The Outdoor Vitals Vantage Puffy Jacket steps into the ring against the well-established Stone Glacier Grumman. In this in-depth review, I compare warmth, weight, durability, and overall field performance after over 40 days of real-world use across a full hunting season. Whether you’re building a lightweight system or looking for a late-season insulation upgrade, this video breaks down which jacket makes sense — and when.
🧠 Mindful Reviews are always unsponsored and field-tested. For more, visit mindful-reviews.com
📌 Chapters
00:00 – Intro: The Next Piece in the Mountain Pursuit Series
00:37 – Specs & Build Quality
02:11 – Why the Grumman is the Benchmark
02:36 – Weight, Warmth & Packability Comparison
03:29 – Wind Resistance and Warmth Difference
03:41 – Price Comparison
04:00 – Sizing and Fit
06:47 – Final Verdict: Which One Should You Buy?
08:19 – Who Should Consider the Vantage
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Jay Nichol
jay@mindfulhunter.com
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I always wonder how the Duckworth Woolcloud actually compares against the Stone Glacier? I like wool….can retain heat when damp…but is it as light and impactful to warmth in mountain hunt?
Between professor Steve from the School of Speck and these reviews, I purchased the whole line to try out training this winter and into next elk season. Thanks for the great reviews – keep it up!
Kuiu super down for the win.
I just bought the Grumman (XL) and sent it back. Upper part was fine, but hips were way too tight effecting mobility and comfort. 6’1” 220lbs
Real world ov vantage opinion:
Wrote out a very long comment then accidentally got it deleted. 😢
Don’t want to rewrite everything. But I’ll do a shorter version.
Anyone who understands down jackets, should be able to understand.
Imagine a baffle that’s built to be x size. And normally 2 ounces of down will fill that nicely when fully fluffed. Then you stuff it with 3-4 ounces. That baffle won’t be any bigger, and the amount of trapped air is even less now since you overstuffed it, and down jackets are meant to fully fluff to hold air, that’s where the warmth is from and the lightweightness.
This ov jacket is kind of like that. I didn’t believe it had 7 ounces when looking at it. When wearing it, definitely don’t feel like 7 ounces of down warm.
They either lying about the down fill amount, or if they’re telling the truth, then it’s poor design like I mentioned above. They overstuff jacket that would’ve held 5 ounces nicely, with 7 ounces for marketing specs. But since baffles don’t fluff anymore than a 5 ounce jacket would/ baffle don’t make anymore air space than what 5 ounces would fill, this jacket only feels as a 5 ounce jacket.
I have jackets around the same weight with similar fill power.
Rab mythic ultra 8.5 ounces of 900fp
King xkg 5 ounces of 850fp
Rab electron 6.5 ounces of 800fp
And ov vantage supposedly has 7.3 ounces of 850fp
Ov jacket feels about same warmth as the king jacket. Definitely nowhere near the Rab mythic, and for sure it’s not as warm as the Rab electron.
Puffiness of each baffle or how big the baffle can get, not horizontally or vertically, but from your chest outwards. The king is actually bigger and puffier than the ov, the ov and electron were about same size. Mythic ultra is way bigger, around 2 inches thick. King about 1.5” thick, and electron and ov about 1” at the thickest part, middle of each baffle.
Ov is duck down, not stated on their site.
If looking at their specs, looked and still looks like a great deal! But in reality, not really. It’s like a 5 ounce duck down jacket. Which all on market can be had for $200-$300. I bought it thinking it’ll be a 7ounce jacket, like the Rab neutrino pro or Patagonia fitz Roy (less than 7). But nope, nowhere near those jackets in warmth and puffiness.
If you’ve never had a down jacket, and don’t know much about them. This jacket is fine. It’s OK, not great but typical sub $300 jacket. But if you expect it to perform at its specs listed (7.2 ounces of 850fp), you’ll be left super disappointed like me.