Don't ask why but I've wanted one of these for years. I know, I know, just a kit tart... Saw one on ops in Afghan ages ago and something about it said 'flexibility & utility'. I think it was originally designed for airborne use and there is another specific Talon model with parachute release points on it in case you fancy jumping out of a perfectly serviceable airframe. Anyway, it has a few interesting features that make it eminently suitable for bushcraft/outdoory stuff. I wanted a decent daysack to sit between a Kiffy Zulu G2 and their E&E pack and the Talon is an excellent size.
The Camelbak site is here http://www.camelbak.com/Military-Tactical/Packs/Talon.aspx - pictures of my pack are later in this thread.
I've been putting money aside for this for about 5 years as it's expensive - that's Camelbak for you; however, I'm a great believer in buying quality gear and not cheap knock-offs (I like Patagonia, Hennessy, Golite, Apple Macs, Kifaru, Paramo, Blackhawk, SpecOps, Platatac, Maxpedition, etc). It just means I have to save my money for a bit longer and don't have the 'instant gratification' factor... no bad thing. Having said that, I was fortunate as my cousin is still serving, and is is based in the US at the moment, so I bought it through US eBay and had it shipped free to them, and they brought it back to UK a couple of weeks ago. Result! How much did I save? Well, in the UK it's anywhere between £150 and £220! I got it on US eBay for $150 (which was quite cheap even for the US), which worked out about £100, so I saved at least 1/3 of the cost and the shipping too. I'm not being smug here, just being clever about how I purchase: if you want something like this, I would suggest you get a US friend to get it for you and bring it over or wait until you go there on holiday as the savings are considerable (especially compared with the small fortune it cost me to import my Kiffy gear or my Skookum Bushtool - I feel faint just thinking about it...).
The Talon is very robust in nature, with good-quality double stitching at stress points and the material is a tough cordura fabric. All zips have good zip pulls on them which would be OK in gloves. There are plenty of molle attachment points so you could mount extra pouches, etc, if you want to look like you've covered yourself in glue and walked through Heinnie Heynes. It's a 40L pack in total with a single main, zipped, toploading compartment with a mesh pocket under the lid. There are two angled, longitudinal pockets on the side (perfect for a flask or small axe), and another pocket on the rear, which has a pull-out organiser pouch (perfect for the disorganised). You get a water reservoir and tube/mouthpiece with the pack but I don't use these often as it looks like I'm carrying bagpipes, so that came out pretty much straight away. The zipped pocket it sits in is between a removable stiff back-pad and the main compartment so you could stick something thin and flat in it if you wanted. There are two ASIPS antenna ports, secured by velcro flaps on the top on the pack - not much use for most people but they fit my FT817 radio antenna quite nicely if you're into that sort of thing. All of the straps have strap keepers on them, which are a Godsend - I hate having long straps whipping around in my face in the wind, so I feel it's good attention to detail. The strap design also means you can cinch down the main compartment when it's not full and stop kit from moving around inside. They also allow you to strap something like a kip-mat onto the lid.
The piece de resistance (that's your genuine Francais, that!) for me is the additional load-carrying ability. The rear pocket is on a flap that attaches via 6 extendable straps with QR buckles. This looks bizarre (if you remember the Muppets, it looks like Beaker's mouth) but is brilliant! It means you can basically strap bulky and/or awkward-shaped objects securely to the pack. I've bunged wet jackets, bits of wood, other small bags, bundles of twigs, antenna parts, rope coils, the dog (not really), you name it, under this. Genius - if you are an outdoor magpie, this pack was made for you!
Because of all the molle and pouches and tougher material, it's not the lightest daysack you'll ever use, but the wide shoulder straps are comfortable enough and there is a chest strap to stabilise it. Like all good military-designed packs, it has no belt - if you try and wear something with a belt over Osprey or webbing, there will be a lot of bad language. You could argue that this would adversely affect load-carrying comfort and pack stability but, I've biked with it, riding out of the saddle sometimes, and had reasonable heavy loads in it and can't say I've noticed a problem.
So, after an admittedly short review period, I'm pretty happy with it so far. I don't know why it appealed to me so much 6-7 years ago but it just looked right and I'm pleased to have been proven right, despite the wait! It fills the gap between the bigger Zulu and the mini-E&E very nicely and could be used for a day-hike or a warmer-weather overnighter. So, if you're on the look out for a robust, flexible and capable daysack, please consider the Talon ... especially if you like picking up random bits and pieces of cr*p you find in the woods.
The Camelbak site is here http://www.camelbak.com/Military-Tactical/Packs/Talon.aspx - pictures of my pack are later in this thread.
I've been putting money aside for this for about 5 years as it's expensive - that's Camelbak for you; however, I'm a great believer in buying quality gear and not cheap knock-offs (I like Patagonia, Hennessy, Golite, Apple Macs, Kifaru, Paramo, Blackhawk, SpecOps, Platatac, Maxpedition, etc). It just means I have to save my money for a bit longer and don't have the 'instant gratification' factor... no bad thing. Having said that, I was fortunate as my cousin is still serving, and is is based in the US at the moment, so I bought it through US eBay and had it shipped free to them, and they brought it back to UK a couple of weeks ago. Result! How much did I save? Well, in the UK it's anywhere between £150 and £220! I got it on US eBay for $150 (which was quite cheap even for the US), which worked out about £100, so I saved at least 1/3 of the cost and the shipping too. I'm not being smug here, just being clever about how I purchase: if you want something like this, I would suggest you get a US friend to get it for you and bring it over or wait until you go there on holiday as the savings are considerable (especially compared with the small fortune it cost me to import my Kiffy gear or my Skookum Bushtool - I feel faint just thinking about it...).
The Talon is very robust in nature, with good-quality double stitching at stress points and the material is a tough cordura fabric. All zips have good zip pulls on them which would be OK in gloves. There are plenty of molle attachment points so you could mount extra pouches, etc, if you want to look like you've covered yourself in glue and walked through Heinnie Heynes. It's a 40L pack in total with a single main, zipped, toploading compartment with a mesh pocket under the lid. There are two angled, longitudinal pockets on the side (perfect for a flask or small axe), and another pocket on the rear, which has a pull-out organiser pouch (perfect for the disorganised). You get a water reservoir and tube/mouthpiece with the pack but I don't use these often as it looks like I'm carrying bagpipes, so that came out pretty much straight away. The zipped pocket it sits in is between a removable stiff back-pad and the main compartment so you could stick something thin and flat in it if you wanted. There are two ASIPS antenna ports, secured by velcro flaps on the top on the pack - not much use for most people but they fit my FT817 radio antenna quite nicely if you're into that sort of thing. All of the straps have strap keepers on them, which are a Godsend - I hate having long straps whipping around in my face in the wind, so I feel it's good attention to detail. The strap design also means you can cinch down the main compartment when it's not full and stop kit from moving around inside. They also allow you to strap something like a kip-mat onto the lid.
The piece de resistance (that's your genuine Francais, that!) for me is the additional load-carrying ability. The rear pocket is on a flap that attaches via 6 extendable straps with QR buckles. This looks bizarre (if you remember the Muppets, it looks like Beaker's mouth) but is brilliant! It means you can basically strap bulky and/or awkward-shaped objects securely to the pack. I've bunged wet jackets, bits of wood, other small bags, bundles of twigs, antenna parts, rope coils, the dog (not really), you name it, under this. Genius - if you are an outdoor magpie, this pack was made for you!
Because of all the molle and pouches and tougher material, it's not the lightest daysack you'll ever use, but the wide shoulder straps are comfortable enough and there is a chest strap to stabilise it. Like all good military-designed packs, it has no belt - if you try and wear something with a belt over Osprey or webbing, there will be a lot of bad language. You could argue that this would adversely affect load-carrying comfort and pack stability but, I've biked with it, riding out of the saddle sometimes, and had reasonable heavy loads in it and can't say I've noticed a problem.
So, after an admittedly short review period, I'm pretty happy with it so far. I don't know why it appealed to me so much 6-7 years ago but it just looked right and I'm pleased to have been proven right, despite the wait! It fills the gap between the bigger Zulu and the mini-E&E very nicely and could be used for a day-hike or a warmer-weather overnighter. So, if you're on the look out for a robust, flexible and capable daysack, please consider the Talon ... especially if you like picking up random bits and pieces of cr*p you find in the woods.
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