I picked up an Eberlestock Operator a few weeks ago and had a chance to test it out on a 2 week field op in the NC woods. Figured I would give an honest assessment of the pack.
First of all, the pack is big enough to meet the needs of most. I would say that it is slightly smaller then the Blackhawk SOF ruck I have used in the past, but bigger then an ALICE mountain ruck. You can pack realistically for a 3 day mission in cold weather, which is what we were working in. That would include all the gear for the sniper in the team, as it is definitely a billet specific pack.
I do like the layout of the external pouches. Seemed to allow for easy access to missions essential gear, although the Blackhawk SOF ruck has more external pouches. The problem with the layout on the SOF ruck is that you have a tendency to place too much shit in these pouches, and the pack ends up feeling alot heavier then it should be, due to the fact that you are placing too much weight away from your center of gravity.
You can use the pack to shoot off of, and after spending a few days of shooting the m40a3 off of it, I almost like it better then using bipods.
The pack rides pretty well on the back. Alot better then the Eberlestock Phantom pack, which had a tendency to pull back when I was wearing it. It is absolutely awesome without wearing body armor. With body armor it will depend on the type of body armor you are wearing.
At first I felt that the shoulder straps were too thin, because I am used to thicker straps. However, they are very comfortable, and the thinness does allow you to accurately engage targets while the pack is on your back. It is extremely hard to engage targets with an m4 if you are actively compromised and wearing body armor, and a SOF ruck. The Operator seemed alot better suited for this purpose, and this is a MAJOR selling point for me.
1 weakness I did notice was that when you have the sniper rifle in the scabbard, it has a tendency to wobble around. If you use a scope and crown cover, it seems to help this by taking up just a little more space and not giving the gun as much room to shift around when moving.
For urban applications this pack kicks ass. Prior to this pack, I t-boned my m40a3 over my ruck, and it makes it impossible to enter a house through a door. This pack allowed my team to get into a building and soft clear it without making any noise. Same thing goes through the woods, as anyone who has ever moved with a combat load through the woods knows how the long gun t-boned over a ruck gets caught on every tee/branch imaginable.
Any other questions just ask. I am posting this because before I bought this pack, I would have liked to see a review like this to give an honest assessment. I tested the pack out for the platoon in order to figure out if our platoon should purchase a few. I can say that as of right now, this will be my go to pack for our Afghanistan deployment.
First of all, the pack is big enough to meet the needs of most. I would say that it is slightly smaller then the Blackhawk SOF ruck I have used in the past, but bigger then an ALICE mountain ruck. You can pack realistically for a 3 day mission in cold weather, which is what we were working in. That would include all the gear for the sniper in the team, as it is definitely a billet specific pack.
I do like the layout of the external pouches. Seemed to allow for easy access to missions essential gear, although the Blackhawk SOF ruck has more external pouches. The problem with the layout on the SOF ruck is that you have a tendency to place too much shit in these pouches, and the pack ends up feeling alot heavier then it should be, due to the fact that you are placing too much weight away from your center of gravity.
You can use the pack to shoot off of, and after spending a few days of shooting the m40a3 off of it, I almost like it better then using bipods.
The pack rides pretty well on the back. Alot better then the Eberlestock Phantom pack, which had a tendency to pull back when I was wearing it. It is absolutely awesome without wearing body armor. With body armor it will depend on the type of body armor you are wearing.
At first I felt that the shoulder straps were too thin, because I am used to thicker straps. However, they are very comfortable, and the thinness does allow you to accurately engage targets while the pack is on your back. It is extremely hard to engage targets with an m4 if you are actively compromised and wearing body armor, and a SOF ruck. The Operator seemed alot better suited for this purpose, and this is a MAJOR selling point for me.
1 weakness I did notice was that when you have the sniper rifle in the scabbard, it has a tendency to wobble around. If you use a scope and crown cover, it seems to help this by taking up just a little more space and not giving the gun as much room to shift around when moving.
For urban applications this pack kicks ass. Prior to this pack, I t-boned my m40a3 over my ruck, and it makes it impossible to enter a house through a door. This pack allowed my team to get into a building and soft clear it without making any noise. Same thing goes through the woods, as anyone who has ever moved with a combat load through the woods knows how the long gun t-boned over a ruck gets caught on every tee/branch imaginable.
Any other questions just ask. I am posting this because before I bought this pack, I would have liked to see a review like this to give an honest assessment. I tested the pack out for the platoon in order to figure out if our platoon should purchase a few. I can say that as of right now, this will be my go to pack for our Afghanistan deployment.
