Mystery Ranch sells two small bags call the Bop and Big Bop. These are a hybrid bag which come with a shoulder strap to use the bag as a small shoulder bag, but also MOLLE attachment on the back of the pouch so that you can use them as a dedicated pouch.
I snagged the standard Bop in Coyote to give it a go as a pouch which can be pulled out and carried if needed. It’s pretty great.
Materials & Size
The materials vary slightly based on color choice, but for the Coyote (and Black) it is Mystery Ranch’s 330 Robic nylon which is really nice in person and feels very similar to 500D, if a little more supple. The bag measures out at 7.75″ x 5.5″ x 5″ which Mystery Ranch rates at 1.5L, I think that’s a little misleading though based on the layout.
Molle/belt attachment on the back, and a loop to attach to a caribiner.
There’s two pockets on this: a main zipped pocket which has an elastic top pocket with a gusset built into it so that it expands inside of that area. The front has a velcro flap with side gussets for yet another expandable pouch — this one doesn’t fully enclose, but it does hold larger items securely. The front pouch will hold a surprising amount of crap.
The shoulder strap is quite nice, and has a quick release adjustment mechanism on it which is surprising given the price of the item. If you remove the shoulder strap, the attachment points tuck back into the sides of the Bop to hide away. Really nicely done.
In Use / What I Use It For
I bought this to be a pouch inside my bags where I would keep some of my outdoors/emergency type gear. It easily can store my Monocular and other items, but since getting the GR IIIx, I’ve been storing it inside this with a few other odds and ends as well. It’s a really nice height for a lot of items, but slightly short for an Apple Pencil to fit in upright.
The big selling point for me on this is the versatility. I keep the strap at home, but if you fold it into the bottom of the bag it doesn’t take up too much room. I wanted something I could pull out of a bag and use on it’s own if I needed something smaller, so this works well there. But even more, with the ASAP being a smaller capacity bag, this can easily attach to the outside of the bag if I absolutely needed to, and that was yet another selling point for me, allowing me a little more flexibility in my EDC bag choice, while not impacting how I use the bag day to day (as would be the case with a bulkier pouch).
The sizing on this is solid. The layout is excellent, and the only thing I would change is to make something in between the Bop and Big Bop with a touch more height for an Apple Pencil to fit and slightly more width — but the Bop depth is great.
Overall
When this arrived I was a little underwhelmed with it, but I loaded it up and tossed it in my bag. I’ve been using it like that for a while now and I’ve yet to have a need to use it as a shoulder bag for anything other than testing. Nor have I needed to attach it to the outside of my bag but I like knowing that I could.
It’s really grown on me to the point where I want to get the larger one as well. It’s a nice piece of gear, and certainly one of my most used pouches of late. I’m a fan.