A while ago, before the start of the season, Final Rise had a sale. I’d been looking at these vests for a while now, and with an hour to go before the discounts would disappear, after a couple of beers, I impulse-ordered the Summit XT vest. A short will later I received an invitation to review the vest. I emailed Matt (Davis, the owner of Final Rise and brain behind the designs) I’d write him a review after a season of solid use. With the shotgun delivered at a gunsmith’s place for some fixing, all bird seasons here currently closed, I feel more qualified to voice some insights and opinions.
The design concept of all the Final Rise vests is based on the hip belt, which is designed to carry the load, with the aim to create better all-day comfort, even when the vest is a little fuller. The Summit XT is the latest design variant of the Final Rise bird vest series. I’m not going to list all the things that are different from the Summit Vest, Matt does a good job explaining all that on his website, and Youtube channel.
I was looking for a vest with predominantly four qualities: have the ability to carry enough gear to safely do a full day in the high country, be comfortable under load, keep the birds “airy” and not bleeding all over jackets and food, and have flat shoulder straps.
The intent was to hunt for rock ptarmigan in September, perhaps even cowboy camp for a night, and use the vest to carry everything. An achilles injury kept me from doing so, but the Summit XT vest was used during a four-day trip chasing sharptails, huns and sage grouse in Idaho’s backcountry (undulating uneven ground, with occasionally shoulder-high sage brush) three days of hunting pheasants in mixed agricultural areas near Malta, Montana (stubble and cattails mostly), and various weekends and single days hunting huns, sharptails and pheasants in southern Alberta (coulee country, mixed vegetation including more-than-man-high buck brush and gnarlies with inch-long thorns); even a day of jump-shooting ducks. With ten days to go in the season, a weather window appeared and I managed to climb the 3,000’ to a ridge where I know ptarmigan live, so I got to try out the vest with a slightly bigger load of water (that mostly just froze), jackets, microspikes, hiking poles, and food.
Review – Likes
First off, the vest delivers on the promise of comfort. Once you have set it up, put it on and tightened the hip belt, you immediately feel that this vest deals with load better than regular vests. I have a Browning vest with “built-in” shoulder straps and a hip belt, but for me those do nothing to take the weight off the shoulders. Once the Final Rise vest is on, you forget about wearing it, and that is a good sign. I’ve not had it under max load (which according to a Youtube video is more than you would ever want to carry and then some), but I’ve carried four liter of water, all the stuff needed for a day hunt where you won’t see the truck till the end, including rain gear, and some birds, and never felt burdened. That said, it is not a rigid backpack, and the more you load up the back compartment, the more the weight will start tugging on the shoulder straps.
Secondly, the flat shoulder straps are perfect. I’ve seen many packs that I would have liked to try, but all them have moderately or thickly padded straps, or worse, plastic buckles where you need to shoulder the shotgun, which of course is a deal breaker (for me anyway).
Lastly, the vest has the ability to carry a lot of water and have it accessible. Two one-liter bottles on the hip, and the ability to add a two-liter bladder (which I have done), makes for a decent supply. If you need, the two zippered pockets inside the bid compartment are sized to accept another bottle each, all accessible without taking the vest off.
Review – Dislikes
“Dislike” may be a strong word for some of the observations, but there is one area that I can’t embrace, and that is the flaps that cover the side pockets. These are supposed to be held in place with magnets in the flaps and pocket, but try as I may, they don’t stay put for me. The flaps always just kind of hang there, unless I tuck them into the pockets, where they will be held by velcro. The Summit vest has zippered pockets, which I might have preferred.
I chatted with Matt about the flaps, the magnet configuration and the depth of the pockets, and he mentioned a few things. The pockets are as deep as they are to minimize losing things out of them (shells, e.g.) when the flaps are not covering the opening. I have to admit I have not yet lost anything. The strength of the magnets was chosen to eliminate interference with electronics equipment. That makes sense, but for me they are an annoyance, and I am contemplating putting a piece of velcro on to keep the flaps in place.
Though the vest has a variety of smaller compartments, some zippered, to hold “stuff”, I felt the need to add a small bag to the back, to hold my first aid, the dog’s first aid, some food, extra gloves perhaps. Final Rise sells a pocket for that purpose, or you can add whatever you have that has the ability to attach to the molle webbing. You can add pockets to the side as well, if you need more organization. I’ve tried the vest on a late season day in the mountains, carrying an extra down jacket, in addition to wind/waterproof jacket and pants. All the strap options provided will accommodate those. In a pinch you could fill a waterproof bag with some gear and snap it in place inside the bird compartment. It is big enough to hold that and a handful of high-mountain birds. The triangular zippered pocket in the back panel holds some food, but I eat a lot, and it is hard to fit all the goodies in.
Conclusion
I think that the first observation is the most important one: once I have the vest on, I largely forget it is there, and that’s an important endorsement. It’s perhaps an overkill to use for quick jaunts out of the truck, or for a dog training session where all your gear may be right on the tailgate (although you may find yourself using it for those situations just the same). But if you are going for a while, and are not sure how long you will be gone, with perhaps unknown natural water supplies, weather that might change, you need some back-up gear on your person, and the ability to carry birds without them either bleeding over your stuff, or steaming inside a leak-proof bag, the Final Rise vest is a contender.
Additionally, it has the capacity to hold your dog, if for some reason that hopefully will never happen you have to carry it out of the field to get it to a vet as quickly as you can. The straps/buckles are set up in such a way to facilitate getting your dog in place inside the vest. Having recently tried to carry my old 70lbs dog home, after he had a seizure and temporarily lost the ability to use his hind legs properly, I can speak from first hand experience that holding a limp dog in your arms like that is a quick way to a lot of humility about how strong you are.
I hope this review helped if you are on the fence about buying a Final Rise vest. Matt Davis has proven really responsive when I had questions, so give him a shout if you are like me and need to know about all the details before deciding.