Gear Review- Direct Action Gear Ghost MkII Pack

In searching for a replacement for my worn out surplus USMC FILBE assault pack, I stumbled across Hawkeye’s review of the Direct Action Gear Ghost MKII pack. I like the FILBE assault pack, and have carried it pretty much everywhere I have gone over the last few years. It was already well worn when I purchased it a couple of years ago, but was almost the perfect size and layout for my uses. I have mostly finished wearing it out, and needed a replacement. I would have had no issue replacing it with the same type of pack, but had trouble finding one that wasn’t already VERY well used. Most of the commercial packs that I looked at were too large, too small, poor quality, or designs that just didn’t suit my needs. Most of the surplus packs I found were either worn out, or just not a design that I cared for. Watching Hawkeye’s review I decided that the Ghost MKII was about as close as I was going to get to finding what I wanted, so I decided to try one.

Price and ordering

The Ghost MK II sells on the Direct Action Gear site for right at $200. It is also available on Amazon and Ebay for around the same price. While this isn’t an inexpensive pack, it also isn’t going to break the bank. Direct Action Gear is based in Poland, but their packs are manufactured in Vietnam. After comparing multiple packs, I placed my order for the pack on a Wednesday. I chose USPS shipping since it was the cheapest option, and the pack was in my hands by the following Monday. I was impressed with this after the combination of the less-than-stellar customer service and slow shipping that has become common recently. Unboxing the pack, it was well packaged in a sturdy plastic bag within the box.  One of the first things I noticed was that back pads seem very soft and comfortable, and the shoulder straps are well padded without being obnoxiously bulky, as they seem to be with some packs. There is also a laptop compartment underneath the back pads that will fit a small laptop if need be. To my untrained eye, there is no reason to be concerned over the quality of the pack, as the fabric and stitching seem to be well done.

The back is nicely padded.

Laptop pocket

General Pack Specs

The pack is a 31.5L pack, with 28L of that being the main pack itself. The other 3.5 liters come in the form of a detachable two compartment satchel. The satchel has four nylon straps with fastex buckles holding it to the body of the pack, along with shock cord laced to the sides. There are also MOLLE straps on the back of the satchel so it can be attached to other packs or gear. The nylon straps and shock cord allow you to use the areas between the pack and satchel to store a helmet, 2 qt canteen, poncho liner, etc. securely, while retaining the ability to quickly remove it. You could re-lace the shock cord with 550 cord, or zip ties, if you wanted a more rigid attachment, although it probably isn’t needed since the straps will hold it securely.

2 Quart canteen in the area between the main pack and the satchel

Pack Features

The outside of the pack has laser cut MOLLE panels, as does the outside of the satchel. There is a nice little velcro patch for sticking your favorite Brushbeater patch. Each side of the pack has a small pocket near the bottom that is sized almost perfectly for a USGI 1 Qt canteen (along with room for a canteen cup) with elastic to keep the canteen from bouncing out. The top of the pocket has a loop of webbing that you could use to easily dummy cord the canteen or other gear to the pocket. There is a padded waist belt with the pack that has three rows of laser cut MOLLE, which can be easily removed and used as a battle belt if you are so inclined. There is even a set of suspenders included for this use, although I forgot to take a picture of them. While the suspenders are perfectly serviceable, I would probably replace them with something nicer if I were going to use the waist belt as a battle belt.

Canteen pocket. Note that the 2 qt canteen has been removed and the satchel is cinched down tight in this picture.

Waist belt after removal from the pack. It is tough to tell in the pictures, but the Eagle Industries war belt suspenders should be a direct fit. LC-2 suspenders could be modified to fit easily as well.

Hydration Sleeve

There is a hydration sleeve in the pack with a Velcro port up top if you like using a hydration bladder. The port also opens into the laptop pocket, so I suppose it could be used for a bladder as well, although my personal opinion is that using the laptop sleeve in such a manner is just asking to pop the bladder as soon as you lean against something.

Hydration tube port

Weight

The pack lists as weighing in at 5 pounds, which is pretty normal for a pack of this size. I personally like having the waist belt on the pack, but you could ditch it, the suspenders, and a couple of extra compression straps that come with the pack to shave a few ounces off. Likewise, if you don’t need the front satchel, you can remove it and lighten the pack further. Personally, I removed the suspenders and extra straps, but see no need to lighten the pack further for my use. I like having the satchel, as it makes for good place to keep survival necessities. If the pack needed to be dumped, I can pop four buckles, cut the shock cord, and take the satchel with me in a few seconds.

Colors

The pack is available in several different colors and patterns, both solid and camo. I generally favor coyote for packs and gear, but decided to give the Polish Woodland a try since. I have been wanting to see how it fares here in Central North Carolina. The Polish Woodland is a similar pattern to the tried and true M81 woodland, but more muted. It reminds me a little of old faded surplus BDU’s, and I believe it will work well here. If not, Rustoleum will easily remedy that problem.

Comparison of Polish Woodland and USGI M81 Woodland

Initial Impressions

So far, I have used the pack as an every day bag for close to a month, carried it on several outings in the woods, and used it as a bag to carry gear when I attended the Fighting Carbine course earlier this month. While I haven’t used it for long, here are the things that have stuck out to me:

-So far I have found it to be VERY comfortable when wearing it for long periods of time, more so than the FILBE pack I had been using.

-There isn’t an excessive amount of extra webbing to get in the way, and there are nice Velcro keepers to roll up the extra is there so you’re not fighting it constantly.

-The buckles and zippers seem to be of good quality (the zippers are listed as YKK zippers) and the cords on the zipper pulls were nicely done. Pull cords are easy to replace, but it is nice to not have to do so on a new pack, unlike some of the cheaper packs I have owned.

-The laser cut MOLLE panels seem to be well done, sturdy, and functional, although I still prefer actual nylon straps to the laser cut panels.

-The waist belt seems like it would be perfectly functional as an equipment belt/battle belt, and if I had not just purchased one I would not hesitate to try it out as such. It takes all of 30 seconds to remove it from the pack, and not much longer than that to reinstall. That being said, I think I prefer the pack with the waist belt attached.

-The shoulder straps and carry handle seem to be well attached and reinforced, so hopefully the bag will hold up without failures in this area. This is where a lot of the FILBE packs on the surplus market have ripped and been repaired, with varying degrees of success. I’m not sure if the FILBE pack is of a poor design in this area, or if they are just suffering from the hard use that they undoubtably receive, but the Ghost seems well made in this area.

-All of the buckles, zippers, and straps actually work well. While this should be the rule with any new pack, it isn’t always the case. Further, after being used to the stiff straps and zippers, and rusted hardware on my old FILBE pack, it was a nice change.

-The size of the pack is about right for what I wanted. I compared my pack with the Crossfire DG-1 that a classmate at the Carbine course had, and which sells for approximately the same price. While the Ghost is bigger and heavier, it has more useable space. I’m not knocking the Crossfire- they build awesome packs (I love my Crossfire DG-3) but the DG-1 is more of a daypack. The Ghost could be stretched out to several days easily if you pack like Mike outlines in this article, or a couple of days if you want to be a little more comfortable.

So far I am 100% satisfied with this pack, and I believe it will be an excellent replacement for my tired FILBE Assault pack. If you’re looking for a good 30-ish liter pack, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the Ghost MKII.