The Tacprogear Rapid Load Out Bag is a their version of one of the most versatile and useful gear items ever made – the duffel bag. The duffel bag’s name is permanently marred by a host of poorly made, cheap bags that can barely carry a change of clothes to the gym let alone your gear to the range. This is not one of those bags.
Overview
This review will cover the “regular size” Rapid Load Out Bag. The bag’s overall dimensions are roughly 11” x 14” x 20”. The large main compartment is what accounts for most of those dimensions at 11” x 11” x 20”.
The Rapid Load Out Bag also features three external pockets. Two of them are located on the front of the bag and the third is a large, slightly bellowed slip pocket that runs the entire length and height of the rear of the bag.
All of the compartments are closed with zippers. The two front pockets and single rear pocket have single zippers. The main compartment is closed with a double zipper and a “compression” strap with side release buckle (more on this later).
The bag can be carried via the reinforced double grab handle or the included shoulder strap.
The bag is constructed from 1000D Cordura nylon (mine happens to be Multicam), uses large YKK zippers with nice corded pulls, and a Tacprogear branded Woo Jin Stealth side release buckle. The stitching is all very, very clean. There are bar tacks and box stitches everywhere I would expect them. Most of the seams are double stitched and closed with binding tape. They even went the extra mile of doubling the fabric at the point at which they box stitch the handles to the bag. The bottom and 2 ends are all lightly padded to protect the contents and give some structure. The materials and construction of this bag are excellent.
This bag also has what Tacprogear calls their “MOLLE Spine” feature. It is essentially a band of reinforced PALS webbing that wraps around the top, front, and bottom of the bag (more on this later).
Observations from Use
This bag is right in the sweet spot in terms of size. It is large enough to tote a bunch of stuff but small enough that it will work as an airline carry-on bag. You aren’t going to be dropping a carbine into it but you can get just about everything else you need for a day on the range into it. I can fit some ammo and magazines, a belt rig, chest rig, eye pro, ear pro, and lunch with room to spare.
I like how Tacprogear handled the zippers on this bag. The double zipper on the main compartment is a natural choice. The zippers on the two front compartments are single zippers that close in toward the center of the bag so that when the pouches are closed, the zipper pulls are tucked out of the way in between the pouches. It is a nice touch. The only thing that I don’t care for is that the main compartment’s zippers are not covered. The front and back compartments both have flaps to cover the zipper but strangely, the main compartment does not have a flap.
Carrying this bag is easy and comfortable. The shoulder strap is wide offers a fair amount of adjustment. The double handle has a hook and loop closed wrap so that you can join the two sides together. It is not padded but it is comfortable.
The padded bottom has served me well. I have laid the bag down on wet ground at the range and no moisture makes it to the interior of the bag. Moisture would have to absorb through a layer of nylon, closed cell foam, and then another layer of nylon. I doubt that is going to happen so I am pretty fearless about laying down on anything short of a puddle.
The opening into the main compartment can be zipped open on 3 of the 4 sides creating a flap that can be flipped out of the way along with the “compression” strap. This creates an opening that is nearly as large as the compartment itself, making it very easy to load and find your gear.
You may have noticed that I keep putting quotation marks around the word “compression” in compression strap. That is because, as the bag is delivered, what Tacprogear calls the compression strap doesn’t compress anything. It has a short tail to adjust its length but that is unnecessary because both parts of the buckle are anchored right next to each other. When you tighten the strap, it doesn’t compress anything. It is kind of useless as it stands but the strangest part is that with the presence of the “MOLLE Spine,” the perfect solution was right under the designer’s nose.
If it wasn’t for the issues with the compression strap, I am not sure what you would use the MOLLE Spine for but I suppose it could be used to tie gear to the outside of the bag like you would on a back pack with “daisy chain.” At first, I clipped the original side release buckle off of the compression strap and replaced it with ITW repair buckles. That allowed me to actually compress the bag by moving the buckles along the MOLLE Spine. Then, I found an even simpler solution – an ITW G-Hook can be placed on the compression strap and then tucked into the MOLLE Spine at any interval you need in order to compress the bag. It works perfectly.
Some of you are likely wondering about admin type organization. The bag has none and that is fine with me, especially on a duffel bag. It is nice to have but, I can use a drop in organizer and I think duffels are all about cargo space. I don’t need a series of small pouches that take up space.
The bag is holding up well to use. It has been moved around on concrete pads and on gravel ranges. It has been stuffed in and pulled out of trunks and generally mistreated. That isn’t the hardest life a bag can live but it is holding up nicely. In fact, it still basically shows no wear at all after several trips to the range.
Wrap Up
The Rapid Load Out Bag is a durable bag that can carry a lot of gear. The compression strap design is kind of a head scratcher but it isn’t necessary to the function of the bag so I can’t fault it much for that. I do wish that there was a flap over the zipper on the main compartment but other than that, this bag checks all the boxes for what I love about duffel bags. I suspect that this bag will be serving me well for a long, long time.
Check out the Rapid Load Out Bag at Tacprogear.
I think the compression strap, in my experience, is there to prevent the zippers from blowing out when too much “stuff” is crammed in the bag – it helps take the brunt force OFF the zippers and bear more load on the strap – not to be confused with a compression strap inside a pack…maybe they could rename it something else?