Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting My McHale Pack Experience - Part I

Disclaimer: This review is my experience, YMMV. I have not been given any compensation for this review.

Thanks to a great dad my backpacking experience began at a young single digit age. Now at age 40, I've gone on more hikes and backpack trips than I can remember. On average over the last few years I have a pack on about once a week, either for a day hike, overnight or extended trip. I hike and backpack for enjoyment and exercise. In the summer I hike and backpack on mule deer scouting trips and in the fall my trips often turn into hunts.

I first ran across Dan McHale's packs about 5 years ago on an internet forum. After viewing his website, I was less than impressed. His packs didn't have many of the "bells and whistles" of most packs found in stores like REI or Cabelas. More specifically, his pack suspension (waist belt, shoulder pads, and back pads) looked somewhat lacking compared to my pack at the time, a Gregory Denali Pro. For those unfamiliar with this pack, it is a heavy load hauler with an almost unreal sculpted hip belt constructed of triple density, thermo-molded anatomical foam and plastic stiffeners mechanically anchored to carbon fiber stays. By contrast Dan's waist belt is a simple piece of flat foam attached to aluminum stays. More on Dan's waist belt and suspension later.

Over the last few years I have been using a Gregory Z55 and Reality pack for my backpack trips and a Mystery Ranch NICE frame with Crew Cab and Longbow bags for scouting trips and backpack hunting. While I have appreciated all these packs, I couldn't escape the feeling that things could be better. For one thing, I longed for a single pack that would work for my day hikes/scouting trips, overnight trips, and week long bivy/spike camp hunts. While some of the above mentioned packs will work for all these events, all are a compromise at some point. Also, each pack seemed to have a less than ideal fit in one area or another. The idea of a pack custom built for my body and needs lead me to Dan's website again. After browsing for a couple of months I decided to give him a try.

Let me get a couple of things out of the way: First, the packs are relatively expensive, especially compared to typical packs. I am expecting my pack to run $600 to $700. Compared to other semi custom hunting packs like Kifaru or Mystery Ranch, McHale packs are still higher. Second, ordering a custom pack from Dan takes time. I've been told to expect approximately 8 weeks. This time includes fitting, testing of a demo pack, and waiting for my pack to be constructed.

Now for the good stuff.

First, You deal directly with Dan. I am 2 weeks into the process and have talked directly with Dan twice, and expect at least one or two more conversations with him. When you call McHale packs, he answers. Imagine calling Mystery Ranch and talking with Dana or calling Gregory and getting Wayne.

Second, Dan has an almost unequaled history of fitting and building packs. Your pack is custom fit to your body. The process begins with sending in a number of measurements. From those measurements Dan sends out a demo pack. With the demo in various configurations and weights pictures are sent to Dan who analyzes the fit. I have been very impressed with Dan's depth and attention to detail in the fitting process. This is not a five minute "yeah that looks good" kind of thing.

Third, you can design the pack to your exact needs. Size, shape, color, fabric, accessories, straps, pockets, etc are all on the table, so to speak. While this may overwhelm some, I have found this to be exciting and Dan is there to offer guidance and input as needed. Dan also uses fabrics like Dyneema and Spectra not commonly found on other packs.

Fourth, McHale packs have several unique design features. While his waist belts at first glance may appear to be antiquated, nothing could be further from the truth. He uses a high quality foam with (2) waist belt straps, as opposed to the traditional single strap. The difference with the added strap is noticeable. I loaded up the demo pack and my Gregory Denali Pro with 100 lbs to compare the comfort. Dan's pack was every bit as comfortable, if not more, than the Gregory, even without all the complexities. Dan also uses a bypass system for his load lifter straps. Instead of attaching the load lifters to the shoulder straps, his bypass the shoulder straps and attach at the bottom of the pack. This allows the tension of the shoulder and load lifter straps to adjusted and maintained independent of each other. Another big selling point for me is Dan's frames. He has a feature that allows the pack frame height to be extended for larger loads, or reduced for smaller loads. This feature will allow the same pack to be used for day hikes/hunts and extended trips. Since the pack is custom, I can also spec out a stronger frame stays for those 100 lbs loads when I am packing out my gear and a boned out muley.

Part II will cover my pack build process and final product.