It looks like I still get to try out and test new things after all, it just isn't new gun related stuff. Since we're having our first baby, new baby stuff is in order. For the Dad Bag, I'm starting with the Tactical Baby Gear Deuce 4.0 diaper bag. I wanted the Multi-cam version because I'm a sucker and I love it. Thankfully, it was a gift from family. I had come recommended by an Air Guard friend.
The Deuce 4.0 is a laptop style, shoulder bag with a large main pocket and two thinner pockets for tablets or armor panels. More on the armor panel later. The front thin pocket is large enough for a few things like a book or whatever where the rear pocket is fairly thin and is a good place to store the included changing mat.
Looking at the front of the bag, the left pouch is a thermally lined, insulator pouch to keep things like baby bottles or cans, cool or warm as desired. You'll be able to get either 2 tallboys or 3 regular cans of your favorite drink but it's intended for baby bottles. It's wide enough to put a Cabot cheese block in and deep enough that I figure you could get around 6 blocks into it if needed or a whole regular bag of Frigo string cheese. That's good information right there. Cheese is important.
On the right side, you have two pockets. The upper pocket is a small items pocket for pacies or whatever else you would want quick access to.
The lower, wide pouch is a wipes dispenser with a magnetically closed flap for easy access to the wipes container. Both pouches have a soft hook and loop panel for the attachment of patches of which, two are included; a Mommy and Daddy patch. There are a number of fun patches on the Tactical Baby Gear website. I wanted to put a name tap there but OPSEC says that's a no go.
On the rear, you have a very large space of MOLLE webbing for the attachment of any mission critical items you'd like. That's pronounced Molly if you've not heard.
On the sides of the bag are a pouch for bottles on the left and on the right are MOLLE for the attachment of additional pouches like the Dump Bag pouch or an IFAK.
Inside, the main pocket has a removeable divider that divides the space into two slots. These slots should be big enough for changes of clothes and several diapers.
The back pocket is somewhat large but it's not huge. I was wondering if one could have a good bag gun but it turns out that even a suppressed Glock 17 is just too big. Maybe a Flux 365 with a short suppressor would work better but none of my AR's will fit in the pocket.
Accessories
In addition to the folding changing pad, the bag comes with a shoulder strap with a pad and two stroller straps for hanging on the handles of your baby hauler. Those should get you into a pretty good spot but there are a bunch of those accessories you can buy to amplify the bag's utility. Let's look at those next.
First up are the packing cubes. The packing cubes are a great touch. The cube is a zipper pouch that you can pack items into and store into a singular, easy to extract and stow bag. They are soft-shelled and mesh bags for things like diapers or burping cloths. Where it helps is, instead of having just a handful of diapers loose, I can take a stack of them and insert them in an organized fashion into the main pocket. Add another packing cube with a replacement onesie and maybe a blankie.
There are 3 sizes that you can mix and match what you need. I'm hoping to pick up a pair of the smaller ones to diapers and extra onesies.
Next up is the soft armor panel. They offer a sized soft armor panel that slots into the bag. It's only IIIA rated but that would stop most pistol calibers. An AR500 or similar plate would weight around 7 pounds so the soft armor panel is a good trade. A ceramic plate wouldn't weigh as much as the steel but it should still be around 5+ lbs for the same size panel as Hesco's 6x6 side plates are 27 oz alone and you'd need about 3 to make one of the TBG panels. I wouldn't want to sling-carry this bag with the weight of the hard armor. Sadly, we live in a world where this makes sense as people choose to take our their frustrations on other people before they remove themselves from the worldly equation. It's a little expensive at $176 but having 21 oz of additional protection could be handy.
While there are other accessories, the last ones I want to bring up are the MOLLE pouches. They offer 4 auxiliary pouches. with 1 variant. that you can attach to any of the MOLLE webbing of your choice. One is a wipe dispenser pouch that comes in vertical and horizontal variants, another is a cooler pouch, the next is a bottle pouch but I think my favorite is the Tactical Dump Pouch.
A dump bag or dump pouch is an accessory used on your battle belt or plate carrier to dump what ever you want to while on mission. Usually it's for empty magazines or other items that you need to take back to base with you in a hurry but can't take the time to stow away or index properly such as a puppy, a Twinkie or some random intel you found. Normally it's rolled up for storage but when you need it, you open it up and start stuffing things in.
In this situation, the dump pouch is for loose baby stuff like a dirty diapers or soiled clothes. Things I don't want to carry in my hand or bag but they need to go with me somewhere. Empty bottles and trash are prefect items for the Tactical Dump Pouch.
Additionally, I'd like to add the auxiliary cooler pouch for extra snacks and formula as needed even if it sits inside the bag. I figure keeping a good supply of Dad Snacks can't hurt either.
Future
I'm really looking forward to running the bag and see if it really works out. My wife had been interested in the backpack version which I'd like to test side by side one of these days. They are a little expensive so maybe I'll hold off for a bit. I'm also interested to see if the stroller my wife picks will be able to hold the bag on the handles making use of the included straps. Stick around to see my updates on the Tactical Baby Gear Deuce 4.0 as the years go be. Deuces.
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