By: The Grit Staff
Upland hunting can be distilled to a dog and gun, hunter and bird. Because wingshooting is an inherently simple pursuit, or perhaps because bird hunters are fond of tradition, few recent products have significantly changed the way we hunt.
The strap vest is a notable exception. Not long ago, virtually everyone hunted upland birds in a canvas shooting vest. These simple garments have a large game pouch in the back, and a few large hand pockets for shells and whatnot- basically a glorified gunny sack. In just a few years, these traditional vests have been all but replaced by the strap vest.
It’s likely more a matter of fashion, as the old hunting vests still work well in most cases, but the new crop of upland strap vests do offer some technical advantages. Chief Upland has only been on the scene for a few years, but already their Over/Under vest system is one of the most popular designs. Jake Lindemann designed this vest system to address the needs of passionate bird hunters, regardless of where they live. We tested the Over/Under on mid-season partridge and prairie grouse hunts. Here are our honest impressions.
First, we really need to come up with a better name for these things. Regardless of the brand, ‘strap vests’ have more in common with backpacks than they do vests. If we concede the term to anyone, it’s to Chief Upland. That’s because the Over/Under really does feel more like a hunting vest, due to a broad belt that wraps around the back and waist, hugging the body of the vest to the wearer. We’ve tried a number of vests over the last few years, but we definitely think the Over/Under is one of the most form-fitting we’ve tried.
The belt of the Over/Under cleverly secures with two buckles. The genius of this design is that it allows you to really fine tune the snugness of the system on your hips. If you have a bit of a dad or mom bod going, or if you just ate too many pheasant poppers last night, you can snug down the lower buckle, but leave the top a bit looser.
The Over/Under belt is covered in MOLLE paneling, which allows you to custom-position various pouches wherever you like. We do think that the ‘custom-tactical’ aspect of such systems is a bit of a marketing gimmick, as there is likely a configuration that would work best for most users. Nevertheless, we won’t deprive the tinkerers of their joy.
Chief Upland’s standard accessory pouches are easy to switch out and shift around on the belt system. Chief offers a ‘Starter Bundle’, which is just a shell pouch and a bottle holder, or the ‘All In’ package gives you every pouch and do-hickey you could possibly need. If we had our druthers, the Over/Under would come standard with two bottle pouches and two ammo pouches. Not only would this work well for most users, but it would make it easier to compare the vest’s cost and functions to other brands like Final Rise or Hunt Redi.
The water bottle pouches are deep and secure with a shock cord. We noticed they work great with the Chief Upland bottles or other Gatorade-sized bottles, but they are unfortunately too narrow to accommodate wider bottles like Nalgenes. The Chief Upland bottles work fine, but are a bit prone to leaking.
We love the fumble-free shell pouch access. That’s thanks to the quick magnetic flap and semi-rigid shape. While svelte and very secure, one inherent drawback of the magnetic closure is that we couldn’t keep our GPS receiver in an ammo pouch like we are accustomed to. Doing so sends the unit’s compass haywire. Of course, Chief Upland makes GPS pouches that you can mount elsewhere on the vest.
Like the belt, the shoulder straps of the Over/Under secure with double chest buckles. These can be shifted higher and lower on the vest or even removed, providing a completely custom feel. We’d rather wear no vest at all than one with bulky shoulder straps, and the Chief Upland strap system is relatively thin, providing for a natural gun mount.
The right shoulder strap has an attachment point for your GPS receiver, but we felt this might somewhat impede a clean gun mount. The left shoulder has a mesh pouch which is perfect for your cell phone. This is one of our favorite features on the Over/Under, as most strap vests lack a secure but quick access pocket to check your OnX map or texts. Unfortunately, if you are a lefty, the mesh pouch position might jam your gun mount a bit.
The game pouch of the Over/Under is huge, and you can easily open it to clean out blood and feathers, or to haul bulkier items like shed antlers or an injured dog. Because the Over/Under contours to the body, we found that all that game pouch room has limits in practical use. You can certainly stuff three roosters back there, but if you carry a lot of ancillary gear (in our case a professional camera) it’s a tight fit, and you might need to take the vest off to access gear in the game pouch.
The body of the vest does have a zip pocket with room for snacks, keys, and other brick-a-brack, and we were able to cram an insulation layer or rain jacket into it. This pocket also doubles as a hydration reservoir for a Camelbak or the Chief Upland branded water bladder.
Overall, the fabrics and materials used in the Over/Under are very durable and high quality. The orange fabrics are pleasantly bright and so far seem to resist fading, a problem that plagues many strap vests. For those who want something different, the Over/Under is also available in earth tones, or in hot pink. There are three different belt sizes to accommodate most hunters.
The Over/Under Starter Bundle retails for 289.00, or the All In Bundle is 424.00. Readers can currently take advantage of great Black Friday discounts. We think the Over/Under is a high quality, American-made product. The design features will serve most bird hunters well, and we have no doubt that it will hold up to many years of adventures.
* The Grit was supplied with testing samples but was not otherwise compensated for this review.
