Not just for the birds

Tag: Eberlestock Mini-Me

  • Eberlestock Mini-Me Minimalist Bird Hunting Hydration Pack

    Eberlestock Mini-Me Minimalist Bird Hunting Hydration Pack

    Leslie and her gun (and Eberlestock Mini-Me pack)

    If you count calories, weigh your gear, track your vertical, get weepy at the word “minimalism,” or fancy a lightweight pack/vest for chasing chukar, the Eberlestock Mini-Me might be worth a look. Leslie has donned it exclusively for her debut season as a hunter, and – as far as I can tell from her notes – gives it a thumbs-up.  After twenty outings, here are her thoughts.

    Pros

    • Lightweight: at 3.5 pounds (dry), it’s easily the lightest thing we’ve used on a chukar hunt.
    • Compact: at 19″ x 8″ x 3″, it’s also the most compact pack I can imagine for chukar hunting, which makes busting through brush easier than with my Q5 “Cadillac” Centerfire vest.
    • Very comfortable: the channeled padding on the back will prevent anything from poking your back, and allows a bit of airflow back there, especially nice on a hot day.
    • Hydration system: the Mini-Me includes a three-liter (100 oz.) Israeli-made hydration bladder that works as well or better than any of the CamelBak products we’ve used.
    • Rides high: the “hip belt” on the Mini-Me actually goes across your waist (unless you’re a midget), which means that the accessory pouches you’ll need to add in order to hold shells won’t bang on your thighs when climbing the chukar steeps.
    • Accessory pouches (we have the “small” ones, each of which has plenty of room for a box of shells) slide along the hip belt to you can position them on the side or in the front.
    • Bird bag: made of durable mesh with a drawstring top and compression straps, the attached bird bag stows away inside a zippered pouch when not needed. When it’s out, it will hold lots of birds; on one hunt we put 2 large dusky grouse in it, which seemed to take up less than half the capacity of the bag.
    • Scabbard accessory: if you don’t want to, or can’t, carry your shotgun (or rifle) while hiking (or mountain biking), Eberlestock offers both a long and short scabbard accessory that attaches to a sleeve on the Mini-Me. Although we haven’t used the scabbard in the field yet (we have slings and typically hunt right from the rig), the short scabbard nicely and snugly holds our shotguns with 26″ barrels.
    • Multi-use: one of the reasons I wanted to try the Mini-Me was because in the off-season we do lots of hiking with our dogs and I wanted a pack that I could use for both hunting and hiking, without having to transfer a bunch of safety gear from my hunting pack to a hiking pack. The removable accessory pouches make this possible, and if the scabbard isn’t installed, you can use the sleeve it fits in for storing bulkier items like extra layers or rain gear. We also mountain bike frequently in the off-season, and the Mini-Me works great for that, especially with the hydration bladder. If you do MTB hunts, the scabbard accessory would solve the problem of how to safely carry your gun while riding.
    • Blaze “orange”: it’s more fluorescent pink, but you can see this thing from outer space. It glows bright. I like that, because I can see Leslie easily from many ridges away. If you don’t like this color and don’t need to have a certain number of square inches of hunter orange, the Mini-Me comes in a number of attractive camo patterns.

    Cons

    • Fit: the Mini-Me does take a bit of adjusting to get it to fit comfortably, as well as to accept the high ride of the “hip” belt.  Personally, I would prefer a more robust padded hip belt, but Leslie doesn’t seem to mind the thin nylon straps.
    • Hydration cap: although a small annoyance, the cap on the hydration bite valve is tough to remove and replace with one hand; CamelBak bite valves don’t have a cover on them and we’ve never had an issue with those, so we’ll probably just remove the cap on this one.
    • Accessory pouches can’t easily be fixed on the hip belt so they don’t slide around while hiking; one could modify the belt to fix this but we haven’t tried that yet.
    • Zippers on pouches are tough to open and close with one hand (true of most bird vests we’ve tried).
    • Bird bag clips that attach the top of the bag to the shoulder straps on the Mini-Me are nearly impossible to remove when you want to re-stow the bag. These need to be replaced with something much more user-friendly.
    • Using the game bag: to put birds in the bag, you must take the pack off. Unlike a traditional bird vest, which allows you to slip the bird into the compartment in the back, the Mini-Me access to the top of the bag requires removal of the pack. This hasn’t been  as annoying as it sounds, though, because we haven’t constantly nailed birds this season (yet?), and if we’ve been with another person they can easily put the bird in the bag so the wearer doesn’t have to remove it. Another issue, although not a big one, is that when the bird bag is deployed, it’s a bit tricky accessing the other pockets on the bag; having clips that are easier to remove from the D-rings on the shoulder straps would make this almost no issue at all.
    • Limited storage: just as you wouldn’t carry all your camping gear and outdoor recreation equipment in a sports car, the Mini-Me isn’t intended to schlep every piece of bird hunting kit you might want. But it can hold the essentials in its several zippered pockets, as well as additional clothing, gloves, etc. The accessory pouches you can add to the belt also expand carrying capacity.

    Overall Impression

    Leslie really likes the Mini-Me for early season chukar hunting, mainly because of its comfort and lightness. She plans to switch to her larger pack for the colder part of the season to accommodate the extra layers and gloves she doesn’t think will easily fit into the Mini-Me. My impression is that it’s a pretty cool option for a lightweight chukar pack, especially because of how much water it holds without being at all bulky. It has worked especially well for us, hunting together, because my vest carries a ridiculous amount of crap in it, stuff we only need one of, like heavy-duty cable cutters (for snare traps), a robust first-aid kit, headlamps, SPOT personal locator beacon thingy, space blankets, and more. Despite its littleness, though, Leslie has found very workable places to carry an FRS radio and her new Alpha 100 hand-held device on the Mini-Me. So there you have it. Let us know if you have any questions.

    Slim, compact, bright!
    Two dusky grouse in the bag
    Have a friend load the bag, or take off the pack and do it yourself
    Accessory pouches on the skinny hip belt
    The small pouches actually hold plenty of shells

     

     

  • Chukar Spaces

    Chukar Spaces

    Chukar spaces

    It’s rare in life to be embraced warmly by the unexpected, or at least in my life it’s been rare. Now that we’re “old people,” I think I’m more attuned to the expectation that things shouldn’t change very dramatically, but this seems dramatic somehow. It’s not so much that I’m thrilled my wife is hunting, but more that she’s not stopping at wonder. Or maybe it’s that she’s reconnecting with the curiosity that tends to get drubbed out of us the older we get, starting back in middle school. So to me in a sense it’s uncanny what she’s doing. I like uncanny.

    Our first three weekends of chukar season have been excellent in many ways. We’ve hunted lots of new ground, found more birds than expected, had great weather, enjoyed textbook dog work (with a couple excusable exceptions), bagged a lot of birds, and welcomed a new hunter into our family. I guess the reason I haven’t written much yet about this season is that I’ve just been enjoying it.

    Leslie and her gun (and Eberlestock Mini-Me pack)

    Ruminating on Leslie taking up the gun (and losing the video) has been the biggest change for me this season. It’s wholly positive, and the thought process goes something like this: I can’t believe my wife, at 55 years of age, who worries about cows and feral cats being cold in the winter, has taken up the gun, and has killed some birds, and is more motivated each time we head out.

    Rendezvous
    Space for togetherness and wind

    Our last two hunts together remind me of Khalil Gibran’s oft-quoted wish (usually at weddings), “Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.” It’s interesting to think about this, since yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the date I proposed to her, and it was on a mountain-top in Idaho, not far from where we hunted. Anyway, we had split up early in the hunt, she taking Angus and Peat accompanying me. She’s got a decade of following me with a camera rather than following a dog with a gun, so she’s learning the difference. After the hunts, she fills me in on the action she had, describing her spaces and how the dancing winds from the heavens shaped her experience. The places we’ve hunted have been blessed with more chukar than I expected, and Angus still has it, so she’s had a good number of opportunities on solid points from the old warrior. She hasn’t connected yet, but I’m sure it’ll happen soon.

    Peat’s been stellar

    For me, I’m enjoying the action, and being able to hunt with Peat while Leslie’s off with Angus. While his nose is terrific, it’s not as dialed in yet as I’m sure it will get. He’s muddled a few coveys he should have smelled and pointed, but he’s also nailed some classic, thrilling points. My shooting still hasn’t improved much, but seems to be getting better; I’ve never practiced nearly as much as I have this year, mostly thanks to Leslie wanting to work on her shooting. She outshot me at trap last weekend.

    As for the video, I miss making them and having the footage to work with. I’m not sure what to do about that. Once Leslie starts nailing the birds, I might leave my gun at home occasionally. Who knows. Maybe if I was to sell all my Chukar Culture hats and t-shirts I could hire a videographer to come along. Ha ha.