I currently have a Maxpedition Condor II and have been using it for about 2 months for my EDC/biking pack. When I ride to work I carry a change of clothes, a 3L bladder, and the usual biking spares. The Condor II is just large enough to fit this, and a little harder to access the main compartment than I would like. Does anyone have any experience with something like this? I would also like to retain a discreet pocket of sorts for access to a handgun.
I’m not sure it will suit all of your criteria, but the Eagle III-A Assault Pack sounds like it would come pretty damn close. I wouldn’t recommend needing to doff a backpack in order to get to a handgun, though.
Pat
In terms of access, the Mystery Ranch 3 day is excellent. If you don’t want the pay the price for a MR, Camelbak sells this one for $200 that was designed by MR…
The Mystery Ranch is worth every penny if you can afford it.
Have you checked out the camelbak .mil line? I can personally recommend the Talon, but after looking at their site I think there are a couple others that look nice too, namely the Trizip and the Linchpin. I tend not to put pouches all over it because it is already bulky and wide, so something similar without molle isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Discretion can be had with their sport line of packs also. The couple that I have seen, and the Talon I use daily have nice features as far as pockets, pull out tool pouch, and a couple obvious but “who’dathunk to look there” types of places.
The camelbak mil line looks to be where I will end up. I think the larger pack half full will be much better than the smaller pack full. The tri-zip seems to be pretty good, although it looks like I lose the access to a handgun that the maxpedition gives me. Perhaps that option needs to be reconsidered.
I just picked up the Tactical Tailor modular operator pack and it’s good to go.
Look back at the camelbak line they have a .mil pack that is setup for conceal carry.
I believe its called the CamelBak Demon