I have lots of packs and have had lots of packs over the years. Generally in a given summer I’ll put on a hundred miles on trails in Montana. My packs actually get used for hours at a time carrying what I need for the day, and again the following week. Remember, a lot of the gear we’re pushed is fashion. The way it looks and brands; fashion. You’re not expected to actually use the thing, just wear it for a short time and look nice, signal on the Internet because you acquired the right brand, and go back to your keyboard. Concern yourself with how things work instead and actually use your stuff. I’m not taking this as a combat pack, but a hiking pack as in my opinion you’re more likely to use a hiking pack than fight in the revolution. I think many of the concerns relating to a hiking pack will also relate to combat/battle pack as you’ll likely be hiking gear many miles or needing to maintain agility while carrying your stuff.
I have three packs that I use more than any other. The one that gets the most use is the lightest and the smallest. Don’t go looking for the biggest most capacity pack unless you actually need that room for what you generally do. My most used pack is a trail running vest with a 1.5L hydration pouch and a little bit of storage for snacks and a med pack.
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Hydration This is the main point of nearly every pack I have. Much of the time it is the only reason I’m carrying a pack, as nothing else is in the bag. It is a non-negotiable feature. Being dehydrated while out in the woods is a bad bad time. A lot of problems can be prevented simply by drinking a little bit of water often. I find drinking from a hose and not futzing with a bottle gets me to drink more through the day and generally be more comfortable. Hydration bladders carry more water for volume/weight because you’re not carrying a rigid bottle that itself has mass, takes up space, and stacks inefficiently. If the bottle is in your pack and not easily reachable you will generally not drink from it as often as you would if you could take a little sip whenever you feel the need. But, do not overkill the hydration. My larger packs both use a 3L bladder and have room for a second for longer & hotter trips. Sometimes due to weight concerns I’ll carry a water filter, steri-pen, and collapsing 1L bottle if I know water sources will be available on the hike. My filter kit weighs less than another 3L of water, and it makes it so I have infinity water. Generally 1.5L is enough and I often don’t even finish that. No reason to carry an extra 1.5 kilo because I’m having hydration anxiety. It seems that all the major hydration bladders today are pretty resistant to puncture and explosion. I’ve had them leak before but it’s generally at the hose connection not the bladder itself. Though if you’re only going to have one pack get one with a 3L hydration bladder. The flat lumbar ones carry better than the taller tubular ones.
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Capacity People will come hiking with me with full 60L+ multi-night packs, but nothing in there but maybe a boo boo kit and bladder. That pack does have mass. It does take up space and is in the way. The smallest pack you can carry that has what you need is the correct pack to take. Bringing the kitchen sink just in case will make you miserable on 99.99% of your hikes, and that 0.01% that you need it you probably really didn’t if you made better decisions to prevent the situation. Are you hiking with a friend? Do each of you actually need your own copy of everything? Sometimes people will pack for every possible weather contingency, getting stranded over night (rather than thinking getting out… maybe if they had a lighter kit they wouldn’t be in that situation in the first place), taking an extra gun - maybe a long gun, 4 more magazines, solar panels, and all sorts of other nonsense. You’re away from civilization for a couple of hours not the rest of your life! My most used pack has a 6L capacity. Enough for my booboo+trauma kit, 1.5L hydration (though I wish this was 2L), snacks (carried up front! So I can get them without taking the pack off, and there’s a place to stash wrappers), GPS, Phone, Keys & Wallet, conceal a full-size handgun if I am not carrying openly, and a bit more. My second most used pack is 22L, has 3L of water, carries all of the above, plus jacket, water filtration & sterilization, meal, sleeping bag, and probably that kitchen sink. It’s way bigger than I’d like for my middle pack but it has a frame (more of that upcoming). Main reason I use the 22L is it easily carries the 3L hydration bladder. Next pack is for camping. It’s a 60L with a frame and carries the tent, food, clothes, and whatever else I think I need. You see a trend here though. More stuff, that means more weight, which means more water and food consumption, and generally slower pace. If you need to perform tasks such as boulder scrambling that require agility, an unnecessarily big pack will hinder you.
Think about you and your pack as if you were a spacecraft. The most you can get for the least weight and bulk, and consider shedding more.
- Weight Distribution So, weight is bad. Your pack decisions should be based on reducing mass in that pack. There’s only so far you can go though. Next best thing is to distribute that weight nicely so it doesn’t beat you up throughout the day. This is where the more tactical style packs fail massively. Their shoulder straps are generally poorly thought out and designed. Most tactical packs are designed to look cool and give a particular vibe. The straps are too narrow, padding is in the wrong places, and the adjustments just moves the pack up and down on your back not changing the angle of the pack or where the straps sit on your traps. The pack has too much capacity for the type of strap provided so you can make them far too heavy. The packs generally stick way too far out rather than hugging your body. The hip strap is generally a piece of nylon with a buckle with no load bearing ability at all. It’s basically a leash to keep it from flopping around or generally is in the way.
My trail running vest distributes the weight by hugging around my whole rib cage. It’s probably the best distribution possible. The 22L framed pack has massively padded straps integrated into an aluminum frame with a piece of mesh stretched across it so the pack itself doesn’t actually touch my back. That pack floats on my back, it also sits fairly flat considering its size. The flatter it sits the less it will feel it weighs. The tactical packs I have, with less capacity, feel like they weigh easily 2-3x as much with the same load. My shoulders are dying after a 4 hour hike. Only problem with the 22L and 60L packs is they do have proper kidney straps so open carrying a gun at the hip doesn’t work well. Pretty much need to do some kind of chest holster or make something special to integrate with that kidney strap. Would also make those packs incompatible with a war/battle belt. But, those packs for normal use are far more comfortable than ones without padded kidney straps.
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Reach Having pockets that you can reach without removing the whole pack is a massive positive. This is where things like GPS, snacks, maps, defensive tools, etc can and should go. A lot of people like to augment their backpack with a chest pack or kit pouch of some kind for this reason. Easy to reach spots on your pack makes putting things normally in your pants pockets in your pack more convenient, which makes your walking experience much more enjoyable.
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Cost Don’t cheap out on your pack… that said… a company I generally like and another I’m not so enthused with anymore I think is leaning hard on their name. This is a serious problem in the more military or alpha dude looking packs. Remember: Fashion.
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Fashion No matter what you get people will judge it as they would an article of clothing, and assess you just as they do for what shirt you wear. You will not get a wholly positive response from everyone no matter what you do. I’d suggest keeping this in mind so you are signaling what you intend to signal and be honest about that, or not caring. In some cases you’re going to need to balance the outward look with functionality. For example some companies just don’t make bags that can nicely carry a long-gun broken down. For those that do for them to sell due to fashion they’re going to look a little tactical. Your discreet bag isn’t that discreet. But, your normal hiking sport pack is likely going to require some kind of modification or it’s just not up to the task. You can’t be entirely gray and still be geared up.
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Durability Final thought is people often buy packs based on their perceived durability. My experience is the military type packs rely on this. Some people take it as a point of pride how they wear out gear, what they actually do is abuse it through carelessness and recklessness. If you wear them out they expect you to buy another. Supposedly they are indestructible so if you break them it must be abuse or combat casualty. Thing is they aren’t indestructible. The tactical style packs seem to wear worse than well made hiking packs. Some of the high end purpose designed hiking packs have FAR better warranties. One in particular will do replacements no questions asked on any pack they’ve ever made. My most used packs are made by that company they hold up as well or better than the tactical packs. Their only downside is they are not a pro-firearms company (might be hostile) so integrating a firearm into their packs is a challenge. Not as big of a deal as you’d think because even the purpose designed packs with firearms compartments aren’t that well thought out and you can’t really draw without extreme flexibility or pulling the pack off at least partially.