Helikon-Tex Urban Line, Bandicoot Waist Pack

This pack has been a critical piece of my hunting setup this year. It went out during early season prep and never left my side through the late season. Inside, it kept a pair of dexterity gloves and upf face mask in the back zip, range Finder, truck FOB, Flashlight, game knife, leatherman multi, a lighter, a small notebook and pen, and handkerchief, and a micro headlamp, all in the main compartment, stuffed some spare paracord in the front and my pass case with my ID and hunting tags. I was able to remove everything from my pockets and carry it in this pack that made it all easily accessible with little movement. Only complaint is the zippers are a bit loud for hunting but I believe this is part of their "urban" lineup so fair enough. This thing has taken a beating.. full of seeds burrs and thorns, been through rain and snow, and was by side hanging a tree stand 30x. It adjusted small enough to fit my 32" waist and large enough to fit over bibs in the late season. Overall well built and durable pouch. The compartments are purposeful and can store plenty of mission critical gear.

So you probably carry a gun, knife, small flashlight, multi tool, phone, chapstick(if you’re a sissy), AirPods, wallet, etc. and while it all can fit in your pockets… let’s face it… it’s inconvenient. You get a receipt or… whatever… you just need to put something in your damn pockets, and you might be able to, but you gotta slide it around the knife and flashlight then shimmy your jeans. The shimmying makes you realize your ⚽️🏀 are sticking to your leg so now you gotta adjust. And now your pockets are sticking out and you look like a GD fool. Look. It’s a pain in the rear and you know it. That’s why you’re looking at a Fanny pack and reading this review about one. So we all agree that you need one or, at least, your life would be a little better with one.The fanny pack: it’s awesome. The mesh pocket within the main pouch holds the wallet and AirPods pretty well. I can put my iPhone 14 Max Pro in the front with a quad lock case with plenty of room to spare. The elastic bands in the main pouch hold my CRKT drifter knife and a micro streamlight. You could also hold chapstick and possibly a multi tool(depending on what you carry). You could put a gun, like an M&P shield or some other compact/sub-compact, but idt a full size will fit too well. Gun and a phone probably wouldn’t fit unless you’re rockin a clamshell and a shield. Personally, I find it easy and comfortable to just appendix my gun behind the fanny pack. Also there’s nothing to secure the holster. You might be able to rig something… but even then you’ll have to unzip before you draw… I just don’t see it as the best place to draw from should you ever need to(heaven forbid). Overall, I really like this. It’s my first time buying anything Helikon-Tex so I can’t speak to all their products, but this thing feels very well built. I’ve been wearing it daily for about two weeks now and I don’t think I’ll ever go without a fanny pack ever again. Life changing. Being that I’m not a fanny pack connoisseur, I can’t say this is the one you need to buy. But I can say that I’m very satisfied with this one and, regardless of whether or not you decide to buy this one, you need a fanny pack in your life.

So my idea behind wanting to get a pack like this was primarily for EDC and CCW in specific circumstances where it would be impractical to carry IWB as usual, such as in summer, hiking loaded out with a pack on, etc. For my needs, the HELIKON-TEX Bandicoot is absolutely perfect! It arrived in perfect timing with the nice weather, so I immediately set it up for CCW and went on a short mountain hike. It was super comfortable, sat well on my waist, didn't get in the way as I walked, even going uphill and it sitting in front of my body.As you can see, it has a large hook and loop field in the main compartment that should easily hold any CCW holster that goes on a hook and loop field. Mine is made by M-Tac. The main compartment should easily fit any compact or sub-compact pistol. Mine is a CZ P-01 and fit's nicely as you can see. You might be able to get a spare mag in the zippered pouch or the front compartment, but it might be a little tight. You can definitely fit other things in there with it though. Even with my pistol in there it never felt heavy, uncomfortable or obtrusive in any way. Granted it's not as fast to draw as a typical IWB holster, but with only a little practice I was able to have it out in 2 seconds max. I might put a larger lanyard in the zipper pull just so it's easier to grab, but zero complaints. It's also usable by righties or lefties as you can set up your CCW holster either direction, however you like.Typically the main compartments hook and loop field has a removable admin panel on it, as you can see in one of my pictures. If you take it off but want to keep it in the bag, it will fit in the back compartment perfectly, though there is no hook and loop field back there for it to attach to. The overall construction is outstanding, well stitched, YKK zippers, Cordura, etc. On either side of the pack, there are a couple lashing points if you want to hang something on it with a carabiner or something. The strap can also be stuffed into a stash area that runs through the back of the bag if you're just using it for extra storage or something in your main pack.Overall the Bandicoot is exactly what I wanted, and aside from that it's a great waist pack, well made, great materials and well worth the price! I am very much pleased with this purchase! Hope this is helpful information for people! As usual, if anything happens that changes my ranking of this product I will be back to edit this review!