Military Bags & Backpacks

Day packs and drybags, two ways of carrying kit

This selection of military bags & backpacks is narrower than the name suggests: hiking day packs of around thirty litres, and roll top drybags in sizes running from a phone pouch to a sack for kayaking or open water swimming. One group is about carrying a load comfortably, the other about keeping water away from what is inside, and the two are regularly used together.

What size day pack suits a day out?

Around thirty litres is where a day pack settles, because of what a day actually contains: a waterproof, a fleece, lunch, water and a head torch, plus room for the layers that come off as the walk warms up. Smaller than that and the spare jacket ends up carried in a hand. Much larger and the pack gets filled simply because the space is there. Anything beyond a single day belongs on the frames and hip belts found in the military bags range.

How does a roll top drybag work?

The bag is a welded tube of coated fabric with no zip to leak through. Air is pressed out, the open end is folded over on itself several times, and a buckle clips the roll shut. The seal comes from those folds pressing against one another, so a bag rolled once is not sealed at all, and a bag stuffed to the brim cannot be rolled enough times to close properly. Leaving spare length at the top is the entire technique.

What separates one pack from another?

• Spare length: three folds of the top are the working minimum for a reliable seal, so pack to leave that much unused.
• Seam construction: welded seams keep water out where stitched seams let it through the needle holes.
• Back panel: a padded, channelled back and a sternum strap decide whether a loaded day pack is still comfortable after two hours.
• Attachment points: loops and daisy chains take a bottle, a helmet or a wet jacket without any of it going inside the pack.
• Window or colour: a clear panel on a phone pouch lets the screen be used through the bag, and a bright colour is far easier to find in a hull.

Should a drybag go inside a backpack?

It is the more reliable arrangement. Pack fabric may be coated, but zips, seams and the back panel all admit water in sustained rain, and a pack cover blows about and misses the underside entirely. Sorting kit into two or three drybags inside the pack keeps sleeping layers dry, separates wet clothing from dry, and makes the load quicker to search. Larger sacks for the same job sit in the waterproof bags range.

How is this kit looked after?

Rinse salt and silt off a drybag and hang it open to dry, since folding a damp one away leaves mildew on the coating and a smell that stays. Avoid creasing a coated fabric along the same line every time, because the coating cracks there first. Day packs want the same rinse after coastal use, with grit brushed out of the zips. Straps and buckles fail before the fabric does here, exactly as they do on the mens shoulder bags that hang a load on one side.