Muskoka Outdoors

The Eureka Assault Outfitter 4 is a high quality tent that is simple to set-up, compact (yet spacious) in design and packs some neat hidden features. Suggested retail $375

The tough part about picking out a tent is knowing exactly it’s dimensions and occupancy details. A visit to Eureka’s camping tent website will list tent dimensions and head space (graphically and textually) with each tent they list. I knew exactly what I was getting before the tent even arrived at my door. That means some piece of mind when you purchase an item online.

Setup

Due to the several feet of snow outside my home, my initial review of this tent occurred in my basement (you can chuckle). I will be doing an actual an overnight ‘field’ test later this spring in Algonquin Park while on the hunt for some spring lake trout. I started my stopwatch after I took the tent from the shipping packaging. It took me just 9 minutes to setup the entire tent by myself (minus not having to use tent pegs). Essentially, there were only 6 items easily rolled into the tent bag.

1. 3 13mm collapsing aluminum poll sections (equal length – no confusion or guessing)
2. tent peg and accessories bag
3. the tent
4. the tent fly

I just had to assemble the folding aluminum polls and slide them through their obvious mesh locations on the outside of the tent. Each pole end was easily ‘clipped’ into circular grommet tabs in the tent’s base to maintain the tent’s structural integrity and shape.

The addition of the fly caused a brief moment of thought as I had to determine its orientation over the top of the tent. This was quickly solved by lining up the orange tabbed fly clip with orange colored tab on one corner of the tent. From there, all the fly’s clips were inserted into the corresponding tab on the tent.

Simple.

Size
The Assault Outfitter 4 is listed as a four person tent. Of course, this rating is directly to the size of people who will be using this tent. It would be tight if I had three of my clones in the tent with me, but numerically it works because of its 8’6″ width. I could lie down in it without having to curl my legs up. The tent is 7’6″ long. There is additional space, with tent protection, on the exterior ends of the tent for some critical gear like boots (they probably should not be kept in an occupied tent). You can’t stand up in the tent ( at 4’8″ high), but you don’t feel like the ‘ceiling’ is just inches from your face when you are sleeping either.

Notable Features

• 75D StormShield® polyester ripstop fly with 1500mm coating (allows tents to ventilate and keep the occupants dry)
• Heavy duty 210D nylon oxford floor (tough and dry)
• 40D No-see-um Meshing (keeps the little guys out)

Summary

I don’t recommend every item I am asked to review. In this particular case, I would gladly suggest to my readers that this tent is worthy of your consideration. It is a great size for an Algonquin Park campsite and could sleep up to four campers (3 adults ideally). When fast set-up is a must (like an incoming rain shower) this tent will not disappoint. If this tent is not what you are looking for, consider other backpacking tents from Eureka

Ok. So, it is not an exclusive ‘moose only’ game camera, but the first visitors to our new hidden game camera happened to be a pair of moose. At 30 second intervals, it was only possible to snap 3 photos. I have posted them below.

My favorite shot is the third. Take a moment to click on it for a larger view. If unicorns were real and they were able to have ‘special moments’ with moose – this guy would be that union’s first offspring. It seems unusual for moose to have their antlers this time of year, but nobody told this young bull that. Regardless, it’s nice to know they are around despite this year’s tough winter.

For those of you wondering about the camera we purchased, it is a Bushnell Trail Scout Pro game camera. It was easy to set-up after I updated the date and time component in the camera. I had to use the instructions for that. After that issue was cleared up, it was just a matter of flipping a couple of switches to the desired position and it was ready to go.

Very simple. It’s like that moose’s antler.

Every once in a while a local company owner goes above and beyond and does something they did not need to do. That’s exactly what Ned Joiner did from Muskoka Rent-All last week. He asked dad if he wanted to try-out one of his Cub-Cadet all-terrain vehicles during moose season. The “No-strings attached” arrangement was a great opportunity.

The Cub Cadet is a great vehicle that will be sure to get the guys talking around the hunt or fish camp dinner table. It may also give the other ATV’s parked out front a bit of a complex as well.

What obviously separates this vehicle from a regular ATV is it’s size. That is not necessarily a bad thing either. You can sit in the front of the vehicle beside the driver on the way to your watch and not have to worry about straddling an ATV seat.

The cargo space is phenomenal. It’s tilting bucket will easily put your firewood where you want it. Handlebar steering is nice, but navigating your favorite logging trail with a real steering wheel is awesome! There are even seat belts equipped on the Cub-Cadet. Apparently, if you wear the belts – you don’t need to put on helmets.

Possible issues for some (but not for us) were:

• -it’s wider and longer than an ATV: you will need a trailer to transport
• it has lower ground clearance than some ATV’s: despite this it was still able to go anywhere the other ATV in our group went
• it is louder than we were used to: don’t expect a stealthy ride

For those of you who would like to know specifics about this vehicle – CLICK HERE. If you are interested in buying one, I suggest you contact Ned at Muskoka Rent-All. He has the experience and integrity to offer you an honest price and excellent service. He can be reached at 705-789-2343. Tell him Bill Anderson sent you his way – just so he knows we appreciated his gesture.

When it’s below freezing I hate having to take off my mitts/gloves to reload my gun or to complete other hand’s on tasks at the deer stand. I know I should ‘suck-it-up’ but this is why I buy those fleece type gloves that can fold over to free your fingers quietly when needed. You take a hit on warmth, but they are practical. I was mailed a pair of my favorite glove types to evaluate with the added bonus of some air activated heat packs. It was comfort and long endurance heat in 2 orange fleece packages.

Although far form scientific, I put a pair of these HotHands® Heated Mittens from Heatmax® in my freezer and recorded the internal temperature over ten hours. This was because it was hard to ‘field test’ them comfortably in the summer. My freezer was colder than -10 degrees C (my thermometer stopped its scale a this temp) when I put the gloves in and activated the heat packs. The gloves have these great pockets for heat packs. It was an activate and forget experience.

Over time the heat packs heated up the inside of the gloves. At hour five the internal glove temperature was around 30 degrees C. At this point, I became tired of my lab rat antics and went fishing. Five hours later (after I returned) the internal glove temperature was 11 degrees C. The freezer temperature remained colder than -10 degrees C.

They work as promised.

Not only that, but they were comfortable and light. The magnets that held the finger flaps in place, when you needed your fingers, were strong and quiet. Watch your compass bearings though.

If you see some on the rack consider buying a pair. I know I will be grabbing a pair when I go toe to hoof with the Ghost Buck this year.

*Note – by clicking on the link to the HotHands® Heated Mittens information I do not get any financial ‘incentives’. Howard Commnications was kind enough to mail me a pair of gloves to evaluate with no promise of a good review. I mean what I write.