GR2 26L vs Bullet Laptop 16L

At the time of these pictures, I’ve had the Bullet for five months. It has been carried daily to the office, been rained on in the back of my topless Jeep and spent many, many weekends in the sun on the softball field. I have intentionally not “babied” the Bullet; its been thrown around and used quite a bit. That said, after the softball dirt has been scrubbed away, it looks brand new.

Both bags are made primarily of 500D Cordura. Its interesting the differences in color between the bags and the PALS webbing. The GR2 looks “faded” next to the bullet even though it has never been carried. The softer color is sort of nice though, not a bad thing. There’s more shine (sheen?) off the Bullet material and by contrast the GR2 is muted.

The material feel is very similar. If I had to compare them, the GR2 might feel a bit softer, again, even though the bullet has been carried daily for months.

The shape difference is noticeable here. The very square and boxy GR2 vs the Bullet’s more rounded, bullet-like shape. You’ll also see the zipper rain flaps on the GR2. The Bullet zippers are fully exposed. The zipper complement is identical between the two bags. YKK #8 Taiwanese made zippers for the main compartments and the YKK #10 size for everything else.

From the back the size difference is even more apparent. The GR2 is 2.5" wider than the Bullet, interestingly the Bullet is .5" taller. The difference in the straps is immediately obvious as well. The GR2 straps are wider and have dramatically more padding betrayed by the stitching depth of the PALs webbing. The GR2 is much, much bigger, but doesn’t feel like it on the back. I was surprised at just how comfortable it is out of the box. The bullet took a few weeks to break in and/or get used to before it was comfortable to wear daily.

You might notice the Bullet has an extended lumbar pad. I liked this idea when I purchased the bag, but I’m not sure it has made much of a difference.

The other major difference here (that you can’t see) is the Bullet’s internal frame sheet is super duper stiff and rigid. The gr2 is much more flexible. this probably also contributes to the comfort of the GR2.

Handle girth and size differences.

Picture is a bit deceiving; the GR2 box-X looks twice the size of the Bullet. You can see this difference in the previous picture of the back panels too. The GR2’s handle is more tapered, more padded, more comfortable. It’s all just more.

I’m not sure why this surprised me as much as it did. I assumed Goruck would use less variation in something like the bag handles or at least the difference would be less dramatic. It makes sense in hindsight, the GR2 is a much higher end bag with +10L of capacity.

Material Differences

Both bags are made primarily of 500D. There are two places where other materials are used.

Back panel

GR2 (left) is the same 500D, but Bullet (right) uses, relatively new to Goruck bags, 210D HT.

I think the 210D back panels first started with their Rucker series as a way to combat back chafing and eventual bleeding for long Ruck events. I also think its first appearance on a non-Rucker bag was in this Bullet laptop. For EDC, the 210 has more of a sheen and is more slick(?) and is supposed to be gentler on clothing than the 500D or 1000D. There is a difference in feel here as expected.

Bottom

GR2 (left) is 1050D ballistic nylon, Bullet (right) is the same 500D

Given the indestructible reputation and lifetime warranty of Goruck bags, this probably doesn’t much matter. I like ballistic nylon, ok? I like the ballistic pouches I have and the Goruck ballistic trainers. The visual difference is obvious and supposedly the ballistic fabric is more durable.

I think historically, 1050D has been used on the bottom of Goruck bags off and on through the years.

In just the past month or so, Goruck has migrated all of their GR1 and GR2 series to use 1000D primary material and 210D HT back panel and shoulder strap underside. I specifically sought out this version of the GR2 because I wanted 500D and the ballistic nylon bottom. I like the 210D on the Bullet, but didn’t think I needed it.

Such a good complement to the bullet size

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