Maxpedition Sitka Gearslinger

Maxpedition is a brand that you cant go wrong with, these are top notch quality bags, this Sitka Gearslinger is my third bigger Maxpedition bag and i am very impressed with everything about it. these are made with tactical purposes in mind and are great for outdoorsmen , hiking and gun bags, some guys use them in the military, also they are good bags for camera and camcorder , which is what the wife uses hers for. If you want to make a BOB or shtf bag , these may be a great choice as they do make bigger sizes and most will let you ccw your sidearm in them if you desire.

can't say enough to praise this pack. have used it on all kinds of excursions, and have enjoyed it thoroughly. bomb-proof and well thought out placement of pockets and zippers. one piece of advice: this is a sling bag: keep it light. more than ten pounds will begin killing your shoulder after just an hour. it's not an overnight bag, but it'll carry what you need for a family day trip or hike.

I've had this bag for over one year and have been using it daily to and from work. This is a great bag for the size, has good organizational pockets, bladder pouch, and the molle webbing is VERY useful. The fact that there is only one strap does make weight distribution a problem, but given the size of the bag, it's unlikely that you'll ever have enough weight in it for the strap to be an issue (unless your carrying lead). The space IS limited, but sufficient for a notebook, binder, or most size laptops. If you need something larger, go Kodiak! Overall I'd recommend this bag any day as an EDC; the quality-price ratio is unbeatable!

Picked the Sitka up from another site to be used as a streamlined day pack. After some use in varied settings I think that it's a good product with an innovative design and good features. For me, it needed a couple of mods to make it work. 1) One strap sling design: Cool idea. I like being able to sling the sitka around if I need to. This feature works out REALLY well in both urban and back-country settings. Furthermore, putting the zips on one side is really smart, especially if you're counting on slinging the pack around a lot. My only complaint with the sling design is weight capacity. With only one smaller stabilization strap you have to be REALLY careful with how much weight you put in the pack because too much weight throws it off balance and puts too much pressure on your left shoulder. Easy way around this? Throw a 1" strap on the tri-glide opposite the main strap and slide a fastex buckle on the end of your strap. Attach the other side of your fastex to the main strap close to where your smaller stabilizing strap hits and you're good to go. It adds an extra buckle but fixes your weight distribution problem. 2) H2O compatibility: This is a great idea but, in my opinion, doesn't work well for the Sitka. The Sitka is just big enough to have a standard 100oz reservoir fit perfectly INSIDE the pack. Unfortunately, however, the H2O compartment was added as an outside sleeve that sits against your back. So it's possible to squeeze a reservoir in there...but it's pretty tight. Though it fits, carrying the thing around with a reservoir results in some serious sausage-ing which, again, throws your center of balance off. OK, so put a smaller reservoir in there. This works better than the 100oz, but you're still pushing the pack away from your back a lot. Your call on this issue, I didn't like using the 100oz reservoir on the Sitka so I just use the Nalgene pocket for hydration now. 3) Extra pockets and such: Great work here. There are way more pockets than I will ever use, but this is a pack (not a pouch) so they're justifiable. The added velcro is cool if you're carrying and the "Y" strap is usefull for holding your rain gear, so that's nice. All things considered, I think the Sitka is great for urban use. It's do-able for small time back-country (unless you're adding it to a larger ruck system, which works well), but you have to be creative to get everything you need.

Wow! I have used many bags in the past to both carry my notebook computer around with me, and all of the things that I need on a day to day basis. I have used many different pack models, but was intrigued by the "sling" approach. I gambled the $ 100+ for the product, and could not have been happier. The sling approach is a design that gives the person another degree of flexibility of use, and I have found this exceptional. I have put the pack through its paces in terms of both urban and rural usages. I find that it has both the room and the organization capacity to make this my EDC pack. My new netbook computer fits in it perfectly by being tucked away out of harms way. All things netbookish fit perfectly and are held firmly in place. This leaves the rest of the pack for the different elements of a proper EDC. This might be highly personal, but I have experimented with several options, and I am sure that there is something there for everyone. I could not more heartily suggest this. If you are security or a teacher, this is a wonderful pack. The unit is very much over specified. I find that my 40 oz steel water bottle fits nicely into the package, and while the 32 oz might fit better, the Sitka works well there. As for the webbing, I can certainly attach any number of additional pouches, and my plan will be to have small pouches (aka the Fatty organizer) filled for their specific uses. They are so very easily attached to my main pack, that I feel I have gone to "organizational heaven". I might want to have my cell phone and a few other items closer to me, and am considered the Janus extension pocket, but even here I am VERY IMPRESSED with Maxpedition's foresight here. It would seem that they have thought of every aspect of flexibility to the product.

So I gotta say that when I first got this in the mail, I was less than impressed. It looked much much smaller than I had anticipated. I got an instant twinge of buyer's remorse. What have I done? However, I've grown to realize the size is perfect. For a one shoulder sling, bags really shouldn't be any bigger than this because then the carry gets uncomfortable for a long period of time. Since you can only put so much in here, the weight shouldn't be an issue. The water bottle holder can carry a 1L bottle. The main compartment can hold a lightweight hoodie and/or a 13" MacBook but if you put those 2 in there, there won't be room for much else. The 2 pockets on the outside can hold whatever small random items you'd need throughout the day, keys, phone, camera, wallet, flashlight, multi tool, bike lock, etc. The overall quality is high. I think this bag is excellent for bumming around the city because the fact you can swing it around without taking it off means easy access. The only thing that isn't easily accessible will be the water bottle if you put it in the holder. In fact it's quite awkward to get to it because when you swing the bag around, the holder ends up being on the bottom of the bag. I always had to take the bag off in order to get the water bottle out.

I have tried 4 different EDC bags and the Sitka fits the task perfectly. I have even taken it on several 15 mile hikes and found it to be of excellent use for that task as well. I have carried mine everyday for the past 2 years and it has never failed me, nor do I expect it to fail me anytime int he near future. Buy it and you will not be disappointed!