For the past couple of weeks I have had the Jedburgh pack out and about. I have attempted to test it as thoroughly as possible. I also researched the name, because it’s an odd one. Jedburgh has roots back to Scottish Guerillas, to Boers in South Africa, and to a clandestine World War 2 special operation. The pack certainly fits in with the Jedburghs of WW2. It’s light, covert, and capable. I found it to be extremely well made, and resistant to daily abuse.
I fill a lot of roles during my day, dad, writer, firearms instructor, and I work in conservation and land management as a day job. I have my everyday carry pocket junk, and then I have a bag, which has been replaced by the Jedburgh. At any given time the Jedburgh Pack has been my range bag, my laptop, camera, and notebook bag, carried gear for controlled burns, has accompanied me on a volunteer search and rescue effort and as a dad, it’s carried juice, snacks, tablets, toys, and band aids and antiseptic.
The bag itself is thoroughly tough and rugged. I’ve taken it almost everywhere with me the last few weeks. It’s been exposed to the ocean during fishing trips, it’s been hauled through the sub-tropical jungles of Florida, and it’s survived a four year’s oldest roughest attempts to access it. The pack itself has held up 100% and doesn’t have a single fray. It has a few stains, some from mud, some from blood, and one or two are definitely Juicy Juice, but in all honesty, it’s absolutely fine.
I’ve used it for so many roles not to just test it, but for convenience. I got two Dapper admin pouches and one three tab pouch to help organize it and they’ve been an absolute dream when it comes to organizing the pack. It opens flat, and the dapper pouches are easy to take out and use individually. This means I don’t have to dig through the entire pack to find my headlamp or to get my camera, or even the spare magazine I keep in there.
This would honestly be an awesome patrol pack for a troop in a dirty place, doing dirty things, or perhaps even a good piece of kit for our LEOs out there. Everything is quick and easy to access. I keep one of the dapper pouches full of medical gear, everything from bandages, to combat gauze and tourniquets. If needed to treat a GSW (or a booboo) I open the pack and rip out that Dapper pouch and get to work. The pouches keep everything super organized and are made of a clear plastic to allow the user to instantly see what they are grabbing. The pack opens completely to easily expose everything inside, and this makes access even easier and way more convenient. I don’t have to throw everything out to get one piece of gear.
I took this on your standard road march loaded down with gear. I packed this thing to represent an overnight pack. I had the following packed:
- 4 bottles of water
- two MREs
- medical kit
- Esee 4 knife
- flashlight, spare phone battery
- small Pelican case
- change of socks
- 50 rounds of 9mm
- spare mag for my Walther PPS
- Chiappa folding 22 LR rifle
- couple hundred rounds of 22
- notebook, compass, pen, extra batteries, and then for good measure ten pounds worth of weights
I took this on a three-mile march. I chose three miles for a reason.
At 1.5 miles every pack is comfortable, and at 10 miles every pack sucks. At 3 miles you get to honestly know the pack. I did 3 miles in 42 minutes and have zero complaints about the pack. The rigid pack keeps all the stuff in the pack, including the weights, from bruising my back. I kept the straps nice and tight and they never dug into my shoulders or cut circulation off to the arms. The thick padded straps make the pack very comfortable to carry. I love the straps and felt they were familiar. It took me a while to realize it was the same material and design as the Vicker’s Blue Force Gear padded sling. This was a genius move, as the Vicker’s sling is by far the best I’ve ever used.
Lastly, the pack is quite covert. Unless you go, Multi Cam, no one really makes this pack as a tactical pack. Maybe a few guys who served in the last few years would recognize the Coyote color of mine as a tactical bag, but to the average joe, it’s a brown backpack. The little MOLLE straps on the front are unusual and designed to be covert. The Jedburgh is at home on the trail, on patrol, and in the classroom. It’s an overall excellent daypack for both the rural hiker and the on the go urban dweller.
