Many different opinions, as well as differing levels of field experience and areas/types of use. The comments by "Kabok68" are well worth serious consideration and he makes points that are "true".
I have carried a wide variety of packs for 56.5 years, all over British Columbia, a lot of Alberta and a bit elsewhere in northern and eastern Canada. Much of this was for employment purposes and involved very heavy loads and some was long, solo trips in the remote wilderness of nothern BC.
I also worked in the gear industry and have owned most of the "highend" packs available from Euro., Canadian and American makers since the early '60s. I have some fairly definite opinions on quality control, customer service and durability where the current crop of packs is concerned.
First, you do NOT "need" a costly "state of the art" super pack to enjoy and succeed at backpack hunting, a Kelty Cache Hauler, Camp Trails Freighter, K-2 Dana Designs Shortbed or similar and often USED pack can get you started and may well meet your needs in total for many years.
I have two K2-Dana frame packs, one a Shortbed and also a Longbed Loadmaster and another Shortbed on the way here from California, all in mint shape and I actually prefer these, for most hunting over any of the several other highend packs I now own.
MY choices are, based on the absolutely critical factor of:
Fit-this MUST be right and is the primary consideration, as with footwear.
Quality of build and customer service-NOBODY I have ever dealt with comes even close to Mystery Ranch in this crucial area. Their packs are "heavy", I have now owned about 15 of them and my oldest is from 1978, still rocksolid and built as well as ANY custom pack I have seen.
Of all the "big name" US packs, Dana Design-Bozeman and the EARLY K2 packs built under Dana's supervision, plus the Mystery Ranch models from Bozeman, are THE BEST I have ever seen/used. Their customer service is legendary and IF one of their models in the size range you want will fit you, this is THE pack to buy and it will last decades, as mine have.
BEST pack, IF, you want an internal, it will cost a bundle, but, Dan McHale makes packs that nobody else has ever equaled, IMHO and while my experience with them is a fraction of that with DD-MR packs, Dan is THE man, if you have to have the ultimate.
Take your time, try out as many packs as possible, loaded with weights, I use sandbags,old concrete blocks wrapped in old towels fastened with duct tape and I would definitely speak with Evan Hill about the new pack they are now developing....his products, manner and gear knowledge impress me and he may well end up offering the "best" pack for hunters that most can afford.
There are, btw, usually good deals on barely used packs on the backpacking forums, the information-rich Kifaru.net forum-and here I have to compliment owner Patrick Smith, one of the first "gurus"of hunting packs as he allows sale of competitor's packs on the site he pays for, which I find a pretty decent way for a business person to behave........
I have found fine deals on "as new" packs on some of the backpacking forums, on Kifaru of course and on Evan's forum site.so, you can set your budget and see what you can find, the search itself is part of the fun.
