Montana Test

If you have shopped for fishing, hunting or camping gear and leave the store or Internet dumbfounded and discombobulated, welcome to the club. You have joined the masses that are wondering if it’s worth the effort. Today there is outdoor product for every minute, hour and day of the week. It used to be painless and uncomplicated, one spinning or fly rod worked for every fish, one set of camouflage was fine, and it was easy to find what you needed because there wasn’t much to choose from.

Today if you don’t have precisely the right rod, gun, tent, or sleeping bag you’ll miss fish, won’t take any game, and get soaked if it rains and freeze if you pick the wrong bag. If it sounds ominous for the purchaser, it can be. You need to educate yourself before you lay down your cash. Spend time researching any outdoor product before parting with your greenbacks.

We all face the same problem: How do we weave through all the product information that permeates the web, magazines, newspapers, and anywhere else you can find it?

We looked for a place where we could find information about gear. All kinds of gear. We spent hours searching the Internet for every gear-testing site we could find. Some were good, some were not, but none of them with the consumer in mind. Many of the gear sites just repeated product description from manufacturers. This was not what we were looking for or needed.

We became so frustrated we started our own outdoor product-testing site, http://www.montanatest.com. Our goal is to provide the consumer with a place to go to find real time information on outdoor products that you may now own and don’t know why, or are considering purchasing new. We won’t bog you down with useless technical information, just straightforward info on product that we test.

The entire product is tested in the field and we don’t abuse it. When we test a product we do so only with the intent of finding out if it performs according to the manufacturer specs. We don’t expect it to perform outside of its design, i.e., we don’t use a shotgun to hammer a tent stake into the ground. If we recommend that you buy something we’ve tested it’s because we know it will perform for you the way it did for us. Some of the product we test we will not recommend.

We work with manufacturers to improve their products. Some are convinced that their product works perfect and that we didn’t test it right or we just don’t know what we are doing. In answer, we adhere to a rigid format. There are four of us testing the products. We spend a combined two hundred and fifty days a year either hunting or fishing. Trust us, when we finish with the gear you’ll know if it’s worth buying. The following are just a few of the products that we are now testing.

KEEN FOOTWEAR

We didn’t know a thing about KEEN FOOTWEAR until one of our testers Cody Hoefle told us that his Dad owned a pair and said they were comfortable. We did some quick research and learned that KEEN manufactured SIMM’S fishing sandal, of which my son Chris owns a pair. KEEN doesn’t make a true fishing sandal under their own label but they should. We’ve suggested it and hope they will consider it. We tested four different styles from KEEN, the Taos, Boulder, Newport H2, and new for this fall the Targhee. We strongly recommend that you buy a pair. All our testers love them, they fit perfect, and require no break-in period. Just put them on and go.

http://www.keenfootwear.com

TEMPLE FORK OUTFITTERS FLY RODS

The fly-fishing world has changed dramatically the last few years. Temple Fork sits at the forefront of that change with great fly rods at fantastic prices. How can Temple Fork sell rods at these kinds of prices? They don’t advertise, most of their sales are by word of mouth, and their rods are imported. Before you call me un-patriotic for not promoting “Made in America” let me explain that most if not all rod companies import fly rods. We tested fourteen fly rods from The Professional Series, TiCr Series and the Extra Fast TiCr Series all performed like our six hundred-dollar rods. Additionally, we also tested two reels the TFO 310 Large Arbor Reel and the TFO MK I reel. These rods and reels took a beating and are still getting a work out. We also found that the fish we caught didn’t ask us how much our fly rod cost.

If you are looking for great rod or reel at competitive prices you cannot go wrong buying a Fly rod and Reel from Temple Fork.

http://www.templeforkflyrods.com

COLEMAN

Coleman has manufactured outdoor products forever and most of us have owned something from Coleman at one time or another. We tested the KRYPTON 2 Tent, the GREY FOX 20-degree sleeping bag and the OUTFITTER COOK KIT. The Krypton tent sleeps two, but was tight when my son and I sleep together, both of us are big, Chris is 6′ 2” and about 240, I’m 6′ and 200 pounds. The tent is outstanding and goes up easy and will keep you dry. What more do you need? We also tested one of Coleman’s newest sleeping bags, the Grey Fox. Chris has used the bag and he loves it.

These are just a few of the products that we have tested. We continue to test products from Orvis, Otter Boxes, WrightSock, Theorlos socks, ExOfficio and more. If you have an outdoor product that you want to see tested contact us at montanatest@tgrsolution.net or visit our Web site at http://www.montanatest.com.