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I’ve seen this bag around a ton, but the size is something I have always questioned: would it be large enough? I had a chance to trade for this bag, so I took the chance. This is a really nicely made bag, especially this Special Edition Waxed Canvas.

The bag certainly has it’s quirks, and true to form it is indeed a small bag which doesn’t wear small, while still packing small.

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The plate pocket variant I bought and tested is the 45lb Padded Plate Pocket (but they make other sizes) — it sells for $45.00, but you need to add MALICE clips to the purchase so that you can attach it inside your bag — which only adds maybe $6. I ended up with Coyote Brown and my goal was to use this to test rucking in many other packs I test (if nothing else but to pad the weight).

It turns out that this is a decently versatile, piece of kit and a really solid value. It can be a plate pocket, or it can be a device sleeve and more.

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Update 12/13/21: HDS has COVID misinformation on their website/blog, this is very unfortunate to hear. Please keep that in mind when/if considering ordering from them.

This is one of those lights I have had my eye on for a long time. It’s expensive, has a weirdly low lumen output, yet an interface people rave about. Looking at it compared to most of the lights I’ve talked about on a spec sheet — it’s the one that seems to make very little sense, a ‘why buy this?’

After all: it’s big, heavy, no clip, and low output. The thing is, it’s the best light I have ever used. It’s the HDS EDC Rotary.

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I’ve been a long time user of the GR2 (my review), and as someone who carried it despite the flaws, who has sold and bought it a few times (regretting the sale each time) I thought I would share why I moved on from the GR2. I found the 3 Day Assault CL from Mystery Ranch (my review) is a better bag than the GR2 in every aspect and is severely underrated/undervalued bag in the market — it’s well worth your time and consideration.

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At the end of 2020 I started on a journey of testing sling bags, and going back further to May of 2020, I started with the idea of carrying a purse with me most/all places I head to. We are now more than half way through 2021, and I’ve tried quite a few different slings, so I wanted to stop and evaluate this statement I made:

Because you should carry one, regardless of what you call it.

Leading up to my return to the office, I was carrying a sling essentially everywhere I went. Including a weekend trip celebrating our fully vaccinated status, to San Antonio, where I wore it all around the river walk and other places. I really find these bags handy, but the trouble I have now that I am back in the office, is that I carry a bag to work — and that bag is not my purse. I don’t want to carry two bags to the office, that seems absurd even for me.

So, my usage has dropped a lot because of this, but I still do think you need a sling, and should carry one when you don’t have another bag, or might not have chosen another bag to carry at all.

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These two bags, the Mystery Ranch ASAP (my review) and GORUCK GR1 (my review), have been top of my list to put head to head for well over 5 years. Both are expensive, both are made to be used in actual combat (though you could argue that a little more in Mystery Ranch’s favor), both are USA made. I’ve now used the ASAP enough that I feel a head to head is warranted, as it’s pretty clear to me which is better for what.

With these two bags the question of which to pick simply comes down to whether or not you want/need to carry a laptop. If you need or want to carry a laptop, the GORUCK GR1 is hands down the better bag for you. For everything else, the ASAP is the better bag, and sometimes by a large margin.

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This bag took over my feeds when it came out, it was/is labeled a “new direction” for DSPTCH — and was released in Ballistic Nylon and Dyneema variants. Surprisingly, it was also launched at under $200 for the ballistic version which is a bargain.

I grabbed one to check out, and am impressed but not overwhelmed by this bag.

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I’ve talked about JetBeam here before with the JetBeam Jet-1 MK Professional — I was impressed with the size and raw output of that light. It was a finicky light though, which I ultimately sold off because it didn’t do it for me. And a while back a member here posted on the member Discord that they modified the JetBeam RRT01 Raptor with a warmer (better) LED and offered a couple up for sale.

Umm, what’s that now, of course I snagged one.

The RRT01 is an interesting light from JetBeam, as it is listed as “tactical”, but really feels more like an EDC light to me. The big thing about this light: it has a rotary control knob to adjust the output of the light just by twisting the rotary dial.

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Since it came out, SOG’s Ultra XR has been one of those knives which I see pop up everywhere. It’s hard to find people have strong opinions against it, while many are either ‘meh’ or really love it. The thing about this knife is that it looks completely normal when you put it on a desk and take a picture, but when you touch it the knife seems to defy knife logic.

That’s because the hallmark of this knife is that it is very thin and very light. While the blade is an ideal 2.8” long, the entire knife package weighs 1.2oz with the clip on it. Bananas.

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Some of you may have seen this post over at GearJunkie:  Everyday Carry Essentials: Best Knife, Flashlight Pairings for Any Budget . There, Anthony Sculimbrene who also writes Everyday Commentary picked three pairings of knives and flashlights for all of us (under $100, over $200, and ‘high end’). The thing is, he did a poor job picking good pairings.

There’s a bit of evergreen advice that people give out: if someone has a hobby that they are deeply into, don’t buy them a gift related to that hobby. The caveat is if you are also deeply into that same hobby then it might work out for you, maybe. I think this applies with lists like this: you need to assume that the people you are actually advising are not really into these hobbies, otherwise why would they be reading a list like this? At the same time people like myself and Sculimbrene who are into these hobbies, well this is why don’t gift things to people in areas of their expertise: they barely agree with other ‘experts’.

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Carrying on from my flashlight post, written for those out there who don’t want to go deep down the rabbit hole — here are the three bags I think most people will need to be able to cover almost anything they encounter and generally to make life easier and are hand picked for people who really don’t even want to have to read this much to find out what to buy.

You need a: duffel bag, a tote bag, and a backpack. You don’t need anything else for most of the general stuff in life — those three can work independently or together to get you covered in most situations.

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I am writing this a little backwards, as I already published the article about three flashlights for people who don’t want to learn about flashlights, and talked about this light there. For that article I needed an upgrade pick for the AA light (which itself I didn’t have beforehand and had to test a bit) and because of that I honed in on this light: the Quark QK2A MKIII from FourSevens.

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