason it couldn't handle this on a regular occasion. If you carry 30lbs of gear, and shoot deer that boned out weigh north of 70lbs, you might need to step up to a bigger pack. If you're shooting sub 200lb deer, and don't carry a ton of crap, the popup is fine.

I suspect most folks aren't prepared to pack out 100lbs long distance, often, anyways....
 
kyler1945 said:
Bolts or one stick. Don’t take up much room.
Click to expand...

10-4 I just got a Popup 28 and have been trying different methods to haul my LW sticks.

I’m probably going to run 2 sticks on the sides and have parachord tied onto the load shelf buckle straps so I can quickly loop them around the versa buttons.

I wasn’t a fan of having a full length stick in the load shelf so I’m curious if you do something similar/different?
 
Twenty Up said:
10-4 I just got a Popup 28 and have been trying different methods to haul my LW sticks.

I’m probably going to run 2 sticks on the sides and have parachord tied onto the load shelf buckle straps so I can quickly loop them around the versa buttons.

I wasn’t a fan of having a full length stick in the load shelf so I’m curious if you do something similar/different?
Click to expand...

The only possible way to carry the full length sticks would be down the sides of the pack, hanging below it on each side - otherwise they'd stick a foot above your head.

This is probably the biggest reason I wouldn't carry full length sticks - They're longer than the top of my butt to the base of my neck. Anything past that is a pain in the woods, and is what causes me to make noise, or bust my butt.
 
Tenzing SP14, for carrying sticks I like it. Compact, more than enough room for me but I don’t carry much at all. Won’t pack any meat out though. I take my pack out and go get my molle frame pack for that


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