Gear used:
Alpine Stalker 75 Backpack
Alpine Stalker Bivvy bag
Winterlite Deluxe tapered mat 1-4cm
Hey Rob,
We are back from our backpack hunt! Although didn’t take an animal we still saw or were honked at by quite a few!
Thanks for the opportunity to test run some of your new Australian owned gear. All of the mentioned items performed exceptionally well on our backpack hunt. The Alpine Stalker 75 held all the gear I needed and was constructed in quality material for long life use. The pack was comfortable on the shoulder and carried all essential items, food, clothing, daypack, water, bivy bag, sleeping bag, transformer pillow, esky lol, and numerous other essential items. I really liked the additional features such as the rifle holder and external fluro cape/skin bag would make life easier and less messy should an animal be taken.
The Alpine stalker bivvy bag was a light weight ‘swag like’ bivvy bag. This item hardly took up any space at all which is essential when backpacking, esp. when you’re not heading into a base camp as we were where space is a premium and you live out of you pack! It’s simple no fuss design worked well.
The last of the items, the Winter deluxe tapered mat I was suitably impressed with. Having used numerous mat in the past, I always found it hard to make the compromise between comfort, size and light weight. I didn’t have to with this mat which was great. I liked the full length but only cushioned to ¾ design. This made a lot of sense where size and weight matter. It was comfortable and allowed itself to be rolled into a small package and strapped to the pack with minimal fuss.
Keep up the good work. Am eagerly anticipating your new Aussie camouflage range!
Regards
Matt Merrick
Gear Used:
Winterlite Deluxe tapered mat
Rob, here is just a short note to thank you for the Moroka30 sleeping mat.
As you know, when it comes to backpacking every ounce of weight and space is a premium. The sleeping mat packed down very small, took up hardly any space and made no noticeable difference to the weight of my pack.
As far as sleeping on it went, it was great. It was very comfortable, so much so that I didn't notice it (and that's as good as praise gets when it comes to sleeping mats). It insulated me well from the cold ground and provided ample padding for a comfortable night's sleep.
It's a great design that packs small, weighs next-to-nothing, yet insulates your feet well from the cold and provides heaps of padding for a comfortable sleep. Great design mate, well done.
I'm looking forward to using more of your gear. From what I've seen and heard it sounds thoughtfully designed and in a way that suits both our conditions and ways of doing things.
Once again, thanks for your help,
Mark Freeman
Gear Used
Quartermaster Meat Bag
Transporting the spoils of a hunt from the bush to camp or vehicle has been something I’ve mucked around with from my first successful deer hunt. I’ve tried many ways to get my venison back to camp as quickly and cleanly as possible with varying degrees of success. I was recently able to try the Moroka.30 Meat Bag and I am very impressed. The bright orange mesh bag rolls up into a small bundle which can be easily carried in a small daypack or bum-bag and weighs very little.
On a recent hunt I was lucky enough to take a nice yearling stag for a meat animal. I like to take home as much meat as possible so this usually means a couple of trips to retrieve all the animal, fortunately I had my 15 year old daughter with me so I thought I’d see if we could get the whole animal in one trip. I prefer to quarter the animal and leave the legs whole so that they can be hung up in camp with the skin on to keep the flies and wasps off the meat. Out came the Moroka.30 Meat Bag and into it went both back legs and one front, the back straps and eye fillets. The bag has shoulder straps like a normal day pack and a waist belt. There is a Velcro strap at the top opening to support the legs and this proved fantastic for keeping the legs from hanging sideways. With the bag full I threw it onto a log and my daughter helped me into it, boy it was heavy. Despite the weight, the bag fitted comfortably on the shoulders and the waist belt helped to distribute the load to my hips so although I certainly knew it was there I was well balanced. With the other front leg in my day pack on my daughters back we set off the couple of k’s to the car.
The meat bag made the usuallt tough job so much easier, and with the legs tied in the middle with the velcro leg strap I didn’t have the issue of them hanging sideways affecting my balance. The trip was much better than trying to carry the legs over my shoulders and definitely beat making a return trip for what I couldn’t carry out initially. Once back at camp the meat was hung up and the mesh bag was simply rinsed out in the nearby creek. I reckon this bag is a must have for all deer hunters.
Tony Cudmore
Gear Used:
Fearthetop 100 Goosedown Sleeping bag
Winterlite Full length sleeping mat
I used the Moroka.30 Feathertop 1000 goosedown sleeping bag on a 2010 trip to Fiordland. The 1000 gram goosedown fill in the sleeping bag kept me warm on freezing nights up on the tops without the need to sleep in thermals. The hood and baffles kept the warm air in and allowed me to warm up quickly at the end of a hard day travelling or hunting ...you're always wet and cold at the end of a day in Fiordland! The Feathertop 1000 dimensions allowed me to stretch out the weary legs and roll over without being 'caught up' and the no catch zip did just that ...it didn't catch, allowing quick and easy entrance and exit from the sleeping bag. The outer shell on the Feathertop 1000 repelled the condensation and mositure from the tent and bivvy bag keeping the goosedown dry and me warm without the need to air dry it each day (on some days that's impossible in Fiordland!). The full length Moroka.30 sleeping mat provided enough thickness to keep sticks and rocks out of my back and the cold ground underneath from keeping me awake. Both the sleeping bag and mat were light and compact ensuring there was adequate room in my pack for the extra jacket to keep me warm and bottle of scotch to lift the spirits.
Having used some 'high end' bags from other brands I can attest to the quality of the build and features of both the Moroka.30 Feathertop 1000 sleeping bag and sleeping mat. They should be additions to any backpacking and hunting trip.
Steve Garlick
Gear Used:
Alpine Stalker 75 Backpack
Feathertop 1000 Goosedown Sleeping bag
Winterlite Deluxe tapered mat 1-4cm
Having recently arrived back in Australia from a successful 12 day Tahr and Chamois backpack hunt in NZ`s South Westland Alpine country I felt a few words as a testimonial to the quality Moroka.30 gear I used for the hunting trip would be appropriate feedback for fellow hunters looking for future gear purchases.
I carried a Moroka.30 Alpine Stalker 75lt backpack with a Feathertop 1000 Goosedown sleeping bag plus the Winterlite deluxe tapered self inflating sleeping mat. The gear was excellent in every way and as we hunters had eventually packed 28 kilometres upriver from the vehicle in one of NZ`s South Island`s mighty and rough river valleys, it paid to have such quality equipment. The pack endured the usual kiwi flogging of tough country, thick bush and plenty of rain. Quality gear is a must in these wild and extremely rugged wilderness areas and having 30 kilo`s in the pack simply showed the pack to be all and more that was required for this tough hunting. There seemed to be pocket for everything and the waist belt pockets were especially handy as were the rifle holder, gps holder, ammo loops and detachable cape/meat bag.
The nights were bitterly cold, as you expect in this terrain, and sheets of ice would form on the tin roof of the hut by morning. My hunt companion, a NZ veteran hunter complained of the cold on several nights even though he was in a down sleeping bag. Believe it or not I actually used my Moroka.30 sleeping bag fully unzipped as a blanket only, with enormous room and length... I will sum it up in one word! Excellent!
John Griffin
Gear Used:
Vapour Tech GPT
Wedgetail Peregrine ED15-45x60 Spotting Scope
After sweating in poly/cotton hunting clothes for years, I recently had the chance to try out a t-shirt in Vapour-Tech material in GDR Gully Camo, Wow, the material is just so cool and the pattern certainly allowed me to call in several deer to a very close distance. After chasing Red stags over hill and dale during this years roar, my hunting partner in a traditional material shirt was a lather of sweat, his shirt absolutely soaked, you should have seen the look on his face when I took my daypack of and my shirt was dry, definitely my go-to hunting shirt from here on in and Australian made!
The Wedgetail spotting scope was set up at a RIDGE base camp this year for all the hunters coming through to look over, many blokes carried high end optics, so knew what looking through a quality optic was like. After looking over a parcel of land approx. 4km's distance from camp, all commented on how clear the scope was and how small objects were easily observed.
Clynt Jager, QLD, RIDGE Group exectutive member
