Hunting Packs: Mystery Ranch Metcalf vs Stone Glacier Sky 5900

Two autumns ago I watched a friend of mine pack out the front shoulder of a bull elk from a side basin in northern Idaho. He was hauling maybe 65 pounds of bone-in meat. His pack was a Mystery Ranch Metcalf that he had bought five years earlier after his first year of elk hunting. The pack creaked and groaned under the load, the suspension transferred weight correctly, and he walked out in one shot without having to drop and return. The Metcalf had paid for itself many times over across those five seasons of hauling meat and gear.

That same fall, another buddy did the same thing with a Stone Glacier Sky 5900. He hauled 70 pounds of meat the same distance and time. Different pack, same result, different design philosophy. Both packs are excellent. Both cost between $600 and $800 depending on configuration. Both are worth every dollar for the hunter who actually needs this level of load-bearing capability. For the hunter who does not, both are $600 worth of wasted money on a shelf.

When You Actually Need a Pack Like This

Before spending serious money on a backcountry hunting pack, understand that you need it only if you are packing out large game from difficult terrain. A guy sitting in a ladder stand for whitetails, who drags deer 300 yards to the truck, does not need a Metcalf or a Sky 5900. A $150 daypack with a meat shelf is plenty for him. The packs in this comparison are designed for carrying 80 to 100 pounds of meat and gear in one load, often at altitude, often over miles of rough terrain. If you are not doing that, save your money.

I use a Metcalf. I know hunters who use the Sky 5900. I know guys still using beat-up old Badlands 2200 packs that work fine for them. The pack you need matches the hunting you do, and if your hunting stays within a mile of a road, these packs are overkill.

Mystery Ranch Metcalf

The Metcalf is a 4,500-cubic-inch pack built around Mystery Ranch's overload feature, a compartment between the meat shelf and the main pack bag designed to carry a quarter of elk or a boned-out shoulder. The suspension is the Mystery Ranch Guide Light MT, which uses aluminum stays and a molded lumbar pad to transfer weight to the hips effectively.

Mystery Ranch is a Montana company that originally built packs for the military, then expanded into hunting. The build quality is rugged, and in my experience the zippers, buckles, and fabric hold up well to years of use. My Metcalf has been packed through snow, soaked in rain, and bruised against rock. The pack still looks essentially new after three seasons of hard hunting, though the color has faded in places. Mystery Ranch offers repairs and the pack carries a lifetime warranty on construction.

The overload system is genuinely useful. When you bone out an elk in the field, you can fit the meat between the bag and the shelf, which keeps weight close to your body and transfers it to your hips. When you are moving in with just hunting gear, the compartment compresses flat and doesn't get in the way. I have hauled a boned-out elk front quarter, maybe 50 pounds, in the overload pocket with 30 pounds of gear in the main bag without feeling the load was badly distributed.

The Weak Spot

The Metcalf, at around 6 pounds empty, is not the lightest hunting pack on the market. Stone Glacier's Sky 5900 is closer to 4.5 pounds empty in a similar configuration. For a hunter counting ounces on a long trip, this matters. For a hunter who just wants durable gear that works, it doesn't.

The hip belt on the Metcalf is narrower than on some newer competitors. Under heavy load, 70-plus pounds, I feel the belt pressure more than I do with larger hip belt systems. This is personal to my body type. Guys with slightly more hip meat may not notice.

Stone Glacier Sky 5900

The Sky 5900 from Stone Glacier is 5,900 cubic inches, hence the name, and uses Stone Glacier's proprietary X-Curve frame and hip belt system. The company is based in Bozeman, Montana, founded by a hunter who was frustrated with the weight and rigidity of existing backcountry packs. Stone Glacier's design philosophy is lightweight-first, with fewer bells and whistles than the Mystery Ranch.

The Sky 5900 is a big bag, clearly oriented toward multi-day trips where you need to carry sleeping bag, tent, and six or seven days of food inside the pack. The X-Curve hip belt wraps far around the hips and distributes weight over a larger contact patch than the Metcalf's belt. Under very heavy load, 80 to 100 pounds, the Sky 5900 feels noticeably more comfortable on my hips than the Metcalf.

The meat hauling system is a separate meat shelf that sits between the load lifters and the main bag, similar in principle to the Metcalf but different in execution. You can also run the pack in hauler mode with the main bag removed, just a frame and meat shelf, which gives you a true 7,000-plus-cubic-inch capacity for a single meat haul.

The Weak Spot

The Sky 5900 is simpler than the Metcalf. There are fewer organization pockets, fewer integrated features. For a hunter who likes everything to have a specific home in the pack, the Sky 5900 will feel spartan. For a hunter who stuffs everything in the main bag and does not mind digging, it is fine.

Stone Glacier also runs smaller production than Mystery Ranch, which means availability can be hit-or-miss during hunting season. If your pack gets damaged in July, you may not be able to replace it before the September opener.

The Hip Belt Fit Question

Both packs come in multiple hip belt sizes, and fit matters enormously. A hip belt that is too large rolls around and does not transfer weight. A hip belt that is too small pinches and creates pressure points. Both Mystery Ranch and Stone Glacier publish fitting charts, and both have dealers who will help you fit the pack correctly.

Do not buy either of these packs online without trying the hip belt size on first. Load it with 40 or 50 pounds of sandbags at the store and walk around. If you cannot walk around comfortably in the store, you cannot walk around comfortably on a mountain with an elk quarter on the back of it.

Load Lifter and Frame Differences

The Metcalf's Guide Light MT frame is curved, and the load lifters pull weight forward and up, which works well for my body type. The Sky 5900's X-Curve frame is also curved, but the pivot angle is slightly different. Both work. Which one feels better is a function of your torso length, shoulder position, and hip placement.

If you have a longer torso, the Sky 5900 adjusts to a larger frame size that the Metcalf does not quite match. If you have a shorter torso, the Metcalf's small size may fit better than anything Stone Glacier offers. Again, try before you buy.

What I Pack for Three Nights Out

Standard load in my Metcalf for a three-night western hunt is a Helinox Chair Zero (0.9 pounds), an XTherm pad and Seek Outside 1-person tent (total about 5 pounds), a Western Mountaineering SummerLite sleeping bag (1.7 pounds), a JetBoil plus fuel (1 pound), food for three days (about 4.5 pounds), water and filter (about 3 pounds), clothing and insulation layers (about 4 pounds), rain shell and puffy (about 2 pounds), and hunting gear including binoculars, spotting scope, tripod, rangefinder, and ammunition (about 7 pounds).

Total pre-meat weight is around 30 pounds. Add an elk front quarter at 55 pounds of meat and you are at 85 pounds going out. Both the Metcalf and the Sky 5900 handle this load range well. Below 60 pounds total, both packs feel agile. Above 90, both start to remind you that you are carrying a dead animal up a mountain, no matter how good the suspension.

Which Would I Buy Now

I have the Metcalf because I bought it when Stone Glacier was harder to find and less established. If I were buying today, with no existing pack, I would pick between them based on body type and trip profile. For me, my Metcalf fits extremely well and has never let me down. I would buy another Metcalf in a heartbeat.

For a hunter with a longer torso, or one who runs lighter gear and wants a more stripped-down pack, the Stone Glacier Sky 5900 is probably the better call. For a hunter who hunts out of base camp and does shorter, heavier-loaded pack-outs, the Metcalf is the better call. Neither pack is wrong. Both are excellent at what they do.

If your budget is tight and you can find used Mystery Ranch gear, Mystery Ranch packs hold value well and used ones in good condition are often available for $350 to $450. That is the best value in this category, full stop. A used Metcalf with half a season of wear is still going to outperform a new $200 big-box pack by a wide margin.

Finally, practice packing out weight before your hunt. Put 50 pounds of sandbags in the pack and walk five miles on uneven ground before you go to Colorado. You will discover chafing, pressure points, and stability issues at home, not in the field. Both packs are excellent tools. Neither one replaces a fit body and a mile or two of practice under load.