Lil r said:
I didn't mind bending them I am just curious on how long they stay bent and not deform on long marches. I might be a bigger fan of the ruck if they hadn't issued me an XL bag with XS shoulder straps and XS waste buckle
Mine have stayed bent for almost a year since I bent them, during this tiem I have had the bang thrown around on a multitude of exercises, sent them thru airport security and baggage while travelling. I gotta ask though why do you have an XL bag with XS and XS waste buckle... are you super tall and skinny?? The whole point of the bag is that its supposed to be sized to fit your body otherwise its useless.
I will give you an example. I am 5'11 and around 190lbs ... I have a medium bag, belt and shoulder straps. Unless your 6 foot 7 then their is no reason you should have an XL bag. Whoever sized you obviously had no idea what they were doing and you should probably return it and get a new one.
From a light infantry standpoint, this bag is excellent. Its large enough that you can live out of the bottom and leave the top part for all your mission essential kit. The compartmental system works awesome as well. On our last ex I put my sleeping kit in the bottom while I had my small pack with 522 radio and water in the top pouch. It works wonders as you can simply drop your ruck, open up the top haul out your bag with radio and water and voila you are good to go, try doing that with a 64 pattern ruck and rigging it up comfortably, you will be very uncomfortable.
recceguy said:
and that'll be the rub. The more room and the bigger the bag, the more someone is going to want people to carry.
It's the CoC responsibility to determine what someone should and shouldn't carry. I personally leave non-mission essential kit up to my soldiers. If they wanna pack all their snivel kit they better damn well be able to carry it. This is where training with the ruck on a regular basis comes in handy. Its also the responsibility of the CoC to set realistic expectations of how fast someone is going to be able to move with a fully loaded ruck and adjust pace of an op accordingly.
Its a good piece of kit, its just been implemented poorly and some people haven't been sized correctly. I really like it and when you gotta carry a shit tonne of stuff its an awesome bag and the compartmental system works wonders. I take it out to the bush with me anytime I go camping civvy side as well. I hiked 30km with the bag a couple of weekends ago in algonquin park, carrying all my food, fishing gear, a pop-up tent, a folding chair, and all kinds of water, the bag can hold a shit tonne and is still really comfortable. I would not have been able to do that with an 82 pattern or a 64 pattern.
Also the reason it is the size it is lies in the fact that during winter and arctics ops you need to carry a lot more stuff.
) this waist belt absolutely destroyed my hips - which seems like a common problem from reading this thread.
