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.

The Tanner Family Pheasant Project

Just after hatching, our chicks in Rubbermaid bin

The kids and I have been doing a little pheasant project the last couple months.  We have a small GQF Hovabator incubator and bought some pheasant eggs to hatch.  Memorial day weekend, we hatched 37 chicks.  We’ve since lost 2, so we’re sitting at 35 chicks now that just turned 4 weeks old.  There is some land not far from here where we plan to release them and see if they can’t survive – at least till hunting season  

We typically hatch something each year.  When we lived in Texas – and even Utah, it was quail.  We can fit many more quail eggs in the incubator than pheasant eggs, and it was more fun having more birds around.

But the rules in Montana are different, and according to the Fish & Wildlife department, we can’t release quail here (they wouldn’t survive the winters here anyway).  But there are no problems with releasing pheasants, so our bird of choice this year was a no brainer.  I think we’ll try Chukars next though – as they are legal to release in MT as well, and I’ve never tried hatching them before.  Let me know if you have any good Chukar egg sources.

One problem has come up though.  On a recent walk on the land where we plan to release the birds, we saw a family of foxes.  Mom, dad and several kits.  My thoughts now are that our birds would last maybe a week – and would be quite the delicacy for the fox family.  Usually, a little predator control would solve the problem, but I don’t think my kids would let me back in the house if I exterminated a few cute little foxes.  So, I’m currently looking for a new home.  Fact is, I’m sure there would be predators on any piece of land I could release the birds on.  It’s just that I’ve seen these foxes and know that they’re there.  Maybe I’ll just keep these birds in the backyard and use them for dog training.  At least then I get to eat them instead of our local fox family

Local Characters

Doc Bradford's recent newspaper ad

I’m involved in my local chapter of Pheasants Forever (Gallatin Valley PF), and have met many great people as a result of this association.  In fact, I’ll be chairing our annual banquet/fundraiser next February if anyone is interested in sponsoring.  Anyway, one of the guys that sits on our PF committee is Doc Bradford.  Doc’s a Michigan man who moved to Montana to retire 7 years ago.  He got into shooting clay targets in his 50’s, and has since gone overboard.  He’s a certified shooting instructor and has built a 9-station sporting clays course on his 80 acres of Gallatin River-front property.  We just hosted a “thank you” event for this past year’s PF banquet sponsors at his place, and I must say his place is really incredible – but only if you like shooting and fishing and the beauty of nature   Doc is about to open his range up to the public – Rising Spirits Sporting Clays is the name of his new business.  I’ll have plenty of opportunity to get to know Doc and his range much better as I hope to be involved in the sporting clays league he is about to launch. 

 

I’ll keep you posted on Doc and his venture – as well as my performance in the sporting clays league – in future posts.

 

I also received an email from a customer (Chris Pfadt) who bought some Crackshot Snake Chapz several weeks ago.  I noticed his Three Forks, MT address when we shipped the order (just up the road from where we live in Bozeman 30-40 miles) – and we’re practically neighbors (by Montana standards).  Anyway, Chris sent me an email once he realized we were neighbors as well and invited me to come and check out his operation.  He runs the Grey Cliffs Ranch (www.greycliffsranch.com) – and after looking at the website, I had to wipe the drool off my chin.  They’ve got upland hunting and trout fishing – and even some big game opportunities by the looks of it – all in a spectacular location.  I can’t wait to get out there and check out his ranch.  At the rate I’m going, I’ll never be able to afford hunting there – but it will be fun to go take a tour.  I might need to bring my own snake protection though – apparently Chris is on a search and destroy mission for rattler dens.

Meeting new people and other upland businesses is a fun benefit of meeting people through Uplanders Warehouse.  I’ll continue to post more businesses and interesting people as I encounter them!

Grey Cliffs Ranch

Blackout!

So here’s a story for you that should get a few chuckles.  I wish I could chuckle with you.  

Back in early April, I had a severe sinus infection combined with some flu symptoms (fever, cold sweats, nausea, etc.).  I was so congested and miserable that I couldn’t sleep.  I took some Nyquil for some relief, but it wasn’t really working for me.  My wife then gave me one of her sleeping pills which seemed like a good idea at the time.  About 3 a.m., I wake up with the urge to vomit.  I hustle out of bed and into the bathroom to try and reach the toilet.  I think the head-rush of jumping out of bed and the sleeping pill (not to mention the Nyquil) caught up to me and I crashed to the floor – completely blacked-out (which isn’t a good thing if you’re 6’2”, 250 lbs).  Next thing I know, come to lying on the bathroom floor in an awkward position with no idea of how long I had been out (my wife – bless her heart – later mentioned that she had heard a big crash, but figured I had just knocked something off the counter).  After I got my wits about me, I figured out that I had somehow shaved off a sizeable piece off the outside of my big toe – the blood being the major clue.  That pain wasn’t as bad as my foot though – and then there was my knee that felt a bit ‘off.’  Anyway, the black & blue coloration on my foot in the morning combined with the pain let me know that something was definitely wrong.  I went to the foot doctor, and sure enough, I chipped a piece of bone off one end of the toe joint, and cracked a second bone. 

The good news is that the sinus infection, flu, etc. is long gone, and the foot is healing up and feeling better.  But my knee went from feeling ‘off’ to a steady pain, so I went in to another doc last week to get it checked out.  The diagnosis is a torn meniscus – which typically requires surgery.  They scheduled me for an MRI, but I canceled – I’m too cheap to pay for those things (it would cost more than the surgery on the knee).  So I’m now hobbling around with bum knee hoping that it will fix itself.  The more likely case is that I’ll suffer for another month or two before I figure out that my fall hunting might be in jeopardy from this blasted thing – then go spend the money and get it fixed.

And here’s the icing on the cake.  I packed up the kids and took them fishing at Canyon Ferry reservoir on Memorial Day.  The fishing was horrible – not a single bite in a few hours of solid effort, so we resorted to skipping rocks.  My 12 year old daughter was finally getting the hang of skipping rocks, but consistently had a late release and would shoot the rocks more up the shoreline than out into the lake.  I was comfortably sitting in my camp chair on the shoreline, enjoying the evening, when my daughter - standing all of 2 feet away from me – launches a rock directly into my good knee.  I could have killed her if I didn’t lover her so much.

Like most experiences in life, there are lessons to be learned.  Here are my key learnings from these experiences:

Lesson #1: Throw up in bed. In the end, it’s cheaper

Lesson #2: Don’t let your wife slip you any pills

Lesson #3: It’s hard not to swear around your kids when they throw rocks at your knees