Most tactical knapsacks you can spot a mile away. They are casted with MOLLE-compatible webbing that says operator more than daily commuter.  In some cases a civilian aesthetic is good. The new COVRT18 2.0 Backpack from 5.11 Tactical helps you blend in while still having your essential defensive gear easily accessible.

The COVRT18 2.0 has a discreet appearance that doesn’t call a lot of attention to itself.

From a concealed carry standpoint the COVRT18 2.0 features a dual access conceal carry compartment for your handgun with an internal loop panel and tuckable logo tabs so the bag can really be incognito. The tiny 5.11 tag is concealable by pushing inside a small slit in the front bottom of the exterior pocket. The shoulder strap 5.11 tag can also be stuffed away and hidden.

Other non-EDC features are a TSA friendly laptop compartment, which makes it easy to access and protect your machine. A shove-it compartment with side gussets and zippered drop pocket, dual side water bottle pockets, external Hypalon gear loop and internal zippered mesh pockets in main compartment round out some of the storage space. The laptop pocket can also be used for a hydration reservoir compartment.

The clamshell design for the main compartment and the laptop pouch completely unzip for easy access to whatever gear you have inside. Personally, I like separate lap top compartments since it makes it easier to get through an airport TSA line as well as accessing your laptop when you are crammed in the middle seat in economy.

The 5.11 COVRT18 2.0 Backpack provides easy access to all of your essentials, including your laptop and firearm.

Some of the stuff you take for granted and where other bags fail is the practical stuff: like the padded shoulder straps that aren’t bulky, cinch straps, a padded carry handle, back panel ventilation and large pulls on the zippers. I hate it when the zippers are a pain in the ass to pull. The back panel is well padded and ventilated.

It comes in a color called Flint that absolutely blends with your everyday civilian urban environment and work place. Your co-workers will think you have a cool bag with all the features required in a backpack, like lap top compartment and water bottle pockets. You have the added benefit of knowing you can conceal carry with the bag and no one is the wiser.

Specifications:

Size: 19 in. high x 10.5 in. long x 6.5 in. deep, fits up to a 15-in. laptop

Capacity: 32-liter /1953 cubic in.

Weight: 2.64 lbs.

Material: 500D Nylon, 840D Nylon

MSRP: $135.00

Visit: 511tactical.com

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27 COMMENTS

  1. 9 of 10 “tactical” bags covered in Molle and low viz or camo colors has nothing but books and laptops in it. Assuming it is full of “operating gear” would be a poor bet. Truckloads of milsurp tactical bags have been dumped on the market and lots of college and HS aged kids are looking for a bargain to haul their school crap or camping gear around in.

    Much ado about nothing. Sound and fury…

    • Was in an airport a few years ago.
      Not uncommon to see tactical packs.
      Did not think anything of it.
      Normalize it.
      Might make a snowflake melt though.

  6. I will say this is perhaps the first discreet tactical backpack I wouldn’t immediately call a tactical backpack.

    still Jansport works fine.

  7. Country of Origin (as typical on TTAG) is not listed – Is Vietnam (NOT CHICOMLAND)/good for 5.11/give them credit for this.

    Wholesale price $88.50 = so landed price out Vietnam probably around $18 (5.11 sucks).

    • The vietnam stuff I’ve bought seems to be of good quality.
      Ie got a hell of a pair of shoes from there, and a two way radio, good stuff.

      • My wife was doing business with multiple countries. Computer age is a marvel. She knows some of my history. She had a lucrative business deal with a company in Viet Nam. She was hesitant to get involved because of my past.

        I assured her that that part of my history was over and I held no grudges. Hell, my barber is Vietnamese.

      • The Vietnamese have a healthy hatred of the CCP literally next-door.

        What’s really wild is the US military now has an open invite to use
        Cam Ranh Bay pretty much any time we want, these days…

  8. So when you really need a less than one secound draw….your gun is in a backpack where you can’t get to it?

  9. You can increase the ventilation system on this backpack – and others – by attaching a Vaucluse Gear UL attachable ventilation frame.

    • “You can increase the ventilation system on this backpack…”

      Won’t 3-5 rounds of double-ought buck ventilate it just as well? 🙂

    • I noticed this article “accidentally” neglected to prove the one pic I wanted to see of this item.
      The side against the wearer’s back.
      I wear a backpack while riding ADV motorcycles in the Texas heat.
      Two things are a MUST for any backpack I would consider. A cummerbund strap to keep the pack from shifting AND serious ventilation where the pack contacts the wearer.
      I consider the Oakley Kitchen Sink as THE best backpack I’ve ever worn while riding. It’s a buy once, cry once item. Worth every cent though IMHO.

  10. Wow, I mention what features I look for in a backpack, why I appreciate those features, and what backpack I’ve use for riding ADV motorcycles in Texas, and the comment got deleted?
    This is why I look at TTAG content less and less as time goes on.
    Enjoy the censorship everyone, I’m done.👋

    • did it actually post then get deleted or was it one of those word press hiccups ‘ghost posts’ where ya click ‘post comment’ and it does not actually post but acts like it did?

      • When posted it showed an italicized header “held for moderation” HFM. I checked back a few hours later, it was gone.
        When I posted my above post, the deleted message magically REAPPEARED with the same HFM header.
        Now that HFM messaged comment has disappeared again.
        Zero Fs if this is a WordPress issue, TTAG accept that WP does this BS.
        Too bad, I use 5:11 boots, pants, shorts, shirts, backpack LIMA bags. May need to rethink that is someone who uses lots of their stuff gets deleted if they mention the benefits of a non-5:11 item on a “TRUTH ABOUT” site. 👋

        • Hey James, I just went into the posts and did some digging and found your post hung up in the “pending” folder. Not sure why it was there, but it will hopefully appear. Sorry for the inconvenience. As a policy, if a person uses a lot of profanity or vulgar language, threatens others, calls others nasty names to provoke them, or the like, yeah, we will try to catch it and delete it. And those along with mere opinions sometimes get caught up in the pending folder. We don’t sit on here reading every comment. None of us have time for that, so we have to trust that adults can be adults (though we all know that isn’t always the case. Haha). But expressing opinions, whatever they are, and sharing information, even sometimes questionably sourced information, we try to allow that to flow through as that is simply the free expression of ideas.

        • Doug, this is happening a lot – comments posted but do not appear. Sometimes they come up saying awaiting moderation, but some times they just don’t post at all and have nothing about going into moderation and never appear.

          Then there is the moderation thing with certain words, for example, and I will spell this out to escape the moderation, ‘socia -list’ …and that’s just ridiculous.

          I can understand certain things, for example, lots of profanity or vulgar language or actual threats of violence directed at others commenting, I can see those going into moderation or being removed because after all this site is viewable by the general public so I can understand keeping a certain level of decorum being needed. But how is it “free expression of ideas” for words that are not this types of things, for example, such as my ‘socia -list’ example, if its gotta be ‘moderated’ to be ‘approved’ to be posted?

  11. Ah heck, just stick it all in a couple of plastic grocery sacks and call it a day.

    😂

  12. “Most tactical knapsacks you can spot a mile away.”

    Yeah, well most backpacks of the ordinary looking kind carried by adults tend to be looked at by criminals as targets of opportunity, because they know adults put adult things in their backpacks and some of those adult things can net them some cash or even guns.

    • seriously, anything ‘container like’ you carry external to your body in public is a potential target of criminals. Its doesn’t matter if its ‘tactical’ looking or not. They try to snatch everything from guitar cases, to purses, to grocery sacks, and more … anything they think might have something they want or gives them something … heck, during the pandemic locally we had gang-criminals violently attacking people in parking lots to steal their groceries and people got seriously injured, a few killed, over basic food items.

      Ya think a nice looking, non-tactical looking, backpack is going to make you ‘Blend In’… well maybe to normal people you might ‘Blend In’ but to the criminal element your are a target and its just if they choose to do it or not. So now ya ‘un-sling’ the backpack, unzip, and then finally draw or if ‘slinged’ or not ya gotta maneuver the backpack to get to the ‘gun compartment’ and then draw. This is not a fanny pack thing right there at your hand unless you walk around carrying it with your hand right in the ‘gun compartment’.

      I don’t object to a backpack, but rather the idea being put forth that backpack ‘covert’ is as good as ‘on person holster concealed covert’. Each have their advantages and disadvantages, but in sudden attacks that maybe a second you may have to react practiced ‘on person holster concealed covert’ is probably going to be faster than a practiced ‘off body backpack concealed covert’. Plus, ‘on person holster concealed covert’ is a lot less likely to attract attention of the criminal element.

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