Rifle Bag Review Thread

[Netpackrat]

A few years ago we had a long-running thread about different "discreet" rifle bags, but I didn't feel like digging it up... I have a few different styles of these now, and I thought I would offer my impressions of each. I will note that if you think you are fooling anybody by carrying around your long gun in one of these, you probably are not, at least not anymore. One of my more recent purchases was of the 5.11 bag, and I bought it at the local police/security supply place. So if you use any of these bags, assume that any law enforcement you encounter will be well aware of what is in the bag. Personally I like the soft bags mainly because I drive a Jeep, and they are just a lot more convenient for transport than more traditional hard cases that usually won't fit very well in my vehicle.

The first one of these I bought was made by Sneakybags. It's one of their earlier models, and fits about a 30" long rifle or shotgun. It fits a folding standard length AK really well, although it is a little short for a 19" Saiga shotgun. It has a compartment at the bottom that is big enough to hold a shoulder/fighting bag for magazines and other necessities. It also has a couple of other small compartments, one of which I use to hold copies of my NFA paperwork. I really love this bag and would buy more of them, but Sneakybags' current shipping policies to AK are horrendous. I bought mine back when he was having difficulties a few years ago and had to close his doors for a while, and it was shipped up in a flat rate "board game" box at reasonable cost. The current versions of his bags appear to have some worthwhile upgrades, such as the ability to be configured with a second strap for backpack type carry.

Recently I also bought a couple of Midway's bags. I am for the most part done with Midway due to their also having adopted a policy of "fuck you for living in Alaska" but the price on these is really attractive, so I held my nose and paid their extra shipping charges on one each of their 22" and 29" bags. Despite having charged me extra "because Alaska" they appear to have shipped them via a slow boat, so I only just got them today, despite having ordered them close to 3 weeks ago. On the plus side, they seem to be fairly well made, especially for the money. They have thick padding on the sides and bottoms (none on the ends or top though), and a removable padded divider in the middle that has a couple of mag pouches built into it. I'm planning to use the 22" unit for my CZ Scorpion, and the bigger one for various AKs, etc.

Last week I found myself at the aforementioned police supply shop buying ammo, and they had the 27" 5.11 "SBR" bag, so I bought one of those, too, since I had been looking for a smaller bag that would fit my Saiga 12 SBS. It's 24" long when folded, so while the 5.11 bag is a little flashier than I was after, it looked to be a good size. At this point I kind of wish I had looked a little closer before buying, and saved my money. The shoulder strap is not removable, and while you can configure it for right or left shoulder carry, it's nowhere near as versatile as the Sneaky bag. It seems to lend itself more towards use with a collapsible AR than a folder, so I will probably relegate it for use with my 300 Blackout SBR, which means I am still on the hunt for a good bag for my SBS.

[JAG2955]

Badass and cheap discreet bag:
Link

[randy]

... It seems to lend itself more towards use with a collapsible AR than a folder, ...

Hmmm, maybe the name of the bag ("COVRT™ M4 Shorty") might have been an indication on that?

(Assuming the shop had it labeled like they do on the website that is)

[Netpackrat]

... It seems to lend itself more towards use with a collapsible AR than a folder, ...

Hmmm, maybe the name of the bag ("COVRT™ M4 Shorty") might have been an indication on that?

(Assuming the shop had it labeled like they do on the website that is)

Don't recall how obvious the labeling was. My main evaluation was checking it with a borrowed tape measure. It will be fine for the 300.

[Netpackrat]

Now having said that, I used the 29" Midway bag to take the 300 to the range this evening because I wanted to try it out. Overall it did what I wanted it to do, although the lack of padding on the top of the case doesn't give as much protection to the scope as I would have preferred. But for the less than $30 I paid for it, I am pretty happy with it so far.