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PeakUK Bullbag – First Look

The PeakUK Bull bag is available in 25, 20 and 15 metre varieties. I had a chance to check out and throw the the 25 and 15 metre models.

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The bags look and feel extremely well made. The cordura fabric looks and feels tough. The bag is lined and all the seems appear to be bound. It definitely feels like a quality bit of kit. There is plenty of room for the rope supplied and the bag packs quickly and throws really well. One of the nice things I liked about the bag is that it is a cuboid. When you set the bag down it stays put and doesn’t roll around, this feature can be quite useful. Two sides of the bag contain sheets of foam to aid buoyancy which also helps stiffen the bag a little. The bag is opened and closed via a retained drawcord lock and short length of cord.

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The top of the bag is re-enforced with tape that also has reflective properties. A nice little touch is the small envelope type pocket which is super useful when reloading the bag.

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The Bullbag has a metal ring (hence the bull reference) to clip into and this sits at the base of the bag where the fabric is also a heavy duty mesh. This is the same marine grade stainless ring that you find on rescue PFDs. The rope is secured directly to this ring with a figure eight knot. The other end of the rope is free of any loops, plastic tubing or knots i.e. it is clean.

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The bag can be work on a rescue belt thanks to a couple of discrete belt loops.

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I tried the 25m bag and found that it throws really well, there is a bit of weight to it that helps and the wide neck opening pays out the rope well.

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The one thing I think may let the bag down is the rope, and at the end of the day this is the most important part of the system. The 9mm polypropylene (>500kg) will but up to the job but it doesn’t feel as nice in the hand as the Nookie, Palm or HF bags that I (and several other people) compared it to. Of course this comparison wasn’t made when the rope was under strain. You can get a dyneema rope upgrade (£60) but this takes the bags into super silly money.

25m = £45 or £105 with Dyneema
20m = £40 or £100 with Dyneema
15m = £35 or £95 with Dyneema

I have a throw bag test being written at the moment with a number of the main manufacturers bags (HF, Nookie, Palm) being put through there paces. Unfortunately PeakUK have declined to take part so I am unable to comment if the rope is OK to handle under strain. I may buy a 20m one for the test but the feel of the rope really puts me off.

1 Comment

  1. Phil

    Do you know when the group test will be published? Im looking to buy a bag shortly and would love to read this article first 🙂

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