Review of the Stan Sport 360 Stainless Steel Mess Kit

Stan Sport 360 Stainless steel mess kit available at LostCaper.ca

In summary

 it is a great light weight, compact stainless steel backpacking mess kit that is good to feed one person under 300 lbs.lol

For those who like to read more:

The Stan Sport 360 is a perfect match for my j-creater portable stainless steel outdoor camping wood & alcohol burning stove.  The size of the mess kit fits perfect on my stove allowing me to cook  with confidence that it is not going to tip over.  The copper bottoms on the mess kit heats up quickly so a hand full of wood cooked my breakfast by the river’s edge. 

Packs size and weight: 

The pack size is 7”’X 3” (17.78cm X 7.62cm) 

It nests inside itself  and the handle on the frying pan is hinged so it folds over the nested kit and locks in place holding everything snuggly together. 

It is light to carry at only 567 grams. Go with stainless steel when you can.  Stainless is a few bucks extra and a few extra grams heavier over aluminum, however it is not noticeable in my pack or in my wallet. Cooking with aluminum can have serious health repercussions. 

Materials and quality:

It is made of stainless steel with a copper bottom. The copper bottom allows it to heat up quickly and distributes that heat evenly. Using it with my j-creater portable stainless steel stove, I boiled water in less than 4 minutes.  Another 15 minutes or so cooked my eggs and bacon to perfection. 

I read where one person said “ I warped mine a bit “ . No-one else that I know of had a problems not to say there isn’t any.  After using it several times,  my guess is if you do not have it on a roaring fire exposed to extreme heat, it should not warp.  A perfect cooking heat is a heat you can hold your hand over for a few seconds.  I personally had it exposed to the direct flames of hardwood to boil water and it never warped. This is not to say giving it that kind of abuse will not warp it.  

I like the fact that the handles are stainless and not nylon or plastic. This way, I need not be concern with melting handles. The stainless steel handles do not get extremely hot if not exposed to high heat. To be safe, I use a cloth when picking it off the hot fire.  The bacon smells to good to drop on the ground. 

I would off like some sort of a removable handle on the dish but overall with the great fit & finish, great price and all things considered, I would give it a thumbs up for quality and for being a great buy.  Having said that, I included it in my handpicked reviewed items on our LostCaper store at lostcaper.ca  

P.S. This week I plan on doing a “finish boil” of maple syrup in the pot so that will be the real test. 

Thanks

Ray & Jimmy at LostCaper.ca , March 2,2016

March 2, 2016

Stainless Steel wood or alcohol burning backpacking stove

Reviewing the stainless steel wood and alcohol burning backpacking stove.

We were at the stump reviewing our new stainless steel wood/alcohol burning backpacking stove. Over all we were very impressed.

The first thing we noticed that it packed quite small when it is nested inside itself. It came with a carry bag. The packed dimension is 5 inch x 2.7 inch(H).  Item weight: 390g/13.6oz. 

What makes these stove work so good?  

Like most of these camp stoves, they have air holes on the bottom part of the stand which allows the air to flow in. The inflow of air is efficiently drafted into the fire because the wood is held off the ground by a grate and by additional air holes on the inside top of the fire box. The fire creates draft which further drafts oxygen into the fire.  The heat is stored in the firebox and there is only one way out and that is out to the cooking surface.  

How good does it work?

The stove burns very efficient and clean. It burns dry wood into a very find powdered ash. The fire box stores the heat and there is no way out but through the top to the cooking surface.  A hand full of dry material will boil water. 

How to use the stove.

1. How to light the stove.   

Some fill the fire box with dry wood and reach in with a lighter or match. We are minimalists so we only had the spark of our ferro rod. We found the easiest way to light the stove was to load the stove with dry tinders.  Make a small 2 inch/5cm fire out of birchbark and tinder then set the stove on top of the small fire. The  dry tinders in the stove then ignites in less than 10 seconds and within a minute you have a hot fire at the cooking surface.  

2. A good cooking fire 

Jimmy says a good cooking fire does not flame out of the top of the stove.  A good cooking fire you should be able to hold your hand near the top of the stove for a few second but no more than 10 seconds.  So keep your fire under control.  With this stove you do not have to load it completely up.  You can easily add a pine cone or a little wood to the fire via the load port near the top of the stove.  Using the loading port you do not have to remove the cooking pan to add wood. 

3. Use dry material.

Dry material can be found even when it is raining.  The inside layer of the birchbark is usually dry.  We also baton/split 4 inch peaces of wood. The inside of the wood is usually dry and ready to burn.  

4. You can use the stove with Alcohol.

If you prefer, or if you cannot find dry wood you can use Alcohol with this stove.  It has a little dish which can be place in the firebox and filled with alcohol.  Light the alcohol and start cooking.

5. Packing away your stove.

Once the fire is out, the stove cools down in about 5 minutes. The stove can then be disassembled and the peaces nested inside itself.  Put it back in its carry bag and put it in your backpack. A total of 30 seconds. 

Like any other camping skills, you become more efficient with practice.

Check out the backpacking stoves on Amazon

Atlantic Salmon information from the Atlantic Salmon Federation and their submission to the DFO. What happened to the Atlantic Salmon population?

The full Atlantic Salmon Federation report can be read at http://asf.ca/asf-submission-to-dfo-survey-on-gulf-salmon-management.html

Taken from AFS's report is:
 "As noted by DFO, both large and small salmon (grilse) in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence have been declining over time, reaching in 2014 the lowest levels observed since monitoring began in 1971. For example, the Miramichi system (which historically had the largest known runs of Atlantic salmon in Canada) had average returns (small + large salmon) of around 100,000 per year from 1985-1995. That dropped to an average of about 50,000 per year from 1996-2011, and to about 21,000 per year from 2012-2014, reaching a low of around 17,800 in 2014. Likewise, rivers in the Northumberland Strait and Cape Breton regions of Nova Scotia had record or near-record low returns in 2014. Despite some signs of improvement in 2015 compared to the low year of 2014, populations throughout the region remain at low levels of abundance compared to 20 years ago. - 
"

Also taken from the same report:
"These measures also contributed to positive movement in other critical areas of fisheries management.  It enabled Canada to report to the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization (NASCO) that it has taken steps to reduce fishing mortality on a stressed resource.  This assisted in creating pressure on Greenland to move toward reducing and better managing their fishery. In 2014, Greenland had a reported catch of 58 tonnes; however, it was determined that there was a high degree of non-reporting, resulting in an underestimate of the total harvest.  The actual harvest by Greenland in 2014 was potentially as high as 96 tonnes. In 2015, Greenland agreed to cap their 2015-2017 annual catch at 45 tonnes and, to counteract high levels of unreported catch, implement significantly stronger monitoring, control and reporting measures to ensure that the actual catch is capped at 45 tonnes.   It is also our understanding that the catch and release regulation has been taken into account by some First Nation communities, and therefore may have played a contributing role in moving toward selective fisheries (i.e. where large spawners can be released for conservation reasons) in certain areas such as the Miramichi - See more at: http://asf.ca/asf-submission-to-dfo-survey-on-gulf-salmon-management.html#sthash.7nqfeiNk.dpuf"

Lets do the math - Based on this information lets do the math.  If Greenland harvested 96 tons of salmon that equates to 211200 pounds of fish. Lets say the average fish weights 7 pounds  (grilse and salmon).  That is 30,171 fish harvested. There was only 17800 salmon enter the Miramichi system and most of those were released.  So the problem is the commercial Greenland harvest. 


Don't blame the natives for feeding their families or anglers. The DFO has to take a stand against Greenland.

River for-play

The snow is taking a beating today as it is very warm and rainy here.  I awoke to being able to see the gravel on my driveway and patches of grass.  Perhaps I will take a drive to the river and see how it is looking and trick myself into believing that fishing is just around the corner.  I always enjoyed for-play.

Miramichi Salmon Fishing Trip

To fish crown reserve waters in NewBrunswick you must be a resident of N.B..  You have 7 picks which entails you choosing one of the 20 7 km stretches and one of the scheduled dates. If you win the draw you get aware a camp and  approximate 7 km of water for your party to fish for three days.  We got chosen for Groundhog Landing Aug 29,2015.  As always my buddies Chad, Aaron,  Denis and myself had a great time, staying up late playing guitar, and fishing most of the day.  We ended up with 10 hooked and 7 salmon landed. Chad got a beauty about 15 pounds.

A late but beautiful night on the river . We fished well after dark

A guy with a crazy sense of humour.  We used ATVs to get to the pools thus the helmet.  Helmet 

and fishing glasses makes a funny combination but not really a fashion statement.

We enjoyed some incredible camp food.

Some flies I tied up for the trip.

Goddard Caddis

green machine

The successful flies were the Carter's Bug, this orange bug,  and the L.T. Special.

Here is a great fly rod for salmon fishing the Miramichi and other such rivers.

tying the Goddard Caddis

A great little trout fly that seem to work anywhere is the Goddard Caddis.  It is tied on a dry fly hook from size 8 to 14. The body is deer hair with a brown hackle collar. Some tie them with two antennas but it does not seem to matter so most times I do not bother. A picture paints a thousand words so here is a couple I died up.

Three days in Elgin, N.B. 2015

Bad luck with co-ordinating enough vacation days forced us to skip our planned canoe trip and stay at Aaron camp in Elgin, N.B. for two nights instead. Doesn’t seem to matter where we end up we always have a great time. 

Aaron’s sons in there teens were old enough to experience what we do on our fishing trip so they came along.  A km or so up the road Aaron’s uncle has a camp.  We all ended up at Aaron’s camp with guitars and songs.  Aaron’s uncle surprised me because he knows every Stoppin Tom song and sounds just like him when he sings them.  Many songs, many beer, and many laughs were had.   

The morning was tough but after a quick stop at Creg’s to get some tylenol we were off like the horse poop and we hit the dusty trail.   We rode many beautiful trails in the Elgin, N.B. area, stopping to catch tasty brook trout along the way .  Here I experienced some of the most beautiful trails that I have been on.  The trails took us under huge virgin forest meandering along the Pollett River.  We came to an area where 4 nice camps sat in the mids of this beautiful trail system.  A family owned several hundred acres and never cut any more then what they needed for firewood and to make the trail.  The property is worshiped by this family and they refuse to sell it to anyone especially a big logging company who would destroy it in a matter of a few months.  A unique, winding, majestic trail indeed.

The second day and night repeated itself with more song, guitar playing, ATV and fishing.  As they say, “all good things must come to an end”  and this was no different.  I bid farewell to my buddies with a sense of loss for I would be heading to Cape Breton, 500 km away and would not see them again until our coming 5 day remote fishing trip in the last of the summer 2015. Until then I will sit at my fly tying bench tying flies and swapping emails with my good friends in N.B. 

Doing such trips is more enjoyable when you have a GPS.  You can go with confident that you are not going to get lost and when you get home, you can download the track to your computer.   It is always interesting to view your path on the big screen.  It displays better mapping details and shows where  you have been in relation to the area.  You can share your tracks with your friends so they can follow your path.  I take one with me when ever I go on an adventure.