There are three Tac Pads and three Pump Pillows. That is not a marketing ladder — each one is a customer request that became a product.
If you are looking at a $65 bag and a $140 bag with nearly the same name, this page is the two minutes that sorts it out. Short version: the original does two jobs, the strapless drops the job most people never used, and the modular is a weight strategy rather than a cheaper bag.
The original — strapped
Tac Pad $99 · Pump Pillow $140
Designed from the start to work more than one way. Set it into the open spaces of a position — filling the gaps between you, the ground, and the rifle to eliminate muscle strain and decrease wobble, which is what puts the shot where you called it. Or use the arm straps to strap it to your arm and turn a small point of contact into a large one. Elbow to knee is the classic: the joint that never quite meets, and where most of the wobble in a kneeling position comes from.
Pick this one if you want both jobs, or if you have never tried the arm-strap trick and want the option.
Strapless — because customers asked
Strapless Tac Pad $89 · Strapless Pump Pillow $109 · Strapless Behemoth $139
Enough shooters said the same thing — they were building positions with the bag and never strapping it to an arm — that we built the bag they were describing. Arm straps gone. Tension bands stay.
These ship at 80% fill, and that number is doing real work. A bag packed tight holds one shape. A bag at eighty percent takes the shape of the gap in front of it, and gives you a range of heights out of one bag depending on how you set it down and squeeze.
Pick this one if you fill gaps and never strap anything to your arm. Nothing hanging off it to snag on a barricade or a fence line.
Modular — the pack is the fill
Modular Tac Pad $65 · Modular Pump Pillow $75
This one came from shooters participating in land-nav matches, and hunters with real miles on the trails for the elusive shot. Their request: put a zipper on it and take the fill out, so we can stuff it with what is already in the pack.
So that is what it is. It ships empty by design. At the position you unzip it and fill it with rain gear, a spare layer, anything soft you are already carrying. You were carrying that weight regardless — now it builds your shooting position too, and the bag itself costs you almost nothing on the walk in.
Prefer to tune it once and leave it? The Modular Tac Pad takes up to three Modular Inner Bags; the Modular Pump Pillow takes up to five — soft to conform, dense to support.
The lower price is a consequence, not the point. There is no fill in the box.
The whole family, side by side
| Original | Strapless | Modular | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tac Pad | $99 | $89 | $65 |
| Pump Pillow | $140 | $109 | $75 |
| Behemoth | — | $139 | — |
| Arm straps | Yes | No | Yes |
| Tension bands | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Fill | Filled | 80% fill | Empty — you fill it |
| Inner bags | — | — | Tac Pad up to 3 · Pump Pillow up to 5 |
Which one is yours
Want to strap it to your arm and enlarge a contact point? Original.
Only ever fill gaps with it? Strapless.
Walking a long way to the shot, or shooting land nav? Modular.
Size, once you have picked a version
Tac Pad is the smaller of the two — built around a single joint, and light enough that it also runs as a general rear bag. Pump Pillow is bigger, for whole-body positional work. The Strapless Behemoth is the largest we make, for the positions nobody designs a stage around: bad ground, wrong angle, nothing at the right height.
Still not sure? The Bag Finder asks three questions and hands you one answer.
Shooters' notes from College Station
Fill science, match-prep checklists — and limited runs sell to the list first.