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EMR Review

Matt_Fisher

Army.ca Veteran
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As KevinB scooped me on getting a Kifaru EMR, I just wanted to let everyone know that I too am now a proud member of the Kifaru club, as my wife and daughter had Santa bring me an Olive Drab EMR with a Hybrid and Standard long-pocket for Christmas.    ;D

I don't think I've ever seen a military ruck that's as well thought out, soldily constructed and just dead sexy!

I'll get some pictures posted over the next couple days.

I haven't taken it out for any serious rucking yet, but did load it up yesterday with about 45 pounds worth of stuff and tooled around the yard a bit.  While 45 pounds is 45 pounds, the manner of carrying it is awesome!

I've used the 64, 82 pattern, ALICE Medium, Lowe CFP-90 packs and the Kifaru is by far the most comfortable initially.  It's amazing to feel the difference in having the load rest entirely on your shoulders as with the 64,82 and ALICE vs. the Kifaru that not only transfers weight onto your hips, but also has the shoulder 'load lifter' straps that really transfer the stress of the load from the top of your shoulders and place more of it on the front of your shoulders/collarbone and chest.

Tomorrow morning I'm going to put my baby daughter in the pediatric chest rig (aka Baby Bjorn child carrier) and take the Kifaru out for a walk.
 
Nice.  I should be ordering mine at the end of the week (Santa cleared the Visa bill....)
 
One recommendation though.  I'd go with 2 of the Hybrid long pockets if you're looking at getting any of the long pockets.  The standard ones are very functional, but the top loading zipper of the hybrid allows you to access the contents while the pouch is still on the pack.

I've also played around with the dock & lock and it's very easy to rig the pockets on the back of MOLLE/PALS webbed LBV in a similar manner as to how the Brits zip their side ruck pockets to their webbing yolk.

Either way, you're definitely not going to be dissapointed with anything from Kifaru!
 
I can't wait to get mine as well. I'm going for the Cadpat version. However I may have to wait for a bit as that is a lot ($$$$$$) of clearance to get from niner!
 
Westie,

Unless you've got access to some yards of Cadpat material to send down to Kifaru, you'll probably be waiting for a very very very long time before Kifaru does anything in Cadpat, due to license restrictions.  :(
 
Oh don't worry, I can get the material!!!!!!!!! Right now it's just the old dineros!!!
 
Beat me to a review ARGHHH  ;)

Glad you like it - I cant say enough about mine...
 
Update on the EMR:

I was at Camp Dawson in West Virginia last week on a Mountain Warfare Training ex.

I had about 55 pounds of gear in/on it.  Stowed were my kevlar helmet and ballistic vest, spare change of uniform, 2 spare sets of polypro underwear, 4 pairs of socks, White rubber Vapor Barrier (mickey mouse) boots (US equivalent to mukluks), fleece pants, fleece jacket, Gore-tex pants and jacket, 3 part sleeping bag/bivi bag and Z-rest, Ranger blanket, 4 days worth of cold weather MREs, 3L camelbak, 2 x 2quart canteens and a 1 quart thermos bottle, Optimus Nova stove, extra 750ml fuel bottle, plus some other assorted gear like my hygeine kit, extra AA batteries, etc.

One of the best features of the ruck was the "floating" lid which can be adjusted via straps on each of its 4 corners.  This allowed me to cinch down the top of the ruck effectively, no matter how big or bulky the load was. 

The exterior dock and lock long pockets were also great. 

In the hybrid long pocket I had loaded my 1qt thermos plus a 2 cold weather MREs.  In the other long pocket I had my stove and extra fuel bottle.  I'd like to get an E&E pouch to put the thermos and rations into and use the long pocket for storing my hygeine kit and spare socks.  That is one of the few things that would make this ruck even better than it currently is.

We did about a 6 mile movement to our patrol base and the ruck interfaced beautifully with my chest rig.

The shoulder straps from the ruck interfaced well with the shoulder straps on the chest rig.  The sternum strap on the ruck's straps kept the shoulder straps from slipping into my armpits.  Using a chest rig allowed me to use the waistbelt on the ruck effectively.  The Kifaru's waistbelt is very comfortable and extremely supportive. 

I had more discomfort from the chest rig (the old "Saracen Military Products" rig done by Rob Deans that I got in 1995) than I did the ruck.  The 1" webbing straps on the rear of the shoulder straps bit into my deltoids quite a bit.  I ended up loosening off those straps and that helped a bit.  I think that I'd want to replace the straps with 1.5 or 2" webbing.  All in all though, I'll end up getting a TT MAV, but I'm not sure whether I want the split front 2 piece version or the 1 piece.
 
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