Hill People Gear just added three new color and fabric options to their product line. The Recon Kit Bag, Umlindi, and Palspocket are all sporting some new options.
The Hill People Gear (HPG) Capture Flap is now available to purchase on HillPeopleGear.com. This beaver-tail/tailgate accessory can be attached (via G-hooks) to all HPG packs (and many packs from other manufacturers) to add secure external storage for bulky items. The Capture Flap is laser cut with a PALS compatible grid for adding additional pouches. The back of the Capture Flap is lined with loop material for added hook backed pouches.
Hill People Gear is teasing the potential release of a knife of their own design. This back-country traveller’s knife has very specific features included and omitted on the basis of the Hill brother’s backgrounds and experiences as outdoorsman. That is an approach to gear design that has worked out pretty well for them so far…
Here is what we know:
The knife will come with a kydex sheath that includes two snap loops. This will offer a wide variety of carry methods and it is always nice when a knife comes with a sheath that is actually functional.
Many of the design elements come from the Hill brother’s experiences in the outdoors along with some Kali training. The squared butt is specifically designed to work with a reverse grip in a nod to their edged weapon training. Much of the romance of bushcraft is exchanged for the pragmatism of modern back-country travel. The spine is NOT a squared, 90 degree spine as the Hill brothers find that feature to be more of a help than a hindrance in a cutting tool. The blade has a pronounced guard for safety. This is clearly not a “bushcraft” knife.
The handle slabs are made from G10 for toughness. Hill People Gear states that toughness will key because of the thinner section of handle material that run up into the guard area of the knife. You can also see that care has been taken to scallop the grip near the blade which can help with various grips like a pinch grip.
This knife will make use of 1/8″ thick blade stock from an undisclosed steel. It features a high saber primary grind with a 17 degree secondary edge. This is relatively thin stock compared to many knives on the market and a relatively fine edge. It is obviously made to cut.
Specs:
There is an excellent discussion of this knife already in progress on the Hill People Gear Owners Group on Facebook. They have already discussed the included and omitted features as well as the reasoning behind those decisions at length. If you use Hill People Gear products, I highly recommend the group as there is a lot of knowledge to be gleaned there.
Stay tuned for pricing and availability.
Since the release of the Hill People Gear Kitbag, people have used them as binocular pouches and they work well in the role. The problem is that, depending on the size of the binoculars and your Kitbag, they may be all you can carry. Hill People Gear now has a dedicated binocular carry solution – the Bino Pouch Medium.
The Bino Pouch Medium is a MOLLE compatible pouch that is designed around the shape of a 10×42 binocular which are a great all-around size. It features padded bucket style construction with a full coverage lid. The lid and bottom panel are lined with loop Velcro to avoid scratching lenses. The clever and simple shock cord closure can be operated with one hand.
The pouches requires a 4×2 PALS grid for mounting. This allows the Bino Pouch Medium to fit on either the Recon Kitbag or Recon Heavy Kitbag with room to spare.
The Bino Pouch Medium will be available soon in several colors. HillPeopleGear.com
Hill People Gear added the Capture Flap to their website after last week’s tease. It can not be ordered yet but we now have a new image of the back/connectors and a more complete understanding of its features.
From Hill People Gear:
The Capture Flap is a PALS cut, beaver tail style accessory, that can mount to any HPG pack and packs of other manufacturers. You can mount PALS pouches on the front, and either PALS or velcro pouches on the back.
The Capture Flap is mounted via G-hooks that connect to the webbing tabs on our packs. The top of the flap comes with an adjustable amount of webbing to loosen or tighten the flap against the pack.
