Vanquest Ibex 30 | Tactical Backpack | Field Review

Description

Krik of Black Owl Outdoors takes a look at the newest offering from Vanquest, the Ibex 30 backpack. Alex from Vanquest Gear sent us this bag to test out and give our opinions on it. While some of you may recognize the design being similar to the Khard from Arc'teryx, there are small design differences that make this a different bag all together and worth discussing.

Vanquest Ibex 30 - http://amzn.to/1N1087s

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Tags: black owl outdoors,nature,camping,hiking,backpacking,survival,bushcraft,wilderness,forest,backcountry,vanquest,ibex 30,tactical,backpack,rucksack,molle,pals,hydration compatible,1000D,Cordura

Video Transcription

hey what's up Turtles Creek here with blackout outdoors and today I'm going to do in a video sort of an overview video of this pack which is the ibex 30 from van quest alex from van quest contacted us asked if we'd be interested in trying out this new pack from them you said sure sending over it's not available yet for purchase it's available for pre-order and priced on that pre-order Iblees 180 $4.99 so actually now let's get into you notice the specs and details of the bag the bag is made out of really heavy thousand d cord or nylon seeing the same quality i've seen on van quest up before double stitching all that you know up to par what i've seen with them but getting into the details of the pack the sides each side is the same you have three rows of webbing on this side two compression straps have elongated zipper right here which is actually a side pocket that runs the whole side of the bag covered zipper track on this and what i have in this right now is a saw and an old Gerber sheath this is a bak go in there they'll have an it's leather sheath today and a camp-stool seen this in videos still testing this out and this is just in here for size comparison now this is probably right around 12 13 inches in length and then you have this sort of contrasting color on this bag it's not so contrasting as coyote tan but bankís actually sent us a different bag when that wasn't the production model that was in like the gray or wolf grey believe and there's still have the same color brown or tan in there so it is contrasting but main compartments padded but nonetheless this is the side pockets and they are actually designed to hold hydration bladders and but I can't see it because my hands digging right up in here there's a little bit of nylon on there you probably can't see it it's really buried in there but that's just for to be able to suspend the bladder in there and then also there's a little exit hole inside of this pocket so you can thread the your hose through here and come out the back actually right here it's a little hole inside the end through the main compartment out through here and that's just the same on the other side the front of the bag you have this row of webbing here and then sort of daisy-chained this shock cord elasticized cord and I just have a rain shell on there just for demonstrative purposes so you can store something on the outside of the bag if you desire you could take this off put paracord if you want to store some paracord on the outside of the bag you know just customizable is this the theme of these sort of tactical style bags which is highly customizable to your specific needs and underneath here you can't really see it cuz my jackets there but it's really big really big spot for patches anything like that moving to the other side of the bag same thing two compression straps this is a paracord zipper pool covered covered zipper track which I like seeing inside here I have a 40 ounce Klean Kanteen this isn't a super designated or committed pocket for water bottles because it's sort of thin that when you put this in here it's definitely competing for space with the inside of the bag but it still works and again there's a little piece of nylon hanging up here my fingers pressing up here to hang your hydration bladder inside here

moving on to the back of the pack three handles - right here I'm grabbing which is this convenient to pick up the pack move it around one up here which is where you see it on a lot of packs regardless atactic or non tactical to here like I said you have this padded sort of back there's no internal frame inside here but when the packs empty it definitely has form to it that sits upright on its own and I'll touch more about pros and cons and how I feel about internal versus on internal frames or actually no frames at all in the packs but nonetheless you have this padding it's generous definitely comfortable to offer some I guess just some padding between whatever is inside the bag and your back when you're wearing it shoulder straps are definitely Ora excuse me not definitely they are contoured to go around your shoulder just be a little more comfortable to help spread the weight as it's going over your shoulders coming down under your armpits up here at the top of the shoulder straps load lifters definitely not the smoothest action money when you have this one and you're trying to adjust this but nonetheless the present and here again like I said about the quality expect to see from Bankwest boxed and etched xed excuse me moving down the shoulder straps you have two pieces of nylon coming around the strap itself and this would be really nice for threading your the tube of your of your bladder your hydration bladder coming down here to keep it moving around too much when you're moving you have a sternum strap adjustable you can take it off move it up or down depending on your chest body size shape all that here's the sternum strap there's a whistle in here you can actually remove this and just use as a whistle if you wanted to if you weren't going to be using this that all some people don't prefer sternum straps and down at the hip belt since we're down here this is able to move up and down a little bit inside here it's hook and loop I'm not going to take it off but you can actually take this off and you'll hear it now very strong very strong positive hook and loop in there which allows you to either move this hip belt up a little bit and started this almost lumbar pad you know move it up a little bit depending on your torso length it's nice and there's no real support or structure to these hip belts as you can see so it's really not designed to carry weight but then on you tip belt you have a little bit of webbing right here then you have this signature of van quest this to action release buckle do this you know stays locked you have to press this one down seen on all their bags very generous amount of nylon coming through this but you'll see that once I get it on same on this side other side of the hip belt moving to the top of the bag you have some more bungee cord up here with a cord lock for easy cinching kind of standard and there's actually a little pocket up here in there I just have my small organizer that I carry show you what's in here some of the bag to bag a flashlight multi-tool chapstick sharpening stone and just probably some quarters and band-aids just apply some cords pop around underneath here I'm missing it later in there I have a lighter in here I was keep but and kerchief in this pocket and this is a decently sized pocket my hand is here and the tip of it goes down here the bottom of the pocket but you just want to be conscious because it goes down so far you don't want to put something this long in here that's rigid because this pack needs to sort of curve there's a curve right here and it needs to do that it needs to be able to come up here and curve so if I have something potentially inside here that's long and rigid it might not be as well we're just not going to sit that nice it might not be able to close it without stressing it but nonetheless talking on the top and I believe that's the outside of the bag let me get this all button back up and we'll go talk about the main compartment there's a few different ways you can sort of configure the zippers to where they're going to rest of how you want to use this bag because it as you'll see it opens completely fillets or clam shells open but with these compression straps where they are I can open this up and sort of just keep it as a top load bag the zipper tracks get caught or the zipper gets caught on the compression strap without opening down anymore and if I really just want to use this at the top load bag I can just jam it in there or if I don't want to do that I can do this in other ways I'll show you but I want to touch on these zipper tracks since I'm here the zipper pulls excuse me it's kind of cool what they did with this

and but honestly I would have liked them to be oriented rotate them about 90 degrees because when you're pulling sometimes it's just the action I'd rather have like I said rotated this way as opposed to this way because I feel like going to do this really I got to grab the whole thing to make it really smooth action as opposed to if it was this way it would sort of naturally work with the force of opening along the track small nitpicky but definitely not as user friendly other could be in my opinion but nonetheless let's get these zippers to the other side and I'll show you another way so I put them down here get this compression strap nice and tight and so you just wanted to be able to get into it on the side like this you could I mean I could even want to do this bottom pressure shot up a little bit more and I can get into it from the side like this and then finally I want to do these compression straps so the really cool feature of this design borrowed is by undo the whole thing and now I can open this up completely really cool I don't have this completely full or customized as it can be but we'll start over here this is another small there's another decently sized pocket right here on the other side of the front of top of the pack right here this is right underneath right there then you had this big sort of panel meant for hook and loop and since we're over here I'll show you these these little grab things do not come with the pack but this is what this you know hook and loop system is designed for customize all your little pouches if you want grab it if you need to really really able to customize inside this pack in the outside but the inside specifically with this opening up like this and then that's the front sort of panel if you will inside I just have my tarp hammock and straps as a cook pot some cooking stuff inside this bag a light small first-aid kit rattling around some clothes pins in there I still need to address that and water filter and a bag of meat I have some scraps this is the Sawyer mini inside here water filter and you can see these other panels I cap this one in here I don't really have too many sort of tactical style patches in that degree because I really it's not sort of my style in the forest so I don't have too much to show you but you can imagine I have the other one so this is just put here put on this side so there's one two three then four of these panels that you can customize you can buy these I'm not sure how much these calls from van quest and then there are some webbing here so you can daisy chain if you desire some place to hang right here and since we're inside here this is where the tube will come through from the side pockets is one on each side the tube would come through here of your hydration bladder and it will exit through here the center of your shoulders there's the other one on this side

that's basically the ins and outs of this bag as it sits so now I want to get it on and just talk a little bit more about the pack in general a decent amount of extra nylon coming off of this hip belt not really an issue I can definitely just Ranger ban this up or figure out some way I can either cut it if I want to but let's talk about some of the pros and cons of the bag now the fit when I'm wearing these extra layers I really admit he's probably not noticeable to you and like on most bags I felt that maybe aren't the most comfortable in the warmer months when wearing thin layers they're not noticeable in the colder months of the year with extra layers on but there's something goofy about this fit when I was trying it on with just like a t-shirt on there's just something goofy I don't know if it's my torso and it sort of been a theme with other tactical bags I've tried on they're just not that well designed for really comfortable fit as opposed to you seen companies that are more hiking backpacking technical oriented but that's just sort of that's just part and part of the industry now with what these tactical bags are how they're designed not really a con but just something worth mentioning some of the pros I like about this bag and van Quest in general is the really solid construction

double double stitched everything you know boxed in and xed and stress points you have really nice color colorways muted colors I'm really big in the muted colors if you can't tell how I'm dressed I like to look like the force I don't like really flashy things the design of this bag being the Flay's open the panels on the inside you know there's sort of tearaway quick quick access I guess if you will the side pocket this features main arrow carry 2 hydration bladders all those are pluses in my mind some of the negatives are like I said the fit first of all I'm very critical about a bags fit because to me that's a very important feature which is one reason why I don't really gravitate towards these tactical bags because of their fit and there's sort of weight carrying suspension systems that on so I look for internal frame packs even in this size 30 liters I would still like to see a little bit nicer suspension system that might increase the price but I think it can be done for a reasonable price another con is basically originality if you're aware of our tricks which is a sort of a technical high-end hiking backpack sort of technical company they have a leaf design or a leaf sort of sect that they sort of make a military and tactical bags and this is basically the same design as their card bag which leaves a thirty to forty five liter very very similar you know I don't know where the design came from who had at first but nonetheless the card was out I saw that first like the design and then this came out so that's to me that's sort of a con besides that the fit and you know being designed at they're very similar pack from another company that's basically all I can see the cons with this bag so if you have any questions about anything I went over a dingo ever leave a comment let me know what you think about this bag things you like things you don't like this is correct signing out with black outdoors later Turtles