Need a Reload? Dog & Gun Coffee Sell a Reusable Ammo Case with 48 Drip Coffee Filter Bags Inside

Tim’s blood is about 50% coffee at all times. To prevent catastrophe out bush (getting sleepy) he packs a reload.

I love coffee. That might seem like a pretty basic take but I can back it up. My second ever article for We Are Explorers (in ye olde 2017) was about different ways to make coffee while hiking.

At the time I was taking an AeroPress on my hikes, complete with a Japanese portable burr grinder and paper filters.

For years, this was a non-negotiable, until one rainy day when I weighed everything in my pack and realised that it was one of the heaviest and bulkiest things I was carrying.

I tried a few solutions. GSI made a portable dripper that was ok if you had heaps of water to clean it with. Robert Timms made some coffee bags that weren’t ok at all.

And then I discovered coffee filter bags.

Keep your friends close and your coffee closer

What’s a Pre-Loaded Drip Coffee Filter?

Turns out you actually can take cafe-quality coffee along without hefting a grinder, or even a coffee maker.

Dog & Gun’s drip coffee filters are individually sealed with 14g of speciality coffee into an airtight package. The coffee’s pre-loaded at the perfect grind, ready to go in a small filter with paper arms that grip the sides of your cup. I’ve found it works on most hiking cups, particularly taller ones.

Chuck it in your cup, pour through hot water 3-4 times, and sip!

Each pack only weighs bugger all – reducing your total coffee carry every day to exactly that (or maybe bugger all times two, if you’re a caffeine fiend like me).

All the coffees used by Dog & Gun are specialty-grade; chosen for their taste and consistency. Even the strongest roasts have a smooth flavour to them.

Full Send is a medium roast while Sambar is dark (and mysterious)

Hold up, who are Dog & Gun?

Adventurers turned  camp coffee connoisseurs. In fact, founder Shaun was so sure he could make a better brew for explorers that in 2019 he started roasting coffee himself.

Originally operating out of the back of a caravan, Shaun and his wife Rache hand-scooped,, hand-stamped, and hand-sealed their first drip coffee filter bags – made to help poor souls like me avoid lugging around a Rube Goldberg machine just to have a brew.

Turns out explorers really wanted a quality, easy-to-brew coffee

Six years on, the team of nine run things out of Brisbane, while Shaun and Rache now live in Far North Queensland where they live the Dog & Gun lifestyle; hunting, fishing, exploring, and even running tours for likeminded explorers.

You mentioned a reload pack?

Oh yeah, so as I was saying, I discovered drip coffee filters around the same time Shaun did, but I wasn’t smart enough to start roasting my own beans and turn that into a company.

But I’m not completely stupid. I realised two things:

1. These things are way cheaper when I buy them in bulk and;
2. That’s good, because I keep stealing from my hiking stash to have one at home

Point two is pretty important, because not once have I tucked into my dehydrated meal stash at home.

Dog & Gun must have had me on their vision board as their ideal customer because they thought ‘What’s the best way to package this up?’ and landed on a reusable ammo case. Seriously, I’ve got two metal ammo cases in my garage full of bike tools.

This thing’s going to live in my boot permanently so I’m never caught out

What’s in the ammo case?

Here’s what’s in the Reload Pack:

48 single-serve drip coffee filters, as expected. You can choose from Full Send, Red Stag – both medium roasts – or Sambar, which is a dark roast. I particularly liked Full Send, but that may be at least partly thanks to the great name and sendy Landcruiser on the packaging.

Are you silly? I’m still gonna send it!

There’s also a mixed pack available with 16 of each roast.

To help you brew in style, there’s a Vintage Logo Enamel Mug (with limited release colours each season). I hung this thing on my backpack and went bushbashing and it held up great. I guess that’s why these mugs are so damn popular.

There are stickers too, with a fun retro aesthetic, and, of course, the case itself.

It’s tough plastic with a burly handle, there’s a seal around the edge to keep out dust and water, and it latches closed with a hole to throw a padlock through (to protect the coffee, of course).

I was particularly psyched when I saw this rubber seal on the ammo case

Overall, it’s a sweet little package that’ll see you drinking cafe-quality brews in the bush for half the price. You can even store your AeroPress and grinder in the ammo case once it’s empty – you won’t be needing them anymore.

Brewing up on top of Donkey Mountain, with a few battle scars on the mug for good measure