How I pack my ruck

Packing a ruck can, at first glance seem a daunting affair.  If you look on the net, you’ll find all kinds of information on how to pack your ruck to go hike the Adirondacks or the Pacific Coast Trail.  You can find info from the Boy Scouts that will tell you how to properly pack a Coleman stove and a few days worth of canned foods.  In other words, there’s not a lot of info out there that suits “Our Purposes”.  So, in a search to figure out how to do this, and with the help of tire iron, and select tidbits from the web, here’s what I have.  

Once we are done here, a person should be able to prep their gear properly, pack it properly, and fill their ruck properly.

So, a step at a time, lets get to it shall we?

Gear selection & Preparation:

Gear Selection

When packing your ruck you must determine two things.

1.   What your mission is
2.   What gear is required for that mission

Once you have made the two above determinations, its time to assemble your gear.  If you aren’t sure you have your ruck properly packed, are wondering if is packed properly, or know you need to make some alterations for you specific mission, follow along and we’ll get it straightened out.

Start by taking all the gear you think you may need for the mission, and sort it into three piles.  Arrange the piles like so:

1.   Mission critical items.  Items that will significantly negatively impact the mission if you don’t have them, or make the mission impossible to carry out.  This can be things like ammo, batteries, commo gear, waterproof paper and pen/pencil, maps, water etc.
2.   Non Essential/Non Mission Critical items.  Items that, if missing, will not significantly negatively impact your ability to carry out the mission, but would be nice to have.  These may be things like sleeping bag, food, tent, stove, etc.  Now you may be thinking “But I’m gonna need food aren’t I?”  Remember the rule of threes?  “Three weeks without food”.  Yeah, it may be nice to have, but you won’t die without it.  Same for a sleeping bag.  You’ve got your poncho liner where it should be, in your second line right?  “Travel light, freeze at night” as they say.  If you are not going to be in the snow, chances are you don’t need a full sleeping bag.
3.   Not needed items.  Items that you absolutely do not need, things that do not either greatly improve the chances of success for the mission, nor will their absence greatly reduce the chances of success.

Now, take all the stuff that is in pile three, gather it up, and put it away.  Congratulate yourself on your foresight, and listen close.  Your legs and back are thanking you already.

Go back to your second pile, and go through all that stuff, and inspect each item asking yourself, “What happens if I leave this out?”  If you can’t absolutely convince yourself that your mission will fail, give hard thought to starting a new “Pile 3” with it.  Now, go back again and inspect each of the remaining items in Pile 1 and 2 to see that they are fully “Mission Capable”.  If anything needs repairs or replacement, now is the time to find it and attend to it. If you are satisfied with your gear condition and selection, it’s time to move on to packing.

Gear Preparation:

In this section, we are going to achieve two things, make our gear easier to organize and pack, and help protect it so that it is “Mission Capable” when we need it.

For starters, we need to organize our items by like type.  For instance; all our clothing in one group, toiletries in another, and water sensitive items such as maps etc. in another.

All of this needs to be packed in water tight bags.  The simple way to do this would be to stuff each item, or group of items into appropriately sized Zip-Lock bags.  The right way to do this is to make “OD Bags”.  OD bags are simply the same bags, completely wrapped in riggers tape, as described below:

First, get the bags you need. I got mine at Wal-Mart, using the least cost options. The green tape I got at Wal-Mart as well, as I was unable to find either OD or Camo duct tape. I got 3 Gallon, 1 Gallon and 1 Quart sized bags.

Once I had my bags and tape, I taped them up and packed them like so, using the 3 Gallon size bags as an example:

Step 1, Take note of the warning on the bag. Don’t let kids play with the bag, or get sealed up in one of them.

Step2, Start the tape right below the grab handle so that the zipper area is reinforced, as well as the rest of the bag. This view of the bag is from the back so you can see how much the overlap should be.

Step 3, Wrap the tape completely around the bag, and over lap the ends a bit, as indicated by the arrow.

Step 4, Start the next row, overlapping the above row by about 1/8 to 1/4 inch. Make sure to start your new row in a different place than the row above it or you’ll wind up creating a weak spot in the tape, and bag.

Step 5, Again, overlap the ends just a bit, as noted in this image. The blue arrow is the approximate starting point for the row, and the black arrow shows the end of the tape row overlap.

Step 6, Once you have gotten rows of tape all down the bag, you may want to reinforce the weak spots in the bag, the bottom and the edges with extra overlaps as indicated here by the black arrows.

Step 7, Once you have the taping operation complete, put whatever you want to store in the bag, and using some sort of handy weight, press out the air and seal the bag as shown below. (Note the warning at the top of this instruction set)

Once that is done, clip off the remainder of the bag above the tape and mark the bag based on its contents.

Repeat this as necessary for the various sizes of bags based on what you need to pack and the number necessary to bag everything.  Remember to group like items together.  For instance, you can slip some moleskin into each of your small bags with the socks.

Don’t forget that if you are packing MRE’s, you will need to strip them out.

This is how I strip and repack MRE’s. I use the civilian version, made by Ameriqual. If you use real military, or some other variety, it may be a bit different, but the principle should be the same.

This is what the MRE looks like, before the operation…

And here is all the junk that comes in it, broken out. Note that the lightest sealed end is the one that is cut.

This is the stuff to keep, the bag, the main entree, the crackers and the fruit / energy bars. Note that the main entree has been compressed down to one end of its pouch and folded over on its self.

Now take the crackers and place them in the bag, with the entree pouch on top of them, and the energy bar on one side, with the long flap toward the top of the bag, and the fruit bar nearest the open end of the bag.

Now, take the second MRE and place it in, in mirror image. This is the view looking down into the bag. The crackers and the energy bars are roughly the consistency of drywall and bricks respectively and will help the bag keep its shape.

Now, place both fruit bars on the top.

Then fold the top of the bag over and tape it down. Each of these will hold two MRE’s.

Complete third line food collection. I add a couple of Mountain House meals and pack my Ramen noodles in one of the left over MRE pouches. Total is six MRE’s, two Mountain House, all my Ramen and a spare MRE entree tossed in for good measure.

I realized I had no bandoleers, and as soon as I attempted to snake some from The Wife, she put the kibosh on that quick, fast and in a hurry. So, I found a couple of bandoleers at a local shop but they didn’t have silencers for the ammo on stripper clips. Bandoleers without silencers are a constant source of clinking and rattling when you are moving, so they must be silenced somehow. So, here’s how you can make some that will probably outlast the wimpy ones that come with bandoleer kits.

These will work if you get your ammo in “2 X 10” boxes, where the ammo comes packaged in two rows of ten.

First, gently pry open the flaps on a long side with a small knife so the flaps stay intact, like so:

Once they are open, leave the ammo and separator in the box to help keep the box from collapsing, as we’re gonna tape it pretty tight, like so:

Now, using our good friend the duct tape roll, fold the flaps down to reinforce the mouth of the box a bit and tape over with the duct tape in the same manner as described in the OD bagging portion, like so:

Wrap the tape around and don’t forget to overlap the ends by a bit. Also, don’t start or stop the tape on the corners, or you’ll have a weak spot in the over-tape.

Then continue around the box until it is completely covered. Cut a piece of tape to cover the bottom of the box as well. Once it’s done, the box should be completely covered in tape, and the mouth of the box should be slightly concave. This will keep tension on the ammo and provide additional “Rattle Prevention”.

Next, pull out the separator and discard it.

Now, put the ammo on stripper clips and put back in the box it just came out of. One will need to face up, and one down in order to fit in the box.

Now, you can insert the stripper clipped ammo in your bandoleer, along with a third stripper clip, and it’ll be quiet when you need it to, and available as well.

But, what if you get your ammo in bulk pack?  What if you are shooting Wolf in square boxes?  Well, there’s an answer for that as well.

First, remember those leftover MRE entree boxes you saved when you stripped your MRE’s? Well, pick out some that aren’t torn or bent up too bad, that still have the flaps on the ends.

Next, using a small knife carefully separate the glued seams…

…so you have a complete, fully opened box.

Using the worst box out of your collection, cut a “measuring jig” out of the worst side of the box. Cut it four inches wide, the length of the box, and cut the tabs off both ends. Starting at one end of this “blank”, measure and mark off lines at the following lengths:
7/16″
2 7/8″
5 3/8″
5 11/16″

This will be the template for the rest of your silencers. It should look like this when you are done:

Now, open up a few boxes as described above, but don’t mark or cut them till you read the following.

Next, on each wide side cut a strip out the whole length of the box, and cut the weakest tab off of one end. You must have a tab on one end in order for this to work out properly.

Then, using your template, mark and draw lines across each of the 4″ wide strips starting from the end opposite the tab you left on. I also add one along the tab, shown here on the left side, in order to score it so it folds better.

Now, lay a loaded stripper on the first line you drew, opposite the tab that you left on, with the stripper clip lying on the line as shown below:

Next, fold the cardboard over and lay a stripper clip the opposite direction of the one below it, with the projectile tips pointed toward the two narrowly spaced lines, as shown below:

Then fold the last section over, and fold the flap over the base of the stripper clip.

Now, tape up the package as described before, leaving the ends open.

From the end it should look like this:

There, now you have silencers for your bandoleer!

Now that we have everything prepped to pack, it’s time to get down to business, packing the ruck.

Packing the Ruck

For this class I will be packing a General Purpose Load-Out.

Here is the gear I have to pack up:

Starting from the upper left corner, generally in rows are the following items

• One set of PolyPro’s including top, bottom, booties and balaclava
• Two sets of camouflage utilities, each with T-shirt
• Six trioxane bars
• Six stripped MRE’s, packed two per MRE pouch, taped closed with 100mph tape
• Four Ramen Noodle packs and extra MRE Entree in MRE pouch
• Two Mountain House entree’s
• Poncho
• Utensil set
• Three sets of wool socks with sock liners and small patch of moleskin in each pouch
• “Fix-It” kit containing the following:
• • Two small MALICE clips
  • 20 feet of 100 MPH Tape wrapped around a 35mm film canister
  • 4 Large outdoor rated zip-ties (In film canister)
  • 4 Small outdoor rated Zip-Ties (In film canister)
  • Small Swiss Army Knife
• USGI Bandoleers
• Rite-In-The-Rain Notebook with pen
• USGI ECWS Gore-Tex Parka
• USGI ECWS Gore-Tex Trousers

This is not a terribly large load, but if it is not packed properly, it will be highly uncomfortable, and nearly impossible to retrieve anything from when needed. This I know from personal experience. By breaking up items and groups of items into smaller sealed chunks it will be easier to pack, and easier to retrieve items and then restore the pack to some semblance of order.

Not all these items are essentials, for instance the utensil set. I just got tired of the lousy MRE spoons, so I grabbed a $3.00 utensil set from the local surplus store.

Each large green bag has a set of cammies, with t-shirt in it, and one bag has a complete set of Poly-Pros including tops, bottoms, booties and a balaclava. Each small bag has a pair of wool socks (Some USGI, some civilian) along with enough moleskin to protect a blister or two.

When you pack a ruck for civilian camping purposes, you have several options for weight and density balance depending on how you plan to travel. For instance, if you are going to be hiking on prepared or paved trails, you can pack your weight displacement fairly high and put your sleeping bag on top of your pack to raise your center of gravity. This will make the load seem lighter and if packed properly in a good ruck it will still rest on your hips. If you are going to be trekking cross country, you will want the weight lower to keep your center of gravity down in order to help prevent slips and falls when crossing streams, clambering over/under logs etc. However, to a great extent, we don’t have the same luxuries.

We have to be able to maintain our center of gravity, be able to carry our load out for extended periods of time and we will rarely be able to keep to paved or prepared trails. In addition we need to keep our “profile” as small as possible to avoid being seen as well as avoid getting tangled up when “busting brush” cutting cross-country.

So, we are absolutely going to need a pack with a frame. We need our load stable and centered symmetrically across our spinal column. A frameless pack may be fine for a small load-out for a day or two, but it won’t cut it for either a larger load or a longer period of time. We are going to need to balance our comfort with our need for a low profile. Thus, when we pack we are going to need to keep our weight in the pack high, but our overall load low, like this:

Note that in an externally framed pack such as an ALICE pack, we keep our weight higher than we would need to in an internally framed pack. Also, in both cases, keep the heavier/denser items closer to your back in order to help stabilize the load and keep your center of gravity toward the center of your body and over your hips so that you can move more stably, and with less fatigue. Women and people of shorter stature may prefer to keep the weight center in the pack a bit lower than otherwise in order to keep stable. Ultimately, packing a ruck is a personal process and each person needs to do this often enough and try different packing arrangements to give them the best mix of productivity and practicality.

As a general rule also, pack larger items lower or deeper in the pack and smaller, more often needed items higher or further out in the pack. You shouldn’t have to entirely unload your pack to get to an energy bar, small light or map/compass.

Be sure you understand the concept of the “Layered / Line Approach”.  3rd line gear, the stuff you are packing in your ruck is your re-supply.  Drink the water out of your ruck before you tap your bladder or canteens on your 2nd line.  Eat the food out of your ruck before you dip into what you carry in the butt-pack on your 2nd line as well.  If you have to E&E out of a bad spot, the first thing you are going to ditch will be your ruck.  If you’ve drained all the water and eaten all the food from your second line, you’re gonna be in a bad way in short order.  Bear this in mind as you are designing your packing methodology specific to your mission, and your gear.

With that in mind, here is how I pack my ruck.

I will be using a Large ALICE pack, on a frame.

First, I put the Poly-Pros in the bottom, laid flat to help build a base for the rest, as shown with the aid of The Wife. In my AO, these are the least likely to be needed, but it can get cold as well as wet, so they are well worth having.

After the Poly-Pro’s then place in the next large bags of cammies in the same manner.

Then, using the top pouch, place the stripped MRE’s and other foodstuff, as well as the utensils in as shown.

Lastly, place the sock pouches in the pack. I put them over the food as they will more likely be needed in a hurry than a meal will be, and they help provide a water resistant seal when the pack is closed.

This is the pack closed, showing how the sock pouches fill the hole.

Using this method with these items, the main area of the pack is just over half full.

Now we move on to packing the outer pockets. These pockets will be used to pack either small items we don’t want rambling around loose in the main pack area or will be more like to have need of in a hurry, and will want quick access to.

Here is what we have to pack in the outer pockets.

The six trioxane bars (outlined in red) go in the left pocket of the row of small pockets near the top of the ruck. The “Fix-It Kit” (outlined in purple) goes in the center pocket. The right hand pocket is reserved for whatever else might be needed; a spare compass, sun block, a small first aid kit etc.

The poncho (outlined in blue) is one I carry in my 3rd line for a field expedient shelter, along with small bungee cords for tying down.  This goes in the top-flap pocket on top of the ruck.  That way, when setting up a field expedient shelter, I don’t have to expose anything else from the ruck to the elements before the shelter is up.

I pack my bandoleers, along with a Rite-In-The-Rain notebook and pen (outlined in green) in the large lower pocket on the left. The USGI ECWS Parka (outlined in yellow) gets rolled up tightly and stuffed in the lower center pocket; and the matching trousers (outlined in orange) get rolled up likewise and placed in the right hand lower pocket.

Now to attach the sleeping bag. For winter months, I use a USGI ECWS bag with a like bivy sack. These things are big and don’t compress well, so this is how I get it to attach, and keep it a manageable size.

First, I made a couple of cinch straps for the bag/bivy combo. I stitched slider buckles on like so, using heavy duty upholstery thread and 1″ webbing. They’ve gotta be pretty long, probably about 5 or 6 feet each. Yes, that’s my own crappy stitch job.

Then add a slider buckle to each strap, and wrap around the bag/bivy combo and cinch down like nobodies business.

Then, take the long tail ends, and passes them through the wide attachment points on the bottom of the ruck, like so:

Then pass the straps through the provided notches in the pack frame:

Cinch them up as tight as you can, taking as much slack out of them as possible, and pass back through the slider buckles. If done right, the belts are tight enough around the bag/bivy that the slider buckles will hold tight. If not, over wrap the loose end back over and through the slider buckle to lock down the strap.

Then slide your sleeping bag pad underneath the pack straps, on top of the pack and cinch down tight. Take the loose ends and bring them back up and tie off in order to help keep them tight, as well as out of the way. The result should look like this:

Since your third line is your Re-Supply, you’ll need to have water. Especially if you live/operate in a drier AO. While you can use every external attachment point on your ruck to hang a canteen off of, this has some major disadvantages. It won’t empty evenly. Once you empty one canteen, you’ve just unbalanced your carefully assembled load-out. Also, there is the “Slosh Factor”. If you can’t fully empty your canteen, it’s going to make a fair amount of noise with every step or motion. This adds up to making a bladder of some sort the far and away best choice for carrying your water stash.

For this example, I used a Camelback “Unibottle 100”. A Camelback Storm might be a better choice as it already comes with a neoprene covered drink tube and uses D-Rings for attachment points. Additionally, its a bit better colored that the Unibottle shown here, however, the Unibottle will work for example purposes.

You’ll need your Storm or Unibottle, 1 inch webbing and two fastex buckles. I was able to find some that don’t require stitching; the tension of the webbing will keep them in place. We’ll use this to our advantage to some extent.

Firstly we’re going to get our webbing ready. While the buckles will actually retain the webbing pretty well if you follow the instructions that come with them, I stitch one end down so that I can adjust it later and still be sure that the whole strap won’t come loose.

This is the stitched end. A simple bar tack will work fine.

The strap should be approximately 36 inches long, and look like this when done.

Next, lay your ruck down on its face, with the frame up, and unbuckle the top strap. Lay the bladder face down against the frame, so that the fill mouth is facing the pack. Pass the bladder underneath the top pad, and the straps and buckle over the top of the frame, as shown below. Note the drink-tube routing through the pack strap as well.

Start with the top set of attachment points. If you use the Storm, you will need to pull the free end of the webbing out of the buckle and pass it through both of the “D-Rings”. If you use the Unibottle you don’t need to remove the buckle end, just loosen the clips on the bladder, slip the webbing in, and then clip them shut. Pass the webbing OVER the frame, then underneath and clip the buckle. The buckle should be nearest the ruck. Then, pull the free end of the webbing tight. When you are done it should look like this:

Then repeat the process on the lower attachment points. Note that the webbing will not fall in a straight line if you use the Unibottle. If this is the case on your ruck, make sure you choose a higher, rather than lower attachment point, or your bladder will sag when full. The red box shows approximately where the buckle will fall in relation to the webbing, behind the bladder.

This is a detail of one side, showing the free end of the webbing tucked down so it is not loose.

This is how it should all look when done and in place.

Note Since I shot and typed all this, I have done some more refinements.  Once I get a chance to shoot and note them, they will be integrated into this.

Note Thanks to tire iron for help with this class.  Any mistakes are mine, not his.

—
PipeRain
The Oregon Watchmen

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