Review: AUSCAM Raven Pack accessory bags.

Following on from my previous review of the outstanding 1993 design AUSCAM Raven Pack I wanted to give the accessory packs their own bandwidth.

Both types of pack are fitted with 50mm webbing clips, and are designed to be mounted to other packs, which i feel limits their over all usefulness. That said, having modular packs you can strip off and dump, or share around or even demount to stock or rummage through is a great idea.I'll break this little review into discussing each mini-pack separately, but should at least cover their shared features together. As well as having 50mm clips, on canvas webbing, both packs are made of waterproofed nylon, like the Raven main pack itself, and are fully decked out in the traditional "hearts and bunnies" AUSCAM. Narrower straps are of the same nylon tape that is ubiquitous to buckle fasteners everywhere.

The larger of the two types (of which there are two included with a full Raven kit-out) features 50mm clips at the top of the pack, as well as a carry handle about midway. The top-end clipping gives it a no-sag attachment and ensures that contents are less likely to spill when opened. The main closure is achieved with a substantial zipper, which is nicely situated under a lip to reduce water entry from rain and the like. Documentation included with the pack indicates that this side-bag has a capacity of 12L which makes it a substantial boost to your carrying capacity. There is no internal structure within the bag, but it has two sets of webbing loops dangling from the bottom which could be used for lashing. Interesting features include a 1 inch square flap of hook-and-loop which could be a cord or hydration tube retainer. Happy to have its true nature indicated, if anyone knows!

The second pack is the loaf-shaped bum-bag, which features a long and deep, but narrow 5L of storage, with three sets of 50mm webbing clips at the midline, and three Fastex buckles securing it closed. It seems a fairly exposed may to store things, so I can only presume it was meant for large hardy items, the included manual indicates that it was suitable for storing some kind of comms gear. I think it would be rain or cold-weather gear, if I were hiking with it. One Other thought I had was that this bag at least, could be affixed to a belt and worn like a huge MilSpec bum-bag, but again, its rather open closure system would limit the gear I stowed in it. Hammock, novel and hydration system for a palm tree lounge anyone?

So, with these two types of accessory pack described, how do they sit and fit on the main Raven pack? When I received it, the 3-clip 5L loaf-pack was affixed low down on the back on the Raven, where the webbing matches exactly the clip configuration on the little pack. The twin day-packs had more options for where to clip them, being 2-clips, but I think keeping the center of mass low is always a good idea in a pack,

All told, this looks be a a great system for lugging loads of gear. No frills, sturdy construction and all Australian MilSpec fittings. Rugged gear for rugged country.

Review: Paracord

Whats that you say? A review of paracord? That's like a review of "water", or "shoes". Or is it? There's a lot to be said for something so ubiquitous. As I've said before, I like having cord on hand and there is nothing better than having cord that you can depend on. So, here are some of the reasons paracord is so useful. Originally used for the suspension line in WW2 parachutes, the cord has come to find a place of pride in any well equipped kit. Also known as "550 cord" because it is nominally rated to have a breaking load of 550lbs (or about 250kg) That's a phenomenal load for a 4mm cord! There are 6 classes of paracord according to US MilSpec and its generally the Class III that is referred to when "paracord" is mentioned.

The cord is made of an outer densely woven sheath of nylon which covers 7 to 9 inner yarns, each themselves made of 2 or 3 threads, also nylon. This makes the whole cord both smooth and somewhat elastic. Being woven nylon, when cut the ends fray if not melted or crimped.  I have a little blowtorch and knife dedicated for cutting and sealing mine. The inner yarns can be removed to leave the sheath for use or vise versa, using the inner yarns, or "guts" as commonly known. Being nylon, the cord is resistant to mold or mildew, doesn't take up water readily and is long wearing. I have some as a bracelet closure on a crocodile hide band, which I've worn 24/7, wet, dry, hot or cold for several years now. It comes in a rainbow of colours; from black, coyote, OD through to "safety orange", my preferred choice for taking to the clubs. Great under UV!

Paracord is a really useful piece of gear to have on you, and there are a number of ways to keep a bunch of it on hand. One simple way is to feed a hank of it through some spare loops of MOLLE, if you happen to have that kind of attachment on hand. I always keep a hank or two in mine, along with  that other mainstay of "keeping things tied up", zip-ties.

It can also be woven into a variety of patterns, such as the chain sinnet on my grappling hook cord or the Portuguese Sinnet or Cobra Weave on my belt-lanyard,  and I really have to put in a word for Stormdrane here, who's amazingly clear blog and Instructables not only inspired me to look more into making my own gear, but making it elegant as well such as the "survival bracelet" I also wear. Lashing poles, tying down tarps, securing luggage, padding contact points. There are so many options. I've previously shown two different ways to add a paracord wrap to the handle of a knife or other tool but here is another. It's on one of my machete-type fantasy swords, which I re-handled this twisted wrap. Its a twin set, and by alternating the sides, it lays flat together, and puts the twisted ridge of the handle against my curled fingers.

Whether you are putting up an emergency shelter or throwing a lead line over a high branch to drop a log on an invisible alien hunter who can see your claymore mines, paracord is a must have in your supplies!

Review: DGP Pathopak

I'm going to divert from my usual line of reviews to cover something a bit different. I'm a firm believer in salvage and I hate to see useful resources going to waste. These containers are case in point. The facility I work at receives items shipped internationally and interstate regularly, and due to the sensitive nature of the items, regulations require a certain level of regulation packaging. The items are typically sealed in a small plastic box, wrapped in bubble-wrap and placed in one of these containers, which is shipped in its own stiff cardboard box. The containers are called Pathopaks and they are produced by DGP Group, a division of Intelsius. The thing is, after they arrive at my facility, and the items taken out and processed, the containers, box cardboard and the jar, get tossed into the recycling as waste. This would just not do, because these containers are ACE. We receive them in two sizes, 1L and 2L. Let's start with the 1L container's features.

The blue lidded 1L containers are the rarer of the two kinds, at my facility, I have no idea why, as in my opinion the items shipped are no where near big enough to warrant even that big a container individually, even with copious bubble-wrap. But, that's how it goes. The containers are a high density SPI Resin 5 PP Polypropylene 95kPa pressure vessel, which can be frozen, and stored at 37oC (important to know, in my facility). They are solvent, acid and base resistant and are rated for biological substance containment. The lid has a robust thread, and a silicone o-ring seal and the overall internal size of the 1L container is 88x170mm and they weigh 240g. 

The orange topped containers are the 2L version, which we receive many more of. They are 125x170mm internally and weigh 450g. All the other features are the same, simply scaled up.  Why would I want them? Well, after being emptied, I collect them, and give them all a liberal disinfection with 70% ethanol, which is an effective anti-microbial. I allow them to air dry, and take them home giving them a further dish-washer cleanse and -bam- I have a robust and standardized, sealable storage container.


What I can do with them then is limited only by my imagination. Mostly I use them for foodstuff storage. We do a lot of bulk shopping, living in a large, poly, share house we often have a lot of mouths to feed. Buying in bulk means storing adequately. These containers are ideal for that, being both non-reactive, airtight and "clouded" to reduce light-related spoilage. I keep a couple filled with road-snacks in my car, hobby supplies in some, and even preserved lemons in salt for several years in some.

As I've said, I hate waste. I'm very glad to have been able to save these kinds of containers from simply being recycled as they really match my views on tough, rugged, multipurpose gear. When I started bringing them home I was asked the suspicious but reasonable question "have these had dead people in them?" and the name stuck. I'm very happy with my "dead people jars" for both everyday use and disaster preparedness.

I've even used them to pack rations-kits in.

Review: 215Gear Ultimate Riggers Belt

I've been wanting a decent, MilSpec belt for some time now. Something I could wear day to day, and not look like too much of a dork with metal grommet-ed webbing everywhere. I frequently carry a number of things on my person, often on my belt. Drink bottles, hammers, axes, phone, small satchels, my coyote tail (no, really). All kinds of things, time to time. I'm very fond of going "hands free", and having a belt dig into my boney hips one too many times led me to do some research. I managed to find something that fit not only my aesthetic visually, but also met my desire for a rugged, dependable and multipurpose item. A Riggers Belt.

Following a link I saw online, I was lead to 215Gear, who's Retention Lanyard I reviewed recently and settled on their "Ultimate Riggers Belt" over the slightly less awesome but still impressive looking "Enhanced" version. Both belts are made from parachute quality webbing, and "7 Class sewn" throughout. The webbing is doubled for most of the belt, and is adjustable via a full width and very long hook-and-loop band which feeds through the male end of the very spiffy anodized aluminium "Cobra Buckle" which has a quick release safety lock, which if I read correctly, has a 9kN rating by itself, with the whole belt rated at 18kN. (NB if you are baffled by what all these load ratings really -mean- have a read of this document, essentially, anything more than 12kN is going to mess your body up, but the belt will hold). That's good enough for me! It should be good enough for anyone who doesn't have a T-800 endoskeleton. 

Apart from the awesome buckle (which I feel the need to add, has confused some testers when trying to undo it), being a Riggers Belt, it features a bunched loop hole for use an an attachment and anchor point for a carabiner for a Retention Lanyard, accessories, or in a pinch, an emergency rappelling/belay point as demonstrated by the awesome team at ITS in this clip. 

The only drawback I have found with this belt is that the buckles are quite wide, and I've had trouble wearing it with some pants with sewn on loops. I -could- detach the male end buckle and feed the belt, reattach it and off I go, but its just been too much effort. Similarly, the belt is too wide for my multitool pouch's belt-loop, so I have to pocket that when I wear this belt. Again, I -could- adjust, just laziness on my part. 

Awesome, awesome piece of gear. I'd stake my life on it. I probably will, soon enough.

Review: Crumpler Thirsty Al (xs) pouch

Making my way back to one of the pouches I lug around everywhere, every day, I wanted to show you the Crumpler Thirsty Al (xs) accessory pouch. I was fortunate enough to have won this in a competition Crumpler put on to "send in photos of yourself with your bags" and one day it arrived in my mailbox to my delight. I affix it to my main Messenger Bag and if you look at the photos there, you may see it peeking around the sides. I have it looped to the main belt-strap of that bag where it is both out of the way, accessible and  blends in quite nicely. That's a big plus for me and something that Crumpler does quite well.  It's snug enough to slip the to corner of the strap and wedge against the main bag without disappearing entirely, and whilst the colours are slightly different, the schema fits in very nicely. Perfect for my kind of EDC. I do enjoy the "WTH did that come from?" effect, when I pull something from seemingly thin air.
It follows the same general lines as another pouch of theirs I have, the John Thursday 100 so there was no conceptual difficulty in integrating it into my collection. The construction is the same1000d Cordura outer,  ripstop 300 Codura inner as other Crumpler products, and it shares the John Thursday neoprene "body". Again the happy Kokopelli looking icon graces its front flap.

 

 The attachment system is the same double-hook-and-loop sandwich as well, which makes a surprisingly good connection, and I can't recall any time that it has failed me. It fits around the 50mm webbing used as the main strap of my messenger bag and also through MOLLE loops. As well as the sandwich-flap method, there is also a lanyard loop at the top, which I haven't yet felt the need to use for anything. 

Yet.

 Again, in keeping with the John Thursday / Thirsty Al comparison, behind the hook-and-loop loopy spot of the inside of the front flap there is a "secret" hidey-hole, which in this case, I have filled with a USB thumb-drive, (which you can see just poking out) but could also fit some small change, folded bills, spare keys or camera-cards, amongst the options.As with the John Thursday, the front flap does not quite cover the top of the neoprene sides, leaving the top a little exposed. Something to be aware of, but not a big deal in this case.

I found that the pouch was a little too small to accommodate my iPhone, or current camera, but would be perfect for a lot of the more moderns, slimline cameras or non-iPhone members of the iPod family. It could also fit some more useful preparedness kit, like a small stash of mask, gloves & dressings, compass and firestarters or any number of stow and wait items. I chose to fill mine with a 8m long hank of paracord I happened to have laying around. This fits in neatly (after tying it fast-rope style, with thanks to Craig Guest) and gives me a high density source of good cord pretty much at the flick of a wrist. I'm a firm believer in having rope on hand in the event of a disaster or emergency, and this was a great means to keep some close by, squared-away and discreetly.

Sadly this pouch seems to be discontinued, but I'm very pleased to say that this one looks like it will be in my collection, and in my EDC, for years to come. Rugged, useful, unobtrusive.

Wish Lust - Unbreakable Umbrella

Here's something that crossed my screen today that really caught my eye. That's a horrible in-joke for those that know me, as I would rather be wet than use an umbrella in most instances. As a tall person I find that the most contact I tend to have with umbrellas is when less-than-me-sized people in the rain poke me in the face with them. I see them scurrying around in the weather, clutching their portable roofs whilst I stick it out in my long coats and hats or hoods. I see the discarded remnants after Melbourne's squally winds turn them inside out or bend them. I see their bent and broken discarded husks in bins, benches, left under tram train seats. More evidence of their blight on humanity. I mean, you couldn't even hit someone with them without it buckling into an embarrassing cartoonesque silhouette of their face.

That was, until I saw the webpage for the Unbreakable walking-stick umbrella by Real Self-Defense. These things are bad-ass! First up, in one of the test videos a large manly man balances one between two chairs and climbs up, has a bounce on it then opens it up again. That's some Cold Steel level of proof right there ...

Don't just take it from me though, have a look at at this video I found on their site. This is some pretty heavy treatment for something to keep the water off with. A nice steel tip would make for a good walking stick strut, as well as a mess in the face of anyone it were jabbed at I expect.
 




 The  umbrellas come in three variants, two "Premium" models in traditional crooked or wooden knobbed or the lighter, longer rubber handled "New" variant. For my money, I'd actually choose the straight  "New" version, as its closer to what I am used to wielding in a shinai for kendo. That is, if i were going to be waving it around, or any such crazyness.

Premium #1
Handle: crooked wide, made of ABS (composite). Steel ribs.
Length 35 in/889 mm, open diameter 43 in/1092 mm, weight 1 lb. 13 oz./822 g.

Premium #2
Handle: straight with knob, made of wood. Steel ribs.
Length 33.37 in/847 mm,open diameter 43 in/1092 mm, weight 1 lb. 8.8 oz./703 g.

"New"
Handle: straight, rubber-covered. Fiberglass ribs.
Length 38.5 in/978 mm, open diameter 47 in/1194 mm, weight 1 lb. 8.6 oz./700 g

 The website declares that bashing these umbrellas on things will likely damage the waterproof material that is the umbrellas ultimate purpose, which is sensible enough advice. If I were planning to engage in the regular beating of things with something, I would prefer to use something purpose built to do so, like a bokken or a mallet. That said, when it comes to including something around in my EDC that wont draw a spot of attention, a ruggedized, weaponsised umbrella migh be just the ticket.


Definitely on my wish-lust list, because in Melbourne, as the song says, you can get "four seasons in one day" and I like to be prepared!

Review: AUSCAM Raven pack

A friend of mine who works in some capacity with the Australian Army and found out about my interests in gear and the like. After telling him about the Stargate LRP that I do, and showing off the pictures of us all in kit, let me know that he had some "leftovers" that he could send my way. I'm always keen to see some gear that the troops really get, even though there may be problems with it, as soldiers are renowned for discovering, its designed to be rugged and multipurpose. In his first care-package to me, my friend delivered this huge pack, the Raven Pack, in the Australian DPCU AUSCAM pattern. The first thing I should mention is its size. I'm used to the kind of torso-wide backpacks that you see back-packers at airports carrying. Tall but reasonably narrow, the kind you can see skinny elbows holding on to, hands on chest straps.
 Not this pack. Its shoulder wide on me, when empty and without any of the accessories attached.
From the research I've done, the pack has upwards of an 90L capacity, again, without the accessory packs and has a wide range of internal and external storage capability. Constructed of nylon, canvas and Cordura with drawstrings and Fastex buckled cinch straps. I was surprised at the variety of materials used, it seemed quite a hybrid piece. The top hood Fastex's down, with a drawstring to improve packing, and water proofing. Inside the lid is a zippered pouch, for personal items or documents. There is 50mm canvas webbing attachment points over the lid. down both sides and two strips running horizontally over the back of the pack. The midline of the horizontal 50mm canvas webbing are two large loops, for the straight handle of an entrenching tool.


On either side of the entrenching tool loops and sewn onto the pack body are two utility pouches, each fitted with a drawstring and Fastex strapping. These pouches measure 28cm in length, 10cm in depth and 11cm in width. They could suit a variety of needfuls in a secure and at the ready location regardless of how else the pack is configured. One of the interesting things about this pack is that it seems to be top heavy, but I think there must be a method for packing heavy items lower which is integral to how the Army trains its troopers to pack.






Another interesting feature is the bedroll/sleepingbag pouch that makes up the bottom of the pack. It is composed of and outer layer of heavy Cordura, which opens on the left hand side through a crumplable pouch type opening. The inner layer is a lighter green bag, which closes with a drawstring. This whole assembly is otherwise independent of the storage in the bottom of the pack. Three Fastex clips fasten the bottom section closed, but otherwise "unsealed" by zipper or hook-and-loop. I thought this was very odd, and I'd be delighted to hear from a serviceman as to what the deal with that is. Also inside the bottom storage area is a small, shallow "bucket pocket" against the back wall. I have no idea what this is for.

The top and bottom sections of the inside are seperated by a waterproof zip panel which whn open, would allow large items to be stowed in the pack, utilizing the full available length. When sealed, the top section has two Fastex clipped compression straps, one vertical and one horizontal. This is a great feature and would significantly increase the available space in the pack. There is also a shelf like pocket against the back wall, also with a draw string, adding to the internal storage structure. Lastly there is a long horizontal zipper, leading to some closed cell foam padding.

The shoulder straps are highly adjustable, both centrally, and at the bottom of each armature. There is a sternum strap, which is also configurable as well as a simple nylon webbing hip-belt. A final interesting feature is a removable lumbar bad, hook-and-looped into the padding of the pack, and includes a long black cord. Possible flotation marker? Who knows. There are a couple of openable hook-and-loop flaps that could well be for identification purposes and again, I'd be delighted to hear from someone with experience with this kind of pack to explain these little features.

This is a great, big pack, which I look forwards to taking camping/hiking with, and to load up all my kit and costume for Stargate LRP. I'll cover the accessory packs in a subsequent post. This is already huge ... Much like the pack. Hearts and Bunnies anyone?