AZDirtyTaco

Santa (UPS dude) came early and I just received my Kifaru Fulcrum pack. This is my first time getting my hands on one of their products and my first impression is pretty dang good. After running a few other packs over the past several years and most recently a Mystery Ranch Marshall, I truly feel that this will be my first hunting pack that will handle everything I can physically hack and I will be comfortable in the process. Well... relatively speaking. I went through a number of packs on this pack journey of sorts, and just want to pass this along to anyone (especially over 6ft) on the fence about your next pack - Bite the Kifaru $,$$$ bullet and go all in once! You won't regret it. This is the first frame that truly fits me at 75" tall and places the load lifters above the shoulders. Eberlestock, Tenzing, Badlands, Mystery Ranch to name a few... all have short frames and even at max adjustments, never really got the job done for heavier loads over 100 pounds on longer treks of more than a couple miles. My Mystery Ranch was the best of the bunch and has a few fatal flaws that scream at you once you push 120ish! Fully acknowledging that this thing just showed up on my doorstep and hasn't even been driven off the lot, but the differences in the frame are instantly recognizable. And besides, who better to share the excitement of a new pack than a bunch of strangers on the WWW??? The wait is nearly over gents... I hope you all are getting your scouting in and have as many Phoneskope pics of this years buck as you do your first born. Happy hunting!!!

Super cool post to day the least. Some of my favorite shots were of the "small stuff". I think I dug the captions and your genuine candor most of all. Nice work Senor and thank you!

Both my son and I knocked ours out this past year. I lucked out with a field day that was made available at the Ben Avery outdoor expo after completing the online test. I took my son to the classes held at Bass Pro Mesa which is almost an hour drive for us and then had one of the instructors show mercy on us by giving me advance notice when a field day opened up at Ben Avery. I recall him saying that class was posted on that Tuesday before 6:00am and filled within 15min.... It's beyond a total PITA! I won't even get started on the material that they cover. Glad it's done.

Funny thing is that I was on my last call/text offering up that ticket before posting it here.

Hey Gents! I just noticed the 18 and over only statement when checking my tickets. I was planning to bring my son who's 10. I called Tempe Improv and spoke to a couple reps, neither seemed to care much and said there wouldn't be any exceptions due to their liquor license (lame). Just thought I'd pass this along in case anyone else was planning to bring a youngster and overlooked the age restriction like I did.

I have a Life Straw as well and forgot to mention it since it's the same thing basically. The Sawyer Mini is just under half the size.

Used all of the below to pretty good extent - PUR Hiker Pro (now Katadyn) MSR Sweetwater Sawyer Mini Steripen The Katadyn is the only one that I don't use anymore after running it for a good 12 years. It's as good as the day I bought it 20 years ago, but it has the paper cartridges that run $30+ or so to replace. I tend to have to pump from some nasty super sedimenty crap and I've only gotten a couple trips out of a cartridge on multiple occasions. Solid option regardless. MSR Sweetwater has been every bit of what the Katadyn has been since I picked it up 8 years ago. The ceramic filter just adds the ability to clean in the field and not require replacement. My favorite option for longer trips with more than a couple bladders worth of filtering. The Sawyer's are a staple in all of our packs for emergency use only. They are cheap, take up very little space, and are light weight. Bulk H20 filtration stays at camp and those stay in the packs for an emergency. They take more work to use and are a lot slower than a pump especially when filtering for others. Regardless of time, effort, energy... they are as good as any for getting the job done, take up almost no space in the process, and weigh next to nothin. Solid option if solo or space is a premium. Steripen's are cool, but I prefer pumping when it's all said and done. I get a lot more H20 filtered with a pump in the same time and it's less tedious to me. That and I NEVER have to worry about something wonky happening with the batteries. I have filtered from some sketchy sketchy water sources with the Steripen and have just as much faith in them as I do all of the others. They are legit.

On the pad - I've had my 2 Thermarest classic's for 18 and 14 years. The first one I use has 3 patches it and still going strong for my son who has in inherited it after outgrowing my wife's shorty. Both still see regular action and end up as loaners often. Those Classic's are light but large in size, so they were always strapped on the outside, which was the only reason they ended up with needing patched. Those Classic's are still more comfortable and way quieter than my $180 Sea to Summit, just doesn't compress down half as much. If you can grunt out a foam pad Marine Corp style... go for foam. I bought that Thermarest when I was 22 and dang near turned around at the register not wanting to pinch off $80 at the time. The 1st time I used it, I instantly knew it was worth 10 times what I paid for it. I sleep better on them than I do my own bed to this day. Tent - There are times where I've been out in the summer while scouting and you could not have paid me enough to hand over my tent. Heck, that goes back to when a top notch 3-4 season backpack tent weight 7.5pnds. It's not all the time, but it's plenty enough of the time, that tents will 100% save a trip due to bugs alone. Throw in the occasional crap weather... and you are in for some serious suffer if you don't have a place to hide or stay dry when mother nature throws it's best at you. No thanks. Tents, sleeping pads, boots, backpacks, sleep systems are GOLD. If you have those ironed out - you are in good shape. Everything else will work itself out with experience. Not saying you're wrong akaspecials. Far from it. You're just a tough flippin hombre!!! Lol...

Numero uno recommendation would be to find out what your physical limits are when carrying weight and then work on gear from there. How many pounds are you comfortable to hump over ___ miles and ____ elevation gain, and then hunt? Are you packing in to a base camp or planning to stay mobile by moving camp each morning? I'm not sure how or why you guys put up with bivy's. Single person tents are within a few ounces without spending big money and are 100 times more comfortable, especially in bad weather. My favorite line of tents right now for 1/2/3 person are the REI Passage and are excellent for the money. It's such a large topic and everyone has their things they are or aren't willing to compromise on. You can save big if you're ok to sleep on the egg crate foam style pads that can be had for $10 or so. Take the money saved there and apply it to better quality packs. Need something with more cush... there's not a better dollar spent than on a Thermarest or comparable mattress. Kelty is never a bad option and you can pretty much outfit your family top to bottom with their gear and not have any major regrets. All around solid value and performance. The more weight you are willing to hump - the less money you'll have to spend. There's a very personal balance of what you're willing to leave behind whether it's comfort or safety related. As an example: many will say that if you have something in your pack that you don't use on 3-6 trips, leave it. Well... there goes your first-aide kit most likely. Mine is hefty as far as most go and I rarely go into it, but there's zero chance it will ever stay behind. Best bet Kev, is to connect with someone that has been backpacking for a few years and get them to do a bag dump with you. Bug them every time you have a question till they are annoyed. Anyone that's been doing it for a while will give you the pro's and con's of what they have in their kit. Ulta-light is a sufferfest and ultra-heavy is a sufferfest. But what's light to one person can easily be heavy for another and visa versa...

I'm not sure if I'm hallucinating... but I think I see what looks like rain out my window. Been so long I can't be sure though.

Is there a better way???

You'll never hear a current or former Tacoma owner complain about their Tacoma. Perma grin from the day you buy to the day you put the money in your account after selling it for more than what you think is ethical. It's a different machine all together than what this thread is supposed to be about and certainly shouldn't be in the conversation.

x2

Right, wrong, or indifferent... if you camp within a quarter mile off any road that an RV can travel down, you might as well just grab your cooler full of beer and watch the Baja 1000 play out from your camp. Not saying the OP deserved it and it ain't jacked up for people to act the way they do. But getting dusted out all weekend was all but guaranteed.

I can't imagine how you must feel to have inspired someone to do something so cool. What an incredible gift to say the least. Whatever you're doing - don't stop!

I don't see it that way. They both belong to all of us. Common man... You can't be this narrow minded.

How fantastic would this story be?

This would be my general breakdown for Central AZ and typical crappy hot ars Oct weather: 150-300 if your an archery guy (a successful one). Much under 300 is more still hunting anyways and negates the advantage of glass. 300-500 for the average person if you're reasonably quiet and aware of your movement 500-1,000 with kids (some buddies) that have trouble staying out of bags of chips and crap with wrappers, talking, or shuffling around, etc. and you should have a good set of 15's or better for the grind hours 1,000+ is going to have you planted hard in your spotter or high powered ____. Otherwise you better have eagle eyes to pick up their movement unless you're rockin some Kowa's

Is anyone interested in posting a thread that has a comprehensive list of contacts? The AZGFD list posted earlier by idgaf on page 3 is a good start. No opinions, no BS, just info. We need a one stop resource so people aren't forced to dig through what is now several threads and must be pushing 80 pages.

If anyone is interested in hearing more from the Nimrod Society https://nimrodsociety.org/, please send me your email address. I will CC you on my next response to them and encourage you to reach out to Bob and Allen on your own as well. I've been keeping up with the conversation here lately, but have not been as engaged due to family, work, sports, life in general. They followed up with me over the weekend and I would like to loop in anyone interested. There are many other models out there that have accomplished EXACTLY what is being used as the driving topic of "public education" without prostituting wildlife (stole your analogy Flatlander) . I like what NIMROD has said and what their record of performance shows. I would love to see them enter the conversation and become involved. It's good conversation here on the forums but lets please focus our real energy on a strategy of moving forward with solutions not involving CAPAZ. There is zero sense in any attempt to work with them on alternatives, as they are clearly not interested, which in my opinion tipped there hand most.

Beautiful craftsmanship.

Incredible. Great share - thank you.

Can you point me to where the meeting information is posted?

I've called in twice attempting to correct some misinformation on my Portal. For the past 8mo my license has shown as expired, though it's not. Fortunately it has yet to cause an issue with my applications, but it doesn't give me any confidence. You guys now have me paranoid about my elk points!!!

I'm going to miss it unfortunately. My kids pulled out an upset victory in our playoff game yesterday and we have practice tomorrow night. I'm sure it won't be the last meeting. Please gents, show up in force. On that show that aired yesterday, Jon was pretty clear in his opinion of the CWT community and had a couple snarky comments on how many people would show up. I'm sorry that I won't be at the meeting. Timing stinks.