Product Review; 5.11 Tactical Patrol Ready Bag
There are a lot of choices out there for someone looking for a patrol or duty bag – you know the kind. Somewhere you can keep all the gear that you need for a long shift away from your home and family, or just the comforts of a ready room or station house. Looking at 12 hours or more out on the streets, or in a car somewhere? A stake-out in an near-empty apartment or a long shift staring at a screen, expecting everything but knowing that most likely, nothing will happen?
Whatever the case, you’ll definitely feel better when you know that you can grab a bag, and it’ll hold everything from a book to your gun. Or guns. Or books. Coffee thermos, flashlight, duty belt, a spare shirt, maybe even spare pants, extra mags and whatever else you need.
5.11 thinks they have the answer with their Patrol Ready bag. And maybe they do. We’ve tested it, we’ve looked at it and turned it inside out, and along with testimony from a security officer that has used it every day for almost two years, we think we’ve got a good and accurate picture of how useful 5.11 has managed to make their bag.
Before we get to that, let’s start with some specs;
- Rugged, water-resistant nylon shell
- 5 exterior gear pockets for fast access – keep your flashlight, nightstick, glasses, maps, and radio at the ready
- Versatile, customizable interior pockets, ready to handle everything that didn’t make it onto the outside
- Imported
- Size: 18.5″ W x 8″ D x 12″ H
- Colors: Black, O.D. Green
- POLICE and SHERIFF patches sold separately
Let’s face it, this isn’t a bag that you go on vacation with. While you can probably pack for a weekend in it, it’s just not the make or model to handle your personal luggage requirements outside of work. But that’s not the goal either, is it? This is the perfect size for a duty bag, in our minds at least. It’ll fit nicely behind your drivers seat, in the trunk of a car, in the foot well of the passenger seat, or if needed, it won’t even cause trouble if you bring it on a bus or a tram or in the backseat of a taxi. Water resistance is another thing. This will stand up against even heavy rain, keeping that extra pair of pants or that extra shirt and the gloves nice and dry.
The zippers are rugged and accurate, not having slipped or made trouble (according to our guy) even once in two years of hard trials. Let us tell you – this is not a guy that treats his gear nicely. Take care of it? Yes. Expect it to do its job? Most definitely. Even the plastic pouch on the front, where you can have a little card with your name on it won’t leak or tear or even scratch easily. Big plus-points here.
There’s one minus to this bag, and what might that be? The inner removable / rearrangeable walls are not perfectly sized. The large one sees too big, and according to our test subject, it has a tendency to bend over time, making it somewhat hard to customize the inside as you might want to. The Velcro strips inside the bag, used to fasten the bag’s interior dividers, are not very nice to fabrics, so be aware of that when you put that extra set of undergarments in there, be in just regular boxers or some UnderArmor tees.
All in all, this is a very, very good bag for your duty kit. There’s a lot of choices out there, but this will serve any police officer, security officer or fire fighter well.
Get it through one of our links, and save up to 10%!
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