Day Pack - Spruce Green

Great day pack for hunting.

5 stars !

I bought this pack for hunting in the north country to replace my old nylon tactical day pack. Initially, I thought it was going to be a good choice, but I soon learned otherwise.

Pros: The bag seems well made. Good stitching. Water repellency is what you'd expect from JWM. Color is perfect. The wool materials is silent in the thick brush. The materials and stitching are the only reasons this pack gets three stars.

Cons: No support. Carrying this pack is like putting a Walmart bag on your back. It would have been very easy to put a couple reinforcing seems up the side near the back to help it stand up a little better on your back. Maybe install a thin piece of PVC in the main compartment (which is what I'm doing to it). It doesn't have to be completely rigid. This failing is exacerbated by the fact that there is no connecting strap between the two backpack straps across the chest to keep the straps from falling off your shoulders, especially when going through thick brush and whips. Such a glaring oversight! First time out, after a couple hours I cut a piece of 550 cord to length so I could tie the two straps together across my chest. Luckily the wife is handy with crafts and can put one on for me that has a metal or plastic clip. I'm also cutting off a piece of old woolen pant leg to make an inner compartment for a water bladder, another easy addition that for the money, would have been nice. Which leads me to compartments. They are unimaginative. The main compartment is quite large enough for anything I need to carry while hunting, but good luck finding anything in it because there are no subcompartments for accessories like a batteries, snacks, fire starter material, pens, emergency blankets, etc. Again, easy additions. So the only way to keep things organized in the pack is to have everything stored in little pouches which just adds weight and bulk. The compartment for the water bottle on the outside of the pack isn't practical. I mean, it's a woolen pack, so it's probably going to be used predominantly in the winter. Maybe not, but for my purposes it doesn't make sense. Any bottle in there is going to freeze, and the compartment fills up with snow and water.
I guess it seems like they had a bunch of extra material on hand and tried to figure out how they could use it, which I respect, but they should have put some thought into a really nice practical day-pack.
All in all, it's a wool pack that is decently made, but for the money falls short, and literally falls off.

My grandson will have this wool backpack for many years. Thank you Johnson’s