Dave Kemerer ("Kemlex" please) from United States, IN Public Profile

The positives: light in weight, well sewn corner tabs with proper brass grommets to seat the tent poles, properly sized for the tent's footprint. The tabs also have stake loops, to facilitate using it with the fly and poles alone as a quick and lightweight shelter alternative to pitching the whole tent.

The negative: As shown in the product photo, there is a major seam crossing this footprint. Okay, I can live with that. But it is not taped! taping is a waterproof membrane strip which is bonded over a seam to prevent water from wicking through the thread and stitching holes. Since one of the purposes of a footprint is to deter groundwater from coming up through the tent floor. Though the tent floor is theoretically waterproof itself, that waterproofing treatment is on the interior of the tent, and can get damaged over time through abrasion. You don't want a lake forming between the tent and the footprint. There are aftermarket taping solutions available to remedy the problem, but they cost a bit, and are something of a pain. They are sticky as they dry, so you don't want to do it outside, and they are stinky, so you don't want to use them inside. At this price point, factory taping of that seam, as well as the corners, is a reasonable expectation.

I use this footprint with a Big Agnes Sheep Mountain 3 tent, which has the same tent base dimensions as the Blacktail 3 tent, so I assume that the fit will be the same. It is properly sized to barely disappear under the tent. Yo

Now that I've actually got the tent, I've found a bunch of new features, and a couple of quibbles. But it's clearly a 5 star tent for its purposes. The color of the floor and the fly is somewhere between cranberry red and burnt orange depending on the light. The tent canopy is more of an off-white than a cream, and really brightens the tent up with internal lighting. The vestibules are a sort of silver-gray. The details of this tent have really been thought out. The stitching quality is impeccable. All the stress (failure) points are reinforced. All relevant seams have been properly taped to make it as waterproof as possible. This tent has been TESTED! First, a pitching point. The instructions sewn into the tent bag (smart) leave out a couple of useful points: Latch the bail on the clip that joins the long poles before you insert the short cross-over pole ABOVE the crossed long poles. Otherwise, latching that clip is a bear, the tent is a little slack and there is more weight than needed on the clip. I found the grommeted tabs on both the tent and the fly to be pretty easy to attach to the cross-over pole. That third pole substantially improves the head space and livability of the tent. The long walls are virtually vertical on this tent. Don't buy a 2 pole tent unless you're going ultralight. Now, the features I found:

* The "fly only" pitching option, using a Big Agnes Blacktail footprint, which is a separate buy. The added stake loops on the buckle on fly make it possible

For starters, I wanted to know the dimensions of the tent. What is posted elsewhere is wrong. I called Big Agnes Customer Service, and was told that the Sheep Mountain 3 measures 90"x70"x46" high. Max square footage is 43.75 (not 48sf). It is not in current production, and has always been a very limited production tent. It's made for guides and outfitters using extra heavy duty components, explaining its 10lb, 11oz weight. Unless you are built like a north country bear, this is a car/canoe tent. The #10 YKK zippers are the beefiest YKK makes. A 150 D ripstop fly with 1500mm PU coating is pretty insane. No footprint is made for it, allegedly due to the durability of the floor material. However, the Big Agnes Blacktail 3 tent has the same base dimensions, and its footprint should work fine if you want one. The overall cut of the tent seems to be the same design as the Big Agnes Tumble 3, but the Sheep Mountain 3 is slightly smaller. The Sheep Mountain uses some fabric in the sidewalls, which should make it more rigid than the all mesh canopy of the Tumble 3, a construction now common in 3 season tents. But even conventional use tents from Big Agnes are known for their durability. At 68, I'm guessing I will wear out well before this tent does. I haven't received the tent as yet, so I gave it a prospective 4 stars. I will update/correct this review when I have a chance to pitch it.