Gear Review: Warrior Grab Bag

Okay, so I've had this just over a year and I guess it's time I did a review on it. What we have here is a Warrior Grab Bag, originally bought about sixteen months ago from UK Tactical. I bought this bag in that tactical manbag frenzy that did the rounds about that time, just as the fad for Claymore bags was dying out and people were snapping up something cooler, more tactical and more expensive. I have to admit, I jumped on the manbag bandwagon with this, coupled with the fact that I wanted to buy myself a birthday present and didn't know what else to spend the money on.



Warrior do several configurations of their grab bag. All utilise the same basic bag but have options as to the pouch configuration attached to the front MOLLE straps, you can have 3 double 5.56mm mag pouches, two mag pouches and a holster, three single 5.56mm mag pouches or three smoke pouches all in either olive drab or tan. I ended up coughing up about £70 for the grab bag with holster and a spare magazine pouch for the single reason that each variation of the bag is £54.95. A spare mag pouch is £8.95 and the holster is £14.95 so this seemed like the best value for money.

At the time, I wasn't sure how useful this bag would be but I have ended up using it all the time as an everyday-carry bag with all my work stuff in, as well as a load of tat I don't really need but fulfills the GHB /BOB (get home bag/bug out bag) purpose of the item.

Since I bought the bag, I have replaced the mag pouches with two Warrior medium utility pouches that I bought from an airsoft forum. They are OD, and a little big, but work pretty well on the bag. When I get round to it, I may change these for a couple of Warrior small utility pouches in tan to match the bag, but I'll leave it as it is for now.



As far as I can tell, the bag, like much or Warrior's gear, is a copy of a much more expensive, US branded item. In this case, the Blackhawk grab bag. The Blackhawk bag is about £100, so this is pretty good value as far as I am concerned. If you are bothered by brand names, and would rather carry a US branded bag, feel free to go out and buy the Blackhawk one, but I would be inclined to say you were wasting money.

The Warrior grab bag has a single main compartment with two internal pockets, one of which is velcro lined (loop) and comes with velcro backed (hook) pistol mag pouch and an elastic loop backed with velcro (hook) that you could get a STANAG magazine in, but usually contains my iPhone which fits like a glove. The flap of the bag doubles as a map or document case with a clear plastic inner sleeve, accessed from the side by some hefty velcro. On one end of the bag is a small utility pouch, big enough for a cellphone, small PMR446 walkie talkie or field dressing. Mine contains my Petzl head torch. At the other end, originally, was a removable MOLLE double pistol mag pouch but this has been replaced with a 5.11 Water Bottle Pouch, another single pistol mag pouch was also attached to the MOLLE webbing on the bag's strap, but this has been removed and usually sits on my belt with my Leatherman in.



If I had to complain about one thing it would be that this grab bag isn't very grab-able, it would very much benefit from a grab strap as well as the shoulder strap, but apart from that, I've been very happy with my man-bag so far. My bag gets used every weekday for my general work and everyday-carry gear, some of which is probably not needed every day but I feel better carrying it with me. So far the bag is not showing any wear and tear despite being dumped in my car boot twice a day, there are a couple of scuffs on the buckles and the tiniest bit of wear on the bottom, but no signs of failure or breakage.



If I was going to complain about this bag, it would be that it should have a grab handle. When getting in and out of the car, or grabbing it from under the stairs, you have to grab a handful of shoulder strap or the bag itself.

Considering it is called a grab bag, it could be a bit more grab-able. The other minor gripe would be to have a removeable shoulder strap. I can't give a good reason for this, I just feel it would be useful and the quick-release clips (which usually have a swivel on) would make untwisting the strap easier. With a bit of work on the sewing machine, this mod would be easy to add, but it'd be nice if it came as standard. Whilst writing this article, I saw a thread on UKAZ advertising the new Flyye range over at eHobby Asia, which includes the FLYYE Low-Pitched Equ Bag (whatever that means), which is essentially the same bag (as far as I can tell from the pictures) as the Warrior one, but with a removeable shoulder strap.

The contents of my bag, should you be interested, usually resembles the following with room to spare for sandwich box or other miscellaneous tat (as you can see, you can get quite a bit of stuff in there):

Main Compartment
External HDD & cables
Phone & cable/charger
Misc USB cables
Book
Monocular
USB drive(s)
Misc paperwork, couple of CDs
Bluetooth headset

Front Right Pouch
Pocket Buddy containing Leatherman, Gerber Scout torch, spork, emergency whistle & sharpies/pens
Mini prybar
Small can of deoderant
Compass, Tool Logic credit card tool, mini-glowstick, Pen

Front Left Pouch
Sunglasses case containing Oakleys, Choob & Croakies
IFAK
Headphones for phone

5.11 Waterbottle Pouch
Nalgene bottle & Firefly lid
Tatonka steel cup