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New Survival & Bug Out Gear! Best Military Surplus Options
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Feb 4, 2024
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View Video Transcript
0:00
Oh hey, sorry I didn't mean to be hidden by all this military surplus but today I
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want to show you some very cool new military surplus I picked up recently
0:34
and I think this stuff is going to be fantastic if you're building out bug out
0:40
bags, survival kits, bushcraft gear, just camping in general, whatever, if you're a
0:46
prepper or a survivalist or just an average camper, military surplus sometimes is the way to go and there are some fantastic companies and deals out
0:57
there and I want to show you stuff that I found that I think are awesome
1:02
Stick around. Alright let me move some of this out of the way so we can chat. For
1:14
whatever reason I have picked up a lot of military surplus lately, it's just
1:19
it's just been coming to me and really wasn't intending looking for all this
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stuff but I discovered a website that I really wasn't familiar with and I've
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been kind of following on YouTube and I started looking at their stuff and really realized that they have some very cool items available, the prices are
1:43
decent but the the quality and the grade that they sell is excellent and I just
1:51
like the options that they have. It's not a bunch of Chinese knockoff Rothko
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junk and then sprinkled a little bit of used up military surplus, this is quality
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gear and what I like about these guys, one thief surplus, is that they are
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veteran owned. The owner of the company is a former Marine and I've been chatting
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with him, he's a great guy, seems to be very knowledgeable about gear, very
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down-to-earth family man and I really like his company and what they're doing
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but more importantly I love military surplus and he has some really cool
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stuff. So this is some of the new stuff that I've been messing with that I've been getting that I'm gonna be trying out this year. Winter is coming, I'm
2:43
switching out kits, I'm getting ready for hunting season, so it's the perfect
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time to try out new gear and see what works and what doesn't work. Move this
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stuff aside, we are going to look at this bad boy. This is an Alice pack on
3:06
steroids, it's not really an Alice pack but it is built around the Alice pack
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system or the frame at least but everything outside of that is so much
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better than a standard Alice pack. This is made by London Bridge Tactical, if
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you're not familiar with them you need to check them out, it's a US company. They
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make very high quality tactical gear and they make it for the civilian market as
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well as the military market and this is, from my understanding, and someone can
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correct me if I'm wrong down the comments, this is an issued pack that was
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used for special forces I believe. It is a monster, it's a huge pack and I'm
3:52
actually really considering having this replace my ILBE, I've done a video on
3:59
that several times, I've shown it in use. It's a fantastic military surplus pack
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probably one of the best in my opinion especially for winter camping, it holds
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all your gear but there's something about this pack that I like so much
4:13
better and that is the organization. As you can tell there are a ton of pockets
4:18
on the outside and that makes for compartmentalizing your gear and able to
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find it when you're out in the field so much easier. So let's take a look at the
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pack a little bit closer and go over some of the specs. So this may be a
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little difficult to show on camera just because it's so big but I want you
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guys to see this thing in detail, I don't want the shot to be too far away because you're not going to see the layout of this thing as well. Now
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like I said this is a very well organized backpack, tons of organization
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What we have is we have six exterior pockets that are much wider than the
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standard Alice pack pocket. These easily fit rolled up ponchos, whoobies, canteens
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Nal jeans, I mean these things are huge they swallow a lot of gear and what I
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like about it is having these on the outside and having six of them it allows
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me to compartmentalize my gear by the type of gear that I use. My
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thinking, my thought process is if I keep the gear in the same pocket every time
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don't switch it out, don't mess with it. When I go camping, when I hit the woods
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the stuff will always be there I know where it's going to be at and I'm going
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to start building that memory of where things are at and I can find things more easily. Because one thing with the ILBE large pack you know there's not a lot of
5:56
organization within it you have to put everything in stuff sacks and pull
6:00
everything out it's a long you know narrow tube that you just fill with one
6:06
pocket on top and that's it. So this has the ability to organize gear from the
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outside so we have our top flap which is a pocket in itself and we'll go over
6:16
that in a minute to open that bad boy up and in the center pocket it has a
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drawstring closure so you can keep everything nice and tight and in here
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I'm keeping all of my toiletries and my first aid items so I've got my my
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toiletry bag, I've got TP and wipes and some hand sanitizer, I got my glasses so
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the thinking is this is always going to be in this top middle pocket I'm not
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going to have to search. So pockets are huge you get the idea a lot of stuff can
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fit in these things I got a med kit down here I've got a tarp and some extra
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cordage in there gloves hat in there so these pockets are fantastic for
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organizing that stuff and what's really cool about them is every one of these is a pass-through and it goes all the way down to the next pocket what does that
7:19
mean well pass your pockets are awesome because you can store and transport axes
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tomahawks large saws so larger equipment you can get in here easily and I can do
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it in the front I can do it on these side pouches they go all the way through
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down to the next one that one's a pass-through as well so a fantastic way
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of carrying extra gear. Moving to the inside of the pack we have a large
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drawstring collar so that's going to help keep debris out and keep the
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contents more contained and that's just a simple cord lock that opens that up
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and expand that out now the nice feature about this collar is and that's what I
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love about this pack it's so well thought out you got the collar right
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well that makes it hard to get into stuff well if you want to get into this pack there are zippers that go all the way across and there's two sets of them
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so you can get it you can get into it from left or right but that so when this
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is all closed up you're able to get inside your pack fantastic the other
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thing is this top pocket is completely removable and it has a little button
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lock zipper so that comes off and it has built-in straps so now this can become a
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day pack or maybe if you're putting your food in here and you want to put this
9:02
someplace separate from where you're sleeping at you can put it all in here
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and then hang that in a tree but you've got a really nice pocket that turns
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into a pack it also has a pass-through so you can get to the interior contents
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and then it has two pockets built in here so we have a large flat pocket
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great for maps but what I like to do is I keep my Tyvek ground sheet in here for
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my tent and then we have one more pocket on top and here I've got some eating
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utensils my plate a bowl but a really nice system and of course you can cinch
9:55
this all down so we can remove the top pocket a very heavy-duty well-sewn grab
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handle that's important want to be able to grab that pack now one thing that
10:08
this pack does not have and I'm a little surprised by it and I kind of
10:13
wish it did have it and maybe I'll fashion something if I can but what it
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lacks that the ILBE has is a center strap and a center strap on top of a
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pack is super important because what it does is it allows you to buckle it and
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then pull it tight and what happens is it pulls that load up and keeps
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everything snug and keeps the center of gravity towards your back the weight
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load towards your back you don't want flopping out and for whatever reason
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they did not put that in this pack now maybe I don't know I'm just I'm thinking
10:51
out loud here as I'm saying this maybe this is something that can be actually tied up with the cord from the from the collar I don't know it's something I
10:59
gotta experiment with but it really needs it it needs that extra strap but
11:04
if you pull this super tight it does help control that load a little bit I
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think the only benefit of not having strap is it just makes getting into your
11:15
pack quicker and maybe that is the thinking so try to pull this as tight as
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possible and see if that helps side of the pack a very nice large side panel
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with molly top and bottom a strap keeper right here and I'm going to talk about
11:39
that here in a minute but lots of room to put additional pouches if you need to
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there are of course side straps to help pull the load in more this pack came
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with the keepers already installed I didn't have to put new ones on and what's
12:00
fantastic about this is this is going to help control that load as well pull that
12:07
nice tight and that pulls everything in and then you simply roll up your straps
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shove them in there and you're ready to go pass through right here this to me is
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a great place to put a strap an additional strap and attach it to the
12:38
frame and then you can pull that strap tight and pull that loaded in even more
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I've seen that done from another person on Instagram it's great idea I plan on
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doing that my I just haven't got around to doing it yet but I think that's a good place for that bottom of the pack Molly more Molly also a bottom access
13:02
zipper it allows you to get to your sleep system in here I actually have the
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military issue black bag actually mine's gray bag because of the era that I bought
13:16
it from the year but it's the same thing it's the black bag in the three-piece
13:22
military sleep system very warm sleeping bag it's one of my favorites but it fits
13:27
in here perfectly and I can access that from the bottom if I want to last thing
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I want to cover is the frame and suspension on this so this pack is
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utilizing the standard Alice frame now there a lot of people will say you can
13:50
switch over to the plastic frame like the down east frame and those are a
13:56
great option I've heard mixed reports on those on the plastic frames that they
14:02
crack they break with a lot of abuse and the Alice frames tend to hold up better
14:07
so I don't know really which is the best I think the the military guys can
14:13
probably weigh in with more input on that but I like the Alice frame it works
14:20
it's fairly lightweight I don't think it's really that heavy of a frame but
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it's very solid it's a proven design and what's nice about it is there's a fair
14:32
amount of airflow between the hip belt in the back of the pack you can actually
14:37
stuff more gear back here if you want to but I like to keep it open because you
14:42
get a lot of airflow back here and that really is beneficial the London Bridge pack has a very nice deep padded that's fully padded pocket
14:56
for the frame to slip into there are these removable velcro panels and the
15:05
material on this is kind of a rubberized texture material so that I would
15:09
consider that like a non-slip pad but if you don't want that you can remove it
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fully adjustable sternum strap quick-release buckles on the straps themselves and then a very nice s-shape strap which is fantastic for conforming
15:26
to your shoulders and just enough padding for comfort but not overly
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padded of course it's adjustable on length up here and also down below and
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then what really sets this pack system apart from anything that I've been using
15:45
recently is the hip belt hip belt is very comfortable it is not overly padded
15:53
like the ILBE hip belt which is in my opinion way too thick and very
15:59
cumbersome sometimes not comfortable because it's so thick this to me is the
16:05
right amount of padding for a hip belt and of course you've got molly on the
16:10
sides so you can put pouches there utilizing the 2-inch webbing and buckle
16:17
for the strap so very secure if you can see in here so this Cordura strapping which actually is reinforced
16:32
feels like plastic inside there that goes through that big D-ring that sets
16:37
on the frame and then you tie it together with 550 cord and there's a
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there it is there so you can tighten that as much as you want management of
16:47
the string it's a little of an issue I've actually been thinking about putting
16:53
maybe a cord lock on this so I can tighten it quicker and easier and then
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cutting off all that excess 550 cord but that's how it attaches and that
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gives you a very nice cushy hip belt it rides very well surplus is this light
17:13
fighter tent system this is a one-man tent and what's unique about it is that
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it actually can set up on top of a cot so if you're using a cot you can
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actually use the tent like a bug net and sleep on top of the cot or you can
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use it on the ground now I've set it up here at the house just to check it out
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and it's a fantastic little system I have not slept in it yet but I know that
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a lot of people love these things it's a very nice system it's not overly heavy
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it's a very nice little shelter so we're gonna try that out here in a few weeks
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do some camping with it and I will be definitely doing a review of this just
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on its own so you guys can see how this thing sets up and what I think about it
18:02
after sleeping in it but another very cool piece of gear that I just picked up I got this from one thief
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as well this is a padded Molly pouch I think I think it's utilized for maybe
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NVG or something like that I'm not sure exactly I can't remember what the
18:42
designation on this is but the size is perfect for a water bottle kit and what
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I've done with mine is I've got my my Stanley pot and my now gene stainless
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steel bottle in there got a windscreen that all fits inside this pouch very
19:04
nicely plenty of room and it'll even fit a taller setup like this 40 ounce clean
19:15
canteen with a cup that goes in there as well and the lid still I'm still able to
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close it no issue there right what's unique about this is it has this sleeve
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that's kind of sewn into it it's like a pocket so you're you'd be able to shove
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like a spoon maybe some coffee packets things like that down the sides this one
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is sewn on this side so you got a pouch right there and then even the lid has
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some padding sewn into it so if you if you're hard on your gear and you want to
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protect your water bottle system or your cook stove so it doesn't get dinged up
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this is a fantastic pouch to set up and this what I'm thinking about doing is
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actually putting this on the side of my London Bridge pack another excellent
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piece of military surplus for a day pack is the Marine Corps issue ILBE
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assault pack now this one I've actually had this for a little while I've done a
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video on it before you setting it up as a patrol pack one thief does sell these
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they have two versions of a gen 1 and a gen 2 the gen 1 has black zippers and
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buckles and then the gen 2 or 3 has the coyote but seeing that on their website
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kind of made me think I need to pull mine out again and get it set up because
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for hunting season this is going to be my dedicated day pack that I'm going to
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carry out in the woods adding a couple Molly to canteen carriers to the side
21:02
for hydration you've got a very nice pocket on the front that is deep and you
21:11
can put some different pouches in there so in here I always keep my my tough
21:16
possum gear first aid kit pouch that's their survival pouch I use it for my
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first aid and then I've got like a little emergency fire kit just some
21:29
possible items I need and of course my gloves so I really like how these Marine
21:41
Corps packs are set up they're very comfortable they were designed by our
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terrorists in the beginning when they were first putting these into use and
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the design of it to me is perfect for a day pack I actually prefer this over the
21:56
Molly to I've done a review of the Molly to pack and that's a good system but I much prefer this I always go back to this one so I dug this out set it up
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again ready to go for hunting season first it has a nice padded back nice
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shoulder straps sternum strap there is a waist belt that tucks into the back here
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and then on the inside plenty of room there is also a hydration pocket and there are hydration ports so
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you can run tubing now here is a little trick with this particular pack that I
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just kind of discovered this pad right here is from tough possum gear this is
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the set pad that he sells and this comes in coyote ranger green I think
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multicam also but it's a nice little system because it's it's a velcro pouch
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that you can slip your pad into and it comes with the pad but one side is high
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viz orange for signaling and then the other side of course is the subdued
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color and this pad fits perfectly in the ILBE assault pack it it it's like it
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was meant for it and that's awesome because when I'm hunting I want
23:37
something I can sit on and the fact that it has the orange on it if I want to
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attach that to the outside of my pack as an identifier I can do that so it's a
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great setup it works perfectly with the the assault pack and of course this is
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another tough possum pouch that I love to use one of those utility pouches I
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got all my my mess kit items in there so this is just a quick rundown of some very excellent military surplus gear
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that you can utilize for prepping survival bushcraft even hunting you don't always have to use all the commercial stuff and a lot of times at
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least in my opinion and what I've found is military surplus tends to be very
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durable and if you shop around and go to a lot of different sites and look at the
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gear that they sell there are different conditions you can buy one thief does an
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excellent job of explaining the different grades that their gear comes in they will rate them and they will tell you what that is and then they will
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price it accordingly they will of course disclose if there's going to be any kind
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of issues or imperfections but everything I've received from them has been top-notch very quick shipping veteran-owned great company and I love
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supporting small companies like this in the United States they're a fantastic group of people and they have excellent military surplus gear for your next kit
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build so check them out there'll be a link down below check out my affiliate
25:37
links as well there is a link to my Facebook page it's a group prepared
25:44
wander group it is huge it's 13.8 thousand people right now growing every
25:51
day and prepared wonder calm articles links to some of the videos swag all
25:58
kinds of different stuff check that out if you want more information you like to read articles it's a great resource there and as always thank you so much
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for watching oh and all this stuff will be out in the field doing reviews of it
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showing it in action so stay tuned this fall and winter for more videos on this
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stuff that I just showed today and hopefully it'll help you out we'll see
26:24
you next time on the prepared wander you
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