Bushcraft Basics Ep06: Choosing a Backpack

[Applause] hi there guys it's Mike from mcq bushcraft here and welcome to episode 6 of bushcraft basics in last week's episode we had a look at land access in Northern Ireland and that really concluded our final episode of land access here in the British Isles and hopefully if you've watched those episodes it's given you a good idea of what you can and can't do and also some of the wider spaces you can explore here in the British Isles but in this week's episode we're gonna be having a look at equipment and really from this episode onwards we're going to start to look at different types of equipment and really try and build a reliable functional set of tools that you can use alongside certain skills out in the field and practice those skills and I've brought with me today a whole range of backpacks to show you I'm going to give you some pros and cons on them and I've also brought my pack with me as well I always carry my pack on me I'm gonna show you that one as well and talk about the pros and cons of it also choosing a pack right at the beginning stages is quite an important thing and it affects so much later down the line that you may not even realize if you're new to bushcraft and you're purchasing a pack for the first time you may not have that ground knowledge yet of the kind of equipment that will be going inside that pack later down the line and I call it future proofing you buy the right pack a new future proofed yourself for whatever equipment you choose to take out in the field or whatever weather and even going abroad to different countries you may start to do that later down the line you never know I think the biggest thing are the most bulkiest thing a sleeping bag sleep systems covers hammocks tarps or all these things and spare clothing which I the compasses part of the sleep system sometimes can all amount to quite a large bulky mass that needs to fit into that pack and if you buy back a backpack that's very slim you will be limiting yourself on sleeping bag almost immediately and if there's nowhere outside of the pack to strap a sleeping bag then immediately you've got a problem there because say you want to go out in the winter you want to take your art six leapin bag or a very warm full season sleeping bag you can only afford a synthetic one because you can't afford hundreds of pounds for a dang one and that sleeping bag will only go in that pack upright like this and not sit flat at the base you've lost tons of space in that pack so buying the right pack at day one is really like setting the foundations for building your equipment it really is that important and if you can try packs on before you buy them that's another thing I would advise as well trying them on before you buy it's like boots in a respect sometimes you can wear boots that are depite other people love and when you wear them they're terrible and they just don't work for you so if you can try a pack on I would strongly advise it but let's have a look at some of these packs I've got with me and these are some fairly popular packs and we'll go through some pros and cons and have a look at how they're built this first backpack I want to show you is the carry more SF Sabre 45 it's a very good backpack and probably quite a popular one in bushcraft a lot of people own them and use them I think it's a very good pack and carry more SF themself produce equipment for the military carry more do you have a civilian branch that produce inferior equipment but carry more SF produced some fantastic gear it's very robust good materials YKK zips which are about the best you can get very good buckles and webbing all nice tight weaves and overall it's a good quality bit of equipment made out of 1000 denier Cordura so it's a all-around quite robust and it will last a long time the material itself is also treated for water resistance and abrasion so it should look in you for a very long time and not pick up too much wear no matter how rough you treat it if we look at the back of the pack it's usually the first place I look when I'm choosing a backpack and it's normally just around here at the lower back that I check out right away when I take a pack off the shelf I'm looking at images I usually like to see a bit of a bulge there at the lower back so it cups in to the base of my spine and provides me with some good lower back support and some comfort but on here we don't have that you can see we've got a lot of cushioning there there's some good cell foam in there nice and soft and we have this mesh which allows a bit of breathability in these runs here which can allow air to travel obviously if you're wearing bulky equipment this is you know null and void it's not going to do anything because if you've got thick clothes on it's really just going to act as more insulation and fill all these gaps up and it won't really breathe at all but in the summer if you're just wearing a t-shirt like I've got on or a thin wicker layer it really doesn't allow a bit of breathability although you can end up with a bit of a sweaty back with a backplate like that there but inside we have an internal frame and I'll just show you and it's a piece of hard cellphone it's got a bit of squid genus - overall it's it's pretty rock card it's also worth noting that this can be shaped to your back as they state on the carry more SF website although the details on how to do that I'm not entirely sure I'd imagine it would involve hot water and you can see the internal pocket there where the backplate slips into a bit of velcro fasteners it in just like that you can see that this isn't adjustable at all in terms of the height of the waist or length of the body I've heard reports of people being 5 foot 9 saying this is incredibly comfortable I'm 510 it fits me perfectly I find it very comfortable I also have friends that are 6 foot 3 and they say it fits them absolutely perfectly and it really depends on the shape of your body and the length of your body and really what I'd advise is that you tried on first and put a bit of weight in it see whether you can try one out and see what there's someone you know that has one it's an incredibly comfortable pack I will admit I've been very impressed with it when I've put it on had a lot of kiss in it as I say I'm about 510 and it works for me perfectly and I dunno guys they're a lot taller than me it also swear by - so it really does depend on what you're looking for in a pack and what sort of shaped body you have I mean carry more SF do larger packs than this and when you go up to their 60 to 100 range then you're talking about adjustable waist bands that can move up and down adjustable straps and you can really tailor the back of the pack to fit you so if you're uncertain and you're maybe ordering from abroad in America I'd probably advise to go to the 6100 range simply because that way you can adjust the back to fit you perfectly and you're not taking any chances spending just a little bit more money on a slightly bigger pack the waist bands here are non removable and they're fixed to the pack they can be tucked around the back of the pack if you don't wish to use them but I would rarely use it without them to be quite honest if ever and they're very comfortable we've got a lot of padding they're nice and wide and they wrap around the ball be quite well if you're quite large wasted they may not be long enough for you but to be quite honest I think they're perfect and any bigger and they'd actually be too big really and they're quite comfortable you can see we've got a bit of rope on there as well so you could put an axe through or other bits of equipment just on your side while you were walking along there are adjustable with some tight weave and a bit of elastic just there so you can tuck the strap away and it's not flapping all over the place if we come to the top of the back of the pack you can see we've got a grab handle there which is quite nice for hanging your pack on a tree when you're camping out this pack doesn't stand up very well falls over even when fully loaded I like packs to stand up but it's only really a very minor thing but this grab handle allows you to hang it up which could be very useful for accessing your gear and not getting it on the ground if it's muddy or damp but we've got some really really substantial shoulder straps these are fantastic is really one of the first things I noticed when I turn the pack around really thick well padded shoulder straps with the mesh on as well although again the breathability is questionable and it does add some durability to it though you've got quite a lot of webbing there as well so you can hang gare on it like grimlocks and such you might be able to put all kinds of equipment on there and you've got a sternum strap and that sternum strap can obviously be taken off and adjusted to a pitch any point really to make it comfortable for you and these straps are adjustable as well so if we tighten this up it will bring the pack much closer to the top of your back whether is if you loosen them it'll bring some distance and slack it over a little bit so if you've got a heavy load and you want to bring it quite linear linear to your center of gravity you can really tighten these up and bring it into your back a bit more which I find quite useful they make it a slight difference anyway moving to the side of the pack you can see we've got a nice big open space there and there is method behind that we've got these YKK zippers running all the way up each side those can actually be zipped together and you can make this pack really small too small really for a lot of uses but for example for storage it can be quite useful or if you're just hiking with a very light load perhaps just a water bladder when you're just on the trail with a little bit of food zipping it up can stop them flapping around everywhere and close off the space a little bit more so those YKK zip isn't useful for that but they also allow a side pouch to be attached and I've got two of these side pouches here with me today these are the PLC side pouches 12 litres and there's lots of additional side packs that you can put onto these carry more backpacks this is probably the smallest backpack where they fit flush if you go to the 35 litre version of the carry more SF then you've got overhang at the bottom where the pack is too short and part of the pouch hangs over the side but with the 45 they fit beautifully on the side and you can also get ammunition pouches and other utility pouches as well but these zip on and you can see we have little buckles just here as well they clip onto the top and clip onto the bottom just to keep it really secure so you can actually expand the 45 litre pack with two of these which can be bought as two you know they come in a pair and that gives you an additional 25 litres on top of the pack which really will help future-proof it and you can put quite a lot of food in these and extra equipment as well like bedding and clothing on the other side it's exactly the same we do have compression straps either side as well so you can compress the pack up a bit if you don't want things rattling around or you're just sipping it up for a day you don't have much equipment in it and each strap comes with a strap tidy as well so you can actually organize the strap away so it's not flapping around everywhere but you can use just duct tape or insulation tape to organize your straps if you've got them set to a certain length if we look at the bottom of the pack you can see that it's fairly bare there's nothing really there in terms of excess straps or Molly to attach excess gear T if it was my pack I probably would stitch on something or attach some more straps there so I could put a bigger sleep system there or even a dry bag with some extra camp gear in but the side packs will obviously help you with that if you do need extra space but it's a fairly plain bump on the actual pack there and there's nothing there and these loops here are actually a part of the main strap that holds the lid on so if there's enough slack you'd open these up a bit and actually put something in there and tighten it up but it wouldn't be anything substantial maybe a sleep mat inside a dry bag if we look at the front of the pack you can see that we've got some male just standing here and we have some bungees and more bungees can be added you can put anything you want on here and clip on any kind of gear like carabiners or grimlocks to hold extra equipment and these bungees can help out and I've seen quite a few guys do this where they'll take an axe for example they thread the axe through one of these bottom loops just like this twist it the other way around and then wrap it around using this bungee system here to secure their axe to the outer of the pack and you can do that record a lot of different pieces of equipment including shovels fishing kits all sorts of things so it does allow you to connect things to the outer of the pack if they're taking up room on the inside but this packs so long that I would probably be quite happy with putting my axe inside and keeping out of the weather at the top of the pack we have a number of different features we have the drawstring on the inner baffle just here so you can really close it up we have a compression strap that attaches to a buckle just at the top of the lid there so you can bring the face of the pack closer to the rear just quite nice you have a very large inner baffle just here it can really be done up and stop any rain getting in which again is pretty useful so it can almost be overfilled in some respects and the lid itself is very useful and it's elasticated so it can naturally fast and quite tightly around the pack itself and you can get the straps at the base nopsi connectors on the make can be adjusted to any length really and they can actually be over adjusted so the pack is too full in some respects so it gives you a little bit of leeway to play around with space and if you are packing a little bit on the heavy side you can get away with it the lid itself features some bungees and a toggle at the top so you might be able to strap a jacket there perhaps your hump in hiking and it's been raining and you have a raincoat you want to strap it to the outside to dry off you don't want it in your pack with the rest of your gear while it's wet so that could be pretty useful at the back we have a zipper that opens up for the decent rain flap to stop moisture getting in inside there quite a large pocket that forms the head of the actual pack and that might be pretty good for a medkit if you need something to be able to access something quickly you could put a big med kit in there even some spare clothes a hat gloves it can take quite a lot of space and on the inside the actual lid you have a mesh pocket just there as well so some easy access items can be right at the top in the lid which i think is pretty useful if we actually get into the pack itself you can see it's quite a long narrow pack that tapers out toward the top so it's narrower at the top than it is at the base and I think that's good as well because also your sleep systems will be wider at the base but you can pack this out pretty good quite a lot of space there and it's really a bucket pack so there's very little compartmentalization it's just a bucket packet we do have an inner pocket for the plates which I've shown you and there's a typical water bladder nest to go in there as well so a water bladder can go in there and I think that's probably a good option as well you always want that on a pack because the option of a water bladder really allows you to hike long distances and not have to stop all the time and get a canteen out your pack or carry one on your hip which can weigh you down on one side if you're carrying a lot of water so it keeps it close to your back at heavy weight close to your back and doesn't affect your balance so it's very very useful but a bucket pack so you really have to organize yourself with a pack like this and think about how you're putting your items in the pack what goes first what do you need first and utilizing the top pockets to access easy access items that you may want to get out quickly or at night so you don't have to fumble around inside your pack we put the pack on we can have a little look at what it's like very comfortable very comfortable a lot of the weight is sitting on my hips which it should be I'm got too much in there at the moment just some clothing just the way it's in a bit that's a that's really comfortable you know an axe could go there for example if you're on the trail and you really need it to carry an axe by your side all the time but I can see that if you're very tall you have quite a long torso you're going to need to adjust this slightly which may be tricky so you probably want to loosen those two drop it down further down your body so the weight sitting on your hips which may affect the comfort so if you're particularly tall this might not be a very comfortable pack but as I say I've got friends who six three say it's fantastic and myself and other people we were about five nine five ten we didn't think it's wonderful as well that it fits and I can say that it fits very well now I could carry that for a very long distance and be very comfortable so it's a skirt it's not interfering too much with the belt kit and I've got the side pouches on you can see the plc side pouches so it's putting a lot of litre ajaan there but let's have a look at some pros and cons or talk about some pros and cons on this pack [Music] so I've just had to move location because the Flies were just absolutely everywhere where I just was and I was in the shade as well which wasn't too good very damp area so I've just put some cramp all funghi into some moss just creates a bit of smoke in the area and it really helps to get rid of the Flies so they're not all over me I'll leave this here so we've just had a look at the carry more SF saber 45 a very good pack for the money retails for about a hundred pounds the PLC side pouches you can get for about 40 so you're looking at about one hundred and fifty quid for that set up so it's by no means a budget option really depends what your budget is obviously but for most people it's not a budget option it's more of a high-end pack and there are some very good positives to it for example if you get the side pouches they can mount on a yoke system and come off of the pack so if you wanted to leave a camp area and leave your big forty five liter pack behind you can just take the side pouches mount it on a strap system and then you've got a twenty five liter day pack to do some exploring with to carry some essentials food and water so that's a pretty good positive for that setup that I've got behind me obviously the pack doesn't come with the PLC side pouches but for an extra 40 pounds obviously you've got a much more versatile setup there's probably a bit more geared out for going abroad as well so if you are going to go to Scandinavia or another part of the world and you need that extra space for items that you're taking with you again the side pouches will give you that versatility for the price you're getting a very robust pack the stitching the materials it's going to last the very long time it's made for the military so it's going to be of a pretty good standard and it's a very comfortable pack as well and it's suited to most people I won't say everybody obviously because that would be unrealistic but a range of people in different lengths and body shapes it will fit fairly comfortably so it will cover a broad range of the spectrum really the average-sized people out there and it's gonna gonna pack quite a lot of equipment in it at 45 liters you can get quite a bit in it I would say that one of the negatives of it is the lack of straps on the bottom for me personally I would say that I would like to see the pack slightly wider and a little bit shorter so it could take sleep systems or biggest sleep systems at the bottom of this easier I think that if you feel the cold I certainly feel the cold and I'm generally in a bag that's a lot warmer than people are around me and I take a fairly hefty bag sometimes in the winter and you know you might want a little bit of space in that pack and to be able to strap things on the outside in a dry bag can often keep a pack very small as a day pack but then allows you to add extra expansion to it but I too much baggage and extra material hanging around all the time so that is one advantage of a smaller pack with straps on the outside is that it's good as a day pack but it has that extra space or storage on the outside for bedding and bulky items like sleep systems and it still functions quite well as a day pack so again you'd have to weigh that up really and it depends really what you want to go for I prefer smaller pack with straps on the outside but I really think that's just down to personal preference and just from my personal experience I operate with just one pack and it can do everything I want it to because it has that storage capability on the outside for sleep systems and bulkier items to be strapped on in dry bags if need be and then it's still the size of a day pack when I want it to be so that's just the way I prefer to operate for me personally the Sabre 45 isn't really the pack for me it just doesn't have all of the features that I'm looking for and I like to modify things a lot to my needs and it's not a pack that's easily modifiable in that respects but it's a very good pack and if you were just looking to buy something off the shelf and for it to be really useful and very multifunctional straight away then you've got a great pack that's future proofed and you don't need to really do anything too but let's have a look at some others for those of you have been watching the channel for some time and tune into the regular content a lot of the historical videos on the channel you'd have seen this pack feature quite frequently and I used this pack for about four years is my main bushcraft pack a very small roughly around twenty five liter pack and it's a it's a tiny little thing but a very robust pack it's a Maxpedition condor - although I have made some changes to it and I've done some extensive reviews about this pack on my channel and you will find in the description below this video the video I'm talking about where I do a review of this show it in its setup when it was in all its glory when I used it as my main pack and I also discuss some of the changes I've made to it like this front flap for example which doesn't actually come with a pack but something I've just added on am i still obviously own this pack and use it it's a day pack that sits in the boot of the 4x4 with some spare gear in so it's still alive and well but just not used quite as much as it used to be right featured in almost every video and I dragged it out on so many ventures I can hardly remember that a really reliable pack and the only disadvantage with it is its size but in a respect that can be an advantage because what happens with a big pack is you can fill it full of useless rubbish that you don't need especially when you're walking out the door at the last minute you start panicking and this switch and your brain flips you start putting extra food in extra kit and a pack like this really makes you disciplined and it makes you use a lot of the resources around you quite a bit more think about your environment and items that qualify to go in the pack really have to do a multitude of jobs so packed like this can be quite useful especially if you're starting out but I'm probably not the best way to start out but another Avenue nonetheless so the Maxpedition kondal 2 is a pretty good pack they do a range of packs my expedition I've only exempt the pack there's really not much more capacity in it than this and the side pouches for water containers and such unusable when the packs full so I didn't rate that pack it was comfortable very comfortable but I didn't rate it at all really for me going out and practicing bushcraft they do the vulture as well or vulture to which is a much bigger pack I think that's probably about 32 to 35 liters I'd say if you're going to get a Maxpedition backpack I would probably suggest that one because of its extra volume but again the back is almost exactly the same as this so for long hikes you will have a soaking wet back and I wouldn't advise cotton t-shirts with them especially at altitude say it's an okay pack its robust but really it's suited as a day pack unless you're going super minimal but a good pack this pack here is an Irish patrol pack and it's really just something I've brought along with me as an example to show you that wherever you live in the world there will be cheap exort plus gear going out there all over the place online stores like eBay or surplus stores if you go in them you could pick up a pack the same day with just a few notes that you have in your pocket some stuff is so cheap you wouldn't believe it so if you're looking to get into bushcraft then there's a whole range of gear out there that's ex surplus and being made to military spec it will generally be pretty robust and made to a fairly good standard but if we look at this one here this is the Irish patrol pack you can see we've got side pouches with male on so you could even configure other things onto them but another one this side there permanently stitched on we've got male on the front so you might be able to configure something across the front that we have a top pocket here so you can even put a med kit in there or even have your med kit ma load onto the side or from we've got male just here and here you can have straps fitted to it even male on the bottom so you could fit a bigger sleep system there if you really wanted to say for a fact that's incredibly cheap you can get a lot for your money it's even got a waist belt that's not going to give you too much lower back support but it will stabilize the pack and stop it rocking around and just provide you with a bit more comfort and the back is relatively plain it looks almost just like the Condor - we have a look out in a minute ago so it's you're gonna get a sweaty back if you're carrying this for a long time but for a budget pack it's um it's not too bad at all it's gonna be robust I've got a huge veil at the top fat drawstrings we've got no water bladder nest in there but it's you know it's got a lot of space you could fit a pretty good sleeping bag in there and go out for quite a long time with a lot of food and this is going to be more practical than the Maxpedition packs we've just had a look at probably more practical than a lot of the Maxpedition packs that are out there because of its extra volume and its cost so the initial stages of buying a pack this could be something worth looking at just exort plus gear and there's loads of it around whichever country all in the only thing I'd say is the downside is is the camouflage pass and I don't like wearing camouflage and I've always adopted a bit of a gray man kind of appearance where I like to blend in and I don't like to be noticed too much on a man and camouflage can give off the wrong impression it sounds silly but it really does a lot of people look at you and if you're completely clouding camo like multicam or something they'll be like you nervous that guy look at Rambo over there and you can get you know a few silly comments and such and you know people are kind of then suspicious of you say I prefer playing the colours and traditional gear that looks like hiking kit simply because you can blend in a little bit more but loads of surplus gear around like this and definitely an option out there if you don't have a lot of money and you're looking for decent quality kit I brought this pack with me I thought it looked quite nice and upon closer inspection I don't really like it very much it's one that looks good on the Shelf and you pick it up and then you get it home and you start looking at it closely and you realise that it isn't really what you thought it was it looks like a foul raven packed almost and it's a nice color you know you've got some nice brains and you got a lovely green color there that really blends in or some decent padding on the back although it's a bit floppy and could do with some kind of frame to stabilize it on the inside like foam and then that air gap would be more useful a waterproof bum that actually absorbs water although the nylon material runs right the way through so it shouldn't get through but it does it just stays soggy for a long time but it doesn't look too bad on face value but the reality is that it's um it's probably not a great pack in some respects for future proofing has no real compartments to attach extra stuff like male inside pouches and it'll forever really be in the rankings of a day pack and when you load it up very heavily it will walk that the base here without any foam to strengthen it and it all become a little bit uncomfortable and it has no waist strap either so there's only so much weight you can put in it before it reaches its limit but it's just an example of the kind of pack that you can get out there if you want something that looked fashionable and quite nice then this is quite a nice looking pack in some respects it was 25 quid and my fiance Bullock she needed a pack or just an additional pack to go alongside her other one if she was going to do some charity work some kids on the south coast and needed to take some extra kit for them and she just got this from work in the sale minutes you know it's an alright kind of pack really if you look at it but to be honest with you I think if you're getting into bushcraft and you're looking for a pack try not to look for fancy stuff like this that you know looks nice but isn't on the whole that great because you can put your money into X surplus gear which is far better and obviously made for purpose or put your money towards something a bit better like this that you've then future proofed for trips going abroad or long trips with mates of going canoeing all sorts of stuff that you may want to do but this is just another pack I thought I'd show you it's not too bad but on the whole litzer is fairly standard but I'll just show you my pack now which is the one I use all the time so this is my pack here and it's a Swedish military pack a frame pack and it's called the LK 35 well that's the abbreviated name they use for it over here in the British Isles actually has a slightly different name but that's the name you will find it under lk 35 and it means liter age of 35 liters this one's about 39 they vary in essentially their their size in the manufacturing process you can have a few centimeters here and there extra and mines got to about 39 liters from what I've measured it to be but regardless of that it's the LK 35 and this one's in a really nice condition really lovely Park I'm very biased to this pack obviously it's my my favorite one out of every one that I've shown you today even though some of those packs I've used for years and some I have experience with this pack has been by far the best one I've used and it ticks all the boxes but it does come with its disadvantages which we will discuss but if you've watched the channel you would have seen this pack in use fairly frequently and in the description below there will be a link to a video where I've done a very extensive review of this pack and the changes I've made to it so that I may not cover everything in this video please see the description below if you want more information on this backpack but let's have a look at it a bit closer so if we look at the back of this pack you can see it's incredibly basic we've just got a steel frame which has been painted with a durable paint and topped off with some rubber caps on the end and we just have a backpack mounted or lashed to that steel frame and you can see that if I move the straps away that's the back support there that one strap it comes as standard with two but one you have one at the bottom and one at the top I've taken the one at the bottom off because I've made a modification where I put a kidney belt in there which drastically transforms the pack into something very comfortable and probably one of the most comfortable packs I've worn because that sits on your hips and all the weight is taken on your hips and all these do is bring it closer to your back to align with your center of gravity and it makes it very comfortable this back plate here can be untied with some 550 cord which is how its held on and it can be slid up and down and you can even add a secondary one a nice little modification I've seen which is I think a real positive of this frame if somebody mounted mesh here it was just a mesh and it provided more comforts but at the same time loads of breathability and that's one huge plus of a frame like this with one lashing here is you've got loads of air running down here and you do not get a sweaty back even in the winter when you've got thick clothes on and I've been hiking around and you can keep your temperature levels in check and it's a it's a great plus and this being the first summer that I've used this pack in I've been really impressed and one thing I noticed the other day I was on a really long hike it was about six miles carrying a lot of kit very tired and I thought oh my back's dry Oh strange and I'm not used to that so it was um it was quite pleasant really to find that out but this kidney belt drastically transforms it and you can get these kidney belts for a fiver on ebay this is aus kidney belt and the pack itself you can get anywhere between 15 and 25 pounds but the straps are a bit of a you know then they're not great I will be honest I'm gonna replace these straps one day I'll keep the originals but I will replace them there's no padding whatsoever it is literally just a nylon strap that pulls the pack against your back and that is it you can buy some ALICE pack ones from the United States and strap them on and that's the good thing really because you've got this frame you can pretty much do anything to it so if you're into customizing gear this frame is ideal I mean I've had a shotgun mounted on the side of this frame in like a bandolier almost I've run or a sling sorry I've had a bandolier of ammunition cut on the side of it I've had a fishing rod on the side of it arrows for a bow and arrow loads of kit can just mount on this frame you can even make a grab strap which I've seen somebody do at the top there which will be something I do later down the line so a frame will allow you to do a huge amount to it and you can even take the pack off the frame and use the frame for carrying heavy loads like locks so it's pretty versatile but these straps they're not comfortable when you've got thin layering on and not a lot of padding they can bite in and really some Alex pack ones from the States or some new straps or putting some foam on them would make them a lot better so that is a bit of a disadvantage so when you get it off the shelf it won't have this waist belt it'll have two of these and you really need to buy a well waist belt and put it on and if you want to know how to do that see the video in the description below I stand at the side of the pack doesn't come with a page it's really a change that I made because I like to save as much of the inner compartment as I can for sleeping gear clothing bulky items like food and this paint really is just here to serve as a medkit a hygiene kit also has a torch and spare batteries in on the outside of the pack and it's all in a ziplock bag so it doesn't get wet they are waterproof these pouches from rain obviously but at the same time you just don't want to take any chances but right at the top I've just got an emergency bandage these things are so useful these Israeli bandages have how to use one I'm having an accident once but it's just good to have that right at the top you don't want to be fishing it out of your kit trying to find it which is a good plus for some of the top pockets on the saber 45 right at the top in that top lid you know you could have something similar in there as well so the side of the pack is pretty plain but you can put a patch on the side if you want to you can see I've done the same on the other side and this is just a maintenance kit with some miscellaneous items in it but I may want to access without digging through my pack the front of the pack is pretty plain we've got a little fastening strap down here which coincides with a loop at the top where you're able to slide an axe or a shovel down and then strap it to the front of the pack I generally keep my axe in the pack out of the weather but when I've overfilled the inside of the compartment it can be really useful to utilize that system and if I just don't do this I see that we've got the loop there the axe just goes down and then straps in and it's a it's pretty useful but the lids quite nice as well there are no pockets in the lid it's just a flat lid that goes over the top and it really helps keep the weather out but the bottom of the pack is quite a nice feature we've got the frame just here and you can see that you've got this you style part at the base there which actually helps the pack stand up a little bit better and this is a nice feature about the pack you can actually stand it up but the pack has a phenomenal capacity to strap things to the bottom you can really strap quite substantial things to the bottom of this pack that you have to make sure you leave enough strap it's just there to hold little so really all you're talking about this much so maybe a small sleeping bag or sleep mat I used to have my wool blanket on the bottom of here when I carry this in the winter but you can even do something like strap an axe and it could slot in to my new frame just there and you could just keep your axe nice and secure and then take it out when you needed it or even a set of skis if you're doing some cross-country skiing earlier we talked about how small packs with the capacity to hold a lot on the outside can function as day packs but as larger packs as well and that's one thing that really sold me on the outside of this pack is the capacity to put lots of things on the outside and make changes and strap things to the actual frame which really helps take the weight but I can fit my entire Arctic sleeping bag my british army arctic sleeping bag on the top of this and because it's sitting at the top very close to my back above my head I barely notice the weight and it becomes very comfortable rather than having it dragging at the base of the pack where you can really feel it and it does interrupt your step sometimes so having this at the top is amazing really as a selling point of the pack and it can even be extended as well and you can even add additional stuff to it because of the frame but let's have a look inside you can see at the lip we've got some nice webbing there and webbing is really stitched almost everywhere on the pack to reinforce certain areas it really is a pack built for purpose and incredibly robust and I'll there's a lot of them in circulation even in the United States all over the world all over Europe you can find these packs and we've got a toggle system as well and it's a wedge toggle that you write like that quite bulky a little bit heavy but it's robust and it works but looking on the inside you can see some of my kit in there that I carry day-to-day and I'll show you that as well but before we go on the inside I bought a pack liner for mine because I've snitched pouches on the outside even though I've waxed the thread before I've stitched it I may have compromised the water resilience of the material because water can't get through this material I've been out on day hikes with it and no water's got through but just to have an internal sack like this can be very useful and this internal sack actually doubles up as a wash basin for me as well and you can hold water with it around a camp area if rivers very far away but I've even got a piece of foam just here and that's my pillow but it also keeps the pack conforming to a certain shape and stops things pushing into it and mal forming the actual material if I've got layers of sharp objects in or carry loads of logs in it which I sometimes do and it's a it's quite useful for that you can see on the inside we've got quite a lot of space down the back I take away the lid would be sort of inner driver I've got my rain jacket inside where a water bladder can be carried and the reason I've got my rain jacket there is it's lightweight but it just means that everything on the inside of the pack won't get wet if this does and then I put it back in my pack so it can just slide in there and then I just put this flat and the back exactly the way point nicely and everything can stay dry but I suppose I've got some bits and bobs here I've got some gloves I've got a wool hat and a scarf and it's it's been that side here in fact off take it out I've got a tart in a dry bag and that's my tarp system that I've shamed in previous videos I've got my cook kit just there which is just in a stuff sack to stop it getting crap all over the inside of the pack and I have some spare clothes and this is a complete set of spare clothes I generally only carry one set and whatever I'm wearing and I rotate every two days no matter how long I make and just wash them you know with fresh water I always carry my ax on me like you just which should we go down the inside there I like keeping the ax close to my back because of weight it can obviously go down the front here through these loops but I prefer it here when I haven't got too much in there just to obviously keep my center of gravity if we put the pack on you can see that as a standard pack without the waist belt it's gonna really be on the shoulders very comfortable still but some all on the shoulders and then if we use this waist belt and we just make sure it's in the center of our back you can suddenly see the weight being taken off my shoulders to the point where it pivots on the shoulder there it can just be dragged in and if those were a bit more padded it wouldn't feel so restricting one thing I generally do with packs and it's something to bear in mind this I always wear wicker layers with a high collar because I don't like things digging into my neck I find what I've been doing hiking especially doing some mountain hiking or going on really long walks where you're carrying your pack for eight hours a day sometimes this moving all the time wearing into your neck can be a bit annoying so having a high collar wicker layer can sometimes take away the fact the the pack might be slightly too narrow at this point and if you're a big built chap then you may have come across that problem but it's a very comfortable pack but there are some disadvantages to it which I'll tell you about I think one of the major disadvantages of that pack is its weight it's got a steel frame and even before anything goes in it it can weigh quite a lot but sometimes with robustness comes a bit of extra weight and it really goes down to fitness as well your fitness is so important if you expect to carry all of this equipment comfortably the backpack is a vessel that you carry your gear in and you want it to be as comfortable and as useful as possible for you but at the same time you need to carry it and it won't carry itself no matter how comfortable it is obviously technology and different designs of packs can really help make the weight feel lighter by adjusting it and shifting it so it blends with your body more and it sits on your hips aligned with your center of gravity but there's still going to be a lot of kit in there I mean that pack empty is a lot heavier than my Maxpedition condor - and it's probably a bit heavier than this pack here the Sabre 45 but I train with it almost every day in some respects I carry almost all my gear around with me all the time on day hikes when I'm out at work and as a result I've gotten very used to it and it's got to the point where I can just kind of do everything with it and not really worry about the weight now which ISM which is a good thing but when I go slack for a while I don't carry it and I just carry little items out with me I do notice it when I put it back on but again that's just part of fitness and you know it's nice to be able to train with the pack and carry that weight comfortably but we've looked at a range of packs today some have been a generalization like this standard camping pack here or excerpt plus kit that you can find all over the world in every country and some have been more specific things like the Sabre 45 or Sabres products which have quite a broad range of sizes and you've got the LK 35 that we've looked at quite specifically and they come in a range of sizes as well there's one up from this this is a really big one which is quite nice and maybe pretty good for future proofing if you're going on long trips or even going abroad or you're in a really cold climate we've got to carry a lot of kit so your climate your fitness and what you're looking to do whether you're a minimalist or you're looking for a large pack really depends or will influence on the size of pack that you choose say the rules of engagement may be that if you want a big pack like this make sure that it can fit the kind of gear that you want all year round or if you're going abroad as well but if you want a packed like mine which is a frame pack that can function as a day pack make sure it has outside capacity to strap on other things and bigger sleep systems so it can be used as a big pack as well but also function like the larger frame packs for comfort and that's an important rule I think you can remember there's a lot of things the way up but I think if you're new to bushcraft and you don't have a loss of money have a look at some old surplus gear even the L K 35 it doesn't take much to much the modify it and you can obviously check the description below if you want a detailed video on how to modify it there's a lot of options out there and I hope this videos provided some clarity and hopefully you'll join me in next week's episode where we'll be having a look at containers water bottle containers to go inside these packs because obviously if you're carrying packs and you're going out and doing some exploring you're going to want to carry water but not only carry it these containers need to be multifunctional to do a range of jumps so I hope this video has been useful thanks for watching and I'll see you in next week's episode of bushcraft basics take care guys thanks again [Applause] [Music]

Channel: MCQ Bushcraft & Wilderness Life

Views: 268,856

Rating: 4.9181023 out of 5

Keywords: mcqbushcraft backpack, bushcraft pack, best bushcraft backpack, bushcraft basics, karrimor sabre 45, karrimor sf sabre 45, bushcraft backpack, mcqbushcraft gear, bushcraft pack frame, bushcraft rucksack, bushcraft skills uk, mcq bushcraft gear, bush craft, bushcraft gear youtube, military backpacks, bushcraft skills, bushcraft skills channel, maxpedition condor 2, bushcraft gear, bushcraft backpack diy, bushcraft backpack loadout, bushcraft backpack review

Id: S_fjUKl4B3U

Length: 49min 11sec (2951 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 06 2015