I’ve died and gone to South Dakota!

Dixie and I celebrated our 16^th wedding anniversary a couple weeks ago. I think I may have mentioned this previously, but she finally agreed (willingly or unwillingly I’m not sure) to go pheasant hunting with me in South Dakota to celebrate the occasion.

While I love my wife unconditionally, I have cursed the fact that I got married the first week of November for the last 15 of our 16 years together (first one I was too distracted to notice). The timing provides an annual conflict of me wanting to be somewhere else during our anniversary Anyway, this year has been an absolute dream come true. Dixie finally caved in to the pressure to celebrate our 16^th anniversary by going on a pheasant hunt with me – the first time in our 16 years of marriage. There was an ulterior motive here as well – since she’s a co-owner of the Uplanders Warehouse business with me, I figure it’s only going to serve us better the more she knows about upland bird hunting, and about the products we sell.

The day finally arrived! We packed up the truck and dogs Wednesday, 11/4 and drove to the small town of Mellette, SD (population 250) – about 20 miles south of Aberdeen on Highway 281 – a 12 hour drive from our home in Montana. We rolled in around midnight, found our lodge, unloaded our gear and went to bed. Shooting doesn’t start till 10am in South Dakota (noon for the first couple weeks of the season), so Thursday morning we slept in, then ate a late breakfast before we met our guide at the Mellette bar & grill (the only food in town). We spent the rest of the day hunting the fringes of fields that had yet to be cut – slough areas and fence lines. Did not kick up much at all – in fact, I didn’t fire a single shot on Day 1 – and I was seriously getting concerned that this much-anticipated South Dakota hunt was going to be a bust.

Wingworks Upland Vest Product Review

 

Comfort and fit are the best features of this vest. Not to mention its bullet-proof construction.

Made in the USA – specifically by Bob Welsh in Hailey, Idaho – the WingWorks Upland Vest is a well-built hunting vest with plenty of pockets, good water bottle capacity and a game bag that is easy to access. 

What Can it Carry?

In a word, the WingWorks carries plenty. There are five pockets, plus the gamebag. Two long pockets with large Velcro flap closures are located on the hips, sized for a lot of shells, and blaze orange for safety. The large flaps are easy to get open, and the simple “bucket-style” pockets allows you to dump in shells, and go. There are also two small zippered pockets located just past the water bottle holders, and they can be easily overlooked, but work great for a license, granola bar or pocket knife. They are the kind of pockets I like–zippered for security, out of the way, and hold the stuff I like to leave in my vest, season after season. The largest of the pockets is located on the outside, near the lower back. it reminds me of my fly fishing vest back pouch–large, zippered, and you can only access it by taking the vest off; a good storage pocket. I could fit lightweight raingear in it, as well as a spare pair of gloves. Overall, you will have no trouble fitting the necessary shells, chow, and other essentials in this vest. The one question mark is a large, round leather patch stitched to the back, with a webbing cinch strap through it. I guess you could lash a jacket to it, but it would flap around a lot–I am not sure what its’ intended use is for.

Quilomene Hunting Vest Product Review

The Quilomene vest straps are flat - a definite plus when shouldering a gun.

The Quilomene Hunting Vest was designed by Steve Owen in Billings, Montana. I’ve met Steve a couple times now and he is a great guy – and has designed a great upland vest as well. To stay price competitive, he now has these vests manufacturered to his specs in Mexico. The Quilomene Hunting Vest is a streamlined, low-profile vest, with thin but wide straps that makes shouldering a shotgun easy and able to carry plenty of gear and (hopefully) lots of birds.

What Can it Carry?

This vest is not short on storage. Two shell pockets, and four rear/back pockets, plus a large hydration pocket, round out this piece. While the shell pockets are a bit snug for my taste, they will hold plenty of rounds for a long day afield. The shell pockets come ready to accept Quilomene’s removable shell-loops to hold your shells. Note: The shell loops are sold seperately as a pair (one for each pocket) and come in all different gauges. The shell loops are made of a non-elastic material (made to your specific gauge shell), which is nice since they won’t stretch out over time.

The back pockets are where this vest picks up storage points. A long pocket runs from the neckline to the bottom of the gamebag, and will easily hold an extra layer, food, or anything else you can fit in there–you could carry another 100 ounce water bladder if you wanted to. The smaller, outermost pouches are sized for maps, gloves, or your dog’s first aid kit. One sits higher on the back, the other near the lumbar region. The last pocket sits in line with the gamebag, and has a large zippered opening. This is perfect to keep bulkier items out of the gamebag, away from bloody or wet birds.

Camelbak Upland Vest Product Review

My goal is to post some more thorough reviews of various upland gear products that we sell through Uplanders Warehouse. The last review I did on the Badlands Upland Vest was fairly well received, and turns out to be my most read blog of all-time, so I figure I must be on to something. Keeping with that theme, I’ve evaluated a few more vests and written up more thorough reviews. This next review in the series is the Camelbak Upland Vest.

The front view of the Camelbak Upland Vest. Note the black hydration hose - this can go over either shoulder

Most outdoorsmen and women will be familiar with the Camelbak name and their advancements with hydration systems. But the big question is how well they can they combine on-the-go access to water and a rugged upland bird hunting vest?  

First off, the fabric is tough, and very water resistant. This is a bonus when drizzle, wet brush and snow squalls greet you in the field. There is also just enough blaze orange on the pocket flaps and back of the vest to keep you safe and noticeable by your hunting partners.           

What Can it Carry?

The Camelbak Upland Vest has just enough pockets to keep you stocked on necessities during a day chasing birds. There are three on each side, but one of the “pockets” is more of a zipper to aid in accessing the game bag in the back. The outermost pocket has a Velcro flap, and is just big enough for a pair of gloves or a compact digital camera. There is also a back pocket, located and accessed from the outside, near your lower back. It will hold lunch, or compact rain gear easily.

Montana Extremes. Hunt #4, Denton, MT

Emma posing next to the truck. We couldn't find any birds to enhance the picture on this day.

Exactly 7 days after the 20 degree pheasant opener, I headed back to north-central Montana to explore a new area – but this time is was 80 degrees and not even the slightest breeze – a bit too warm in my opinion. I took my 12 year old daughter along on this hunt (my son caught a cold on the opener and stayed home). She took her hunter safety class back in September (along with my wife and 11 yr. old daughter – all passed!) – so she is now an officially licensed hunter. She was a bit nervous to be on her first hunt – and she is a bit of a worrier. I think she was afraid that she would accidentally shoot her dad and be stranded out in the middle of nowhere So, she decided to carry an unloaded shotgun around all day. She had some shells in her vest, but never loaded any in the gun. I didn’t pressure her on this – I knew she was worried and didn’t want to push her past her comfort level. First and foremost, I wanted to make sure she had a good time and a good first hunting experience. 

Turns out, her unloaded shotgun was just as effective as my loaded gun. We worked through a large Pheasants Forever piece of land north of Denton, MT that surrounds a stretch of Coffee Creek. It looked like great bird country, but we didn’t find much – only kicked up

A very cold Montana Pheasant Opener. Hunt #3 – Malta, MT

Dylan with Cora and a couple nice roosters. If it weren't for the birds, he wouldn't be smiling. It was a cold day.

My third trip out for the season was October 10th – the pheasant opener here in Montana. It was a balmy weekend – high of 20 degrees with a solid 20 mph wind all day long. My son and I made the trip up to the Bowdoin wildlife refuge outside of Malta, MT on the recommendations of a couple guys in our Pheasants Forever chapter here in Bozeman. Only 2 days prior, our high temp was around 85 – talk about extremes. I took my 14 yr old son (Dylan) along and we wore out some tread on our boots looking for birds. Being new to the area, we were going off what others had to say about the place – “stick to the cattails.” Well, that’s easier said than done. We pushed through some tall, thick cover trying to kick up a bird or two. We finally had some success and bagged a single bird. If I had to work that hard for all my birds, I think I’d rather starve to death But we also had a couple long-distance flushes and watched the birds fly into a small grove of Russian olive trees. We pursued and

Cora the Wonder Dog. Hunt #2 – Lower Shields Valley, MT

Cora the Wonder Dog - as in, it's a Wonder she didn't kill herself

On my second outing looking for sharptail and huns, my wife went to a different area in the Shields Valley and had what amounted to a wonderful walk through the fall-colored hills and chalked it up to great exercise - we didn’t kick up a single bird. The highlight of the night was the rib dinner at the Wilsall Cafe afterwards – excellent food and great service.  If you ever find yourself driving through Wilsall on highway 89, it is worth the stop.

There was a brief moment of excitement on the hunt I should mention though. My youngest shorthair (Cora) gave us quite a scare. She had followed what I believe was deer scent up a hill, and took a different path back down the hill – running full speed off a 15 ft. cliff. My heart absolutely sank as I witnessed this whole thing unfolding. It was like a car accident you see coming, but are powerless to prevent. Cora didn’t exactly stick the landing – she bounced and rolled down some loose shale but didn’t skip a beat. As soon as she got her feet back under her, she kept on running as if nothing ever happened. I called her in and gave her a thorough checkup, couldn’t find anything wrong, and turned her loose again to beat the bushes. Weeks later, there are still no ill-effects from the fall.  Tough dog!

We did see several deer and antelope and other game – just no birds. My source who typically bow-hunts for big game in this area tells me he usually kicks up some sharptails and has seen huns in there several times as well. The area looked birdy, but they were nowhere to be found on this particular day. I’m sure I’ll take another walk through here though – it has all the right cover and signs of producing some birds.

Given that this was a shorter trip and less-intense hunt, I didn’t wear a vest at all, but strapped on a Browning Belted Game Bag. This is a wonderful option for warm-weather hunts where you don’t need a ton of bird capacity (my wife was wearing a Columbia Grouse X II Comfort Vest, so I figured I could load her up if needed I also had on a Browning Prairielands shirt (tan w/ blaze) and some jeans with Filson Single-Tin chaps. I love the protection that the Tin chaps provide, but they can get a bit warm and sweaty on warmer days. We didn’t get into too thick of cover, and I thought about pulling them off and throwing them in my wife’s gamebag, but the Single Tin Chaps don’t have the zipper on the leg, so I would have had to take the boots off, etc. Too much work, so I just sweated it out.

A bad day hunting is still better than most. Hunt #1, Shields Valley, MT

Two of my daughters (on the left) and their friend came along to serve as additional bird dogs. Not quite effective as the 4-legged kind, but they had a lot of fun.

As usual, I’ve neglected my blogging for the past month or so. I’ve got a good excuse though – I’ve been too busy hunting!  Given that this is my first bird hunting season in the great state of Montana, I’ve had to do some exploring. I have successfully found birds, but been less successful at bagging them. It’s been a fun process nonetheless.

Sharptails, sage grouse and huns all opened back on September 1. The sage grouse have had a rough last couple years, and numbers are down, so I have not targeted them (not to mention that they supposedly taste a bit gamey – but I can’t confirm that, just a rumor). I had a buddy circle an area on a map (Shields Valley area north of Livingston, MT) and I went out a few weeks ago looking for sharptails (sharpies) and hungarian partridge (huns). I tried to stick to the draws and coulees

Gone Huntin’

You can feel it in the air already (at least here in Montana)! It’s hunting season once again. Grouse and Sharptails open today in Montana - and between bird hunting and college football, I can’t even think straight I’m so excited. There’s always that side benefit of our Uplanders Warehouse business really ramping up too

As you may know, we’re still new to Montana, and this is really our first hunting season here in Big Sky country. I just went out and bought a map book of the entire state and I’m sitting down with a few friends to have them mark it up for me and give up all their prime bird spots (I wish that were the case – most likely, they’ll send me to some parking lot in Billings). I guess we’ll see how good of friends they really are

I also finally got my neglected dogs out to do some work the last few weeks of August (yes, I’m a procrastinator). Fortunately though, they still look pretty sharp. They sure were excited to be over birds again. I hooked up with the Missouri Headwaters Gun Dog Club here in the Bozeman area. Seems like a great bunch of guys, and I’ll definitely be doing more with them throughout the next year. Here’s their website if you’re interested: http://mhgdc.org/pointers.htm

Back to hunting and my first hunting trip of the season: My wife (Dixie) and I are flying down to Texas this week for a good old dove hunt AND we’re catching a football game (BYU v. OU) in the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium. Let’s see… hunting + college football in the same weekend = too good to be true. The only thing that would make the weekend better is if my beloved Cougs could actually make a game of it against the Sooners - but that would really be too much to ask for. The Sooners are looking tough (as usual). For the dove hunt, we’ll be going out with a good friend of mine (more like a brother) – Eric Henline. Eric runs Big Sky Outfitters in Sanger, TX - and knows how to put on a great hunt (birds, big game, pigs… anything you can think of). His website is www.bso-texas.com if you’re ever in need of a great North Texas guide.

So my evil plan is to get my wife hooked on bird hunting this fall. She’s enjoyed running our Uplanders business - and talking with many of you - but she’s never been too keen on the actual hunting part. We’re starting out this weekend though - she’s committed to the dove hunt. On top of that, she’s also agreed to go pheasant hunting in South Dakota for our anniversary. You may have read last year’s post about the annual pain I suffer for getting married the first week of November. But alas, this year is shaping up to be pain free. We met Travis Akin - proprietor of Rooster Tail Inc (www.roostertailhunts.com) - a family run outfitter in Mellette, SD, and we’re trying to setup a hunt with them the week of our anniversary.

Free gear is always a good thing!

On a separate note, if you’re not entering our monthly product giveaways, you’re missing out (just enter from our home page at www.uplanders.com). Free gear is always a good thing! Our June winner, Mark from Platteville, WI, sent me this picture of his son posing in his new Boyt strap vest along side their new Wirehair pup “Magnum.” Thanks for sending the picture Mark!

I’ll post some pics from our Texas hunt as soon as we get back. I promise not to be as negligent as I’ve been in updating this blog. Hunting season should provide some good material to make it easier.

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Ok, we just got back from our Dallas trip today (Monday).  The dove hunting was horrible.  What made it even worse were seeing the hundreds of empty shells on the ground presumably from the opener.  We had rain the night before we hunted, and could count the number of birds flying on 2 hands.  Not the best start to the weekend. But then our luck changed (must be karma).

The football game was absolutely beautiful (sorry OU fans).  My Cougs pulled out the victory with a clutch 4th quarter drive.  My voice is still hoarse from yelling so much.  I’m not sure if I’m willing to trade good hunting for a good football game though.  I guess I’m still searching for the absolutely perfect weekend.

Since I don’t have any hunting pictures to share (zero birds = zero pictures taken), I will post a lovely shot of me at the game.  Enjoy (I know I did!)  PS – Kudos to Jerry Jones – he sure built an impressive stadium.  What a facility!

JT at the BYU-OU game in Dallas, TX

Badlands Upland Game Vest Review

Side view showing the shell pocket with a full box of 12 guage shells inside. A bit of a tight fit due to the height of the box, but it does zip closed and there is extra room in the pocket on both sides of the box. Better solution is to dump the shells out of the box and into the pocket. Note the position of the pocket in relation to the shell loops above on the belt.

I received an email from a guy asking about the Badlands Upland Game Vest - a product I added to Uplanders Warehouse just about a month ago after hearing some good feedback from a friend of mine.  He specifically wanted to know what the front of the vest looked like, and how many shells could fit in the front/side pockets of the vest. 

I decided to post a blog about it instead of a one-off email back to this person – because I’m guessing many of you – if you’ve hear about the Badlands upland vest – may have similar questions. 

To start with, Badlands is a great manufacturer who has made quite a name for themselves with their big game packs (they are especially popular with bow hunters).  They make a great pack and know how to distribute weight within a hunting pack for maximum comfort while carrying a load.  I must admit, I’ve never hunted with their upland vest, but, after doing a thorough review for this blog post, I am quite impressed with the quality of construction and the many features it has.

So here are some of features of the vest as I see them:

Lots of pockets.  There are two shell pockets on the sides, plus an additional 7 pockets on the back of the vest of varying sizes.  This does not include the mesh basket-type pockets that are on the outside of most of the other pockets.  Confused? Just know there’s lots of pockets.

One of the pockets mentioned above is for a water bladder.  This vest will hold a 100 oz. water bladder.  The vest does NOT come with the bladder, but it is built to hold one.  I also just started carrying water bladders on my site in both a 70 oz. and 100 oz. version – both of which would fit in side the Badlands upland game vest.

An additional pocket mentioned above (one of the 7 in back) is a water-resistant, welded-seam bag that hangs from two clasps inside the gamebag part of the vest.  There are a couple ways to interpret this bag: 1) you could use it to store your lunch or anything else you didn’t want to get blood or feathers on, 2) you could use it to store your birds for the hike back when you’re done hunting, or 3) throw some ice in there with a few of your beverages of choice   Or, I guess you could just fill your hydration bladder with your beverage of choice as well. However, short of actually using it, my initial impression was to take it out to give you more room in the gamebag for birds.  But it all depends on your hunt, and how much you need to pack with you. And fortunately, this extra bag is extremely easy to take off or add back in.

Same view with box of shells in pocket zipped closed

Another interesting and unique feature is that the side pockets slide backward to expand the gamebag. It’s a kind of rail system made from web straps that I found impressive.  The more you pack in the back, the further back your side pockets slide.  The downside is your shell pockets are less accessible the further back they slide.  There are 5 shell loops on each side as well that don’t slide (they’re attached to the belt) – so if you keep them loaded, you still have easy access to your shells. 

Note the position of the shell pocket after it slides backward to accomodate a larger load in the gamebag.

The straps on the vest are all adjustable to get the right fit. However, the vest only comes in one size, which doesn’t quite fit me.  I am 6’2”, 250 lbs. and it felt small and the natural waist of the pack rides higher than my waist. Most people smaller than me shouldn’t have a problem.  It is a very comfortable pack, and I like that the shoulder straps lie flat and don’t obstruct the butt of your gun when you’re shooting – obviously constructed by someone who has actually shot a gun with a pack on.

Overall, I give the Badlands Upland Game Vest a thumbs-up. I’d give it two thumbs up if Badlands would make it in a larger size.

If any of you have used this vest, I encourage you to comment on this post and share your experiences.

A view from the front showing the belt and clasp. Note also the chest strap.