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Tactical Belt Rig: Mountainsmith Day EVO Lumbar Pack – Survive, Adapt, Conquer
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Apr 12, 2025
For those long, demanding outdoor missions, pair the Day EVO with Strapette EVO shoulder straps (sold separately) for an even more comfortable, supportive carry, and expanded carrying capacity. Built for the trail, engineered for EDC – the Day EVO is your essential gear for conquering the outdoors in style. The Day EVO lumbar pack is built for rugged EDC and trail adventures, offering ergonomic waist carry, customizable compression straps, a modular MOLLE pocket, and a reversible safety panel for low-visibility conditions. Mountainsmith EVO Series: https://mountainsmith.com/collections/evo-series Prepared Wanderer AMAZON STORE: https://bit.ly/3Jjs1iO Prepared Wanderer Patches and Stickers: https://thepreparedwanderer.bigcartel.com Prepared Wanderer WEBSITE: https://preparedwanderer.com Prepared Wanderer FACEBOOK GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1835005976546722 Prepared Wanderer INSTAGRAM:
View Video Transcript
0:00
i'm going to apologize upfront um I have
0:03
a bit of a head cold today so my voice
0:06
isn't great i'm a little
0:08
congested so if this
0:11
video sucks I apologize but I really
0:15
wanted to get out today and um hike
0:17
around a little bit before it starts
0:19
raining and show you this new
0:21
Mountainsmith pack
0:31
so I think at Shot Show uh Mountainsmith
0:35
unveiled that they came out with a new
0:38
tactical line of some of their more
0:41
beloved packs and also some additional
0:44
equipment as well they're calling it a
0:47
tactical line i think it's called the
0:48
EVO line um but it also I think has a
0:53
lot of application in the hunting realm
0:57
so if you are a backcountry hunter
0:59
especially if you're doing a lot of
1:01
hiking and hunting like out west these
1:05
packs this gear may really appeal to you
1:09
now I've been a fan of Mountain Smmith
1:12
um for a very long time their lineage is
1:16
very cool of course the company started
1:18
by Patrick Smith who went on to found
1:21
Kafaru and then I think he eventually
1:23
retired and sold off all those different
1:25
companies but Mount Smith still exists
1:29
unfortunately they're not an
1:30
Americanmade company anymore that is an
1:32
American company but I think all their
1:34
production is in Vietnam um but the
1:37
company itself is still here in the US
1:39
and they really do make nice hiking gear
1:43
backpacking gear um and their lumbar
1:47
packs I've always been a fan of i've had
1:50
the originals back when Patrick Smith
1:53
was still running Mountain Smith um I
1:56
had some of the newer iterations and my
1:58
favorite has always been the day lumbar
2:00
pack but like a lot of other guys I
2:03
always wanted more out of that pack i
2:05
wanted it to be a little bit more
2:06
hunting tactical friendly uh subdued
2:10
colors maybe some different features on
2:12
it like Molly um webbing so I could
2:16
attach pouches just making it more
2:19
versatile uh for what I do and I think a
2:23
lot of people were in the same boat they
2:25
wanted that same thing and Mountain
2:27
Smmith finally listened and came out
2:31
with this and we're going to go over
2:33
this today take a look at this in depth
2:35
and see what you guys think
2:42
so the best way to go through this pack
2:44
is just to lay it out and talk about
2:46
some of the features now I want to say
2:49
right up front um this pack is very new
2:52
i just received this very
2:54
recently um I don't have a lot of miles
2:58
uh hiking with it so that's going to
3:01
come later but um people have been
3:04
asking me about this there was a thread
3:06
on a forum I belong to people are really
3:09
excited about it uh they want to see
3:11
video they asked me if I would be doing
3:13
a video i said absolutely soon as I get
3:16
it I will take it out and go with
3:18
features because a lot of times on the
3:20
websites of these companies they don't
3:22
do a great job of showing everything and
3:25
I can show it better in one of my my
3:29
breakdown videos probably than they can
3:31
so it gives me an opportunity to do that
3:34
for you guys so you can you know before
3:36
you go out and purchase this you can
3:38
look at this video and see what I'm
3:40
talking about first thing about this
3:42
pack is it has a very nice ventilated
3:44
padded uh system on the back and then
3:48
the belt also has that um kind of mesh
3:52
feeling padding on the waist belt system
3:56
now the waist belt is not um removable
3:59
and you cannot tuck it away or hide it
4:02
some of the older lumbar packs that
4:04
Mountsmith made did that you cannot do
4:07
it with this one this one is actually
4:08
sewn in and if you hear that there's a
4:13
hard or semi- rigid plastic frame sheet
4:16
in this that helps give it some um
4:19
rigidity and some form the belt on
4:25
this has the PAL's webbing on it so you
4:29
can add things like knives additional
4:32
pouches whatever you want to
4:34
do the stabilizing straps connect
4:39
here and those are removable so if you
4:42
want to take those off you can but that
4:45
helps pull the pack into your uh back
4:47
and your waist and then the shoulder
4:53
straps
4:56
just the shoulder straps just loop
5:00
through here on the bottom and that way
5:02
you can take those off as well that's
5:05
the attachment point for there the waist
5:08
belt i believe this is probably a 1 and
5:12
1/2 in
5:14
belt not your typical big 2in belt so
5:17
it's a little bit more comfortable
5:19
and then it does come with this
5:22
removable pouch and I'm going to show
5:24
you what you can do with that here in a
5:26
minute so that just mollies on to the
5:28
belt and then you can take that off and
5:30
put that someplace else or utilize it
5:32
there i actually like it here from my
5:34
little short hike today i've got my
5:36
headlamp and then I've got um some
5:38
energy bars in here and I can actually
5:40
reach that while I'm w walking and
5:42
hiking so that's actually a bonus
5:47
bottom of the pack of course you can
5:49
strap some stuff down there we'll take a
5:53
look at that a little bit more now
5:55
besides just the you know more subdued
5:58
colors um there are more features on
6:02
this that of course make it a little bit
6:03
more tactical a little bit more hunting
6:05
friendly so you've got the Molly webbing
6:07
back here and on this
6:09
panel and this panel is pretty cool so
6:13
this is the panel that's going to allow
6:15
you to stuff a jacket or a sleeping pad
6:19
or sit pad or something under there kind
6:23
of a beaver tail but this is the neat
6:25
part about it so we've got the the Molly
6:28
webbing on the front with Velcro so and
6:30
it comes with this patch and you can add
6:32
your own
6:34
then you open that
6:36
up and there's this very nice blaze
6:40
orange panel and so what this allows you
6:43
to do is you can actually um take this
6:46
panel off reverse it and then have a
6:49
blaze orange patch on the outside of
6:50
your pack so if you're hunting you've
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got some blaze orange on your bag and
6:55
then of course there's a nice little
6:56
zipper pouch in
6:59
here and that's kind of a I don't know
7:02
it's it's a very slick um nylon material
7:06
so it's got some good water resistance
7:08
and of course there's a little panel for
7:11
a
7:12
patch it also comes with this um
7:16
tourniquet
7:17
holder which I was really surprised that
7:19
they did that and you can leave it leave
7:22
it here or you can move it to the inside
7:24
of the pack and I'll show you how that
7:25
works but it's a nice add-on they
7:29
actually have a tourniquet holder with
7:30
the pack that goes with it they've
7:32
thought about that and of course we got
7:34
more pals welding back here so if you
7:36
wanted to add an additional pouch like a
7:39
a long one this be a great place to do
7:42
it got the front zipper
7:45
pocket and that is
7:47
lined in that slick orange nylon
7:51
material so this is a great graband go
7:54
kind of place i got my bandana in here
7:56
i've got a whistle and a little
8:00
light all the zipper poles have this
8:03
very nice
8:06
um electrical tubing shrink shrink wrap
8:10
tubing i do this to a lot of my packs
8:11
already so it's kind of cool that they
8:13
they've picked up on that trend and
8:15
they're doing it with theirs because it
8:17
makes for a very nice easy grab um when
8:20
you're trying to to handle the zippers
8:23
the top zippers to the main pack um have
8:25
the
8:27
larger
8:29
nylon pull tabs with little rubber ends
8:33
on it this is kind of traditional for
8:35
Mountain Smith they do this with a lot
8:36
of their packs they're usually yellow um
8:38
so it's kind of cool that this is a
8:40
subdued color now the main bag um area
8:45
is a little probably going to be kind of
8:46
hard to show but I'm going to have to
8:48
take some stuff out here as you can see
8:49
we've got them the orange material once
8:51
again on the inside which is awesome
8:53
you're able to see into your pack see
8:55
the contents very easily and I got this
8:57
thing loaded up with some gear so I've
9:00
got a small uh 5x8
9:04
tarp of course my
9:07
spork pair of
9:14
gloves got some fire making gear in
9:17
there
9:21
550
9:28
cord my
9:32
stove my
9:38
saw and now you can see a little bit
9:40
better in here so this back
9:43
panel has a Velcro field which is
9:46
awesome because now you're able to
9:48
velcro
9:50
pouches back
9:52
here or if you want you could velcro a
9:55
holster and carry um a sidearm as a way
9:58
of transporting it pretty nice feature
10:01
um also if you see down below there's a
10:04
tab that is sewn in i believe this is
10:07
for a hydration bladder possibly or um
10:12
maybe anchoring um a
10:15
pistol tethering it the holster so when
10:18
you draw it it doesn't come out all in
10:21
one stroke so that kind of keeps it in
10:24
there and then of course we
10:26
have a
10:29
port to route you know radios or
10:33
hydration tubes but this thing is it's
10:35
pretty good size and of course you can
10:37
cinch this down and then on this
10:41
side is more of the Molly or Pal's
10:44
webbing and this allows you to take that
10:46
pouch that they gave you on the outside
10:48
on that belt put that in here use it in
10:52
here or add your own pouch so tons of
10:56
space i really don't have this thing
10:58
that um filled out i could definitely
11:02
add
11:03
more if I wanted
11:06
to but I really wanted to just show you
11:10
guys this
11:12
pack as quickly as possible so you could
11:14
get kind of an idea of what this thing
11:16
is all about okay then we're going to go
11:18
to the water bottle pockets now the
11:19
water bottle pockets have a little bit
11:21
of a mesh side to them so they're going
11:22
to breathe and if they're bottle if it's
11:25
summertime and your water bottle's
11:26
sweating that's going to help evaporate
11:29
some of that moisture um it will fit a
11:33
standard canteen the old 1 quart canteen
11:37
so the military cantens and the Nene
11:40
Oasises will fit in here so what also is
11:43
nice is the water bottle pockets are big
11:45
enough to fit a Nene so there's your 32
11:50
oz
11:53
ngene and it will
11:59
fit water bottle cup
12:02
so
12:03
that in itself is pretty awesome because
12:07
a lot of times these manufacturers will
12:09
come up with these very cool um you know
12:12
packs and stuff and then they don't
12:14
think about how people actually utilize
12:17
these and they won't make the pockets
12:19
big enough to fit a water bottle with a
12:21
cup and that is such a big deal
12:25
nowadays so the harness
12:28
um comes separately it does not come
12:30
with the pack you have to order that
12:32
separately it's a separate price um that
12:34
allows you to customize the pack the way
12:36
you want it so maybe if you don't want
12:37
this harness you don't have to utilize
12:39
it you can use one of the older
12:40
harnesses like the Strapettes um but I
12:43
will say that this thing is far superior
12:47
um to anything I've used in the past i
12:50
mean look at that yolk it's very wide
12:53
which is a huge benefit for comfort it's
12:57
padded well but it's not overly
13:04
padded and the cool thing about it is
13:06
that they've built in some very cool
13:09
features into this thing so we've got
13:11
these mesh pockets that um are
13:13
adjustable so you could put put a water
13:16
bottle in here a small one um I've got
13:19
my compass in here this
13:25
one I got my
13:30
radio you put your keys i carried my
13:33
cell phone in here hiking out here today
13:35
um you've got these Velcro fields for
13:39
patches but of course you can also clip
13:41
stuff into this and then they
13:47
include this tab right here this Velcro
13:50
tab so if you're doing a hydration
13:53
bladder the tube can pass through there
13:55
and be held or if you have a radio you
13:58
can you know pass the antenna or the
14:00
cords through there and that's going to
14:01
manage those um of course if you have a
14:05
radio that has a microphone you can clip
14:07
it to one of these so you just have a
14:09
lot of options and then the other kind
14:12
of I would say kind of unusual feature
14:15
is we have a sternum
14:20
strap which is pretty typical right but
14:24
now we have two and as you can see in
14:26
the beginning of the video when I was
14:28
wearing this thing um it comes down kind
14:30
of low it just sits right above my
14:32
stomach
14:34
um but it helps stabilize these pockets
14:39
and it brings them in very nicely the
14:42
other cool thing is that the harness
14:43
actually came in um a bag this little
14:47
mesh stuff
14:48
sack which is a very cool idea because
14:51
if I'm traveling or transporting the
14:55
pack and I want to take the harness with
14:57
me but I don't want that harness all
14:59
over the place because it does you know
15:01
get tangled up in things and it's you
15:03
know a little bit harder to carry when
15:05
you're not wearing it you can fold it up
15:07
and shove it in this little bag and then
15:09
then it can go in your pack it can go in
15:11
your truck whatever and it just helps
15:13
manage it so pretty well thought out uh
15:17
thing that they did with that love that
15:19
idea
15:34
so people ask me all the time when I
15:37
show um lumbar packs or belt rigs
15:42
they're like "Why why do you want that
15:44
why are you carrying that why don't you
15:46
just carry a backpack and carry more
15:48
stuff?"
15:50
And the goal with a lumbar pack
15:54
um is not to carry more stuff even
15:58
though there are some really good ones
16:00
that are much bigger um Cavaru makes one
16:03
of course or used to i don't know if
16:06
they do anymore when they did the Scout
16:09
and there's some custom makers who are
16:10
making some really cool stuff um that
16:12
are bigger but that's not the goal with
16:15
this kind of pack um this is a daypack
16:19
um that could be pressed into a summer
16:22
overnighter easily it is a pack for
16:26
being able to move uh quickly easily uh
16:31
through the woods so it makes for a very
16:34
good scouting rig um um hunting rig if
16:40
you're doing property patrol um and you
16:43
want to carry you know a lightweight
16:45
butt pack um with some
16:47
rations um water and a couple magazines
16:51
for your rifle this is a great bag for
16:53
that kind of application and that's what
16:55
these lumbar packs or waste bags really
16:58
excel at and I've you know if you go
17:01
back through my videos there are tons of
17:04
videos that I've done of setting up LBEs
17:08
and belt rigs and taking um less than
17:13
ideal uh you know packs off of Amazon
17:17
and adding suspenders to them trying to
17:19
convert them and they've all worked out
17:22
all right um but just having something
17:26
like this that is dedicated uh built
17:30
purposefully built um is awesome so
17:34
there's the pack sitting on my hips and
17:37
my hipbone is about there so it's
17:40
sitting right on top i don't even have
17:42
this thing really cinched down tight i
17:44
don't have
17:45
to and it is so comfortable carrying
17:49
this thing just hiking back here today
17:52
as always thanks for watching and we'll
17:54
see you next time on the Prepared
17:55
Wanderer
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