Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting KUIU Icon?

Did any of you guys have a chance to try out the KUIU packs this past season? There was a lot of hype pre-release but I haven't seen any reviews of them. If you've had a chance to try them, post your thoughts here please.

I got one and it has worked great for me. The issues I ran into was the shoulder straps slipping but they have fixed that with a different strap material. It packs light and small but can handle weight. Most I have had in it is around 80 pounds and it worked great on both my elk. I really liked the hip belt when I was bow hunting, seemed less constrictive on movement. KUIU has great customer service and has been on top of fixing any problems with their products and I think there stuff will only get better.

I just came back after 4 days with the Kuiu 3000. I really liked how it fit. Has many straps for many options. My only learning curve issue was with the "fold over" opening. Have to adjust the two side straps to keep proper tension. I did pack the Kimber and that too worked well for hands free hiking and climbing.
Overall a nice option to my Eberlestock J104.
Oh and elk blood cleans up nice on the Kuiu with cold water.

I had an Icon 6000 and there were a lot of things I liked about it. First, I liked the material. It was light weight yet strong. Not as strong as the 500D Cordura on a Kifaru or MR packs but strong enough and lighter weight. I also like the Vias camo

I really liked the meat compartment. I was able to carry a 75lb bag of sand in it and it kept the heavy load in the perfect spot on my back. Since the meat compartment has its own compression straps I was able to compress the sand bag to the frame and put other things in the pack bag and not have to worry about the heavy sand putting pressure on the other items or the other items limiting my ability to compress the sand bag.

I also really liked all the compression straps. There were a lot of them. They provided a lot of flexibility in compressing the load and making the pack small. I really liked how small the Icon 6000 could be compressed down in "day pack" mode.

The problem I had with the pack was that after awhile it would slip down with heavy loads (55lbs) and cut the circulation off in my legs. I had the belt tightened all the way and it still slipped. I added my own lumbar pad which helped but it was less comfortable with 65lbs than some of my other packs were with 85lbs.

I know another guy that had a similar problem but there are others who say it carries weight just fine. Maybe the waist belt was too big for me.

The other thing that I didn't care for was the pivoting hip belt. With heavy loads I found it awkward to get the pack on and when I walked it seemed unstable. My add-on lumbar pad actually stopped the pivot and I liked how the pack felt without the pivot better. This is not a big deal because its fairly easy to stop the pivot and with lighter weights it didn't bother me.

I sent the pack back to KUIU and they refunded my money. They do have great customer service. I really like the idea of the Icon frame and the multiple pack bags but in the end the pack didn't work for me with heavy loads. I have other packs that work better for me.

I used the pack for a 12 day hunt in the NWT (dall, caribou, moose). It is a great pack for medium to light loads. Anyting over 60 lbs for an extended period of time is too much. I did pack out an entire moose cape plus the gear i was daypacking. I estimate the weight between 85 and 100 pounds. It was only a 2 mile pack and the ICON handled it very well. I just would not want to carry that much weight over long distances.
I had the shoulder straps on the shortest adjustment, that fixed the pack/waistbelt sliding down problem.
i learned two things: 1) go as light as possible. 2) I dont want to carry a pack over 50 lbs (without rifle) for an entended hunt.
My pack has held up very well.

The pivoting hipbelt is designed for active climbing with medium to light loads. I would use a frame pack for really heavy loads.

When it comes to heavy loads I think Barneys frames and packs out of Alaska are the way to go.

I have no experience with the Barney. What are you comparing it to?

I bought my wife an icon 6000 and at just under 5'7" this pack just fits her. The pack has some adjustability and this is on the smallest setting. Her pack started to squeak at the belt pivot but instead of torquing the crap out of the bolt I took the bolt out and waxed the contact areas with bow string wax. No issue after that. For such a large pack it collapses nicely that it's a not a pain to carry as a day pack once you've dropped your camp.

The pack now fits her quite well (after about an hour of adjusting) and she packed better than 85 pounds of gear and deer 6 1/2 miles off the mountain this past September. Her only complaint was that the straps slipped with that big of a load and had to be cinched frequently. Kuiu suggested adding another slide to the strap- that fixed it. Hopefully it's a "growing pains" issue with the new gear.

RC

I'm sure it would work well with loads 40 Lbs and under...

I tried one on at EdT's camp last june with 80 Lbs in it. It was absolutely the most uncomfortable pack that anyone had brought for show and tell.

I took my friends Icon 6000 out for a spin when he got it and it was very uncomfortable for me. I would agree with the 40 lbs. limit with this pack. He packed out a sheep with it last fall and bought a Barneys when he got home.

Do a search for Barneys Sports Chalet in Anchorage. He has a line of frame packs that many guides and hunters up there swear by.

Here is a link to their external frame pack.

http://store.barneyssports.com/FGAPBK.html[/url]

My thought's on the Kuiu Icon 6000 pack from a post made last March...

Packs are like rifles: there is no such thing as one size fits all.

I'm pretty sure I'm the one that's been saying that here for a decade... but the Icon packs are pretty poorly conceived IMO. The basic premise and promise of the frame design has been revisited for over three decades and been found wanting. You can dress up a poor design any way you want, it's still a poor design for a large pack/load haler.

Perhaps the smaller model works ok...

I spent the weekend with some experienced sheep hunters. I was showing them the KU5200 I just picked up and the talk went to other packs. There were some pretty pissed off guides up in the NWT and Alaska that tried out the Icon this past fall!