By Mystery Ranch is an often-featured brand on The Perfect Pack. They have a reputation for building solid bags that perform well in a variety of scenarios. Mostly known for their outdoor, hunting and military bags, Mystery Ranch has brought more everyday-type bags to market in recent years. Their 2 Day Assault (2DAP) is a bag intended for a civil, daily-use role, but takes inspiration from its military brother, the 3 Day Assault Pack (3DAP). While the 2DAP has been around a couple of years, it has been notably absent from our site: now, Mystery Ranch is offering the bag in a duo of new colorways for Fall 2021, namely “Indigo” and “DPM Camo.” This relative newcomer has a strong family heritage to live up to.
Tech Specs
| Imperial | Metric | |
| Height | 21″ | 53 cm |
| Width | 12″ | 30 cm |
| Depth | 11.25″ | 29 cm |
| Capacity | 1650 cu. in | 27 liters |
| Weight | 3.0lbs | 1.4kg |
Quality & Comfort
This is a Mystery Ranch pack, so expectations were high for the build quality. The bag is built primarily from 500d Cordura and beefy YKK Aquaguard zippers. There were no stray stitches or issues of any kind with the construction. Mystery Ranch has always been consistent in producing exceptionally well made packs and this 2DAP is no exception.
The suspension of the 2DAP is built around the famous and very comfortable Futura Harness. My pack is a small/medium size, but there is a large/extra large version available. One important thing to note when ordering is the size chart, that tells the user what size harness they would need. Once the right size is found, the user should take a moment to adjust the yoke to ensure the optimal fit and comfort. The back panel has airmesh and is nicely padded to aid in comfort. The bottom of the back panel also has a basic 1.5″ belt strap (not pictured, but the triglides for attaching are seen below) included to help secure the pack to the body and transfer some weight to the hips. Just above the harness, there is a basic carry handle to aid in moving the bag about.
Organization
The face of the pack features PALS webbing, compression straps and provides a great view of the renowned Trizip.
Each side of of the bag sports more PALS webbing, the upper compression straps and stretch top bottle pockets. On the right side, there is a zipper that accesses the laptop sleeve in the main compartment, or a passthrough for a bladder hose.
The lid of the pack features a pair of top pockets that are accessible from the rear. The bottom pocket is fairly large, while the upper one quite a bit smaller. There is a piece of loop material here for patches as well.
There are two rows of webbing on the bottom. Hidden from view under one row of webbing is a drainage grommet. These rows of webbing can also be used to attach tails to help expand capacity.
The main compartment is sort of tubular-shaped overall. On the back panel is a floating, padded laptop sleeve with a document sleeve on its face. There is a loop at the top as well, no doubt intended for hanging a hydration bladder (looking close, you might spot the zipper slider that is used to access the laptop sleeve from the exterior of the pack). On each side there is a zippered mesh pocket up high and a larger open top sleeve pocket that will hold something about the size of a 1 liter bottle.
What’s Perfect
- While the 2 Day Assault is not intended to be a micro-organized office commuter, it has a great organizational design, allowing it to be a great crossover pack. There are enough pockets to be useful, but not too many to distract.
- The side zip access to the laptop sleeve is a great asset on a Trizip. Seriously, try to pull a laptop out the top of a Trizip with a loaded top pocket: it’s a pain. There’s no pain here – just zip open the side and slip that laptop out. Easy.
- Using a Futura harness equipped pack like this 2DAP is incredibly comfortable. The harness is just so reliably great on any size pack and it shines as usual on the 2DAP. The legends about this harness are completely true.
- I dig the aesthetics — they harken back to the classic 3 Day Assault Pack
- The bottle pockets swallow whatever is thrown at them and remain secure.
- 500d Cordura and YKK Aquaguard zippers are sturdy and very appropriate for a pack designed to be used for EDC or travel; I cannot conceive of a set of materials that is more universally accepted and beloved.
What’s Not
- I missed having a key loop somewhere readily accessible. This would have been nice inside one of the top pockets.
- The ability to add an actual belt to the bag would be nice. At 27 liters, it’s getting just big enough that it could use a padded belt when loaded heavy.
- The zippers are a little sticky sometimes. While this is a common issue with Aquaguard zippers, it’s worth mentioning. Thankfully Mystery Ranch included counter pulls.
Wrap Up
Great materials. Meticulous build quality. High carry comfort. Good looks. Smart organization. This bag is worthy of the Mystery Ranch name in every way. If a heavy day bag or light travel pack is needed, the hunt is over- the 2 Day Assault is a great companion for adventures both on and off the trail.
Disclaimer: The 2 Day Assault Pack was provided by Mystery Ranch as a sample for review purposes, the content of this review was not shared with Mystery Ranch before publishing. Our reviews are unbiased and never modified to keep a brand happy.
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