REVIEW – Wilderness Equipment Jagungle

ITEM:    Jagungal Pack

MANUFACTURER:           Wilderness Equipment

DESCRIPTION:

An internal framed, 48L technical day-and-a-half pack, comparable to the military concept of a 3-day pack. The Jagungle (I believe it’s pronounced Jer-Jungle) is intended as a heavyweight daypack, for such outdoor professional such as outdoor guides, search and rescue teams and others who carry heavy but compact loads such as canyoners and climbers.

It’s essentially a full-size alpine style hiking pack scaled down to a daypack size package.

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Posted in Civilian, Overnight, Packs & Webbing, Short Trip by with 3 comments.

AAR – The Hat Trick, The Overland Track Sept 2012

SITUATION:

Opportunity and desire to go walking came up again.

I haven’t been able to go for any long range walks due to recovering from illness, and real life things like work and the wonderful experience of getting married seemed to keep popping up and delaying planning. Despite all that, this Iceland waterfall is still on my bucket list. I’ve been thinking of ways on how to navigate around Iceland, should it be a car? Or maybe it would be a lot of fun to go camping and rent a camper van from companies like Rent.is? Whichever one I go for, it will be an amazing journey to take.

So it was decided to start preparing for a long walk again. The biggest difference for this trek, was being able to introduce my darling wife to the joys of getting away from civilisation.

A great many destinations were discussed and evaluated for suitability. The Overland was decided upon. There were a couple of reasons for this, primary amongst them being I was likely to have a couple of inexperienced walkers, who I wanted to introduce into walking somewhat slowly – since due to work commitments, we weren’t be able to spend a great deal of time on lead-up walks overnight in the local areas around our home. Since I’m fairly familiar with the Overland from previous trips, and the comfort level of the huts (with attendant toilet facilities), the idea was fairly easy to sell to everyone, especially my darling wife.

It was also an excellent opportunity to show my beloved what I consider some of the most beautiful spots on this earth.

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Posted in Civilian, Long Range, Trip Log by with 4 comments.

REVIEW – Smamit Combined Operations Infantry Rig

PRODUCT: Combined Operations Infantry Rig

MANUFACTURER: Smamit,Israel

DESCRIPTION: A custom made non-modular, split front chest rig. The layout is very reminiscent of the old South African M83 vest that has mated with the TT 2-piece MAV. All of my mates who have examined this rig describe it as a cut down M83, stripped down to bare necessities.

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Posted in Custom, Military, Packs & Webbing by with 2 comments.

Kit – Using it, an overview

A lot of discussion so far has been about the kit itself: what I like, what I can recommend and what works.

 

Now I think is the time to start discussing just how all the fancy gear goes together, integrates with each different component and how to give pointers in selecting it to suit the job. If you’re interested in hearing more, feel free to tell me.

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Posted in Blog, Civilian, Military by with 2 comments.

REVIEW – Thermarest Prolite 3 in Coyote/Foliage

ITEM:      Military Prolite 3 sleeping mat in coyote/foliage

MANUFACTURER:      Thermarest

DESCRIPTION:      A lightweight, self inflating sleeping mat designed for a paramilitary end-user.

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Posted in Crossfire, Military, Military Gear, Overnight, Sleeping & Shelter by with no comments yet.

INDUSTRY NEWS – Arms Corps Models

My old mate Jason has finally joined the rest of us knuckle-draggers and has both:

  1. Started his own business in accurising scale models of military vehicles
  2. Started working on a website on this new-fangled interwebs to reach his client base.

 

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Posted in Blog by with 1 comment.

REVIEW – Battlesystems Marker Panel, Individual, LW

ITEM:      Marker Panel, Individual, Lightweight (MPIL)

MANUFACTURER:      Battle Systems LLC

DESCRIPTION:     An ultra-lightweight high visibility marker panel intended for the dismounted individual.

LINK:     http://www.battlesystemsllc.com/Marker_Panel,_Individual,_LW.html

 

REVIEW NOTES:

The Marker Panel, Individual, Lightweight has been graciously provided by Battle Systems LLC. Whilst I have received a small financial donation towards the upkeep of this website, this review is like any with supplied equipment, in that I have conducted the review with the proviso that I will be painfully honest in my assessment of this item.

Unlike most of my reviews of supplied equipment, this item won’t be returned to the supplier. It will be going straight into my pack.

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Posted in Civilian, Military, Miscellaneous Equipment, Specialist by with no comments yet.

REVIEW – Source Assault 10 Hydration Pack

ITEM:      Assault 10L Hydration Pack

MANUFACTURER:      Source Tactical

DESCRIPTION:      A small assault combination assault pack with inbuilt facility to carry a 3L water bladder and 10L of cargo capacity.

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Posted in Civilian, Crossfire, Military, Military Gear, Packs & Webbing, Short Trip by with 10 comments.

12 Month Anniversary!

Well, another mile-stone in my life.

Packs and Beyond has now been up and running for about 12 months now.

In that time, over 30 000 views have been recorded. There has been on average of 100 views per day. Whilst under intense interrogation, it turns out it’s not my mum spending so much time on here to make me feel special – apparently, there are some of you out there who seem to think I know a little bit of what I’m talking about. I’m not quite sure how I’ve managed to convince you of this though.

Let me say now, thank you to all of you for the support for the last 12 months. It has been a hell of a ride to get something like this setup, and provide some useful information.

 

Whilst I’m thinking of it:

Is there anything that you mob would like to see in terms of articles, reviews or any other thing?

Look forward to your feedback.


Posted in Blog by with 2 comments.

INDUSTRY NEWS – RSKTKR Consulting

My friend “Doc” Hewett has been running his own training company since 2004. He and his instructors are dedicated to providing affordable firearms training for the law-abiding citizen, LEO and military personnel.

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Posted in Blog, Civilian, Military, Weapons usage and accessories by with no comments yet.