I have a CM with bayonets. I don't know how big a load it will support. I know I can't lift that much or walk with that much.
I also have one of his light packs (his simplest older version about day and a half sized) and it will control a pretty chunky load itself. If I were doing it over again, I'd probably drop down from the CM frame to the regular frame S-SARC for the big pack. For carrying meat, especially quarters, you need the bag to be big enough at top to slide the quarter in shoulder down. My small bag is cut too narrow for that. The CM is big enough that it's like loading into a garbage can.
The bayonets are good in that it allows my big pack to reduce down to a shoulder high pack that still has a sturdy suspension and frame. It works well when carrying the pack through thick brush where the short configuration doesn't hang up overhead or way out to sides. The bayonets are sturdy.
Tell Dan what you want it for including what a usual load will be and the biggest load may be and listen to his advice. His larger non-CM packs are built for carrying heavy loads.
Oh, also do not compare his cubic inch estimates to any other pack manufacturer cubic inch estimates. A McHale 5000 ci pack will have a much higher capacity than a mass market 5000 ci pack.
On the Windsauk- I don't have one. I will tell you that I use the side straps on both my McHale packs extensively to shrink them down around whatever the load is. The CM would be mostly unusable without shrinking it to hold the load in the right place when the pack is not full. Even with the small pack, tightening down the side straps to lock down the load makes the pack much more comfortable to carry over rough trails, through blowdowns and such.
