Armored Outdoor Gear, Inc
In Business Since 2002
Creators of the
Ratsack Cache Bag
The ORIGINAL
Stainless Steel Mesh Bag
First on the Trail
First in Quality
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Armored Outdoor Gear, Inc In Business Since 2002 Creators of the Ratsack Cache Bag The ORIGINAL Stainless Steel Mesh Bag
First on the Trail First in Quality
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Please send us an email telling us what you think about our products, web site, company, or services. If you provide us with your contact information, we will be able to reach you in case we have any questions. Armored Outdoor Gear, Inc does not sell or provide any information to third parties. FEEDBACK@ARMOREDOUTDOORGEAR.COM Customer Feedback and Testimonials Wow! What
fast delivery, got my Ratsack in the mail yesterday. Can't wait to try it out.
Thanks again
I ordered your large Ratsack in March and received it. I wanted to thank you for arranging delivery of my Ratsack
through
Thanks so much! That's a really cool bag. I thought it might be heavier than it actually was. Very nice design. I haven't had the time away from the shop to use it. However, I had one of my closing managers take it to Mt. Rogers (A.T.) with her over Thanksgiving. She said it worked great...no critters! I've showed it to our buyer and I think they'll be coming in with the spring buy. I'm really excited to have this option available for our customers. I lost one day's meals and some GORP to some small animals on my last trip in the Shining Rock Wilderness Area (Pisgah National Forest). Of course, the mice at the AT shelters are always a concern for our customers. Thanks again. Travis The REI clinic was well attended with about 25 participants plus a couple of REI staff. I showed your Ratsack along with my other equipment & handed out your material. I got good a response re use & function. One participant told of a hike into the Canyon from the Havasupai reservation. They had to take turns staying awake each night guarding their food from the ring tails. You already know this but it was good to hear how your sack would have allowed them to sleep with out concern. For Ultra light packing, especially out East where mice are the main problem, the 1200ci is a bit heavy. Please let me know when you have a light weight model. Let me know if want me to return the sample. Happy hiking & happy holidays, Krispy Kreme (Jeffrey) My son, one of his friends, and myself lost a whole day's worth of food to mice our first night in the Uintas mountains in NE Utah. Usually we were concerned about bears. On our Grand Canyon trek we used Tupperware -- good but heavy. These look great! Thanks! Neal I received the Ratsack the end of the week it is of the size that I like most of my backpacking trips are 4-5 days with only one other guy. I am vary impressed with the construction. I do not have any trips planed till the end of Aug. but it will go with me then. I plan to do a 5 day rim to rim to rim then. I did put a quick review on azwilderness. Thanks much, Doug
I received the 19
Ratsacks. Blue Hawaiian Helicopters
Hi, I got the med sack I ordered today And the large one you sent last week. Who knows what happened to the first one. Thanks a bunch for sending the extra sack you went above and beyond what most would have done, Ill let you know how the sacks work out for me, We have possums, raccoons and mice here in the Shawnee forest in Illinois but this summer ill be going to the Wind river range in WY, so.... Thanks again Mike from Eldorado Illinois.
Thank you for your
consideration! I figured you were probably enjoying the Thanks! My Ratsack arrived today. Can't wait to try Jim, I'm impressed with the Ratsack. It looks stout enough to discourage most mammals without opposing thumbs. I realize the Ratsack I received is going to be too big for my needs. May I return it for a small one? If I mail it back to you and you send me a small, should we call it even on the postage/price difference as the sizing pick was my error? Please let me know. Sincerely, Robert. I think the Ratsack will do very well on river trips. I plan on taking it with me on a trip in late September/early October. I’ll do a little write-up in the Grand Canyon Private Boaters Association magazine called the Waiting List. Then I’ll put one on our silent auction next spring. Nancy GCPBA auction coordinator and private boater Hi Jim, I received your messages and I appreciate your prompt response and your offer of wholesale pricing. I will be filling out a purchasing form tomorrow which will initiate the procurement system from within the park. We have a severe ringtail cat problem in an area of the park in which I spend a lot of time and take many workgroups to. I look forward to not having my food eaten (well, except by me). And if we like the way these work, may end up purchasing several more. Thanks for your help on this (and for making a great product!) Ariel Thank you so much for sending a replacement Rat Sack, even before I could get around to talking to you about it. I had squeezed the 20 lb. sack into a horizontal ledge, maybe 3 feet back. Something, I suppose a raven, pulled it off the ledge and down onto the ground. We were gone about 6 hours. Could have been a ringtail cat, but we saw a raven in the area and no cats. I thought it would be out of sight, but silly me. I will send the old one back as soon as I can. I still think your product is a good one, but the user still has to take as many precautions as possible. Take care. Thanks, I'm pumped about your product. A few months ago on the Tonto Trail, mice chewed a hole in one of my Nalgene Canteens and cost me a gallon of water. I'm counting on you guys! I've used metal tins a couple of times -- the kind of tins that fruitcakes and holiday cookies come in. They work, but they're bulky and impractical. That's why the Ratsack sounds so good. I got the Ratsack today. Looks like it should work great. Thanks for the Canyon info. Duane Hi there, I am going to mention your product (I have one and love it by the way) in all of our non-corridor equipment lists- such as the one attached. Hope this is OK? What would you say about a ‘endorsed by the Grand Canyon Field Institute’ line on your website linking to ours? Thanks Jack Pennington Assistant to the Director GCFI Your service as well as your product design and quality are exceptional. These Ratsacks will go toward supporting myself and my annual trekking companion on a 200+ mile trek in South-central Utah this summer. You may know the (wonderful) feeling of arriving at a cache, in the middle of nowhere, at day’s end, knowing it’s been secure the whole time. All the best, Bill Thanks for the note. I'm waiting for a 4 day pass for either Utah Flats or Tanner in March. I plan to use the Bags then as well as in June on another hike in the Canyon. I've heard great things about the Bags on the GCH web gossip page so thought I'd give it a try. I'll let you know on my return. Cheers and good hiking Stephen Jim, thank you for your superior service, products and commitment to people in the outdoor world. I'm grateful for everything you've done and the trust that you have in people. You also helped out my friend Steve who was on this same Grand Canyon trip with me. Actually all five of us had Ratsacks and with only one exception they performed flawlessly. Dave's sack got ambushed we think by a raven. Even so the hungry critter was only able to get a two inch hole in the sack which limited the amount of food he was able to scavenge. I'm attaching a couple of photos. I hope you enjoy them and the next time I'm heading to Sedona, I'll look you up in Flagstaff. I'd love to meet you and buy you a coffee or something. Cheers Doug
Thanks for the generous offer to meet me in town. I just found out my hiking partner does indeed have the medium and large Ratsack however I most likely will be stopping in Flag to pick up one for myself for the future. I’ve heard good things about your product. Take care, Anna Thanks the order arrived in the mail today. This is our second Ratsack. My son and I will use them on a Boy Scout trip to the AT. Fast shipping. Great service. Mike (Trail Otter) Got them! Thanks. I'll try to remember to get some images to send you and any comments as well. So far the only one I've had is that they're great. Thanks, Pete I just got your package with the two Rat Sacks. I’m very impressed with how “soft” and pliable the wire mesh is and can understand now how easily food items will fit in. Denise The bag arrived a couple of days ago and looks great. Greetings, Wanted to let you know I just got back from a most glorious backpack on the North Rim. We did the Bill Hall/Thunder River/Tapeats/Deer loop with a side show over to Stone canyon. The large cache bag I purchased was worth its weight in gold. Excellent product !! Nothing was bothered AT ALL and I heard that is one of the worst areas for rodent's being bad. I'm really happy with the cache bag indeed. best regards, Lawrence I have waited some time before ordering this but figured my 50th birthday was a good excuse. You have no idea how important this is going to be in the Grand Canyon. The rats and squirrels there are aggressive. I was carrying my food around in biscuit tins. Claire Hello, Hi John,
Ratsack
I have been backpacking for almost 35 years and have tried many types of packs, bags and tents. And have slept on the ground many times but the last ten years with the ageing process creeping up on me, I have been trying to improve my existence on the trail, with better and lighter gear as well as to improve my wardrobe, from denim & cotton to the high tech Mountain hardware wicked shirts, ex officio convertible pants, sierra design rain gear and Columbia shoes and pants, as well, as lite weight tents, bags, and packs. As to sleeping on the ground? Yes, I added sleeping pads. I went from a .75” to a 1” and my latest the Thera-rest luxury camp full length 2” pad.
What I’m getting at is, with age and experience come wisdom and a challenge to try new things and with the kids out of school more money in my pocket to spend on my favorite hobbies.
Now, to the RATSACK, for years I have encountered problems with rodent’s and pesky Varmits in the wilderness from Alaska to British Columbia, South Dakota to Colorado, New Mexico to the Appalachian mountains and down to the lowlands of Florida, I have encountered Coons, Opossums, marmots, armadillos, Rats, Mice, Squirrels, Chipmunks, Skunks, Bears, Bobcats and the list goes on…some would bother my food stash and some don’t. Twenty years ago we just left the food in our packs & let them have at it, the contents that is. Then I started hanging my pack and trying different types & styles of hanging my food items such as pulling the line through a hole in a large tuna can then melting candle wax around the hole, then added water to the tuna can, this worked but, time consuming.
A couple of years ago while on a 5 day 4 night trip, and on the 1st night the rats got into my food stash hanging on the bear cables and consumed much of my delectable treats, even though I had taken measure’s to prevent the above attack. I decided to try something different the next trip. I took an oval cookie tin 10”x16”that my wife had bought around Christmas time filled with cookies and placed all my food items in the cookie tin and hung it from the trees. This planned worked great no problems with any varmints, the con was the room and bulkiness this tin added to my pack. Now it was time for plan B.
I began to search for an alternative and I came across armored outdoor gear’s the Ratsack thru a post on a backpacker forum. I thought that this might be something I should try out. I accepted delivery of the RATSACK on June 25, 2004 and opened the box and pulled out the Ratsack, at first I was a little apprehensive and skeptical on the practical use of this huge wire mesh bag, and how can this help me on the trail? Is this too big for me to take along on a 5 day or 10 day trip? Will this bag cause abrasion to my pack and possibly the contents therein? All my thought’s turned to the negative side of the spectrum. But, decided what the heck I will give it a try anyhow. First, where do I put this thing in my pack? So I took the rolled up 2”x18” Ratsack and folded it three times which was now the size of my fist, then placed it in one of my front Compartments of my pack. My first night in camp consisted of setting around the fire and doing a few camp chores then, I started working on putting my food items away for the night, so I got out the RATSACK and put my large stash of food in the sack. I still had plenty of room left so I put in my cooking pots and utensils & my personal hygiene items and their still was more room so I added my 6oz of assorted pipe tabakee and my box of Macanudo cigars. Now, that will do then I sealed the bag, then I went over to the bear cables and inserted the J hanger thru the the brass grommet & hoisted the bag high in the air.
2nd, 3rd 4th night still
no problem.
Since I have not seen any signs of disturbance of the Ratsack hanging from the bear cables for the past 5 nights. I thought I would give it a test. I put all the food, tooth paste and every thing with a smell in the Ratsack, except my cigars & pipe tabakee& a few snacks to take along the rest of hike, and tied it to a tree about 50 feet off the trail with the sack hanging about 5” off the ground. I then headed up the trail and ditched my pack about 30 feet off the trail and covered it with brush. Then took off for my truck two days hike away. When I returned two days later I went to my pack first, its was undisturbed so I took it back to my truck then proceeded to the Ratsack to see if any damage was done in my absence, as I approached I could see that the leaves had been messed up all around the tree. But, I could not see the Ratsack, were was it? I walked around the tree and there it was on the north side of the tree. The RATSACK had been attacked, but by what? And what about the contents? Upon further inspection all the contents was still there and in good condition, so the Ratsack had done its job. It protected what it was supposed to protect. Next, what did this? I know it wasn’t a bear because their would have been much more damage in the area, could it have been a large rodent or multiple rodents, there were scratch marks all over the bottom of the tree and scrapping all on the ground in the area, maybe I should have left my Video camera on pointed at the Ratsack.
I try to comply with the lightweight backpacking methodology, but, I also believe in the enjoyment that I can attain out in the backcountry and if it means for me to carry an extra 10 oz on the trail for the preservation of my life sustaining food then so be it.
Would I take the Ratsack on my next backpacking trip? Most definitely, I plan to take it on my trip in October & November.
How well did it work on my last trip? Only thing I can say is “OUTSTANDING”.
Did the Ratsack cause any abrasive damage to my pack or contents? No, the sack worked in just fine in the front compartment of my pack I have since purchased a very small stuff sack for the Ratsack which will hook on the outside of my pack with a D ring.
Was the sack easy to use and durable? Yes, very simple set up and breakdown and with the constant use that I will be giving the Ratsack. I think it will last for the rest of my Backpacking days. Which I hope is a very long time.
Is the Ratsack just right for me? Yes and NO. On the long solo trips or shorter ones with several hiking partners it would work out just right. But, on short trips the current size is way to large for me to use on the trail, I would like to see a smaller version that I could use for the shorter trips, Maybe about 1/3 to ½ the current size.
Author: Mike Wright A.K.A. CHIEF A.K.A. LaBECK
I contacted www.armoredoutdoorgear.com and there are going to offer two more standard lengths to their product line. The Ratsack that I used on the trail was 2500ci. They are going to add a 1200ci. And 1800ci. Which will lower the volume as well as the price and weight. they also do custom length for those that need the extra cubic inches. Contact Information
Created by Starblind Entities
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This
was the 1st try on the 1st night. The next morning I
reversed the process, and said to myself, easy I could get use to this, no
problem so far.
then something happened on the 6th day my truck had not been
relocated to where I was hoping it would be through a miscommunication on my
part, Now, this added an unexpected two days and one night to my trip so I
decided to ditch my pack and go minimalist and cut my pack weight from 65lbs
down to 20lbs that way I could move a lot faster, then I could continue on with
the rest of my planned trip.