I took several Grey Ghost Gear pouches for a hike up the easy but possibly haunted Hanging Rock State Park with my family. The pouches were filled with a variety of hiking goods, whatever I might have needed on the trip. One pouch I used was their 6×8 Utility Pouch.
The 6×8 Utility Pouch is designed to hold a variety of items from medical supplies to a 1 quart GI canteen, Nalgene bottle, or other miscellaneous items. I put a 1L Nalgene in mine, as I wanted to stay hydrated as I hiked up and down rockfaces, into ravines and through the alpine bush.
The 6×8 Utility Pouch features dual zipper pulls and modular webbing on the front for attachment of extra modular pouches. Pouches on pouches. Nice. It’s constructed from 500D cordura and backed with three columns of five rows of webbing on the back, allowing it attach to any MOLLE/PALS Style webbing with the included new-style MALICE Clips.
The pouch held up pretty well on my trip, and still does. I did find the 1L Nalgene bottle to be a snug fit requiring tight zippering; a couple of times I didn’t zip it up tight and it came loose, but I caught it before I lost my bottle. A 1 quart canteen fit easily enough, but I wanted more capacity than that.
The half zipper on 6×8 Utility Pouch is a great addition. It adds a bucket at the bottom that even when fully unzipped will store whatever you’ve loaded it up with, as well as acting as a “seat” for larger items should you need to stow something in a socket. It also features a drainage grommet in the bottom for those inconvenient water-landings, or if you forget to tighten your canteen’s lid.
The 3×5 webbing channels were another good addition, giving a range of attachment positions, whether onto a belt as I had done, a vest or plate carrier, or the side of a larger pack. The MALICE clips that ship with it were another bonus. Nothing worse than getting a pouch and not having an attachment system available. The new MALICE clips with their scalloped structure slotted in easily and bit down in place.
Grey Ghost Gear put together some sturdy kit. You can see the double stitching around the PALS loops, and their all-internal seams in all the weight-bearing points. I don’t expect any future problems from this pouch either. This is my first Grey Ghost Gear pouch, and I quite like it. Solid, fit for purpose, no unnecessary frills.
I look forward to this series because I’m looking to streamline my medical kit with pouches where you pull one out and it’s a specific set of things. For example one full of Israeli Bandages or one full of Combat Gauze. Currently I use the Maxpedition Fatty Pocket Organizer for (don’t laugh because they work well!) organizing glitter tubes full of medications.
Being able to rapidly pull a pouch of blood stoppers or one of regular old Band-Aids seems really useful to me.
spot on Wilson, that ‘s what I look for in one of these too. rapid one handed access, and space to fit some important kit, even in a Joe-Average setting like mine.