Comments: The Life and Times of the Tactical Backpack

My first pack. Bought it in 1948 for $10. It took me some time to learn how to wrap a poncho around my camping gear and lash it to the frame. Once I mastered that it was way better than the soft rucksacks most people were using.

Posted by Jimmy J. at April 26, 2016 7:39 PM

Cool illustration. I have a small collection of BSA Manuals going back to the nineteen-oughties.

Framed packs were state of the art once. They help distribute the load to your hips if used with a hip belt and fit properly. They are best used on more level trails, but once off trail and in the mountains, they start kicking your butt due to the high center of balance.

No sense fighting gravity. The internal framed pack, if well fit and good quality, gives you way better balance and saves wrestling for balance on uneven terrain. I'm not talking just theory here.

I sold hundreds of packs at REI on Capitol Hill. Climbed lots of mountains throughout the West, including Alaska and Canada.

But, what the hell? Sir Hillary climbed Everest with a canvas coat (60/40 cloth) and dried pemmican. Who needs all that fancy Gore-Tex?

Posted by Casey Klahn at April 26, 2016 9:51 PM

Notice the title, "Tactical".
I've been researching tactical packs for some time and none of them are capable of doing just that.

Look at any so called tactical pack these days, it has *stuff* all over it. Ever been out in the sticks? There are sticks out there, sticking from the sides of trees, sticking up from the ground, all over the place. These sticks stick into things that are sticking all over the outside of the fashionable tactical packs. The sticks will get you killed. Done right, tactical business is dirty business.

What is a tactical pack for?
It is not for your iPad, nor your school books. It is for your ammo, poncho, water, and short grub. Thats all. Everything else is fun and games, for children of mind and body.

How is a tactical pack worn?
Close to your body, up high, small. It is an extension of yourself. It should stick out no further than about 4" from your body and when worn properly, viewed from about 20' away, it should look like you have a humped back, that is all.

As there is no such tactical pack on the market today I am going to hire an industrial seamster to custom fabricate one to my specifications.

I have been using my old army alice and a butt pack with H suspenders but I am wanting a pack that is more appropriate to the mission, as I described above.

~ the time is near ~

Posted by ghostsniper at April 27, 2016 4:41 AM

When 'doing' outdoors one needs only their porters, a gun bearer and child bearer. All the comforts of home.

Posted by Vermont Woodchuck at April 27, 2016 5:33 AM

Teddy has spoken. :-)

Posted by ghostsniper at April 27, 2016 8:54 AM

Ghost: my spectra-cloth climbing pack by ArcTeryx is a good one for that, but possibly too big for what you're specifying. I think it's 50-60 liters. You want a 30 liter pack.

Vermont Woodchuck:
you forgot the traveling open bar.

Posted by Casey Klahn at April 27, 2016 1:52 PM

Casey, I actually have an ArcTeryx on order from amazon and it should be here any day. It looks right but I believe considerable modifications will occur. I have a friend that was a parachute rigger in the army in the 70's and he has an industrial sewing machine and can make it be what I want. Mainly, I want good straps and some strength to the exterior walls, and some interior separation walls. Thin nylon never holds up under duress. This is the one I'm getting, in black:

http://www.amazon.com/Arcteryx-Index-Backpack-Gunmetal-Size/dp/B0145XEK62?ie=UTF8&keywords=INDEX%2015%20BACKPACK&qid=1461807286&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

It's streamlined, I can slide under shrubbery's, duck under fences, ease silently through 1/2 opened doorways with it. It must be an extension of me, not something added on. Yet can be jettisoned in a nanny second.

Posted by ghostsniper at April 27, 2016 6:42 PM

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