 If you've been following this channel for a while, you know that I like systems. Hey everyone, Dylan Schumacher, Citadel Defense, and today we're gonna talk about having a Ruck system. Now, I've been running this, you know, system for, I don't know, a while now, a year, maybe three, something like, somewhere between there, a year and a three, and I thought it was time to kind of make a video about it and talk about it. It's probably leaked out in other of my videos, but I don't know if I've ever made an explicit video about it, so here we go. Now, this is my Ruck system for me. You do you, I really just hope this gives you something to think about in order to, you know, better adapt and think about how you run your pack. So, typically in the summer, I like to run the Yacht pack. This is one from Eagle Industries. I know Crossfire has a version. I'm sure there might be some other ones out there, but this is just the Yacht Assault Pack. I like this pack a lot. One, we'll have to cut that out. One, because this pack is just super light, right? I mean, there's not much room in here. This is maybe like a 10, 12 liter pack. I can fit a three liter bladder in here, no problem. And other than that, there's not much more I can put in there. So, it really prevents you from overloading it. And I like that a lot. I like the ability to carry water, a few essentials, and that's it. The other thing it has is this expandable beaver tail here in the back, so that that can expand out. And, you know, you can stuff your helmet in there, or one time I was at an SNS training solutions class and I got issued the radio. I stuffed the radio in here. I've done a whole video on this ruck specifically. But I really like this pack. And I really think it shines the best in the summer months because I don't have to carry much in the summer, as far as like layers, extra foods, whatever. I need a ton of water, which this can do. I can easily carry three liters in here and I could probably stuff more in here if I needed. But that's really it. It lets me carry water, a couple essentials, and that's it. So, I really like this pack for that. So, this is kind of my go-to ruck in the summertime months. My second go-to pack is the big boy ruck. So, this is my DG3 from Crossfire. Right, this thing is 55 liters here. And whenever I need to do, you know, multi-day stuff, I'm gonna go on a multi-day training session or I'm gonna go out to like a SNS training solutions or a one shepherd thing, and we gotta do some overnights in the field. And so, I just gotta carry, you know, sleeping bag, bivvy bag, poncho, you know, all the stuff that you have to carry overnight stuff, food for a couple days, right? Like, if you gotta live out of a pack for a while and you're gonna need a big boy ruck. So, in my opinion, the Minuteman should have the two rucks. They should have the stripped down version and then they should have the big boy version. Now, a lot of people will, you know, carry both. They'll carry the big boy and they're gonna attach their salt pack or put it inside their little, their big bag and then what their plan is, they're gonna get somewhere, they're gonna stash their big bag and then they're gonna use their salt pack to go do a short range patrol or go do an attack or whatever. I don't like that idea in general. The reason I don't think that's a very realistic scenario or idea is that, or there's a couple reasons. First of all, as an American Minuteman, how often are you gonna be, you know, patrolling into an area, stashing a ruck, living out of that, having a little, you know, kind of fob base or some kind of patrol base, excuse me, and then running your little salt pack out and going out and doing some runs, coming back to the patrol base. Like, I just don't think that that's super feasible for the American Minuteman. There's a lot of logistical support to make that happen that you just don't really have. So, I don't know if it's feasible to like think you're gonna patrol into an area, stash your big ruck, work out of your little ruck. The other reason I don't think that that's super feasible, and you might laugh at me for this one, is cost. Chances are, if you had a ruck, you paid for it yourself, right? And that would probably cost you, if you have a really nice ruck, hundreds of dollars, plus all the stuff that's in it, that's also hundreds of dollars that you don't necessarily just have two or three more of at home, right? If China invades and I'm living out of my, you know, three, four, five, six hundred, $700 ruck, and I have, you know, a thousand plus dollars of equipment in there with my fancy sleeping bag, and my sleeping pad, and my blanket, and my nice wool, under armor, under layer thing, whatever. I don't just wanna lose that, right? It's not exciting to me to wander into a combat zone, set down these very precious items that I only have one of, and then expect to come back to that after I go out and try to shoot at people, or get shot at, or look at people without getting shot at, or whatever, right? That's not exciting to me. Now, you could say, oh, Dylan, I mean, that's stupid, you know, it's a combat zone, you gotta cut your losses, you gotta focus on the mission, you gotta whatever, whatever. Okay, but I'm telling you right now, you setting down thousands of dollars of gear in a combat zone and walking away from it is gonna cause you some mental anxiety that will detract from your mission effectiveness. I mean, that's just math, okay? Like, there's no way around it. You are not above the human condition, and knowing that you paid lots of money for it, they're super valuable, and they're not readily replaceable, does not behoove you to leave them around. Practically, again, if you do lose them, well, now what? I mean, now, I guess, at least you're still alive, right? That's a good thing. But you've lost mission critical equipment that's gonna affect your future mission effectiveness. So all that to say, for me, when it comes to running a rock, I just like the one and done theory. Meaning, for whatever that mission is that I'm doing, I'm taking one rock. That's it. I'm not taking multiple rocks. I'm not dropping my rock if I get shot at. I'm keeping the rock on, and I'm just gonna live out of the rock. I'm gonna keep it as light as I possibly can, but I'm not leaving the rock. The rock is gonna stay with me, and we're just gonna deal with it. So that's personally, right now, and that could change the future, my theory. Maybe you have some different thoughts about that. You can comment in. The last rock in my rock system, this is a first tactical, they're 24 hour pack. And I have put a little mag pouch thing on here and some canteen pouches on the sides. And this is like a 24 hour ish rock, that's their system. I like this rock. The only thing I don't like about it is they don't have a built in water bladder thing. So you just gotta kinda run it out of the main pouch and then just kinda zip this up the best you can. And I intertwine these and it works fine. It's just not ideal. The reason I have this pack is for in the winter, when I want to be running this pack, but I can't because I need extra layers and gloves and hats and under layers and Gore-Tex layers and whatever. And all that layers, they gotta go somewhere. Now maybe I could just deal with it and stuff them in the beaver tail and roll with it. But when it comes to all that stuff, I like to have it enclosed, especially like under layers, right? Or mittens or something. If it's snowing, I don't want that to get wet. So I like having it enclosed inside a rock. So this one is really just born out of necessity to be kind of the bridge between the two so that in the winter specifically, I have room to keep extra layers, extra like cooking equipment to heat your food and your water. Cause again, that becomes more important when it gets cold so that I can essentially have this rock. This is my short range winter rock. And then if I was gonna be out for longer, you know, I just take the big boy. Now, if you have no rock at all and you're only gonna buy one and you only can afford one right now, this is the one I'd tell you to get, right? Because it bridges that gap, it's like a 30-ish liter rock, you can bridge the gap. I've had this set up with extra pouches just everywhere on here to try to match like a three-day rock size. And that worked okay, not great, but I mean, you know, because this thing's mullied head to toe, I could put a bunch of pouches on it and I could really expand its capacity fairly significantly and that did help. I mean, I had, you know, a sleeping roll in here and a sleeping bag and layers and food and water and like, I mean, I had a lot of stuff in here and you can make it happen. So that is nice that it's expandable. And then, you know, in the summer, you can just cinch it down real tight and just roll with it, take off your extra pouches and just run it slick to cut your weight, right? So again, if you only can do one, I think like the 24-hour, 12-hour-ish size is a good kind of middle ground to then build out to your comfort extremes, meaning, you know, short range and then, you know, big, big-boy-rock longer-term stuff. And this would be the one that I would say, hey, it kind of cuts the gap, it's helpful. Personally, right now, like I said, I just use it in the colder months because like, you gotta carry more layers and what can you do about that? If you're south of that Mason-Dixon line, this might not be as big of a concern for you because frankly, boys, no offense, just doesn't get that cold down there. So if, like I said, if you got nothing, I would start here, I would get this one, then I would get something like this and then I would get your big-boy-rock glass. The reason I would get the big-boy-rock last is because, again, we're talking about in terms of probability, right? These two have a much higher probability of usage than the big-boy-rock does. You know, if things ever get really bad, I'm gonna try to avoid going to my big-boy-rock because, again, that's just more weight and I don't wanna carry a lot of weight if I don't have to. So that's my current ruck system and how I'm thinking through rucks mainly based around seasons, you know, what time of year it is and how much stuff I need to carry because of that season. Again, when it gets cold, you know, five, six degrees outside and 14 mile an hour winds, you just gotta carry more layers. That's just the way it is. Seasons and then, again, mission set, right? What am I doing? Well, am I just going on for four hours which, hey, you know, this is gonna, I could probably get away with up to 12 with this thing in general. Maybe I could push it a little bit longer but that's kind of what I'm thinking here. You know, versus like a 24-hour-ish ruck versus, hey, now I need sleep kit. I need, you know, food for multiple days. I need water purification, like I need all the stuff to basically, you know, homeless camp in a war zone for a while. Well, then, hey, then I'm gonna have to go to the big boy ruck. So I hope that's helpful. I hope it gives us some ideas of how you think about your rucks, how you think about your systems. Again, I always think it's important to step back and say, hey, what's the intentional choice that I'm making here? Why am I doing this? And then make your decisions based out of that. So it's well thought through and you're not just haphazard making it up because someone on the internet told you to. I hope that's helpful. Do brave deeds and endure.