Horn Hunter Full Curl Frame Pack Review
Equipment
I've had this pack since January and have meant to write a review on it, but wanted to make sure I had enough miles on the pack to give it a fair and informed review.
I'll start things off with a picture breakdown of some of the packs featues by stripping it down from fully loaded with 6 days of backcountry gear to its individual components.
Here is a picture of the pack loaded up. I chose to purchase just the frame pack and try to save some weight by using a 35L dry bag as the main comprartment and use a 7 ounce fleece fanny pack as supplemental space and as my light day use pack. The frame pack without all the extra buckles that came with it weighs in at 5lb 8 oz.
Here is a side view of the pack loaded. The dry sack rests on the meat shelf and is strapped solidly in place by the wings and three compression straps.
A front view of the pack. You can see the pack has no torso length adjustment. However, the pack length does seem to fit me well at 6'1" and a 19.5" torso. You can see that the back pad and waist belt have some, but not what I would call a lot of padding.
Here is a quartering view of the pack. Notice there isn't much thickness to the shoulder straps either. There seems to be plenty of room to adjust the length of the shoulder straps. The waist belt appears to fit a waist of 40" down to my size of 31" with a little room to spare, which is a relief since most big brand hunting packs bottom out at 32"
Here is a close-up of the lifting handle. It is rubber coated, which to some might be a nice feature, to me it just seems to be an ounce or two of extra weight. You can see how I clipped my fanny pack right into the buckles that would normally be used to clip the Horn Hunter optional packs to. I got lucky on this one :) The load lifters also attach into the same point as the lift handle.
Also, note the Made in the U.S.A. tag!
Been looking at this pack for a while how is the comfort level of this pack with just gear and loaded down? thx
Here is the pack with the drysack removed and one wing opened. You can see each wing has a zipped compartment from which a pouch pulls out and hangs down. This pouch has an elastic top to retain gear. I think its designed purpose is for a spotting scope and tripod, however I don't use those for elk and chose to put gear in them. I feel the zipper should be placed higher on the wing than in the middle to make the compartment most useful by increasing its capacity.
Also in the middle of the pack, you see the unzipped pouch holding a water bladder.
A close-up of the pouch that tucks into the wing and zips closed.
Here is the top opening where the bladder slides into the drop down pouch. There is a plastic clip that keeps the bladder in place. There is plenty of room in this pouch for my full 2L Platypus bladder plus a BAIAC and a 10x12 Oware Sil Nylon tarp.
Here is the pack with each of the wing compartments zipped up and the bladder compartment tucked in and zipped closed. The 3 sets of unused buckles are full the pack system that can be purchased to go with this pack frame.
The pack in daypack mode with the meat shelf folded up and wings tightened down all the way.
A side view of the pack showing how tightly it compresses. In this picture you can see the three pockets on the hip belt. Each side of the hip belt is the same. The outer pocket is small and holds things like diaphram calls, lighter, etc. The middle pocket holes its shape pretty well and can hold a GPS, camera, rangefinder, and things of that size. The innermost pocket compressed a bit when the belt is tightened on you and I would avoid putting fragile items in there. Also you'd feel it in your hips if you put large rigid items in this pocket like camera, rangefinder, etc.
Here is how the tag ends of all of the straps are wrapped with velcro straps.
Here are the load lifters. They sit high enough to be functional even with a heavy load. I do feel they're attached to the pack a little too close together. It feels like they cause a little pressure on my collar bones much closer to my neck than I've experienced with any other pack.
The lumbar pad wraps under the waist belt and velcros to the inside surface of the back pad. This picture showes the lumbar pad unattached and folded down, exposing the area where the frame tube inserts into the waist belt.
With the waist belt removed you can see the bottom of the frame tube. The edges are taped over with black duct tape to prevent the tubes from wearing into the pocket in the waist belt.
At the bottom of the picture you'll see the pocket in the waist belt that the tube fits into.
Here the tube is removed from the inside of the back pad sleeve. The tube is a two piece formed from 6061 aluminum and pressed together onto a plastic plug.
This picture shows the frame tube set into the waist belt to get a feel for the shape of the pack on your back. For my particular build, I feel the lumber bend doesn't nest into the small of my back nearly enough. Also the top portion of the tube extends straight up off my back and I would prefer it bent a little further forward to sit over my shoulders and closer to my head by about an inch or two.
I haven't tried to bend the tube to tweak it to my shape but it doesn't look like it will be an easy task. At least not as easy as typical strap type frame stays.
The waist belt tightens by pulling the straps inward toward the center of your body, like most backpacker type backpacks rather than away from your body like most hunting packs.
I really prefer this method of tightening, as it seems to keep the buckle center and tightens just a little easier.
This is a good view of the profile of the waist belt pockets. You can see the middle pocket is the most useful because it has depth built in by the shape of the material.
Here is how the pack was riding on me after 12 miles of hiking with 55lbs. I like the fact that the pack doesn't ride too low, but it also doesn't extend too high. With the lumbar pad not nesting well into my back and the waist belt padding being a little insufficient, I did over the course of a few hours start to feel discomfort.
I never had any trouble keeping the weight off of my shoulders, which has been a problem with other packs I have tested.
What I did experience for the first time was bruised hips from the thinly padded waist belt and sore collar bones from the load lifter riding too narrow. The chest strap seemed to keep walking down on me as I hiked and I had to slide it up a couple of times.
To date, I've logged 106 miles with this pack with weights varying from 30 lbs to 80 lbs. The pack has managed the weight just fine and has no signs of ripped stitching or damage of any kind. All in all I think the pack is well worth the $119 I paid and I am planning on this pack to be my primary pack for this years back country hunt.
The light weight, yet rugged construction is very desirable. The ability to expand for 7 days of gear, yet pack down very small for day hunts is a nice feature. Despite the initial discomfort, in subsequent tests with more weight, I haven't felt quite as uncomfortable. The ability of the pack to keep weight off my shoulders up to 80lbs is a huge reason this pack is going with me to timberline this year.
Feel free to ask any questions I may not have touched on in this review and I'll be happy to try to explain or take pictures for you.
Best of luck this year!
thanks for sharing, great unbiased review
My Full Curl just showed up yesterday, cant wait to try it out!!!!
Wow, this is one of the best reviews I've seen for any product! I loved reading it and the pictures were awesome! Backpacks are tough to chose and its great to get an awesome review that has tested the pack not just initial thoughts. Very well done, thank you.
The Full Curl has two other optional add on components doesn't it? Did you try those out?
How would it work to carry a blind you think?
happy hunting, dv
Aspen, thanks for the comments. I figured there were reviews, or at least pictures with opinions on many packs but I hadn't seen a good one on here for the full curl so I thought I would try to give something back to this site since I've learned so much here from others.
dustyvarmtint, to answer your questions... yes Horn hunter makes additional add on packs that clip right into the buckles on the frame pack. I chose not to go with those because of weight reasons. I believe the larger of the options puts the back weight around 8.5lbs and to me thats just too much weight for a pack with this capacity. Hence, I chose to go with the nylon stuff sack at only 2.7 ounces additional weight. This gives me enough capacity for 7 days of food and gear.
I think this pack would carry a blind very well. The meat shelf could have been designed a little longer to give you more "wrap" on items like a blind or stuff sack but it should still get the job done.
Let me know if you have any other questions on the pack.
I would assume that to shorten the pack you could cut off and re-tape the ends of the tubing. This could give you a couple inches of adjustment? To lengthen maybe they can send you a couple of the plastic plugs and piece of tubing to make extensions?
great review. Ive used their bum bags and some other kit to date and its been pretty good so nice to see their packs are good as well.
Jason, I don't think its that simple to shorten or lengthen the back because the flap that wraps under the tube/waist belt is a fixed length and velcro's into the back pad.
