-- Last Updated: Feb-22-13 10:29 AM EST --
Since I've seen some really big, "heavy" packs floating like corks, I decided to see how much they'd have to weigh in order to sink. Using Duluth Pack's catalog specs for the volume of a #3 canoe pack (the #3 pack is the average size as canoe packs go), one can calculate that it would have to be loaded with more than 190 pounds of gear in order to sink, and just how are you going to accomplish that? I'm guessing, but I bet that if you stuffed the pack with a normal gear load and then tied three cast-iron Dutch ovens to the outside you might get it to weigh half that much (which of course means that it would still float really well).
Hmm, maybe you are talking about putting a cast-iron kettle in it's own pack? I never imagined that someone would do that. Such a pack would sink of course if not waterproof (though I bet a lot of them would float if waterproof), but it would be anything BUT "heavy".