Post your dirty BOB! (and the story)

[Agent_Jaws]

Many of us go around posting pics of our gear collection along with the contents of our bags and try to justify it's existence. Most of the time people are showing off their shiny new gear or post what they have but don't include pictures. The goal of this thread however is to allow people to show off their dirty gear, the stuff that you've actually taken with you to the field and used. It's a chance for those of us who've actually used this junk in one way shape or form outside of civilized society. If your gear for some reason doesn't have that used, crusty look to it, please give a story of how you've used what you have. That might help other people figure out what they need as sometimes you just don't need a ton of crap for a weekend outing, despite what some people pack. Here's a picture of my setup:



The kit consists of the following:

Kifaru MMR main pack
Kifaru Zulu ruck
Kifaru Back pouch x 2, attached to the Zulu
Kifaru E&E also attached to the Zulu

Despite the fact that it looks clean, I've now taken every part of it to Iraq twice (except the Zulu, this time is the first time for that piece). Iraqi mud blends in pretty well with the CB color so it's hard to see, plus I take time to clean my gear when I get back to camp. I've taken the Zulu on a road trip to California for 2 weeks and taken the E&E to just about everywhere that I've done a day trip. The first time I used this stuff was bugging in to Ramadi, Iraq last year. Then to bug out back to the States, and now bugging back in to Iraq, this time to Taji. For those who don't know, Iraq is a dirty, muddy place in the winter:



Show us your dirty BOB and tell us it's story!

[ironraven]

If I'm going to take a picture of my gear, I'm going to give it a bath first. This might not be the most productive thread ever.

[Woods Walker]

How about gear that gives it self a bath? Here is my kayak fleet. Took my uncle and a family friend on a Kayak camp out. The long Kayak is the Carolina 14.5 and holds 8500ci in watertight bulkheads. Often wondered if the Kayak would be a good bug out transport as I can do about 30 miles in a day if the wind is down and current not against me. Even in bad conditions 15-20 is not all that hard for a packed yak. Don’t know if the zombies can swim but have not seen much in the way of swimming zombies in the movies.



Photos from my night paddles. Breaks every rule in safe Kayaking.





One positive of the Kayak is there would always be a fish diner.

[Brash]

What good is gear if it doesn't get dirty? This is a picture from when I went camping on the dunes. The water in that bottle got so hot in the shade that I made a cup of tea with it. Temperatures that week broke records.

[Agent_Jaws]

The point of the thread is to show gear that you're actually using, so that if you're taking your BOB somewhere and never use anything out of it, you can tell what you actually need. I know for myself I had a lot of stuff on my first trip to Iraq that I never ended up using, a Camelbak being one of those things (oddly enough). In between trips I shed and swapped out some things that just proved all around more useful for my situation and environment. Things like swapping out my sleeping bag for a poncho liner, dumping the Camelbak since we have tons of bottled water around, and adding a couple of high-powered flashlights to my gear were from lessons learned in the field, not read on a website. Some things stayed the same of course, from the packs I used to the Ka-Bar that I seem to be using almost daily. Off-hand between the two deployments these are the changes I made:

Dumped:

sleeping bag
Camelbak
writing books
excess bulky clothing

Added:

Surefire flashlights (darkness sucks)
more paracord (300' this time)
extra first-aid items like bandages and such
socks/underwear

Another thing I learned is that if you don't have decent strap management, you can get your ass whipped by a Kifaru pack while riding in a Blackhawk with the windows open, damn rotor wash. Gotta solve that issue when the next paycheck hits. My favorite new addition to my gear though is that my E&E now has some of my own blood on it, nothing makes you feel like you put your stamp of ownership on something than bleeding on it

The ideal goal is to see what people use in certain situations that help them more than others, and how their gear has been affected by it's use. The reason I posted mainly about my packs is that for bugging in and out of country twice, loading on helicopters and going from FOB to FOB, having a nice carry system has been a dream for my back. I don't use the whole set-up all that often but when I need to use it, my body really thanks me. If you spend $50 on a pair of boots because you didn't want to drop $200 for a high-end pair, how did they hold up when you took them out and used them? All the pics of brand new gear is fine and dandy, but I'm more interested in seeing gear that's seen field use and lived to tell the tale.

Thanks to you guys for posting pics, I'd like to see more stuff that's been around the block a few times. Hell some of the stuff they are selling as brand new in the PX here in Iraq looks as though it has more miles on it than the gear that people are posting.

And Woods, I'm with you on the Kayak. I've been looking around for a good kayak to play with and fish off of when I get back to the states.

[Woods Walker]

First thing I would like to thank you for your service to our nation.

Looking over your list of items dumped and added I would have kept the clothing and bag. The reasons being that you have the backup of the most advanced and powerful military in the history of the world watching your back. In a bug out its only me. I do like blankets like a poncho liner over bags in some cases as they are more versatile.

Yea sandy/muddy boots are nice but soaking wet boots are bad news.



Kayak is real cool. If you get one try camping out of it.