Last night I took the modded bag for a walk.
I fully loaded it, which meant the poncho inside, the axe through the loops under the flap and a filled canteen to the front. Because of the weight I used the webbingbelt instead of the standard strap.
I have to say that I was surprised on how well it handled. It was kind of heavy on one side offcourse, but that didn't cause much difficulty. What did was the strain on the opposite shoulder, where the shoulderstrap ran across. After an hour or so running through the woods, this became quit noticeable and a bit painfull.
I than took the canteen off and hung it on the belt itself, changing sides. This leveled the load considerably and after I attached the poncho to the rear of the shoulderstrap, as I had befor, the whole loadout was quit balanced and hardly noticeable weightwise.

The knife was in easy reach and this setup worked quit well, too.
As for the closingstrap, this one worked very well! All the time the bag was fully loaded the strap kept the strain off of the studs and they remained closed, even while crawling through dense pineforrest. The funny thing is that the modifications actually worked best when the bag was completely filled up! After I had taken out the poncho the top of the bag folded in on itself and opening and closing of the webbingstrap became a bit troublesome. On the other hand I did not bring any food or other things with me, which would have filled up the bag, instead of the poncho.
In hindsight I will not be using the wastestrap attached to the bag. Carrying it on the webbingbelt is much more comfortable and more versatile, too! I will leave the standard strap attached to the bag, though. You just never know....
Enough of the talk, I'll show you some pictures taken last night. The forrest around the house and on the hill were filled with blue and white forrestanemones which were all in some stage of coming out and/or blooming. This feast will last a little while!
On the path right behind the house I spotted some foxdroppings (I guess)
Birchbarktinder readily available! I filled on of my jacketpockets with this and noticed that they gave of a white powder. Never noticed that befor.
My kind of terrain!
I found some shed deerantlers (my first ever), but someone beat me to them! They were badly chewed up. Well, not actually chewed up, but more like chisseled off. It really looked like someone had been using a woodcuttingtool on them, so some rodent appearantly ate this antler! Anyone any idea on which one and why!!!
The sun low in the sky, lots of birds singing and calling everywhere... and for the rest absolute silence. This was heaven!
Bag and me....
The sun gloriously setting over the hills of southern Dalarna, casting a glow of gold and red copper over the trees. I just had to sit down, watch and soak it all in. The smell of damp forrestsoil in the evening triggered some fond memories and propelled me back to the days, when I was in the military. I truely enjoyed those days in the field..... Has it really been that long since I last did this?? Man, how much have I missed in those inbetween years! This truely is medicin for the soul. The eveningchoir of birds complemented this idyllic scene and suddenly I heard a strange other noice. There were some red deer barking in the patch of forrest next to the one I was in and their echoes rolled down the hill, distorting the sound.
I could not decide which picture I liked best, so I just added both of them.....
There was another sound up there, too. One I did not welcome so much; buzzing mosquitos! And I was an obvious target! So out came the tin of Nordic Summer and the little bloodsuckers left me alone after a smear or two on the exposed skin. The Mss. wasn't to pleased with this, though. She called me "smoked meat", when I returned home.....
Some however were appearantly desperate for an avening snack and tried to pierce the cotton clothing I was wearing! This puppy was at least 10-15mm large! The biggest mosquito I ever saw!
And quite determined, too!
As darkness approached I had to head home. I had forgotten my headlamp.... What dumbass forgets his lights, when he goeas for an eveningwalk in the forrest??? I had one light with me, but that was far to small. Here's the "build-in baglight" I mentioned in one of my previous posts. Works great!
I fully loaded it, which meant the poncho inside, the axe through the loops under the flap and a filled canteen to the front. Because of the weight I used the webbingbelt instead of the standard strap.
I have to say that I was surprised on how well it handled. It was kind of heavy on one side offcourse, but that didn't cause much difficulty. What did was the strain on the opposite shoulder, where the shoulderstrap ran across. After an hour or so running through the woods, this became quit noticeable and a bit painfull.
I than took the canteen off and hung it on the belt itself, changing sides. This leveled the load considerably and after I attached the poncho to the rear of the shoulderstrap, as I had befor, the whole loadout was quit balanced and hardly noticeable weightwise.

The knife was in easy reach and this setup worked quit well, too.
As for the closingstrap, this one worked very well! All the time the bag was fully loaded the strap kept the strain off of the studs and they remained closed, even while crawling through dense pineforrest. The funny thing is that the modifications actually worked best when the bag was completely filled up! After I had taken out the poncho the top of the bag folded in on itself and opening and closing of the webbingstrap became a bit troublesome. On the other hand I did not bring any food or other things with me, which would have filled up the bag, instead of the poncho.
In hindsight I will not be using the wastestrap attached to the bag. Carrying it on the webbingbelt is much more comfortable and more versatile, too! I will leave the standard strap attached to the bag, though. You just never know....
Enough of the talk, I'll show you some pictures taken last night. The forrest around the house and on the hill were filled with blue and white forrestanemones which were all in some stage of coming out and/or blooming. This feast will last a little while!
On the path right behind the house I spotted some foxdroppings (I guess)
Birchbarktinder readily available! I filled on of my jacketpockets with this and noticed that they gave of a white powder. Never noticed that befor.
My kind of terrain!
I found some shed deerantlers (my first ever), but someone beat me to them! They were badly chewed up. Well, not actually chewed up, but more like chisseled off. It really looked like someone had been using a woodcuttingtool on them, so some rodent appearantly ate this antler! Anyone any idea on which one and why!!!
The sun low in the sky, lots of birds singing and calling everywhere... and for the rest absolute silence. This was heaven!
Bag and me....
The sun gloriously setting over the hills of southern Dalarna, casting a glow of gold and red copper over the trees. I just had to sit down, watch and soak it all in. The smell of damp forrestsoil in the evening triggered some fond memories and propelled me back to the days, when I was in the military. I truely enjoyed those days in the field..... Has it really been that long since I last did this?? Man, how much have I missed in those inbetween years! This truely is medicin for the soul. The eveningchoir of birds complemented this idyllic scene and suddenly I heard a strange other noice. There were some red deer barking in the patch of forrest next to the one I was in and their echoes rolled down the hill, distorting the sound.
I could not decide which picture I liked best, so I just added both of them.....
There was another sound up there, too. One I did not welcome so much; buzzing mosquitos! And I was an obvious target! So out came the tin of Nordic Summer and the little bloodsuckers left me alone after a smear or two on the exposed skin. The Mss. wasn't to pleased with this, though. She called me "smoked meat", when I returned home.....
Some however were appearantly desperate for an avening snack and tried to pierce the cotton clothing I was wearing! This puppy was at least 10-15mm large! The biggest mosquito I ever saw!
And quite determined, too!
As darkness approached I had to head home. I had forgotten my headlamp.... What dumbass forgets his lights, when he goeas for an eveningwalk in the forrest??? I had one light with me, but that was far to small. Here's the "build-in baglight" I mentioned in one of my previous posts. Works great!
