In my thoughts, the very best searching gear is just not ultra-specialized gear. I choose equipment that may deal with a variety of eventualities—and if it additionally fills some area of interest roles completely, all the higher! And after searching this fall with the Sitka Software Bucket, that’s what I say this daypack has to supply: It’s well-suited to the wants of most deer hunters, however in the event you’re a run-and-gunner, specializing in saddle searching, it’s excellent in your area of interest wants.
The Sitka Software Bucket design
The identify feels like Sitka perhaps took a 5-gallon pail and added a coat of camo and backpack straps, however this daypack is pretty normal in its format—at the very least, it appears to be like like that at the beginning look. A bag, with straps and pockets. Nothing too completely different. There are 17 storage compartments in whole; inside capability is 1800 cubic inches, and the pack weighs just below 55 ounces.
Look nearer, and also you’ll see the pack’s lid is stored closed by a toggle by way of a gap by way of the highest of the pack. Straightforward and fast to open, exhausting to interrupt… and when the pack is open, you’ll be able to grasp it from that gap. And when it’s hanging, you are taking one other look, and hey—undo a few zippers, and your backpack has was a bucket, kind of, with an entire bunch of organizer pockets maintaining your gear good and tidy.
This is likely to be a pleasant function in the event you’re climbing mountains for elk or busting brush and on the lookout for moose, nevertheless it’s not a game-changer. A lot of packs have pockets. However in the event you’re a cellular treestand or saddle searching specialist? That is very fascinating, as a result of the Sitka Software Bucket allows you to entry gear rapidly, in the event you grasp it subsequent to you in a tree, with out requiring that you just rummage by way of a stuffed pocket or pack in an effort to seize a material to scrub your scope, or to search out your backup grunt tube, or a snack—no matter gear you want on that all-day sit. It’s like including a shelf to your cellular searching setup.
My expertise with the Software Bucket
I spent loads of time utilizing the Software Bucket this deer season, however I wasn’t searching out of treestands or cellular setups for very lengthy—most of this yr’s whitetail setups have been primarily based on floor blinds. However after I was within the bushes, the Software Bucket was a really helpful group software. Even within the darkness of a tent blind, I appreciated the Software Bucket’s submitting system, to talk—cartridges in a single pocket, skinning knife in one other, licenses filed away in a Ziploc baggie in a pocket within the high of the pack, and so forth.
The Software Bucket’s wide-mouth design makes it straightforward to stuff bigger objects like a heat jacket into the inside in your hike into the stand or blind, too. I’ll typically deliver some further garments or perhaps a woobie blanket for these chilly late-November sits, carrying much less clothes for the hike in so I don’t overheat. The Software Bucket’s design works properly for this, as the interior organizers preserve all of your gear in-place so it doesn’t come spilling out while you take away your hotter clothes. That’s a Very Unhealthy Factor while you’re in a tree saddle 20 toes within the air.
Together with time in a blind or up in a treestand, I additionally used the Software Bucket on strolling/stalking hunts this yr. I discovered the pack was principally very, superb on this position, though it’s a must to understand its limitations.
It is a frameless pack with out the power to detach the pack from a body, like the unique Software Bucket had (they modified the design round 2020). You may nonetheless connect a stand to the pack’s exterior to haul it, however you’ll be able to’t slide the stand between the pack and the body like the unique Software Bucket. With that in thoughts, saddle hunters with their streamlined gear could just like the Software Bucket greater than treestand customers. However pack rigorously; the pack’s design doesn’t shut the lid tightly, so in the event you flip it the other way up while you’re up in a tree, you may need to return to the bottom to retrieve one thing that fell out, in the event you didn’t stuff it tightly contained in the bag.
As properly, in the event you’re stillhunting, the Software Bucket may be very streamlined and tidy, and doesn’t simply catch on issues while you’re sneaking by way of the woods. It strikes together with your physique (which can be good while you’re driving an ATV into your searching spot). But when a department or brush scratches the aspect of the Software Bucket, the artificial materials makes unnatural noises, which could scare off some recreation. I don’t actually maintain this in opposition to the pack; you’d have to purchase a wool pack to keep away from that drawback. That’s fairly hard-to-find equipment, and I’ve by no means seen a wool searching pack with options remotely near the Software Bucket’s capabilities.
The underside line
The Sitka Software Bucket confirmed up mid-season, so I solely acquired to discover its capabilities for just a few weeks of deer searching, after which some post-season digicam work combined in with rabbit searching.
I wouldn’t say that is revolutionary or game-changing, nevertheless it’s a chunk of substances that may make life quite a bit simpler after I’m cellular searching, letting me carry precisely what I would like, and storing it for me whereas I’m up within the bushes.
To date, the Software Bucket has been a high-quality piece of equipment and I count on years of service from it, primarily based on the construct high quality. I’d extremely advocate any deer hunter take a look at it, however particularly in the event you’re the run-and-gun kind, dealing loss of life from above. The $259 MSRP is in step with different high quality packs, and plenty of of these don’t provide the identical handy practicality of the Software Bucket. I’d say it’s properly price testing because of this.
