I have been looking at the horn hunter main beam packs and am stuck between the main beam or main beam xl. the dilemma being is the main beam too small to fit items such as jackets or sleeping bags for a 1-2 day hunt at 2800 ci. I like the XL at 4000 ci but I haven't been able to get a clear answer on if the XL has side water bottle compartments. anyone out there have the answer? or better yet, does anyone have pictures of either packs in use???

I have a mainbeam. It is not 2800 cubes. It is much less. The pockets all add up to 2800 if you stuff them separately, however when you fill the main bag you cannot use the outside pockets as they do not extend outward. These other pockets when filled take space away from the interior of the pack.
The pack had some nice features that I liked but it never worked for me as a daypack because it was too small and it was too tall.
It got hung up on branches often here in the east when still hunting.
I replaced it with a mystery ranch pop up.
Regular mainbeam I believe would be too small for your intended use.

Awesome thank you that really helps. I ordered the main beam xl yesterday off Amazon. Not sure if I'll keep it or not but I couldn't find any place locally where I could check it out first. Will be interesting to see what the pack is like when it gets here.