I thoroughly enjoyed testing this product. The Wild Voyager Shooters Mat is a basic but very strong design. I found no flaws in construction or any reason to doubt it's durability. Very clean and well sewn edges and no visible weak spots in the stitching. The 1000d nylon in the Coyote brown version has proven to be very durable and tough. The stake points where a life saver on this mat! On multiple occasions I had to use these due to windy conditions. The mat coming in at 2.61lb. is very light weight and I found myself just getting in the habit of staking it down every time, helping it from shifting positions as I would get up or down or change shooting positions.
I had some doubts about the waterproofing (PU coating on bottom side). If inspected closely you can see sheen on the bottom side of this PU coating. I did use this many times on wet and damp ground conditions and had no leak through at all, but I did have concerns with this PU coating initially, due to the fact of rolling and folding. I was afraid eventually this may weaken any impregnated seems in the material itself. So after some heavy use and many, many time's of rolling and folding I conducted a test on it's lasting water resistance. I puddled water onto the bottom side and made sure the puddle was on one of the fold's. The following pictures are before and after and as you can see I'm happy to report no failure, It is still waterproof.
I tested this out using many different size rifles and shooting positions. At no time did I feel this mat was not big enough. I felt I had plenty of room for the standard shooting positions.
One only negative I did find was in the securing for storage straps. There current length is too short. These being too short hinder the full usefulness of the molle. I could not leave something on the molle and fold and secure the mat for transportation or storage. I used multiple sized pouches and mag holders and not one would allow it to be buckled. I even tried to roll the mat differently but with the placement of the straps on the very edge would not allow for a nice storage option.These straps need to be longer!
One other use I did find for this product, this mat could be marketed as a bushcrafters bed roll. Its water resistance and material toughness would work very well protecting air sleeping pads and moisture barrier for those "roughing it" nights by the fire. My overall rating for this product would be a 9.5/10 if the straps were longer it would be a solid 10. I greatly enjoyed testing this product and would like to thank OneTigris for selecting me as one of the testers for this great piece of gear!
