Just wanted to give everyone a heads up that CountyComm finally has the Hydrant back in stock after months of being unavailable. For those of you who haven't clicked the link it's basically a clone of the Maxpedition 10 x 4 bottle holder but 16" tall. The front pouch is a full 12" high. It has a few features that look to be upgrades vs the Max, like the removable insulated liner. That's a great feature! First thing I did with my Max 12 x 5 was cut the insulation out. The extra height should be very nice; it will allow the bag to accomodate larger/taller bottles or a shorter bottle and a small stove. A person at another forum showed some pics of his Hydrant holding two standard plastic Nalgene bottles, one on top of another, and it still ships shut! Very cool!

The one minor ding I have to give CC is that the Hydrant is currently only available in O.D. Green. Hopefully they'll add some more colors. At a minimum black is a no-brainer, and I'd love to see khaki/Coyote and foliage green. Another thing I'd like to see is another "D" ring on the bottom of the bag to allow you to carry it horizontally on a neck strap, not just vertically. To be fair the Maxpedition bag lacks this, too. And there's enough MOLLE webbing that you could surely rig something up along those lines.

I placed an order for two of them and they're already shipped! I'll post my impressions when they show up.

Some of you may remember my Maxpedition 12 x 5 survival/day hike kit. My intention is to see how the Hydrant works in that role.