There is some specificity I live by when packing. I line the main compartmemt itself with either a sturdy garbage bag or a wet weather bag. I lean in on the garbage bags because they are cheap, and most wet weather bags are CIF issue and have some sort of hole in them, even if small. I then have a second teir of waterproofing, as I put all my individual items; x number of rolled tshirts, x number of socks, PTs, Uniforms, etc, into their own gallon size ziplock bag. I will even go so far as having smaller separate ziplocks for batteries, 550 cord, 100 mph tape, my compass, map gear, etc. *KEEPING YOUR GEAR DRY IS A KEY COMPONENT TO HAPPINESS* lol. Dry gear is also a godsend if you're in wet gear and need to change. Few things are as disappointing as going to reach into your ruck for dry socks, and you find out that wet weather bag has a hole, and those dry socks are, in fact, soaked. One can extrapolate that dry gear is a health thing too as wet feet / wet boots can fuck you up long term. I also break down my MRE down to bare bones and minimal packaging, A) to save room B) To have less to police up after because whatever you pack in, you then pack out. Garbage included. Now I do like how he used his MREs to give the ruck structure, but as noted prior, its just not what I do. And as you probably guessed, I put them in their own ziplock. Last, I bring extra ziplock bags and of varying sizes. This is for myself as well as others. Your cool guy points go up by one or two when you're the guy that has extra bags to keep things dry. If you stuck around this long and read all this, God bless and god speed to your next adventure. -Mac
Best way I’ve been told how to do it is in layers of the 3 sleep system at the bottom wet weather bag in the middle which has all your clothes ranger rolled and then other things that would actually be heavy like food extra ammo mortar rounds or anything you would need to grab fast at the top and then your personal hygiene and wet weather gear on your side pouches
My leadership would make sure we had our bivvy cover on top. This is because we always had to pick up and move in a matter of a couple of minutes out of our security positions. Never time to bury it at the bottom.
