Hillman 3-4 Season 2 Person Tent

| December 30, 2021
Hillman 2 Person Tent In The Snow
Photo Credit: Keith Knoxsville
A Hen and a Drake Green Teal on the truck bed. Not a limit on anything, but a fun morning out.
Color | Green
Size | 2 Person
Seasons | 3-4
Material Fly | 40D Nylon
Material Tent | Polyester
Material Poles | Aluminum
Footprint | No
Doors | 2
Windproof | Yes
Waterproof | Yes
Brand | Hillman
Weight | 5.06 lbs
Country of Origin | China
Warranty | Unkown
Price | $64.97
Price Paid | $54.97
Materials
3.2/5

Performance
3.6/5

Durability
3.5/5

Features
4.0/5

Quality
3.5/5

Value
4.4/5

Overall
3.7/5

We picked up the Hillman 3-4 season 2 person tents, one of the most affordable tents available. We figured at such a low price we’d put it to the test, and give you our honest opinion. Is it a good tent, or a hard pass?

First Impressions

The tent comes in a decent bag, that is decent and incorporates two compressions straps to keep things secure, as well as keep the size down.

Also, to our pleasant surprise, there are no interesting odors produced by the tent or materials. Whether that’s unusual or not with imported fabrics, we don’t know, but we are experienced with unboxing things like rotomolded plastics, and machined parts covered in packaging oils carrying distinct smells. The two person tent doesn’t smell, and we are glad it doesn’t.

In The Field

The Hillman 2 Person Tent does not include a footprint, so we set up the tent directly on top of ice and snow, during a snowstorm.

The tent is as straightforward as any to set up. The aluminum pole segments are connected via a typical bungee cord, extend and lock easily, and it is obvious where to insert the poles into the tent.

The Tent

Once erect, the tent exposed stitch quality, material quality, the volume of mesh to fabric, and two very large doors with two-way #8 zippers. There is a seam that runs the full length of the bathtub-style tent floor, and while it is seam taped, it doesn’t instill confidence that it wouldn’t eventually leak if the tent is set up in too low a spot during a heavy downpour. The materials and treatments used to construct the tent and bathtub floor aren’t clearly stated by the manufacturer, but in our opinion, they could be heavier or have a heavier polyurethane treatment. The extra couple of ounces would have been worth the waterproofing security.

Doors Full Circumference Zippers

Two large doors have two-way zippers that unzip about 95% of the door circumference.

The two large doors, leaving only a very small section of material to hinge the door, as opposed to the D-shaped doors used by many tent manufacturers. Hillman extended the zippers almost the full circumference of the doors, which makes them very easy to enter and exit, which we liked. The manufacturers stated width and length of the floor don’t make a lick of sense. Two people about 5 foot 7 inches could comfortably sleep in the two person tent, but anybody approaching 6 feet or taller, might find it to be a bit of a squeeze.

Storage is lacking inside the tent. It is a no-frills design, with no gear loft, no pockets, and no pouches. So plan on a DIY project to add your own storage solutions, or expect to leave things like a headlamp loose on the floor or in your pack.

The Tent Fly

The fly is like any other fly, it includes two #8 zippers, one for each door location, and additionally has some velcro patches along the zipper which are convenient for keeping the door flap in place without having to zip or unzip every time.

The fly also attaches to the corners of the tent with buckles and can be cinched tight, which is pretty standard amongst tent manufacturers. When staked, and attached to guy-lines, the fly doesn’t provide much of an air gap around the tent, and there is no real vestibule. There is about enough room to put a pair of boots and keep them out of the elements.

Hillman Tent Snow in Vents

The vents on the Hillman tent didn’t do much to protect against the elements.

There are two large vents on top of the fly, which are held open with a stiffened piece of webbing and velcro but don’t have much of an overhang to provide adequate protection against rain. Looking at the seam sealing at the location of the vent support, revealed pinholes where the light was shining through, indicating spots that are not actually waterproofed.

Weathering the Elements

After sitting out in the wind and snow for a couple of hours, the inside of the tent was as dry as when we started. None of the seems leaked, but then again temperatures stayed below freezing, so there was not much of an opportunity for snow to melt and things to get wet, versus just icing over. The vents did build up with snow, and while the mesh kept the snow out of the tent, it certainly wouldn’t keep water out during a windy rain event.

The Hillman tent is surprisingly decent and performed better than we expected. The large vents would benefit from a larger overhang or lip, some of the materials could be better, the fly could provide more covered space at teh doors, and waterproofing details and treatments could be better, but overall we were pleasantly surprised with its performance given the price.

Hillman 2 Person Tent Snow Covered

The Hillman 2 Person 3-4 season tent covered in snow after a few hours.

Conclusion

While we did not test the 4 season tent, we tested the 3 season tent in the snow, because the only meaningful manufacturing difference between the two is a skirt at the base of the fly, which adds another 6 to 8 inches.

Our opinion is that the Hillman tent is suitable for many camping conditions, but not something you’d want to rely on during a heavy rain event or snowstorm in the backcountry, where it is your only protection from the elements. It is relatively light at 5 lbs and could be a good 3 season backpacking tent when split up and carried between two people.

It will satisfy the needs of most people, and at such an affordable price, it is hard to argue against purchasing one. You wouldn’t lose much in terms of an investment either, should it wear out, or break after a season or two of normal use.

The Hillman 2 Person 3-4 Season tent is not a serious mountaineering tent, like the MSR Advance Pro 2 Person Tent. It also isn’t the best tent out there, but we have to admit we were surprised that it is as good as it is, for the price. If you have reasonable expectations for the Hillman, it can be a really good value proposition, at around 65 bucks.

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Hot Shot Game Stalker Savage Gloves

| December 27, 2021
Hot Shot Game Stalker Savage Gloves
Photo Credit: Keith Knoxsville
A Hen and a Drake Green Teal on the truck bed. Not a limit on anything, but a fun morning out.
Sizes | M, L, XL
Color | Realtree Edge
Brand | Hot Shot
Materials | 96% Polyester, 4% Spandex
Features | Aqua A4 Lining, Silicone Ggrip, Touchscreen Friendly
Waterproof | Yes
Breathable | Yes
Insulated | No
Price | $29.99
Performance
4.5/5

Fit
4.4/5

Quality
4.2/5

Value
4.4/5

Overall
4.375/5

One of the greatest cold weather hunting challenges is keeping your hands warm without losing dexterity, and the Hot Shot Game Stalker Savage Gloves looked like they might fit the bill, so we bought some to review.

We specifically chose waterproof gloves, in our quest for the best affordable, waterproof, cold weather hunting gloves, because we spend a lot of time waterfowl hunting in temperatures down to about -5F. At that temperature, any water that saturates normal gloves can freeze inside of your gloves, hurt your bare skin, make your hands nearly impossible to use, and even drop your core temperature.

First Impressions

Our first impressions of the Game Stalker Savage Gloves were that they look great with the Realtree Edge camo pattern, they have a good shape and great cuff length. Handling the gloves is reminiscent of a wetsuit or diving gloves, but with a microfleece-like material finish. They have a neoprene-like rigidity, but not so much so they lose flexibility, which we assume is a product of the combination of 96% polyester, 4% spandex, and their Aqua A4 waterproof laminate.

Field Test

The gloves fit well, seem true to size, and are very comfortable. They also fit surprisingly close to the skin, with only a little extra length in the fingers. We first tried the gloves out shoveling snow in a wet and heavy eastern sierra snowstorm. While the gloves themselves don’t have much insulation hands did stay warm and dry at freezing temperatures.

Even after the outside of the gloves felt wet and saturated, the inside of the gloves were perfectly dry. The textured fingers and palms are grippy, much better than other gloves we’ve worn, and give you a positive purchase of shovel handles and firearms, even in wet conditions.

Game Stalker Savage Gloves Texture

The texture on the Game Stalker Savage gloves are grippy, even when wet, and waterproofing keeps your hands dry.

On an early icy morning duck hunt, the gloves blocked the cold wind and kept the water and ice out. While the gloves aren’t insulated like a hundred-fifty dollar pair of Sitka Incinerator Flip Mitts, and are even quite thin, they did an okay job keeping hands warm, until the temperatures plummeted into the teens and single digits.

Moisture is a killer in every winter sport, and it’s always worth trading off some insulation for materials that insulate against water and wind. Larger volume insulation also makes it harder to do simple things, like operate firearms, or pull zippers on gear.

The Game Stalker Savage Gloves keep hands dry, warm in somewhat cold conditions, and are still dextrous and thin enough to operate charging handles, safety selectors, triggers, magazine latches, and loading gates. It does a great job trading off some warmth, for performance against the elements, and dexterity. However, as temperatures drop into the teens or single digits, they alone aren’t enough to keep your hands warm.

Conclusion

Out of all the gloves we’ve tested and used under the forty-dollar price point, Hot Shot Game Stalker Savage Gloves have provided the best balance of protection from wind and water, warmth, and the continued ability to operate firearms, electronic devices, and zippers on pockets and gear. They don’t eliminate the need for a handwarmer, time spent in pockets, or mittens when the temperatures drop below about 25F, but they are still one of the best options for actively hunting in cold wet weather, for gloves under the forty dollar price point.

Game Stalker Savage Gloves Fist

Hot Shot’s Game Stalker Savage gloves fit well, and conform to your hand, even when making a fist.

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Mojo Butt Up Rippler

| December 22, 2021
Photo Credit: Keith Knoxsville
A Hen and a Drake Green Teal on the truck bed. Not a limit on anything, but a fun morning out.
Color | Mallard
Material | Plastic
Type | Motion Decoy
Size | Avg. Mallard Butt Sized
Batteries | 4 AA (not included)
Battery Life | 6-8 Hours
Manufacturer | MOJO
Country of Origin | Imported
Warranty | 90 Days against MFG Defects
Price | $39.99
Realism
3.5/5

Effectiveness
3.0/5

Quality
4.0/5

Durability
4.2/5

Value
3.0/5

Overall
3.54/5

Motion in the decoy spread helps seal the deal on wary birds, so we wanted to see if adding the MOJO Butt Up Rippler decoy to our spread, would help bring in wary birds. We bought one and put it to work in the field. So is it worth 40 dollars?

First Impressions

Upon initial inspection, the MOJO Butt Up Rippler is a heavier more solid feeling motion decoy than the similar offering from Lucky Duck. It’s also a bit weightier, which hopefully translates into better motion. Opening the screw-in bottom exposes a motor the same size used by Lucky Duck in the Quiver Magnet, but with beefier internals, a spinner weight that’s about 2.5 times heavier, and a 4 cell battery holder, versus 2.

Our initial impression, or hope anyway, is that the MOJO should do just fine, and certainly do better than the Quiver Magnet to create motion in a decoy spread. We loaded up batteries, threw the rippler into a decoy bag, and were ready for a frigid morning hunt the following day.

MOJO Butt Up Rippler Internals

Inside the MOJO Butt Up Rippler. Simple, but better built than the Lucky Duck Quiver Magnet.

In The Field

The morning started with a mile hike in the snow to our unfrozen hunting spot, a task that makes you consider the value of the equipment you are carrying, from an effectiveness perspective. We threw out a bunch of dekes, set up a spinner, covered the layout blind in snow, and then flipped the switch on the MOJO Butt Up Rippler. The motion was visible and decent when the water was calm, but anything more than a breeze, and the effect of the MOJO was negligible.

MOJO Butt Up Rippler Ripples

The MOJO Butt Up Rippler making ripples in calm coditions.

The MOJO provided over 4 hours of rippling motion on a frigid morning before stopping intermittently. When we picked up our decoy spread after 5 hours in the field, the MOJO had actually stopped. It also made some clunking sounds, when placed back into the decoy bag. Later, upon inspection, we saw that one of the battery holder retention clips had spun open, and a single AA battery had popped out. Whether a battery getting free is a common issue, we won’t know for a long time, as we probably won’t carry the Butt Up Rippler a mile in the snow, when a spinner would be a more effective tool, at a similar size and weight. If the worst is the norm and it’s a repeating issue, it does look like you can snug up a screw on the battery retaining clip.

At the end of the day, the MOJO Butt Up Rippler worked as advertised, but it didn’t have much of an impact on our hunt.

Conclusion

So what’s the verdict? Unless you spend a lot of time hunting exceptionally still water, on very calm days, the MOJO Butt Up Rippler isn’t going to do anything incredible. On an average day, with the slightest agitation of the water, any rippler just becomes a heavy and overpriced puck or mallard butt decoy. For another ten bucks a spinner, like the Mojo Teal Motion Duck Decoy, will add more attraction to your spread and be a much more effective tool in your pursuit of ducks.

With all that said, if you do have a lot of calm days, the MOJO Butt Up Rippler is better than any other option out there, for under $40, and you will get a decent rippling action, as well as good battery life.

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Flapper Teal HD

| December 12, 2021
Lucky Duck Flapper Teal HD Decoy
Photo Credit: Keith Knoxsville
A Hen and a Drake Green Teal on the truck bed. Not a limit on anything, but a fun morning out.
Material | Plastic, and EVA Foam
Flocked | No
Motion | Flapping wing decoy
Features | Realistic Model
Remote | HD remote kit ready (sold separately)
Batteries | 4 AA (not included)
Stake/Stand | 3 piece 42" stake
Country of Origin | Imported
Warranty | 1year mfg. defect
Price | $79.99
Realism
3.2/5

Effectiveness
4.0/5

Quality
1.0/5

Durability
1.0/5

Value
1.0/5

Overall
2.04/5

Is the Lucky Duck Flapper Teal HD a game-changer, or just another motion decoy? We bought a Flapper Teal HD, tested it on a few duck hunts, and found out if it’s good to go, or a hard pass. The Flapper Teal HD is not currently available on Amazon, but is on the Lucky Duck website.

First Impressions

We’ve used spinner decoys for a few seasons, so we decided to mix things up with a flapping wing decoy. We have also tested out a range of decoys from dove to waterfowl, from just as wide a range of decoy manufacturers, so this wasn’t our first rodeo. Like many Lucky Duck products, the Flapper Teal HD looks really good, but its durability may not be on par with manufacturing from other companies, like MOJO. The Decoy arrives well packaged, using molded cardboard inserts, similar to wine bottle packaging, that keep the decoy, stand, and parts from moving and scuffing. Because of the packaging effort, it was even more surprising that our Flapper Teal HD had some large and very noticeable scuffs where the paint had been scraped from the decoy.

The most noticeable scuff, visible on the cheek in the featured photo and video, is glaring. It is disappointing to receive what is essentially a blemished item for a brand new price and doesn’t speak positively to product quality control or durability. Of course, the scuff does not affect the mechanical function of the decoy and is purely aesthetic, but a brand new decoy shouldn’t look like it has been hauled in and out of the field for a full season.

We had concerns about quality in general, because of the underwhelming unboxing, which was justified when we tried to get the Flapper Teal HD ready for field tests. We tried to insert batteries into the single row, 4 cell AA battery compartment. The batteries were exceptionally snug, and the battery compartment cover did a poor job securing the batteries and completing the circuit. It required some manipulation to complete the circuit. However, under very little pressure, the detents that held the battery cover plate in place broke. The inability to secure batteries and complete a circuit rendered the brand new Flapper Teal HD completely unusable.

Determined to do our tests the following day, we autopsied the decoy, and soldered a more standard 4 cell battery compartment, stuffed it into the decoy, and put the decoy back together. The experience and the decoy autopsy confirmed what was apparent during our unboxing, that Lucky Duck really dropped the ball on manufacturing and product quality. After a frustrating hour of re-engineering and repairing, the Flapper Teal HD was patched up and ready for the field the next morning.

Flapper Teal HD Battery Hack

Emergency battery bypass surgery on a brand new decoy.

Field Tests

In the field, the Flapper Teal HD looks good. But the flapping motion is a little underwhelming. It could probably have a stronger or more aggressive wing beat to do a better job of attracting ducks. The angle of the wings is also parallel with the surface of the water, so the wing color and design are more visible from directly above, where wing motion is less apparent. A slight cant to the wings would probably make the decoy more effective, at least more visible, at a greater range of angles and distances.

The claimed 6-8 hour battery life was consistent with its performance. However, the bottom end of the range is probably more accurate, and it’s hard to account for temperature-dependent battery chemistry and performance. In other words, we got over six hours of use, but your mileage may vary based on the batteries you use, the temperatures, and settings.

We plugged a Lucky Duck HD Receiver into the Flapper Teal HD so that we could operate it remotely. Because the decoy and remotes were all Lucky Duck products, they were plug-and-play and functioned perfectly. That is perhaps the only positive thing we can say about Lucky Duck in general, following our disappointing experience with the Flapper, and similar concerns over product design and quality regarding the Lucky Dove Rapid Flyer. See the full Lucky Dove Rapid Flyer review.

In the early morning light, we observed quite a few Teal flaring into the flapper. We even observed one drake hover within inches of the Flapper Teal HD for a few seconds, before sensing it was unnatural and leaving. The close-up effect that the decoy had on Teal was pretty amazing, it was even fun to watch. It continued to help Teal commit to the decoy spread over the next couple of hours.

Conclusion

Green Teal readily decoy anyway, but the Flapper Teal HD decoy had them confidently coming into the spread and loitering because of the unique flapping motion. Great experiences in the field aside, the Lucky Duck Flapper Teal HD is a terrible product. The whole experience was a sad one for us because we really wanted to like the Flapper Teal HD.

Unless you enjoy re-engineering brand new products, before they are usable, steer clear. We can’t call the Flapper Teal HD a complete piece of shit, because its performance in the field was great, fun even. If the battery compartment hadn’t been too tight and had not broken, maybe things would be different. However, the disappointing and sad truth of the whole thing is, hard-earned dollars would be much better spent elsewhere. For 80 dollars, a mechanical decoy should be much more refined, and not an experiment in product design and manufacturing quality at the expense of a consumer.

For the same price, we could confidently recommend a MOJO Elite Series Teal, or any other spinner, but avoid the Flapper Teal HD until Lucky Duck makes some significant product improvements, and addresses some dismal quality issues.

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