This Women’s Mystery Ranch Metcalf review was born from the fact that more and more women are hunting and want a backpack specifically designed for their body type. There just aren’t that many women’s hunting backpacks on the market, and until more recently, women who wanted to hunt had to use a men’s backpack but in a smaller size, which still never fit quite right.
Similarly, it can be difficult to find a youth hunting backpack. The same situation applies. There aren’t that many on the market, so kids who hunt typically have to make due with what’s out there, and it ends up not fitting quite right and being uncomfortable. Believe it or not, this Mystery Ranch Women’s Metcalf hunting backpack ended up being ideal for our 11 year old son who loves putting the miles on during hunting season. Both of us ended up trying out this backpack, and at the end of the day, he loved it so much he begged to keep it.
The intriguing design that the Mystery Ranch backpack offers, along with its generous size, makes it a great option to use on a long weekend backpack hunting trip. The real question for me was if the Mystery Women’s Metcalf backpack felt much different from the men’s backpacks I’d used in the past, or whether or not it would make a good youth hunting backpack for our son.
How would it do in the field with a load, particularly with some meat, and how would it function practically on trips? We had the opportunity to test it from late August during archery season through the end of November during rifle season hunting deer and elk. My son and I both used it and were able to share thoughts on how we felt this pack functions in order to do an in-depth Mystery Ranch Metcalf review.
The Mystery Ranch Women’s Metcalf hunting backpack is a multi-day hunting backpack that gives you the ability to pack a weekend’s worth of gear in it, or more while still being able to haul meat in the event of a successful harvest by utilizing the Guide Lite MT frame that separates from the bag. (More on that later.) This Mystery Ranch Metcalf review came from me wanting to try a hunting backpack specifically for built for a woman, and to see if it might do well as a youth hunting backpack. Our testing left us pleasantly surprised.
Make sure to check out our other hunting backpack reviews as well!
Specs: Women’s Mystery Ranch Metcalf Pack
The Mystery Ranch Metcalf backpack for women is a large pack that features a 4335 cubic inches and gives you one large compartment to stuff all of your gear. A large lid comes with the pack and features 2 good sized pockets to organize things you need easy access to. It features Cordura material and a Guide Lite MT carbon fiber frame wrapped in Cordura, an adjustable harness, and many hip belt sizes to make sure you get the proper fit. Overall the frame is built more slender and fits women and youth amazingly well.
| Mystery Range Women's Metcalf Specs | |
|---|---|
| Weight | 6.0lbs |
| Volume | 4335ci |
| Frame | Guide Lite MT Frame |
| Fabric | 500D Lite plus CORDURA® |
| Main Bag Access | Side and Top Access |
| Lid | Yes - removable, 2 pockets |
| Hydration Compatable | Yes |
| Breakaway Frame | Yes |
| Dimensions | 31"x14"x12" |
| Adjustable Harness | Yes |
| Built in meat shelf | Yes |
Hip Belt and Harness: Women’s Mystery Ranch Metcalf
The Mystery Ranch hip belt is a 5 piece design that is pre-formed and exceptionally comfortable. Our son, especially thought the hip belt rode extremely well, even days on end. Although just 11 years old and slightly over 5 feet tall, he actually put on 30-40 mountain miles with this thing, and even used the Mystery Ranch Metcalf pack for a weeks long hunting trip with his dad, grandpa and uncles.
The harness system is also pre-formed and provides excellent comfort and a ton of adjustability. He was extremely pleased with it. It was so comfortable, he never complained about it hurting his shoulders, and he actually wanted to put on even more miles with it! It’s definitely a great youth hunting backpack!
The harness has a super creative design which allows it to quickly adjust and even make easy micro adjustments. There is a very sturdy plastic piece that add to the rigidity of the harness but is also removable and can be used to adjust the harness by breaking the velcro free so you can slide the harness up and down. This plastic yoke adjuster is ingenious! Packs typically have such a strong velcro that is can be tricky to peel away to adjust the harness. Not with this nifty, dual-purpose tool!
The shoulder straps also have a nifty clip on each side to secure the hose of your water bladder which is super convenient. Choose which side you want to drink from, clip the hose onto the strap, and you don’t have to worry about it getting tangled up behind your neck and not being able to quickly access it.
The hip belt is made of high density foam and is robust enough that you don’t feel the belt webbing when the time comes to cinch it down with a heavy load. It was very comfortable, and although the width of the belt is not any different from the men’s Mystery Ranch Metcalf, it’s not as wide as some from other manufacturers, which ended up fitting my son and I better.
Sometimes the hipbelt can be so wide, that as a woman or youth, it can dig into your rib cage since we don’t have any many inches from our waist to the bottom part of our ribs. The thicker lumbar support aides in comfort and has a medium thickness to it compared to others on the market.
The Frame: Women’s Mystery Ranch Metcalf
The Mystery Rancy Metcalf is equipped with a bomb-proof, carbon fiber Guide Lite MT frame wrapped in 500D Lite Plus fabric. The Guide Lite MT frame offers a unique blend of flexibility and rigidity. There is actually a lot of lateral flexibility in the Guide Lite MT frame, but a at lot of vertical rigidity. This allows the pack to flex with you as you move and bend, but it doesn’t flex vertically when the pack is loaded down with a lot of weight.
It performed extremely well for us as we only had a max of 40-50 pounds in it. My husband tested the men’s Mystery Ranch backpack and once he goes over 80 pounds, it starts to become a bit uncomfortable. This probably won’t happen with a kid or smaller framed woman carrying a load, so for our purpose and what we’d ever need out of it for hauling purposes, this pack was fantastic!
The frame flexes a fair amount when cinching down a hind quarter of an elk (or half an elk) and flexes horizontally, but once the load is strapped on, there isn’t any noticeable vertical flex which gives you a very comfortable ride with a heavy load.
One of the complaints with the Guide Lite frame is that there isn’t a great way to secure a sand bag for training hikes. The integrated load shelf sits too low on the frame to keep a small sand bag from dropping below the hip belt. The same is true when you haul meat.
My son and I actually both shot a buck within minutes of each other this rifle season and were able to see how this pack would do with its meat hauling ability. On this trip it was actually my son who used the Mystery Ranch hunting pack for women. For what he and I could carry, the frame and how it held the meat did fairly well, however, with a heavier, wider load, the design isn’t ideal.
When the bag is pulled away from the frame in order to load meat, it has an adjustable meat shelf at the bottom that can expand the width of the load you can carry. This is more ideal for packing out larger game like moose and elk, or if you wanted to put two hind quarters of a good sized deer on it.
While the adjustabilty to widen it is great, the load shelf REALLY sits low and subsequentlly, it can tent to want to ride low on your rear end which isn’t the most comfortable way to pack a heavy load. If the load shelf and it’s expandable piece was placed higher on the frame (more mid back) so it wouldn’t drop below the hip belt when weighted down, it would be a huge improvement. The load shelf attaches near the bottom of the frame rather than a quarter or third of the way up from the bottom. A higher position would help keep those heavy loads from wanting to drop below the hip belt, which causes the pack to become uncomfortable.
Bag Configuration: Women’s Mystery Ranch Metcalf
At a large 4335 cubic inches the Mystery Ranch backpack is a pack made for weekend backcountry trips, and the women’s version makes for a fantastic youth hunting backpack as well. This is a top loading pack that closes with a drawstring and has a snow collar, so you basically can load all of your stuff in there much like you would a stuff sack.
Depending on your personal preference, this may be something you love or hate. Oddly enough, there are two drawstrings at the top of the pack so you can close up the bag at different levels. The second drawstring honestly felt pointless and wasn’t something we ever used, but it wasn’t a big deal that it is there.
The inside of the bag does not have any pockets, with the exception of the place to put your bladder, so it really is like a giant stuff sack. One unique feature is that the bag has a zipper on one side that runs the length of the bag, so if you needed to access something more towards the bottom of the bag, you wouldn’t have to unload it all, but could simply unzip the side to get to things at different depths of the bag.
The Mystery Ranch Women’s Metcalf hunting backpack is not the best for someone who loves a bunch of pockets to organize their things. While there aren’t pockets on the inside or the outside, it does have two stretchy open side pockets that can hold a water bottle or a tripod. Unfortunately, these pockets are pretty shallow, so while you could use them for a spotter, etc. but using the straps, it’s not ideal and leaves your equipment exposed. It would be great if these pockets were taller so they could be used for that type of things more efficiently.
One thing we noted about the is the fact that the compression straps at the top of the bag get in the way of the opening of the bag, so you have to undo these straps in order access your things. The compression straps thread under the lid as well so it just isn’t ideal when you want to get in and out of your bag quickly. This was a bit annoying and we wished the design was a little more thoughtful in that regard.
The entire bag attaches to the frame by sliding the two top corners of the bag onto the frame. Gravity along with cinching the straps on the keep it in place securely. It is important to loosen the lower straps towards the bottom that attach the bag to the frame in order to have enough slack to put the pack on the frame with more ease. There were several times we forgot to do this and were frustrated trying to get the bag back on the frame. Definitely user error since if we’d loosened the straps it would have been a piece of cake.
Inside the Mystery Ranch Women’s Metcalf you’ll find a place for your bladder. It was a snug fit for the bladder we used, but not so tight it was a pain to put in there. The downside is that it is difficult to get to when you have other things in your pack or if your bladder ends up leaking, it will get everything you have inside wet. For these reasons, I much prefer a separate place outside of the bag to put your water.
The Lid: Women’s Mystery Ranch Metcalf
While the main bag itself doesn’t have any pockets, the Mystery Ranch Metcalf does come with a lid that is quite substantial. It has two large zippered areas which is nice for organizing. Many hunting packs only have one large zippered area for the lid, and often a lid is considered an “add on” or accessory that needs purchased separately. This fabulous lid is included, and we found ourselves storing food in one part and other items we needed to quickly access in the other.
The design of the lid is unique as it splits down the middle. I really like this lid, and love that you have so much usable space in these pockets. The split down the middle is brilliant so that neither pocket gets cinched down tight, making it tough to access the contents of the lid. I’m someone who likes to put as much as I can in the lid, so this was a huge hit for me. I’d rather not dig into the main bag unless I need to, so two big thumbs up on the lid design for Mystery Ranch!
Accessories: Women’s Mystery Ranch Metcalf
There are a ton of different accessories available for Mystery Ranch packs. We were able to test the Forager hip belt pockets and one for each side of the hip belt which helped organize smaller items. There are a lot more Mystery Range Pack Accessories to try so check it out!
What I liked: Women’s Mystery Ranch Metcalf
Ease of loading
It is easy to stuff all you need for camp inside and then cinch down the snow collar using the drawstrings. It’s just a super simple design with room enough for all your gear for a weekend trip in the backwoods.
Specific design for Women or youth
The shorter and more narrow harness fits women and youth to add in comfort. It just fits our body so much better!
Lid Design
The lid on the Mystery Ranch Metcalf is one of our favorites! The dual compartments and large size that allows you to store as much as possible in the lid to avoid getting into the main bag as much as possible is fabulous! Each compartment is large enough to put things like your Jetboil, food, flashlight, gloves, etc. in. The fact that it’s split in the middle keeps the contents from getting compressed and allows for super easy access with its large, center zippers.
Improved Harness
The ease of adjusting the harness, even the smallest amount, is a huge bonus aided by the unique plastic yoke adjuster to help break away the velcro to move the harness up and down freely. The shoulder straps have a clip to secure the hose to your water bladder as well, which is super convenient and helps keep your source of water super accessible.
Hip Belt
I really like the design and comfort offered with the Mystery Ranch Women’s Metcalf hip belt. The pre-formed hip belt is super comfortable, and adjusting it is quick and easy. Once set, it really does a nice job of staying put.
Side Zipper
The zipper on the side of the Mystery Ranch Metcalf makes accessing the gear that’s at the bottom of the bag a cinch. No need to unload everything at the top to get to what’s on the bottom with this cool design.
What I Didn’t Like: Women’s Mystery Ranch Metcalf
While there were a lot of things we loved about this women’s Mystery Range Metcalf pack, there were a few things that we felt could have made it better.
Difficult to Get into Main Bag
I found that, with all the versatility that the many straps give you, they also make it a bit of a pain to get into the main bag. The compression straps have to be undone in order to get into the main compartment of the pack.
Location of the Bladder Pocket
While the pocket that holds a water bladder is easy enough to use, it would be better if the location weren’t in the middle of the main bag, but in a separate area. You must remove your gear in order to take the bladder in the and out which is inconvenient. Additionally, I like knowing that, in the event my bladder malfunctions and leaks, it won’t quickly soak my things.
Meat Shelf Position
I found that the position of the meat shelf seemed to be a bit low in some cases. For instance, when hauling sand bags for training hikes, or when taking a smaller load, the load shelf is too low on the frame and allows the load to drop below the ideal position for hauling heavy weight.
No Pockets
The Mystery Ranch Metcalf backpack is super simple with one giant compartment to stuff your gear. Some people may prefer this style, however, this pack left me wishing there were some pockets on the outside or even on the inside to help stay organized. Even small, flat pockets for keys, license, medication, etc. would be a huge added bonus.
Stretchy Side Pockets
While I was grateful that this pack had two stretchy side pockets to slide in a water bottle, I wished the pockets weren’t as shallow and could be better equipped for holding a spotting scope, etc, giving my gear more protection.
Conclusion: Women’s Mystery Ranch Metcalf Review
The Mystery Ranch Women’s Metcalf pack makes a fantastic youth hunting backpack and fits the lady hunter so much better with its unique sized harness specifically for women. While we originally got this pack to review to get a sense of what’s on the market for women who love to hunt, we ended up realizing this Mystery Ranch backpack could be easily marketed to youth hunters as well. It made hiking in the backwoods so much easier for my son and I. My son ended up wanting to keep this pack for himself and loved how it fitted him, even when packing out the buck he shot this season.
You’ve got a wide adjustment range with the harness, and the hip belt is very comfortable and can accommodate either hip belt pouches, a side arm, water bottle, etc. This is a do-it-all kind of pack that can be a day pack or a pack for a long weekend where you end up needing to pack out camp and meat. If you’re a woman or youth looking for something that is comfortable don’t settle for just getting men’s pack in a size small. Instead, check out the Mystery Ranch Women’s Metcalf hunting backpack and you won’t be disappointed.
Additionally, if you purchase this Mystery Ranch Women’s Metcalf for a kid, since the harness adjusts so easily, it can definitely be a pack they use for a while that will grow with them. Our 5 foot, 11 year old son had the harness adjusted nearly as short as it could go, so he can easily raise it next year, and perhaps the year after that, in order to keep using this pack. And when he outgrows it, Mama gets a nice ladies backpack for hunting.
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The comment on the low load shelf is valid. However, when you haul your quarters, turn them upside down. Heavy weight up, pointed knee down. Call me crazy, but when packing out any rear quarter, this is the only way to go. You can tighten the load shelf as small as it goes, keeping the point load higher, and then all the weight is sitting at your shoulders. Boom!!!!!
Hey there! Thanks for the insight. Yes, that is probably the best way to combat the load shelf being so low on MR packs. That being said, it would be nice if it was more adjustable so you could keep the bulk of a hind quarter about mid back so the load isn’t so top heavy, which can make balancing more difficult if navigating technical terrain while packing. My goal when packing is to have as much weight transferred to the hip belt as possible rather than the shoulders as I’ve personally found that to be exponentially more comfortable during long pack outs with heavy loads. Shoulders will wear out much more quickly than if the weight is transferred to your hips. Thanks for your thoughts!