Modified 82 Pattern Field Pack

Going through some old photos recently I came across one of my very first attempts to modify gear to suit my needs.  Funny to see it again. This stuff goes back at least 15 years.

I used military gear in ways that was entirely unintended, and used whatever suited my needs. Stuff from a few different countries, and a bit of civvy stuff as well. I was hauling around a pack filled with freight and still wanted to have some snivel gear that I could detach in a hurry, and then attach to a belt. At the time, I figured a butt pack was my best option, and got a Canadian one. 

Proprietary attachment system (a bit more on that later) removed, and enough of the webbing that held it in place left to allow insertion of ALICE Clips.

Another change was to put a carry handle on the top.

I also put webbing on the sides to attach canteens to. All I had access to was webbing that was ultimately too floppy to really support the weight of full canteens. It held up I guess, but it didn’t work that well either. I learned.

In time it too was taken apart to serve in the making of other stuff.

82 Pattern was Canada’s web gear for several decades. Pretty decent I suppose, although I never really used it the way it was intended. The proprietary attachment system was what I personally wasn’t so keen on. I guess it was fine for a military obsessed with uniformity like Canada’s was for a long time. (Fortunately that mentality is changing as the reality of conflict in Afghanistan drives home the point that the one size fits all approach doesn’t work beyond the parade ground). I suppose the option of adding private purchase gear or home made gear or equipment from other countries wasn’t ever an option for Canada’s soldiers back then. I had no such restrictions. I had some British and American pouches and none of them worked together. At the time US ALICE clips seemed to be the best option out of all of them (I wasn’t as savvy at the time), so I decided to switch over to that.


I never took photos of what the attachment system looked like, and I can’t locate any with a search engine. To give you an idea of what it looked like, here are some diagrams from the instruction manual.

The 82 pattern belt was a wide belt with grommets along the edges that the prongs from the plastic attachment system went into. Since I didn’t have the belt, only an American pistol belt, it wasn’t much use to me. Not to mention that none of the American or British or Dutch stuff I had worked with it.

For some more views of it:

http://mpmuseum.org/securequip2.html 

http://www.freewebs.com/restigouche/C-87-248-000_MB-000_-_Users_manual_-_1982_Pattern_webbing.pdf