Brunton Talon Isobutane/Propane Stove

By Orion

I picked this up on clearance and decided to give it a try. I figure it should make a nice lightweight summer stove. Butane and propane don't do well here in winter.
I have an MSR Whisperlite but I figured I'd try something where I didn't need to mess with liquid fuels and pressure pumps.
Maybe I'm getting lazy in my old age but lately it seems I've been subscribing to the theory of "the easier the better".

I went for my first hike of the spring and figured I'd take the stove along and give it a try.

The stove and one of the short butane/propane mix canisters, along with a canteen cup fits in a Swedish army Trangia mess kit.
I also have a 12cm stainless steel Zebra pot coming from Ben's Backwoods that the stove and butane canister should fit in quite well.

I drove out to an area we call Windfall, along the Athabasca River. There are many game trails among the jackpines as well as old seismic lines and logging roads. Lots of places to hike.
After I'd walked for a couple of hours I stopped for lunch before I headed back to the truck.
I found a nice sheltered spot and set up the stove on an old pine stump.



It took almost 5 minutes for a 1/2 canteen cup of water to come to a boil. It was a fairly windy and I forgot to bring along a windscreen for the stove. I imagine it'd boil faster with a windscreen in place.

My rolling boil picture for some reason doesn't look like it's boiling at all. The above pic was taken just before it came to a boil.

I'd pre-mixed some cranberry bannock the night before and put a cup of the pre-mix into a ziplock bag to take along and fry on the trail.

While I was boiling water for some instant coffee, I put a couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil into the mess tin lid, added some water to the bannock dry ingredients then set it in the sun to rise for a while.



After I made coffee I spooned the bannock into the hot olive oil and let it fry for a while. I had a little too much bannock for the size of the lid and it took quite a while to get it cooked through.



Hot coffee and cranberry bannock!
Makes a good, stick-to-your-ribs type trailside lunch.



All in all the stove performed pretty well. It's extremely lightweight and packs well, especially with the shorter butane canisters.
As I said before, I'm sure it will be much better with a windscreen.

Burn time is close to an hour on high, with the 3.7 oz. canister. I haven't tried it with the 8 oz. canister yet.

HOME