Four Months of TacPack Plus: What You Actually Get

Subscription boxes have always been a bit of a gamble.

You pay every month without knowing exactly what’s coming, then wait for a box to show up and hope it contains something useful rather than another pile of tactical trinkets destined for the back of a drawer.

For gun owners, though, the concept makes more sense than it does for most.

AR parts, cleaning equipment, range gear, EDC items, slings, optics, cases — there’s a long list of equipment most shooters either need eventually or don’t mind having around.

That’s the idea behind TacPack.

I’ve been receiving the TacPack Plus subscription for four months now. Rather than reviewing a single box, I wanted to give it some time and see what accumulated.

After four consecutive boxes, I dumped everything onto the table.

That’s when the concept started making a lot more sense.

What Is TacPack Plus?

TacPack is a monthly subscription box built primarily around firearms, range gear, EDC equipment, survival gear, cleaning supplies, and AR-15 components.

There are currently three subscription levels:

• Lite: $39.95 per month
• Standard: $59.95 per month
• Plus: $139.95 per month

I’ve been receiving the Plus tier, which TacPack says generally includes roughly $225 to $300 worth of gear.

The Plus box adds a higher-value item to the regular monthly assortment, and those larger items are ultimately what made the four-month experiment interesting.

Over the course of four boxes, I received everything from a CMC trigger and Edgar Sherman Design sling to a Vortex red dot and 15-inch AR handguard.

Four Months of Gear

May started the run with a Timber Creek 15-inch AR handguard, XTech Tactical X-Flare magwell, REAL AVID AR-15 Gun Boss cleaning kit, Tactical EDC Mat, Eagle Grit Hand Cleaner, and the obligatory TacPack sticker.

The handguard immediately gave the box some substance. That’s an actual AR component rather than something that gets tossed into a range bag and forgotten.

June added a CMC single-stage drop-in trigger, Phase 5 oversized magazine release, Walker’s hearing protection, REAL AVID CLP wipes, and a REAL AVID RAV1 folding EDC knife.

At that point, a pattern was starting to develop. I wasn’t simply accumulating random gun stuff. I had several legitimate components that could go directly onto an AR.

July continued that trend with an Edgar Sherman Design sling, Reptilia M-LOK QD mount, JE Machine QD end plate, CMT UMD muzzle device, MFT Ammo Cube, and Birchwood Casey stapler.

The sling, QD mount, and end plate essentially gave me an entire sling setup in one box.

Then August showed up with the biggest surprise of the four-month run: a Vortex Triumph red dot.

That box also included a Timber Creek Greyman AR-15 grip, OST Grey Man discreet rifle case, REAL AVID 9mm cleaning kit, and Suredraw Holster Attachment Kit.

That’s when I decided to stop looking at each box individually.

TacPack Had Basically Built an AR Upgrade Pile

I went back through everything and separated the rifle-related gear from the rest.

After four months, I had accumulated:

• Timber Creek 15-inch handguard
• XTech Tactical X-Flare magwell
• CMC single-stage drop-in trigger
• Phase 5 oversized magazine release
• JE Machine QD end plate
• Reptilia M-LOK QD mount
• Edgar Sherman Design sling
• CMT muzzle device
• Vortex Triumph red dot
• Timber Creek Greyman AR-15 grip
• OST Grey Man discreet rifle case

That doesn’t include the cleaning equipment, hearing protection, EDC knife, stapler, ammo storage, and other miscellaneous gear.

Obviously, four months of TacPack isn’t going to build you a complete rifle. You still need the rifle itself or the core components of a new build.

But take a basic AR you already own and look at that list again.

Trigger. Grip. Magwell. Magazine release. Optic. Sling. Mounting hardware. Handguard. Muzzle device.

Then you have a discreet case to carry the finished rifle.

That’s a considerably more useful pile of equipment than I expected when I opened the first box.

The Catch With Any Subscription Box

There is one unavoidable downside to the whole concept.

You don’t get to pick what’s coming.

If you’re extremely particular about your equipment and already know exactly which trigger, sling, grip, optic, and other components you want, this probably isn’t the most efficient way to spend $139.95 every month.

It makes more sense if you own several rifles, enjoy tinkering with ARs, shoot regularly, maintain a stocked range bag, or like experimenting with gear you might not have purchased otherwise.

Not everything will be useful to everyone.

Maybe you already have a preferred sling. Maybe you don’t need another knife. Maybe you’re perfectly happy with your current grip. And most serious shooters eventually accumulate enough gun-cleaning equipment to keep a small armory running.

That’s part of the gamble.

Fortunately, gun owners tend to have multiple firearms, future builds, loaner rifles, truck guns, range guns, and shooting buddies.

Gear has a way of finding a home.

There’s Also the Fun Factor

There is another part of TacPack that’s harder to quantify.

It’s fun.

I buy gun gear regularly, but I usually know exactly what’s arriving.

There’s something different about having a box show up without knowing what’s inside. You still get that Christmas-morning aspect of opening it and digging through everything.

The difference is that much of what I’ve received can actually end up on a rifle, in my range bag, on my workbench, or in my EDC rotation.

TacPack Plus as a Gift

After four months, I think TacPack might make even more sense as a gift.

Gun people can be notoriously difficult to shop for.

Unless you know exactly what equipment someone uses, buying an AR component or firearm accessory can turn into a guessing game pretty quickly.

A few months of TacPack avoids much of that problem.

Instead of buying someone one piece of gear, you’re essentially giving them a new gun-related package every month.

There’s also something to be said for the timing around Christmas. Winter is when a lot of us spend more time cleaning rifles, swapping parts, reorganizing range bags, and getting equipment ready for the next shooting season.

A box of new gear showing up every month gives you something to mess with while you’re waiting for better range weather.

Is TacPack Plus Worth It?

After four months, it has been for me.

I wouldn’t judge the subscription solely by adding up the claimed retail value of every item. That’s not particularly useful if half of it ends up sitting in a drawer.

The better question is how much of the equipment you actually use.

In four months, I accumulated a quality trigger, red dot, sling, AR controls, mounting hardware, grip, handguard, muzzle device, rifle case, cleaning equipment, range gear, hearing protection, an EDC knife, and several other pieces of equipment.

More importantly, I can see myself actually using most of it.