Each year as archery season approaches, many of us bowhunters spend time out in the woods working. Whether we're up in treestands practicing our shooting, or out hoofing it through the woods scouting, we're bound to get hot and thirsty. Here in Florida, that's about the long and short of it for the entire archery season, most years. It's still hot out there, and will be for a while, but I'm a little better prepared for it this year.
Aladdin Industries of Tennessee, makers of the venerable Aladdin Stanley steel vacuum bottle (generically known to me as a "thermos"), have created a line of gear aimed at us hunters. Aladdin Outdoors offers a surprisingly diverse range of products, such as camo vacuum bottles, boat blinds, ATV canopies & accessories, soft-sided coolers, travel mugs, and more. As far as I know, all of these are made in the USA, and they're available in your choice of popular camouflage patterns. When I recently received my Cooler Combo and Fleece Bottle Cover, I immediately began using them, and here's what I found:
Aladdin Outdoors Cooler Combo
The Cooler Combo consists of a 12-quart "leak-proof cooler" and an Aladdin one-quart steel bottle. The cooler is a "flex-style" cooler; that is, it's a soft-sided cooler made of water-resistant 1000 Denier Cordura nylon, fully lined with foam insulation and having a flexible plastic liner. Aladdin claims that they "keep contents cold and refreshing for hours", and they're right.
I loaded mine for a road trip recently with sodas, dumped the ice tray from under my ice-maker into it, zipped it up and hit the road. My trip took about 2 hours of driving time, then I parked my truck with the cooler inside in the Florida heat (in August!) for 4 hours. After I drove the 2 hours back home, I checked the ice, sure that by then it'd be half gone or more, but it had hardly melted!
I left the ice and drinks, and added a couple of warm ones, and left it zipped to see how long it would last. After 24 hours, the ice had finally melted. While other styles of coolers might hold ice a little longer, I never expected to get performance like this out of a flexible cooler, which is lighter and easier to carry. And, it lived up to its claim, and didn't leak a bit. The only thing it's lacking is a shoulder strap, which would make it easier to take in the woods packed with sandwiches and drinks.
I checked out the steel bottle on an earlier occasion. This is the same style bottle that my Dad took to work full of hot coffee every day - so I expected good performance, and I wasn't disappointed. I dumped some cold water from my fridge into it without adding ice, and set off to the woods. When I finished the water some hours later, it was just as cold and refreshing as it was when I poured it in.
These bottles are guaranteed for life to be unbreakable and free from defects, and to be "thermally efficient". They sport camo from top-to-bottom, so don't forget where you set it down! The only complaint I have with it is very minor: when removing and replacing the cup/lid, it will squeak in the threads just a bit until it's broken in or otherwise lubed.
It's called the Cooler Combo because the bottle fits on top of the cooler, and you can hook the cooler's carrying handles through the bottle's handle. That way, it's all in one package.
I have been in the habit for the past five or six years of toting an old Thermos brand bottle in the woods during warm weather. I tied a loop with a bit of light rope to sling it over my shoulder, and carried it in with me to fight off my thirst during long hours on my stand. The problem was, my rope affair wasn't the most comfortable rig, and the darn thing had a habit of clanking against my stand while I was backpacking it in.
Now, however, that's no problem, because I got a fleece bottle cover from Aladdin as well. This will fit my old Thermos bottle, although it fits the Aladdin better, of course. It has a removable, adjustable nylon web shoulder strap and handle, is well-made out of polyester fleece, and really helps me to keep quiet in the woods. It will allow the bottle's handle to rattle a tiny bit inside, but not nearly as bad as it would otherwise, and it mutes those metal-on-metal clanks that I've grown to hate. The shoulder strap provides a comfortable way to carry the bottle hands-free.
The folks at Aladdin Outdoors make a lot of gear that I haven't tried yet, but if it's as good as their cooler combo, it's good stuff.
-Russ Chastain
