GORUCK GR1 vs CTactical The Bunker

You’ve clicked on this article; it’s clear to me that you’re probably pretty familiar with the GORUCK brand.

To be fair, maybe you’re actually a die-hard CTactical fan, glad to see the brand get a little bit of attention.

In either case, you want to see how your most beloved ruck holds up against an upstart contender…or against the industry juggernaut.

Sounds good to us; we’re happy to referee The Bunker vs GR1 showdown.

The most interesting thing about this matchup? At first glance, just about anybody would look at these bags side-by-side and think “whoa…those bags are really similar”.

…and they are…except for one glaring difference that may have you thinking twice about your buying decisions moving forward…

CTactical The Bunker vs GORUCK GR1

Before we get to our hand-on assessments, we always like to start with marketing materials each respective company has put together for their gear.

First, the GR1:

“FROM BAGHDAD TO NYC

GR1 was built to thrive in Baghdad and NYC and has been tested and proven by Green Berets to meet the life or death standards of quality, toughness, and performance. It has proven itself the world over and earned its “Greatest Of All Time” status the hard way: one deployment, one event, one trip, one mile at a time. 1,000 Events/year, 175,000+ participants, and 200+ Special Forces Cadre later, the GORUCK Challenge is the most significant quality control program of its kind. No other bag is consistently put through more abuse, and GR1 thrives.

The GR1 is built with a minimalist approach in mind and includes only the necessary features of an everyday carry rucksack: a bombproof laptop compartment, opens flat for easy packing, built with Special Forces grade materials, and soft but tough 210D CORDURA on the back panel and shoulder straps so your ruck doesn’t irritate your skin or chew up your apparel.

Proven to Special Forces standards, GR1 is synonymous with the best of American Manufacturing. Each GR1 is built to last and comes with our Scars Lifetime Guarantee.“

Depending on how you look at things, GORUCK marketing materials either make you want to jump out of a helicopter with a parachute…or without one.

Regardless, one thing we’d like to draw your attention to is that line about 210D Cordura…we’ll revisit this a bit later on in the review…

Next, The Bunker:

“CT21 V3.0 – THE BUNKER is a special version of the CT21 V3.0 backpack, we push the limits of the durability standard to the maximum, built with a high-quality material system, has impressive durability and scientific compartment design.

This is the perfect choice for high-intensity and harsh activities. We build reliable packages to be your true companion with reasonable price.”

A bit more subtle than the GR1’s materials, but not exactly the most descriptive or informative (especially if you’re like…I don’t know…everybody, and don’t know anything about the CT21 V3.0 backpack).

With these somewhat underwhelming descriptions to go off of, I guess we’ll just have to default to Judge Mills Lane again…

Rucking

When we first started reviewing bags, we figured that everybody who would go out of their way to pick up an expensive backpack has to be in it for rucking’s sake.

To our surprise, it turns out a lot of you really do just have a thing for luggage…but thankfully, enough of y’all regularly perform workouts where you’re moving under heavy loads to justify us continuing to put this comparison front and center.

Truth be told, neither The Bunker nor the GR1 are what could be described as excellent “pure” rucking bags as neither have some of the attributes (most notably dedicated, velcroed and overly padded ruck plate pockets) that are common in higher-performing bags.

On the other hand, both do well enough to be a primary, if not the only rucking bag in your personal lineup.

The Bunker’s main internal sleeve/pocket is a bit wider than many similar internal ruck pockets, ensuring that there aren’t really any ruck plates that perfectly fit, but also that there aren’t any that don’t fit at all. Combined with the rigid, but not bothersome frame sheet, and very easy-to-adjust/adjustable shoulder straps, the plate stays high and tight and off the body.

The 1680D Cordura/420D Nylon combination is very unique, with the majority of the bag being comprised of some of the most resilient ruck material we’ve come across. In contrast, the back panel and straps (the parts most likely to come in contact with skin) are constructed of less irritating nylon, but not as smooth of materials as the 210D Cordura…which we’ll get to soon.

The Bunker’s dedicated water bottle holder (it actually has two) is probably a nice addition to those accustomed to bags lacking one (like the GR1). It certainly encourages longer ruck outings, although I don’t find the shoulder straps to be all that comfortable (which has the effect of not encouraging longer outings).

Despite the GR1’s fame and overall esteem, it lacks some fundamental ruck basics like a dedicated water bottle holder (although you can get an attachable one for the low low price of $30 on the GORUCK main site) and it doesn’t have the most accommodating ruck plate pocket (as you might expect, it fits GORUCK plates really well, though).

Also, the GR1 has recently dumped its 210D Cordura components (which, like The Bunker’s 420D nylon, were placed on areas most likely to come in contact with the skin), making it a little less comfortable than it was before, especially if your ruck shirtless or in a tank top.

The GR1’s overly padded and wide shoulder straps are some of the most comfortable I’ve come across. I don’t really notice the difference on Mile 1…but really do by Mile 3. Its primary 1000D Cordura is resilient, albeit not really that necessary for more “basic” rucking ventures (in that regard, the Bunker’s 1680D Cordura is serious overkill).

Neither ruck is oddly shaped, overly big or overly small. At 5’7″ (or 5’8″…depending on who I’m lying to), both feel perfectly fine on my back and I don’t see either feeling awkward on even much taller or shorter people.

Overall, despite these bags being similarly matched, each has their own “micro strengths”. The GR1 wins on shoulder strap comfort (and used to win on material comfort…) while The Bunker wins on sheer practicality. For longer rucking, it becomes a bit of a toss-up, but for shorter outings (and overall for the category), The Bunker wins.

Winner: The Bunker

Dynamic Rucking

It’s an unpopular take, but one that has to be stated, nonetheless:

GORUCK’s GR bags aren’t the best for dynamic rucking (ex. ruck pull-ups, ruck swings, ruck presses, ruck get-ups). If you’re looking for bags that are legitimately good for this kind of activity, I suggest checking out the Rucker line or even the company’s dedicated Plate Carrier.

That caveat aside, even among these two, one makes a lot more sense as a dynamic rucking bag than the other…and that’s the GR1.

As previously stated, the GR1’s internal sleeve perfectly accommodates GORUCK’s standard-sized ruck plates. As important as this is during “trad rucking”, this is exponentially more important when you’re throwing your bag around, pressing it, or running in it. The plate doesn’t remain as secure as it does in the Rucker’s heavily-padded, velcro-shutting plate pocket, but it works pretty well.

In contrast, with the GR3…well…get used to that plate going all over the place. As you can imagine, this is not ideal. You can sorta get away with this during more “stationary” exercises (ex. squats, pull-ups), but any exercise that involves swinging, pressing, etc…ain’t so good.

Speaking of ruck swings, I can assure you that these are much more difficult (mainly due to how awkward they are) with a larger, bulkier bag. Not only is the weight distribution off (the hands are close together on top of the large bag), but you have to keep your legs really wide to allow the bag to swing through.

These exercises aren’t nearly as much trouble with the smaller, more compact GR1, although there can be a little bit of plate jostling.

It probably goes without saying that running is a bit more difficult with a larger, “enveloping” ruck strapped to your back than it is with a more compact option, making the GR3…less than ideal for your first (or next) crack at “ruck Murph”. It also wouldn’t be my first (or tenth) choice for Chad.

Neither the GR1 nor the GR3 have the side handles or drainage holes that make many of the common GORUCK Event movements (like ruck suitcase carries) or “excursions” (submerging into bodies of water) more tolerable so if you have a GORUCK Light, Basic, Tough, or Heavy planned…you might want to look at the company’s Training Ruck options.

With that being said, the GR1 is by no means a “bad” dynamic rucking option. It easily outpaces the GR3 in this category.

Winner: The Bunker

Everyday Carry

I understand that a lot of people buy a backpack to use as…like…a normal backpack.

No “trad” rucking. No ruck thrusters. No ruck muscle-ups.

…and that’s fine…because both of these are arguably (and by that I mean they both have really strong arguments) better EDC (and light “travel”) rucks than they are “training” rucks.

We’ll get to load capacity in a second, but this is probably the only real “knock” on The Bunker. Not a huge capacity, but more than sufficient for the vast majority of daily needs.

Like some more popular bags (one of which, we’ll discuss momentarily…), The Bunker boasts the aforementioned interior sleeve that a lot of people are probably going to use for a ruck plate pocket as well as the “official” laptop compartment, buffered between the frame sheet and the main exterior layer.

The laptop compartment is easy enough to access, but if you’re like me, the interior sleeve works just fine for carting even larger machines around.

The large external pocket is deeper and more spacious than it looks, allowing for legitimate separation between small-to-medium-sized items. The interior pockets aren’t anything special, but they are a bit more durable than the more common mesh pockets.

As I previously mentioned, I’m not really a fan of The Bunker’s shoulder straps. They’re not “uncomfortable” persay, but they do knock a few points off of this category, given that they’re with you whether you’re bag is loaded to brim or you’re just lugging around old gym shorts.

Winner: GR1

Load Capacity

The first of our objective comparison categories, neither the GR1 nor The Bunker will really dazzle you with their respective load capacities. However, if you don’t really want or need a big bag, this isn’t really a huge deal.

At this, CTactical’s backpacks top out at a 21-liter capacity. The Bunker falls into this category, making it the biggest of a relatively small capacity lineup.

The GORUCK GR1 has a couple of load capacity options: a smaller 21-liter bag and slightly larger 26-liter bag. I know some people are after more or less a specifically sized bag and go out of their way to pick up the 21-liter iteration of this bag…and that’s fine…

…but the 26-liter bag is just a few dollars more, resulting in a heavy discount for those extra 5 liters of capacity.

(I know that last part isn’t exactly relevant to conversations about sheer load capacity…but I figured I’d throw out a pro tip!)

Anyways, GR1 is the clear winner here, even though its (potential) capacity isn’t that much bigger.

Winner: GR1

Price

If you’re reading this, there is a good chance you’re already well aware of the rather significant price difference between these bags. After all, CTactical has been making a name for itself as a (much) less expensive alternative to GORUCK.

If you’re not aware of this…well…this is by far the most interesting aspect of this review.

If you know anything about GORUCK, you know that their bags are expensive.

Like, really expensive (although if you do decide to go this route, be sure to buy from Rogue as opposed to directly from GORUCK…you’ll save yourself a lot of money this way!)

It’s pretty much a cliche meme at this point, but it’s not uncommon to see things like “xxxx dollars for a backpack?!”

“Funny” thing is, they’ve become even more expensive backpacks. The least expensive GR1 now retails for just under $400 with select options starting at over $500. The ~$60 price increase of the base model GR1is a little less than 2/3 of the total price of The Bunker.

To be fair, for the vast majority of people, the Bunker is going to run a bit more than its $99 base price. Because the bags are produced in and shipped directly from Vietnam, they’re subject to import fees/customs (on top of shipping fees).

However, while these fees are significant relative to the overall bag price (if you’re in the US, you’re looking at anywhere between $40 and $60 total), they still pale in comparison to price of the GR1.

Warranties are the wild cards here as the GR1 is covered by the GORUCK Scars Lifetime warranty. Essentially, if anything ever happens to the bag, the company will replace it or fix it. In contrast, The Bunker “only” has a 1-year warranty. I haven’t faced any issues with either bag (well over a year for both), but I know many place a lot of value on Scars protection.

For many of you reading this, this is the most important category and The Bunker clearly wins…by a lot. We can sugarcoat things with Scars, but it doesn’t change the fact that you can (easily) get 2+ Bunkers for less than what one GR1 will cost you.

Winner: The Bunker

Overall Winner

According to our metrics…The Bunker is our winner!

Despite us having handled both of these bags for quite some time now, this one came as a bit of a surprise. Nothing against The Bunker, but the GR1 is (at least by GORUCK’s account) “The Greatest of all Time”…and runs at least 4 times as expensive.

You’d think this would be enough for it to…if nothing else…”buy” and easy win.

…guess not.

Of course, The Bunker can’t compete with the GR1’s higher load capacity option and it Scars warranty. We think its also a slightly better EDC bag.

However, even if you take The Bunker’s slightly better rucking prowess out of the equation, it is definitely a better “value bag” than the GR1. It will be interesting to see how/if CTactical will continue to expand and will continue to offer very value-heavy alternatives to GORUCK.

Our Testing Process

To be honest, I don’t ruck nearly as much as I used to and do very little “dynamic rucking” outside of weighted pull-ups (if you actually want to do some “functional fitness” and actually want to make some progress, just do CrossFit…no more of this “your backpack is your gym!” nonsense).

With that being said, I have used both extensively for rucking (The Bunker was my 2025 “ruck every day during Lent” bag) and travel/EDC (my GR1 always enjoys a cold one in airport lounges) over the last ~18 months

CTactical The Bunker and the GORUCK GR1…Rocky II?

It’s been over a year since I reviewed both of these bags individually. Way back then, both of them impressed me, although their hierarchy was pretty apparent.

The GR1 was the established GOAT while The Bunker was the upstart with a lot of potential…but not quite there.

Interestingly, on my more recent round of testing, I found The Bunker to be more capable than it was on my first go-around while the GR1’s own goal (severe price hike) dropped it a bit in my eyes.

Nobody stays the champ forever and even “legacy brands” eventually get knocked down (most of the time, at least).

CTactical won the day (rather decisively, in my opinion) and I wouldn’t be surprised if they remain on the up-and-up. As for GORUCK, the price increase was just a bit too much to overcome…even for the reigning champ.