3 Day Assault Pack Review

johnboy

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Oct 2, 2003
2,258
5
Hamilton NZ
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Unbranded ‘3 Day Assault Pack’ Review

Back in November I took a business trip to China and did some shopping in Shenzhen during some down time. I found and purchased a ‘USMC 3 Day Assault Pack’.

For the sake of full disclosure the pack is 100% mine paid for by me. I paid approx 100RMB for it which is approx 10 GBP

The purpose of this review is three fold.

• Firstly take a general look at a generic 3 Day assault style of clam shell day sack
• Secondly to Review this particular pack
• Finally to understand a bit more about ‘Far East’ manufactured look alike product and it’s suitability for everyday use.

The big question I had was would a 10 quid pack last and stand up to a bit of mild bushcraft type abuse as well as a more expensive branded pack?

Ok so what is a ‘3 Day Assault pack’?

The concept comes from the need for a foot soldier to have enough kit with them for a patrol or operation away from immediate logistical support. Basically it’s a pack that holds enough: kit, food and water for up to 3 days in the field and is meant to augment the belt kit or vest kit that the soldier will be wearing. The ‘3 day’ duration I think is calculated on operating in a warm environment. As in a temperate environment you’d possibly need more warm kit which would be bulkier and hence you would need a bigger pack. If you’ve seen images of troops on patrol in Iraq or Afghanistan chances are they were using some form of day sack to hold additional kit. What differentiates a lot of the 3 Day Style packs from a regular military day sack like the Sabre 45 or Berghaus Munro is the style of opening. A lot of the ‘3 day’ packs feature a zip fastened ‘clam shell’ style opening over a more conventional lidded opening. This I think comes from the American origin of a lot of the pack designs. A lot of US made College Campus style daysacks feature zip openings. This clamshell style has advantages it’s easy to access kit just un zip and everything is easy to find no rummaging around at the bottom like you end up doing with a conventional lidded daysack on occasion and a large single item such as a radio or full water bladder is easy to drop in place. Typical 3 day packs are made by Tactical Tailor, Camelback, Blackhawk!, Bugout and a host of other manufacturers.

So what’s an overtly military bit of kit got to do with bushcraft? Well the packs of course vary in capacity and are pretty useful in size often being around the 40 - 45 L mark. Which is generally enough capacity for an overnight in summer or a few days day hiking. Or here in NZ a weekend hiking from hut to hut.. They come in nice subdued colours which bushy folk seem to like and they have well thought out storage spaces for lots of bits of kit which bushy folk also like. Often they feature MOLLE / PALS webbing so you can slap additional kit and pouches on the outside if that sort of thing floats your boat.


Overview:
So this leads me to my no brand made in China ‘USMC 3 Day Assault Pack’… The pack is not meant for frontline military use I suspect it’s mainly designed as a cheap option for Airsoft etc it borrows a lot of its features and appearance in a sort of ‘homage’ to the Blackhawk Phoenix ‘Patrol Pack’.

Picture taken from www.blackhawk.com
18-128-IMG1.jpeg



http://www.blackhawk.com/product/Phoenix-Patrol-Pack,128,44.htm

Front of Pack
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Back of Pack
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Base of Pack
DSCF0023-3.jpg



Materials and Construction:
The pack is constructed from some sort of texturised Olive Green Nylon I’d say it was Cordura but it’s not of course but it feels as good as the Cordura on my Berghaus Vulcan. The stitching quality is apparently good with the PALS Webbing being well bar tacked however the finish quality on the bag was poor with lots of untrimmed thread ends which took me 10 minutes to go over and trim up. The nylon webbing used is strong and closely woven and the plastic ‘fastex’ style buckles are good and not too brittle all the other plastic fittings seem to be of similar quality apart from the ‘D’ rings on the shoulder straps which are pretty poor these are made from black painted steel rather than plastic they look a bit shonky but function well enough. I used them to clip a Motorola Handheld during my week long trip and they stood up well. The all important zips are a bit of a worry. The sliders and coil type zips actually look ok of course they are non branded however the zip pulls are very flimsy more on this later.


Features:
The pack has lots of features borrowed from other branded packs. First up we get a Velcro attachment point for a name tape or zap number and a larger velcro patch on the back of the pack for a unit marking or national flag.

Velcro Attachment
DSCF0018-3.jpg



The pack features a removable waist belt which I ditched pretty much straight away as the back length on the pack makes the belt impractical for me. It is however well thought through and has elasticated loops to retain the adjusted belt and closes with a large ‘fastex’ style buckle.

This Buckle allows the waist belt to be removed if required
DSCF0022-1.jpg



The main pack has 3 compartments the larger opens via a double puller zip this opens about ¾ of the height of the pack and is approx 35 / 40 L in capacity. Inside is a large hydration bladder sleeve which swallows a complete filled 3L camel back and outer with room to spare.


Hydration Sleeve inside main compartment
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There is a hydration port slit cut into the top centre of the pack and you can thread the hydration hose through. The slit is reinforced with Velcro and has an elasticated cover. I suppose this would also do for an aerial for a comms system of some sort. Not that man-packing a ‘Bowman’ is a particularly bushcrafty thing to do….

Hydration Tube ‘port’
DSCF0021.jpg


It’s really easy to get to all the kit you put in this main section of the pack. There is a flap over the zip to keep dust sand and water ingress out but your kit will need to be in a drybag or drybags to keep it 100% weatherproof. 4 ‘fastex’ buckles on the outside of the pack act as compression straps and also secure the main compartment if the zip is left open…

Main compartment
DSCF0105.jpg


A Second compartment of approx 5 L also opens with a double slider zip it’s necessary to pop the flap back to get access to the zip this area is useful for stuff like tools such as a Laplander saw or your knife or perhaps an OS map, hat gloves, snacks etc… it takes my space blanket quite readily. Finally there is a single pocket with a diagonal zip which is great for a small FAK car keys etc etc…

The pack comes with 2 ice tool holders and a raft of PALS webbing on the side rear and base. Also supplied were 4 adjustable straps you could use them for strapping stuff to the outside. The pack has no internal frame so is ‘soft’ it I think relies on the likelihood of you using a water bladder to add to the basic padding on the back. Finally there is a grab handle / haul loop on top of the pack which is seemingly securely sewn on.


Ice tool Holders

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There is no back ‘system’ to speak of just a thinly padded back panel made from the same nylon fabric as the body of the pack this panel is flat and has some minor sewn channels for airflow. The shoulder straps are about 60mm in width and again have minimal padding each strap has 2 ‘D’ rings on it the top 2 being a bit too high for practical use. The chest strap is well thought out and has an elasticated link to allow your chest to expand when breathing.

In Use.

Well the first thing I did was to make a couple of minor modifications I removed the waist belt and additional straps as I cannot stand stuff strapped to the outside of bergens it just gets in the way and gets caught on stuff. Then I added some nylon cord pullers to the Zips this was a preventative measure as the standard pullers would not stand up to even moderate use IMHO. By looping the pullers correctly the chances of breakage is reduced and the pullers are easier to use with gloves or wet hands. Finally I spent 10 minutes trimming all the unfinished threads.

Beefed up zip pullers
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Some semmalume cats eyes and a Velcro backed UJ and black karabiner make things look Ally and have a modicum of practical use for hanging the pack up when hammocking and finding stuff at night and if truth be told there is a bit of the ‘Tactical Tart’ in all of us…

Well Ally.....
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Loaded up with a days worth of kit and snacks and a full 3 ltr bladder the pack sat well and dipping in and out of it for stuff as the day progressed was ok and simple as the zips afforded easy access. I took the pack out on a very wet day to a walking track opening and the pack coped well with the rain with no problems. No water got inside and the textured nylon beaded the water up nicely. The hike in was only 3 or 4K and the pack was comfy to carry.

Loaded up side view
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Loaded Front
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Loaded Rear
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Next trip was a week of use over Christmas / New Year lugging a full 3 ltr Camelback and a load mostly consisting of a bit of warm kit, fishing and snorkelling gear and snacks and food along with a FAK, Fixed blade and a Bahco ‘Laplander saw’ and other assorted tut.

Typical kit carried
DSCF0107.jpg


Firstly the ease of access to the various compartments was really good and I liked it over a regular top loading daysack like the Munro. It found it was really easy to organise my kit and get at stuff I wanted with minimal faff . On the beach the sack kept out the sand and inevitable water. After a week of lugging around and wearing the pack while jumping on and off of Quad bikes etc it’s pulled a few of the threads around the main sack to shoulder strap join no holes and everything still looks and feels solid... but the pulled threads are a testament to the low cost origins of the pack.

Pulled Treads
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I wore the pack with relatively loose shoulder straps so the base sat in the small of my back and I found the removal of the waist belt was not a problem the load sat well while walking cross country. I didn’t really find the back got overly sweaty no more so than a pack with a more advanced back system.

The quality of the zips was a constant worry and often they would not mesh correctly but a bit of fiddling got them sorted I fully expected a zip pull to break but so far they have held up well... With a full water bladder my load weight would be around 10-12 kg and the pack coped well with this. The compression straps worked well in snugging the load down and the ease of fitting a hydration bladder was well appreciated with the hot weather we get here over Xmas. I haven’t used the PALS webbing at all and probably never will.

The back panel is made from the same waterproof material as the rest of the sack. This basically means that the back does not breathe in anyway shape or form so in hot weather you end up with a wet back and shirt the same goes for the shoulder straps.


Sourcing:
So that’s all great you’re thinking but I’m unlikely to be visiting Shenzhen in the near future… so what’s the point in this review…. All is not lost Ebay of course is your friend in situations like this.

Ebay UK has a seller with the exact same pack.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SPECIAL-OP-RU...Collectables_Militaria_LE?hash=item2ea96e2a90

But 44 GBP seems a trifle excessive….


And Ebay US has the same pack

http://cgi.ebay.com/USMC-3-Day-Moll...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3efbb3b2ea

Although the seller is based in HK which is not too far from Shenzhen…… and the price is better….

Finally it seems that Thatchreed ltd who own brands such as Web Tex and Viper sell a pack that is very similar if not identical to my Shenzhen market special

http://www.thatchreed.co.uk/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=1175

But this one is a ‘special ops’ version so probably isn’t the same at all...

Summation:
So in summation was it 10GBP down the toilet? I don’t think so I think the pack has a bit of life in it and TBH it’s really made me appreciate this style of clamshell pack I’ll just continue to use it and I expect a zip of the shoulder straps will give up the ghost at some point or perhaps not.... Is it as good as a branded product? I think with a branded product you get assurance that the construction is 100% if you buy a well regarded brand. For me the real eye opener was the ease of use of the pack compared to a regular lidded daysack.
 

TeeDee

Full Member
Nov 6, 2008
10,969
4,083
50
Exeter
I have exactly the same pack I bought off e-bay about a month ago in Coyote Brown.
I think for the money you can't knock it.
I purchased a few other items from the same place just to see the difference between quality of a Snugpack Response pack from the UK and a similiar item from the supplier mentioned. For the £5.00 it cost me , I'm not complaining.

Good review.
 

Melonfish

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jan 8, 2009
2,460
2
Warrington, UK
i've had a look at various ones, the Tactical Tailor bag is very good and the blackhawk one appears to be a direct copy with their own additions.
both appear quite sturdy but i've heard the TT one is tougher then the blackhawk.
i have seen a uk company producing these www.uktactical.com make one under their own "warrior assault systems" brand.
finally there's the chinese knockoffs of which there are many, they're much cheaper and the cordura isn't up to spec never mind the stitching, but the likes of ebaybanned and whatnot love copying american molle kit so it gets the chinese treatment.
actually planning to buy one soon so i reckon i'll go with the warrior one unless i can pick up a second hand TT.

for ref the TT and blackhawk go for around £100 each where the chinese ones roll in at around £15.
 

Hangman

Tenderfoot
I've had a fair bit of the UK Tactical warrior assault systems stuff, it's been well and truly abused bushcrafting and airsofting and apart from a duff pyro that went of in a dump pouch and melted it I've yet to break any of it.
 

Melonfish

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jan 8, 2009
2,460
2
Warrington, UK
lol pyro pocket, the bane of all airsofters, its amazing how your pouch either just melts or explodes and flies 50 feet away from you leaving you miraculously untouched ;)
 

crushthesystem

Forager
Nov 18, 2009
134
0
Maidstone, Kent
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/US-Army-Hunti...Hunting_ShootingSports_ET?hash=item518fb32ace

is this the same one do you reckon?

i have a bag very similar which is branded as famous (my actual everyday carry bought from a shop near me when i was in need after my last bag broke on me.) and i have experienced problems with the stitching coming loose on the shoulder straps aswell. if i had spent £10 on mine i wouldn't have minded but i suppose you pay for the branding not for better quality. nice review though and they are very uselful packs.
 

johnboy

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Oct 2, 2003
2,258
5
Hamilton NZ
www.facebook.com
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/US-Army-Hunti...Hunting_ShootingSports_ET?hash=item518fb32ace

is this the same one do you reckon?

i have a bag very similar which is branded as famous (my actual everyday carry bought from a shop near me when i was in need after my last bag broke on me.) and i have experienced problems with the stitching coming loose on the shoulder straps aswell. if i had spent £10 on mine i wouldn't have minded but i suppose you pay for the branding not for better quality. nice review though and they are very uselful packs.

The one in your ebay link appears to be the same as the one I reviewed. Although it seems to have a 'viper' tag sewn in.

Cheers

John
 

Melonfish

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jan 8, 2009
2,460
2
Warrington, UK
How odd, didn't think viper made them?
aha viperkit.co.uk shows them as "special ops pack" although anywhere you see the word "airsoft" think knockoff!
viper are selling them for 50 notes so actually getting it shipped from the states may work out cheaper if you missed out on the import duty and vat.
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
39,133
4,810
S. Lanarkshire
You certainly didn't get ripped off for £10 :approve: It would have cost that to source all the bits if you'd tried to make if for yourself, before time and effort.
I like clamshell packs simply because it's easy to access everything. Over time the zips are always going to be an issue though.
I suspect that it might be worth while doing a stitch in time with it, as and when needed ( if you need OD green thread of a suitable weight pm me, I've got loads and I'll wind off enough + and post).
I like what you did to the zip pulls, very sound :)

Excellent review, thanks for posting :D

cheers,
Toddy
 

johnboy

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Oct 2, 2003
2,258
5
Hamilton NZ
www.facebook.com
You certainly didn't get ripped off for £10 :approve: It would have cost that to source all the bits if you'd tried to make if for yourself, before time and effort.
I like clamshell packs simply because it's easy to access everything. Over time the zips are always going to be an issue though.
I suspect that it might be worth while doing a stitch in time with it, as and when needed ( if you need OD green thread of a suitable weight pm me, I've got loads and I'll wind off enough + and post).
I like what you did to the zip pulls, very sound :)

Excellent review, thanks for posting :D

cheers,
Toddy

Hi,

Thanks for the offer on the Thread.. We'll see how we go I was thinking of running this one into the ground and perhaps trading up to something with a bit better construction. Although I suspect if I replaced the Zips with YKK or SALMI ones then things would be a lot better.

I'm really won over by the ease of access to kit and the storage options compared to a more conventional Daysack. It looks like a really good option for an instructor you can seperate your group kit from your personal kit to a degree and the 'owie' pouch can be located convinently etc.. It'll be interesting to see how it goes doing a bit of mountaineering with it this winter (if it lasts that long).

Cheers

John
 

TeeDee

Full Member
Nov 6, 2008
10,969
4,083
50
Exeter
I've just noticed with mine , some of the thread stitching on the shoulder strap is starting to pick apart..

Bugger....
 

glyn77

Tenderfoot
Nov 29, 2009
81
3
Salford
Excellent review, cheers johnboy.

I quite fancy one of these myself, but I don't think its worth getting the chinese version unless i find one for less than 15 quid. I'm very tempted by the uktactical version though, so would love to hear of any experiences of it :)

Cheers :)
 

Claudiasboris

Life Member
Feb 8, 2009
525
0
Sheffield
Great review, thanks.

I've been tempted by several of these new tactical-type packs, but I'm always wary of their zip-reliance. Then again I've got far too many rucksacks anyway...

Claudiasboris
 

TeeDee

Full Member
Nov 6, 2008
10,969
4,083
50
Exeter
Send me a pm with an address and I'll wind some off the cop. :)

cheers,
Toddy

Thanks Toddy , But i'm OK, I wasn;t angling for a freebie .

Just wanted to say that there Cheap and OK but ultimately it will be the stitching that lets them down.

Td
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
39,133
4,810
S. Lanarkshire
No worries :) the offer's there if needed.

I reckon repairs are worth doing on kit we like, and they're worth doing right.

cheers,
M
 

durulz

Need to contact Admin...
Jun 9, 2008
1,755
1
Elsewhere
Good review, that.
I think for just a tenner you didn't go far wrong! And I'd also say it's worth getting the stitching fixed as well - a simple enough task that will leave it perfectly serviceable again.
Not sure I'd pay the price some sellers are asking for the exact same product, but at £10-£15 you can't go wrong.
 

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