Season is nearly here

​In my spare time I have been rehabbing select equipment items.  First up, my brush pants, patching and reinforcing holes with leather or sail-cloth as best fits the situation.  It is an annual due which must be paid.  Sadly new brush pants cost far too much to disregard ones in need of some care. ​

Next up, is my beloved Mother pack.  The holes in mess will repair, cosmetics don't mean so much. I am concerned about a key structural piece, a plastic slider on the chest strap, that is part of what makes wearing it all day so comfortable while loaded with water, shells, first aid, snacks, and a few birds.

​Maybe, it's time for a new pack? Sadly the owner of Mother got fed up with being a manufacturer and walked away from building some of the best "vests" around. Mother's hydration day-pack style has been copied by many, but few have done it as well. I don't care much for a strap vest, they can become a tangled mess, some carry loads well others not so well, and water is restricted to bottles which need to be kept track of and they eat up storage.  Then there are "hunting" vests based off of a shooting vests, they are nice for being out in the open, and again water for me and the dogs chew up valuable storage space and make the whole outfit wear poorly.

​I like being off the beaten path and this means I appreciate a secure and fairly lightweight pack which does a nice job of distributing the weight of the pack and it's load.  A built in water bladder is a huge boon as they don't chew up space, and I've never lost on in the field yet!.  These aren't conventional, but they wear well, when loaded , and storage is never sacrificed.

In today's market it seems the top contenders are the Tenzing TZ BV16 Upland Bird Vest Pack, The ALPS Outdoorz Extreme Upland Game Vest, and the Badlands Upland High-Visibility Lightweight Bird Hunter's Game Vest.  All have a few great features, and they all have some surprisingly silly features which keeps them from bettering my decade old Mother.  Ah, to repair or to renew, that is the question...  Feel free to share your thoughts.