I love the ALICE pack, prefer it over the ILBE. If you know how to pack it then you shouldn't have any issues. There are better packs out there though. Like VC94 said, look through some hiking magazines and see what the experts have to say about it. Make sure that whatever you pick has good...
I don't mean to hijack the thread, but has anyone purchased the "Executive Safe" from Harbor Freight? Maybe the deal is to good to be true? Any experiences?
http://www.harborfreight.com/executive-safe-95824.html
GA arms .223 sucks, I was shooting over a small pond (50 yards across) and 10 rounds out of a magazine hit the water about half way across. Could have just been the lot, but it was very unsafe.