GORUCK M23 – Our Review

I’ve never been in the military yet alone gone to Ranger School…but I have been “issued” and old-school ruck before.

To be fair, my dad didn’t bust out his old bag for me to load up and haul around…at least not at first. He actually filled it with some weird sand combination, drew a ridiculous caricature of my 3rd-grade nemesis’ “bug-eyed” face on the side, and instructed me to hit it.

Repeatedly.

It wasn’t until later that I learned more about the bag’s actual intended purpose and it wasn’t until much later that I saw another ruck that more closely resembled what I assumed to be an artifcat from an earlier age.

Depending on your background and history with rucking (or with makeshift, elementary school rivalry punching bags), the GORUCK M23 either looks like a small, but familiar relic from some “(bad) good old days” or like the odd man out of “the rucking company’s” line of bags.

Depending on your priorities, you’re likely going to view the M23 as the missing piece in your quest for a bag that you can walk and travel with or as a quasi-functional, but overall “defective” piece of training equipment.

I’m probably being a bit dramatic here and the M23 probably isn’t quite as polarizing of a product as I’m making it out to be, but unlike most of the GORUCK bag line-up, it’s definitely a ruck that sets itself apart from the others…while also being a bag you can make a mistake with.

If you’re a GORUCK diehard and are more or less “on brand” with the company’s image and with the typical gear they put out, the M23 may be a little confusing to you and might be a piece that you’re not as interested in adding to your collection.

However, if you’re looking for a (smaller) travel bag that you can ruck with that also has a unique look about it (at least in relation to any of the GR bags or anything from the Rucker line), the M23 may be what you’re looking for…

Sizing (unscored)

I want to provide a few special pictures of the M23 to give an idea of sizing. For reference, I’m ~5’8″ and Mel is ~5’2″:

Rucking

The M23 is certainly a ruck…but it’s probably not the kind of bag that immediately comes to mind when you think about rucking, particularly if you’ve gotten into the practice within the last few years and/or weren’t ever in the military.

The top-loading structure (whereas all of GORUCK’s other bags open flat and you load stuff in like a backpack) and overall bag “heft” make it a little less conducive to rucking than many others.

Also of note, the main interior pocket (the place where most people probably insert their ruck plate), sits a bit lower than it does in other GORUCK bags, creating a somewhat odd and “less efficient” experience with the plate sitting on the lower back.

As you might expect, this creates a bit of different feeling than what you’re used to if you’re accustomed to just sticking a plate in your compact bag’s plate pocket and walking. On the other hand, if you’ve ever been a hippie backpacker, hauling three months’ worth of stuff across Europe, the feeling might be a bit more familiar.

Or, ya know, if you’ve ever been these guys:

All of this is to say that the M23 is definitely functional for rucking, but I ultimately find it to be less efficient than I would prefer.

Like most other GORUCK bags, I definitely appreciate the heavily padded straps, although with the load being more evenly distributed throughout the bag, I don’t think they’re as necessary as these straps on other bags. The straps don’t dig into my shoulders as much on this bag (which is definitely a good thing) so the padding isn’t quite as noticeable.

Overall, I think the best word to describe rucking with the M23 is “unique” as it is a bit different than what I’ve experienced with other GORUCK rucks. It’s not “bad”, persay, but it isn’t something I’m accustomed to or, frankly, want to get accustomed to.

Rucking: 80

Travel

In the previous section, I discussed how the M23 isn’t your typical (modern civilian) rucksack.

Well…it ain’t your typical travel suitcase or carry-on item either. However, I think it does work a lot better as a travel bag than it does as a rucking bag.

The main reason for this is that it combines three qualities that are important to me in a (larger) carry-on bag:

• Large, easily-accessed open storage space area
• Item-specific pockets/storage areas
• Can easily be carried on my back

To the first of these points, the top-loading system may take an extra second or two to access (compared to a rapid-zip backpack), but once it is open, I can easily drop my stuff into the “black hole” of the M23. As someone who is usually packing t-shirts, jeans, and gym clothing, I’m not as concerned with maintaining perfect creases or maximizing every inch of space.

So for me, this approach to “organizing” and “packing” is ideal.

To expand on this point, I also can appreciate the additional access point from the side of the bag. I don’t really use it, but it’s nice to be able to grab something from the bag without having to unbuckle the straps and undo the top portions.

To the second point, while I appreciate bags that I have a few separate compartments (emphasis on “a few”), I don’t appreciate when these compartments seem to be there just to be there. This is lazy engineering in my opinion and, in most cases, I’d rather just have more open space than a random mishmash of pockets.

Although the M23 has more additional pockets than are necessary, I appreciate the dedicated laptop area. This compartment is not so easily accessed from the outside, making it more secure from those with bad intentions, but is easy enough to get through at Security. The wallet/phone pocket (which I feel most comfortable using once I’m on the plane) is another nice touch.

Finally, I try to keep my airport rolling to a minimum so having a bag that is easy to move around without wheels for an extended period of time is of utmost importance to me. I haven’t gone for extended periods hauling it around, but my wife recently had a travel day that included:

• A 35-minute walk to the airport (yeah…walking to the airport…crazy)
• A 4.5-hour layover (she passed the time by doing airport laps for ~3 hours)

She reported being a bit tired from hauling her bag around for this extended period of time, but never wished she was rolling it around. The straps and overall support system held up just fine.

These qualities are in addition to the fact that the M23 easily fits under economy seats.

Overall, I could see some complaining that the bag doesn’t have quite as much load capacity as other carry-on bags and that it (obviously) doesn’t have any rolling capabilities, but for my purposes it holds up pretty well on the road (or in the air).

Travel: 90

Load Capacity

There are a couple of different M23 load capacity options: 21 liters and 26 liters. While this difference would be considered to be “statistically significant” in most cases, it’s not so great that making general conclusions about bag size would be off base.

With that being said, my 26-liter bag falls into an interesting spot of being roughly average-sized for rucking purposes and somewhat undersized as a carry-on travel bag (relative to other bags of this type, of course).

In my opinion, it’s very good news that the main storage area is more or less completely unsegmented. While there are a few interior pockets, none of these really take away from the overall load capacity of the bag i.e. you’re not losing space from interior pockets you’re rarely, if ever, going to use.

However, if you’re looking to get the most bang for your buck in regards to bag size when you’re traveling with hand luggage, you can easily find much roomier options.

Load Capacity: 75

Everyday Carry

As you can probably imagine, there is a lot of overlap between the merits of the M23 as a travel bag and how it performs as an everyday carry/EDC bag.

In some ways, I would argue that it is even more adept as the latter…although in other areas, it’s not quite up to snuff.

As previously mentioned, the combination of a large, open main storage area combined with dedicated compartments designed with specific items in mind is appealing. Considering that these compartments are engineered for laptops, wallets, and water bottles i.e. the things you’re most likely to need on a day’s outing, the logic and functionality hold up.

At 26 (or 21) liters, the M23’s capacity is actually more in line with what most people probably want out of a day bag than they expect from a travel bag. Getting much bigger than this starts to get a little excessive/into the “kid at school with a giant backpack” territory (nobody wants that!)

Despite these advantages, I can’t help but feel like the top-loading system is a bit of a strike against the M23 as an EDC bag. As much as I like being able to (carefully) dump items into my luggage before trips, I don’t like being less organized with my daily gear. I hate somewhat blindly reaching into the black hole from above and groping for a specific notebook, roll of tape, or whatever else happens to be eluding me at the time, especially in poorly lit areas.

The side pocket (which grants direct access to the main storage area) helps to alleviate this issue and I think it probably ends up being most people’s go-to “access point”.

You can probably find some type of use for the internal pockets, especially if you’re planning to haul the M23 to school or something, but I just end up putting random crap in these when/if I use them. Also, the 210D Cordura, which is a lot less abrasive on the skin is an interesting, albeit common inclusion in most GORUCK bags, isn’t really relevant here…you’re probably never EDC’ing without a shirt or with otherwise exposed skin.

Overall, the M23 is a good option as an EDC bag and the utility it offers in this category rivals its functionality as a travel bag. As far as general usage is concerned, I’d rate it as follows:

1. Travel and EDC
2. Rucking

Everyday Carry: 90

Materials

Like a lot of (most of?) GORUCK’s ruck options, the M23 is available in a couple of different material options: Cordura and Robic.

My bag is constructed of Robic Nylon and at the 420D composition is comparable to the more flexible (and popular) 500D Cordura of the other M23 material option.

While either of these material options are certainly robust, they aren’t quite as durable as the 1000D Cordura or 1050D Ballistic Nylon that is common in many other bags of its kind. In most cases, this shouldn’t be an issue, but if you decide you do want to check your bag, it has a greater potential of getting scuffed and otherwise beat up in the process of being thrown, caught (…or not), crashed, smashed, etc. from one airport to the next.

The internal materials are constructed of an even thinner 210D ripstop. To me, this feels like really heavy-duty plastic bag material…for better or for worse.

As previously mentioned, the portions of the bag that are most likely to come into contact with exposed skin (ex. back panel and areas around the shoulders) are universally constructed of 210D Cordura, but I have rarely felt the impact of this (I always have a shirt or other material covering me).

I find the strap buckles to be more resilient than more run-of-the-mill buckles you might find on a backpack from Target, but I’m still a little more concerned with the potential of damaging mine. Thankfully, if you lose one of these, you just look a little ghetto strapping one side (as opposed to if you blow a zipper on another bag and your ruck is essentially destroyed).

I’ll admit that I’d rather have Cordura than Ripstop Nylon, but the latter still holds up pretty well. However, my M23’s materials feel like a little bit of a step down from those in other GORUCK bags (which is still pretty good).

Materials: 90

Price

As we have mentioned a few times so far, contrasting the M23 to other bags can be a little bit tricky. It has a number of unique elements that make more apples-to-apples comparisons almost impossible.

This impacts our discussion of price as it is difficult to fine bags with a multitude of attributes similar to the M23. We’ve done our best to develop an appropriate analysis, nevertheless.

Depending on the model, the M23 will run you anywhere between $145 (although these options are, at the time of this writing, likely to be discontinued soon, if they aren’t already) and $295 (for the higher end, “waxed canvas” variations). Most options are going to run in the $200-235 price range.

While this puts the M23 solidly in the “average” bracket for GORUCK bags, it isn’t difficult to find other, top-loading backpack/rucks at lower (in some cases, much lower) price points. Granted, many of the features don’t line up with these competitors and some of them look…not great. However, these options do exist so it’s important to take their respective prices into consideration.

Price: 70

Customer Reviews

When it comes to GORUCK bags there are a few things that incredibly consistent:

• Customer review scores are very high

and

• It is difficult to find a significant number of customer review scores in a place other than on the official GORUCK websites

The M23 is no exception to these qualities.

Currently sitting with a cumulative customer review score of a 4.8 out of 5, the audience appears to be pretty pleased with the M23. Granted, the bag has, at the moment, a relatively small sample size, however, of the 143 reviews, 125 are 5-star reviews while another 13 are 4-star reviews.

What’s more is that the 2-star reviews (a grand total of 2, for those counting at home) are comprised of a sizing error (which is more of a indictment of customer service than of the bag itself) and one of the dumbest review complaints I have ever seen.

Take it away, Tristen!

“The bag itself was amazing for a Every Day Carry (EDC), but the website does not clearly note that this bag is NOT a true Rucker. I wish it had the secure pocket for a plate… hopefully for future models. I wasted time ordering it and sending it back. IMO GORUCK should only be making true Rucking packs…leave the EDC bags to others. I will order this model in the next version that has a true plate sleeve. It’s a beautiful bag”

2 stars for an “amazing” EDC bag…dude must really have some standards!

On a separate, but related note, I am unable to find the M23 for sale anywhere else. Granted, it’s a newer and more niche bag so I wouldn’t expect to be able to find it in a lot of places (as mentioned before, GORUCK stuff is notoriously hard to find reviews of outside of the main page), but I’m getting nothing.

I find the GORUCK customer reviews to be decently spot on so although these are all we have to go off of, I’m perfectly inclined to trust them.

Customer Reviews: 96

Customer Service

“Dealing” with GORUCK’s customer service department has never really been a huge problem for me and, in most cases, the experiences have actually been pretty nice.

First and foremost, whenever I have contacted GORUCK personnel, I have gotten a response from an actual human (or AI is just getting that good) within 24 hours (in most cases, closer to 12 hours). I appreciate not waiting days for answers to objectively simple questions.

Another thing I appreciate (and this might sound like a “negative” on its face, but hear me out), is every interaction seems extremely organic. I never get something that seems cut-and-pasted from some policy manual…in most cases, it seems like they’re coming up with solutions on the fly (which almost always tend to be in my/the customer’s favor).

I definitely don’t get a corporate feeling when dealing with the GORUCK crew.

Of course, I’ve had some somewhat stupid interactions based off of some ordering problems (which, to be fair, were partially my fault), but for the most part, GORUCK has been pretty good with helping with both “normal” requests (size exchanges) and more obscure (“injury” refunds) requests.

Finally, I have experience ordering from both the main store as well as the GORUCK.eu store and, in both cases, the shipping and delivery processes were smooth and timely.

Overall, not much to complain about here.

Customer Service: 95

Who is the GORUCK M23 really for?

Are there people who will appreciate the M23 more than others might?

Definitely

Let’s see who these people are:

Those looking for a “non-traditional, but traditional” ruck

With one look, it’s pretty obvious that the M23 is different than just about every other ruck GORUCK offers. For those who are expecting more of the “backpack with a ruck plate pocket that sits high and compact” look, the M23 may seem like a bit of an oddity.

However, when considering the kinds of bags that guys, specifically guys in the military, were rucking with for decades before anybody thought to start an expensive backpack company, the M23 looks a lot closer to an actual “traditional ruck”.

If you want a bag that is really in line with what dudes were hauling for their 12-mile rucks at Ranger School, this is probably the closest GORUCK offers to that.

Travelers who ruck

I can’t help but associate the M23 with travel more than rucking or even everyday carry. As such, it’s primary purpose to me will be as a solid carry-on bag that can serve decently well (in a pinch) as a ruck.

For those who don’t have the same bag-collecting obsession that I have and will only have a bag or two to choose from in their arsenal, the M23 is kind of the mirror image to something like the GR2 (a bag for ruckers who travel). If hauling your stuff to exotic places is slightly more of a priority than walking under load for hours on end, I don’t blame you…and the M23 could serve you well for this.

Not for GORUCK event enthusiasts

If you’re interested in doing one of the “pure” rucking GORUCK events, the M23 will work…pretty well. I’d rather use a bag with a dedicated plate pocket, but you do you.

For more “dynamic” rucking events (ex. GORUCK Light, Tough, Heavy…hell, even Ingress) the bag’s shape and design aren’t going to do you any favors. No handles for grabbing, no holes for drainage, not really an ideal shape for swinging.

If you think you’re going to want to participate in an official event near you, the M23 would not be the bag I would recommend you use.

How we reviewed the GORUCK M23

If you’re familiar with our other ruck reviews (most notably our GORUCK bag reviews) you’ll notice that the assessment categories are slightly different here. We seriously doubt that anyone is eyeing the M23 as a training ruck and are much more likely to wonder what it looks like under the economy seat in front of them.

With this in mind, we didn’t put the bag through any “dynamic” rucking rigors and instead focused on working it into our usual rucking regimen while also taking it on two short trips (both involving international flights) where the M23 served as the primary travel bag.

If you’re a bit upset that we don’t have assessments of what it’s like to swing, press, or do weighted pull-ups with the M23, I won’t apologize, but I will tell you to check out the GR1, Bullet, or (preferably) the Rucker 4.0. Those are much better options for those tasks!

GORUCK M23 Alternatives

For lack of a better term, the M23 kinda has something for everybody (while at the same time, probably not being the “perfect” bag for anyone). Here are a few different bags that each possess a few (but not certainly not all) qualities similar to the M23:

Frequently Asked Questions

I hope by answering a few more questions I can help you make a more informed decision:

The GORUCK M23…when your priorities are reversed…

I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that most people’s main priority when considering a GORUCK bag is its potential as a solid rucking tool/companion/etc. Despite the term “travel ruck” being common on the company’s website, people are likely most interested in, ya know, rucking with their bags.

If this description matches you and your personal intentions, the fact that the M23 is a pretty legit travel and EDC bag while being somewhat mediocre for “traditional” rucking and downright dysfunctional for any type of “dynamic” rucking venture, might not matter all that much. Thankfully, you have a host of other GORUCK bags to choose from that would likely be more suitable for your needs.

However, if you like to ruck, but prioritize a bag that is above average (as far as rucks go) for travel and everyday use, as high, if not higher than its utility for rucking, then the M23 might be your bag.

If this description matches you and your personal intentions, I would argue that you slightly go against the grain of most GORUCK enthusiasts and that your priorities could be considered to be “reversed”, but at least you’ll spend a lot less time sifting through reviews of different bags!

Worst case, you can fill it up with that same quasi-sand substance, draw a ridiculous caricature of your kid’s elementary school nemesis, and tell him to go to town on it. Every generation deserves a good ruck to pummel!

Thank goodness for Facebook Marketplace!

As we finish things up, I encourage you to check out our definitive guide to GORUCK backpacks, bags, and vests. If the M23 turns out not to be the bag for you, maybe one of the other 9 in our review will work out for you!

On a final sidenote, if you’re interested in GORUCK footwear offerings, check out our definitive guides on the GORUCK boots and GORUCK shoe lines!