Does anyone use the Bare Boxer Contender? If so, what's the realistic days of food that can fit in there? I'm hoping I can get 4 days out of it....but don't want to buy until I think that's possible.

Thanks for your help as always!

It fits 275 cubic inches which is 1.2 gallons. Take a gallon water jug and see if you can fit your food in there.

I got one recently and I'm figuring I can manage 4 days of food (3 days plus the 1st day outside it). You'll need to use food that doesn't take up much space, and no funny shapes or bulky items. Get a box and measure out 275 inches and practice cramming it in. It's 275 cu inches or 4.5 liters. Here's a packing your canister article:
www.pcta.org/planning/before_trip/health/canistercare.doc

Walter- Can you confirm the weight is correct?

Hi Peter,
The weight is 1 lb 10 oz. As for fitting 4 days worth of food, the best thing to do is keep your first day's food out of the canister and you can have it ready to eat. Please let me know if you have any other questions

Mine is 26.6 oz on my scale.

No comments on packing, I'm a beginner.

Yup, seems pretty accurate - 26.4 on my scale.

As far as size its pretty easy to check. Take two zip lock bags, one gallon and one quart, together these will be very close to the 1.2 gallon size of the can. Now take your food for your four day trip, set aside the first day's amount, and try to squeeze the remaining three days into your two zip lock bags. Tight but it fits - great. No way - then you need a bigger can.

Hmmm... I may have to get me one of these as well.

One gallon zip loc bags, are those the huge ones or are they the large sized freezer bags?
How do they compare to the 9 X 10" (smaller sized) Opsaks. I can get 8 days food into 3 of those.

I'm trying to figure out if I can get away with doing the JMT in a MLD Burn w/Contender.

Is the Contender than much smaller than the Champ? I have the Champ and my last climbing trip, I fit 10 2 person MH dinners and 5 of the smaller MH breakfast meals in it. They were repackaged into freezer zip lock bags and I still had some room.

The Bear Boxer Contender is _claimed_ to have room for 3 days worth of food, and the Champ is _claimed_ to have room for 7 days. Repackage that with a large grain of salt, because the Contender is 275 cubic inches, and the Champ is 608 cubic inches.

I find it almost impossible to pack one day's worth of food any tighter than 100 cubic inches. But that is just me. Imagine a slab of coffee cake that is 10 inches by 10 inches by 1 inch thick. That would be your food volume for one day. That's tight.

On the other hand, I have an old Garcia (615 cubic inches) that I packed one time for a 9-day trip, or 8.5 food days. However, I would have lost weight on that trip.

I don't think that it can be said often enough that repackaging food makes a huge difference.

--B.G.--

I have a Bare Boxer Champ and Contender.

I've had 3 days food in the Contender and 7 days in the Champ.

It works.....

I have the contender. I plan to use it for a four day hike in Yosemite. I can put 3 plus days of food and smellables in it. I will carry the first day outside. The last days dinner will be in a restraunt but I will have a bit of extra food also. Take your time packing it and figure out what works best.

26.5 oz or 751 grams.

if money is no object (laugh here) the Bearikade Scout is a better option.
my Scout works great, easy 5 days of food.

weighs : 1.75 lb (that's 1 lb 12 oz)
volume : 508 ci
dimensions : 9" diameter by 8" high
price : $195 (ugh)

Looks nice, but saving 5 ounces over a BV450 seems silly for $140 dollars.

God help me I love my scout. It just packs so great. Remember, as your hungry children gaze up into your eyes: "it will last a lifetime".