SABRE Frontiersman Insider Bear Canister
This new-look bear canister is easy to pack and carry.
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BACKPACKER Gear 360 Review
Bear canisters have looked the same for decades, so this model from SABRE caught our attention. It’s tall and thin in shape—rather than the usual squat, keg- like profile—which facilitates packing and provides a better center of gravity. “I slid it into my 50-liter pack vertically, and then simply filled in the space around it,” one tester says. He also reports that the Insider is easier to completely fill than other bear canisters he’s used (it’s 11.9 liters and can hold enough food for a two-person/three-day trip). “I never had any dead space in the middle, which usually happens with most other barrel-shape containers.” While the three-screw system is uber-secure, we found that opening and closing the canister takes more time when compared to other models we’ve used with threaded lids or more shallow screws. Bonus: “The 19-inch-tall Insider makes a much better camp chair for taller folks like myself than its more squat brethren,” one 6’ tester says.
Matthew Wise
I used this canister in Olympic National Park, on the Royal Basin Trail. I liked how it distributed weight down the center of my pack’s main compartment and close to my back. It carried well that way. At camp, it can be used as a small table, which was handy. For its size, the Insider is lighter than canisters with similar capacities. This one takes up a lot of vertical space, though, so if you don’t have a large enough pack you won’t be able to close the main compartment and might have problems securing the pack’s toplid. I think the three screws are a pain to work with. It takes too long to unscrew them. You also have to carefully line up each of them with their respective holes to put the lid back on.