osoe hydration pouch

[Urban Tactical Gear]

The last time that I went in search of a hydration carrier it was for my plate carrier. I ended up going with a very basic pouch to match the carrier. It was a very simple, no frills insulated pouch. In the many months since I picked up that pouch, my needs have changed a little. I needed second pouch that could be adapted to use in various ways. I'll explore each need in this review. After doing some research I settled in on a hydration carrier from one of my favorite brands. As with all of OSOE's gear, I had very high expectations for this pouch.



The OSOE hydration pouch is will fit up to a 3 liter bladder. To ensure proper fit, and to reduce sag in the pouch, while carrying a full bladder, OSOE has a hanging tab sewn under the opening flap. At the top of your bladder you should have a piece that will slide into the tab, suspending the bladder and preventing it from settling fully into the bottom of the pouch.



Should your bladder spring a leak or suffer a catastrophic perforation, there are two eyelet grommets installed on the bottom of the pouch for expedited fluid evacuation.


On patterned pouches, plate carriers, chest rigs, etc; Several manufacturers have started using double sided printed webbing. While there are no confirmed reports of the printing fading or peeling from the material, the concern has been voiced by a small minority. In order to circumvent this concern, OSOE uses genuine cordura to create the exterior pals channels. The “webbing” is made from the same batch that the pouch itself is made from, which guarantees a perfect match.


The exterior enclosing flap is covered with hook material so that you can mount whatever morale patches you want.

Now to the reasons I gave this pouch serious consideration.

Like every other hydration carrier out there, the OSOE hydration pouch can be mounted via malice clips. Handy should I ever want to/need to replace the TT unit on my plate carrier.


What I really needed was a carrier that I could use as a stand alone carrier, should the need arise. And it has. In September I will be taking my first professional training course since basic training in 2004. I will be taking fighting pistol with Tactical Response. As it is a pistol course, I am not going to get all turtled up. So you just expand out the straps out and over the shoulders it goes. This is the only part that I take just a little issue with. The provided lower straps need to be about 6 inches longer. Fully expanded still makes for a very tight fit.


OSOE originally designed this pouch to be mounted to their chest rigs via the integral h-harness that all their rigs come with. Just above the “H Bar” section of their harness, you will find a set of pals channels. Run the provided straps through the channels. The fastex glide should be on the rig end of the harness, then run vertically upwards through the channels, through the fastex buckle, back over the pals and back through the glide to complete the strap retention.



A feature of that was mentioned in the h-harness review is the hydration tube routing tabs. Thread the tube through the tabs and it’ll be held out of your way


Click the male ends into the female ends, use the pre-installed at the bottom to attach the pouch to the waist connectors and your fully mounted.




Being that this is a full sized 3 liter hydration pouch, it is long in height. Where you wear your chest rig will determine where the hydration pouch rides on your back. I wear mine at “medium” height, meaning not around my belly, but not at the neck line either. It’s mid-torso on me. So on me, the pouch rides a little lower than I’d like on my back. However it’s stable and doesn’t move. So it’s not really an issue.

[Gorge Drifter]

I thought you were reviewing London Bridge Trading gear. The "hydration tube routing tabs" on the H Harness you mention and picture, look like what LBT uses on their rigs. Except LBT's cover both sides. It would be interesting to see what maker came up with or patented it first.

Nice review. I've been trying to learn how best to incorporate hydration with various rigs also. Your review will help in that area.

When you have the time, two quick questions about this review,

1. Is OSOE PALS fabric webbing: stronger, equal or weaker, than the conventional webbing, say the type used by Paraclete, Arktis, DBT/BattleLab, LBT, etc.?

2. Does your favored OSOE use Cordura® Solution Dyed Nylon (Cordura®-SDN) fabric like DBT/BattleLab or Arktis Limited and other makers, where the fabric, buckles and webbing all have IIR Camouflage, etc? Would be nice, if you could also mention, if this level of care and specification, is present or absent in all of the gear you review. Thanks.

[Urban Tactical Gear]

1: only time will tell.
in regards to pals channels, the webbing can be strong as hell, but if it's tacked on with a weak stitch; that's where you will suffer a catastrophic failure. In my other thread you asked about CTD magazine pouches. If you'll look on those you'll notice that they are single stitched (the horizontal stitching that actually holds the webbing onto the pouch/chest rig/whatever). The osoe stuff is triple stitched.
2. I cannot answer that at this time. I do have an email out to john and as soon as he comes back with an answer i'll let you know.