Mystery Ranch NICE Frame W/6500 Bag Review

We’ve just hung up the phone with Steven from Mystery Ranch Packs out of Bozeman, Montana and our new pack will be in the mail on Monday. I am looking forward to writing a very detailed review of this pack when it arrives.

I’ve done some extensive research on packs over the last few weeks and there were a few names that kept continually popping up as the best hunting packs available.

Kifaru, Mystery Ranch & Barney’s.

After going through the feedback, asking questions and drilling down I finally made the decision to give the Mystery Ranch NICE Frame along with a 6500 bag a try.

It’s really hard to find anyone with anything bad to say about any of these pack manufacturers and in the end boils down to personal preference.

One argument constantly came up though and that was pack weight…

Kifaru (longhaul) is about 3lbs lighter then Mystery Ranch
And Mystery Ranch is about 2lbs lighter then Barneys.

I’m convinced the weight issue can be taken care of quite easily by me losing a couple of pounds, so it’s not that big of a deal for me. Instead I looked at build quality, and feedback from actual users in the field.

When the pack arrives I’ll do an initial review along with several pictures… I’ll do another review a few weeks after that (after I’ve put some miles on with the pack) and then I’ll post a followup review after my Stone Sheep hunt this August 2009.

Stay Tuned….

Carl