Rogue Elite

I would have to put the fanny pack in the same category as a CCW Vest.   People think wearing a vest is a dead giveaway that you are carrying a gun, and the same goes for a fanny pack.   One question I’d have to ask you, though, is do you think wearing camoflauge pants means you are also carrying a gun?  I did a mental tally of how many times I saw a leftist liberal College student wearing camo, and I thought, naw, there’s no chance he’s got a CCW.    There seems to be an age group that wear vests and just because you see an old guy wearing a vest, doesn’t mean he’s got a 1911 under it.   There are also plenty of people that can get away with wearing a fanny pack is the situation and environment will allow it.

One good suggestion for those that are travelling on a bike, be it a motorcyle or a regular bike.   A fanny pack won’t get as uncomfortable on you like an IWB holster if you are bike riding and it also may allow you to get your keys and wallet out of your pockets.   Ankle carry is not a very practical way of carrying so I’d have to say that would be my last option for CCW as opposed to fanny packs.   A purse for women can be a great weapon to beat down an attacker so always being aware of your environment and knowing what your liabilities are in carrying in that fashion is important.   Blackhawk gun cases makes a inexpensive option for various sized firearms.

The organized gun owner is the guy that shows up at the range and never says, “aw frack” I forgot fill in the blank.     Some people may think that carrying their sight in tools is pointless if the gun is already sighted in.   I’m sure some of you reading this chuckled when they read that, but the reality is the serious shooter knows that even though he’s tightened everything down, stuff comes loose.   If it’s got a screw in it, it will come loose unless regular checkups are peformed.   I read a good write up by Pat Rogers where he suggested marking the tops of everything that needs locking down with a market of some sort.   Probable the best advice I’d pass on to friends.

Your ACOG and your Eotech sight all are easily attached, and they can also easily become dislodged after harsh use or thousands of rounds of ammo.   Mark  your screws so any line that looks out of place, gets retightened before it completely dislodges.   Now what should you carry tools in?   There are some tools that will fit in the grip of your AR15, but if you don’t have a range bag, I strongly suggest Blackhawk gun cases, for rifle, pistol and gear.   I would suggest that you get a bag that is primarily for handguns and tools.   Rifle cases can hold sight in tools and rifle mags and it’s best to associate a case or bag for pistols vs rifles.

Today might be the day that you were out at the range and you realized that you forgot your sight in tools, or you forgot to bring enough magazines, or worse, you forgot your rifle mags or you brought the wrong ones.   Bulldog rifle cases are very well made and won’t burn a hole in your pocket.   Serious gear needs serious organization and that doesn’t mean we need to have an SKB hardcase for our rifles.   I would suggest that if you have a rifle that costs over $3000 and that is including the optics then you may want a hard case, but let’s be practical.   We need to transport our guns WITH the gear we need and not have to add much weight.

Soft cases are usually made of nylon and many of the assault cases are designed similiarly.   Assault rifle cases are very practical because they hold and organize your magazines.   I highly recommend marking the case for a specific rifle just so you don’t get your semi-autos gun magazines mixed up.   If you don’t need something like an assault rifle case, then and easy think to do is just a zip up soft case or gun sock.    You may want to look into a range bag which can hold staplers or even handguns and magazines as well as ammo.

With the advent of the accessorized rifle or carbine, people are putting so many things on rifles these days that need to be screwed on, locked in, and battery operated that Murphys law has some really cold things to say about this.    Every screw on your carbine is going to come loose at some point and every battery operated device will fail at some point.   I’ve seen a lot of accessories that fit in the pistol grip, buttstock or other areas and this is nice for some purposes, but any of those operators were spending more than a day with their setup, they find that they aren’t carrying enough tools sand gear on their guns to get through 48hrs of hard use.

Real preparation for hard use of your accessorized firearm is to get a good range bag, drag bag or tactical rifle case.  You really should think about matching a good soft gun case that can be used as a shooting matte, tool box, battery storage and gun parts.   Keep atleast one back up bolt with firing pins, store batteries in a sealed case even if you already have some battery storage on your gun and pickup a mult-purpose screw driver set that is very small and won’t punch holes in your gun case even if it gets toss around.

Do you own a rifle that could use a nice scratch up the barrel?  Well, I thought so, so why do people not think about buying a rifle case for every gun they own?   One thing I’ve found is it’s really a good idea to buy atleast, one soft case for each semi-auto you own and then put a tag or label on it so you know that gun will fit in it.   How many times have you gone to the range and had to figure out which rifle goes where?

Some rifles like lever action and shotguns may only need a gun sock for transportation and even a less than $10 sock can help protect against scratches.   Rifles with optics are another can of worms.  Not only do you need to worry about how long the barrel is and if it will fit in the case, but you have to consider that optics will widen the dimensions of the space you need and zipping up a gun case too tight is either going to cut your fingers or eventually break.   Make sure you put some thought into why you are buying a gun cases for your guns and make sure the gun is going to fit properly.

We’ve all seen the massive accessorizing of firearms in recent years.   Firearms likes SKS rifle and Mini 14s are not immune to the firearm attachements and modifications that have run rampant in the AR15 community.   In my opinion, there are a lot of firearm owners out there that had their Legos taken away from them and they brought that mindset into gun accessorizing and tactical gear stockpiling.    That’s about as harsh as I can be about why people do what they do to their firearms, but some of it is for hobbie reasons, some for practical reasons, and some because people have the obsessive compulsive behavior of needing to spend money.

There area a lot of good upgrades one can do to a firearm, a fighting rifle should be customized to fit an operator.  Advanced Technology makes some quick and easy upgrades for your shotgun or carbine that can give you better grip or balance.  Shotgun shell holders on the buttstock or riding side saddle is a practical tactical upgrade you can do on your remington 870.  The fiberforce stock for the MAK90 is a way to legally get around some firearm bans and are a big step up compared to the stupid thumbhole stocks.    Attach a rifle sling that fits yoru purpose from Blue Force Gear, they come in 1 point, 2 point and 3 point attachements. Minor firearm modifications make need to be done to attache rifle slings, but do some research on various rifle sling configurations to see what works for you.

Tactical gun cases are rarely used to their fullest.  After witnessing a lot of shooting events, I’d have to say that disorganization seems to be pretty common amongst most gun owners.  I’ve seen guys show up  with wrong magazines, no backup batteries, no screw drivers, no tools for fixing scopes and countless other goofy stuff.   There have been a few times where I was impressed at how well guys or gals organized there gear in one range bag.

The truth of the matter is only you know what your firearm needs to keep it up and running and what to repair it with, I’m not talking about stockpiling tons of ammo and tools boxes in  your rifle case, but you really should check out some of the tactical rifle cases that are out there.   Uncle Mikes, Bulldog and tacforce all make tactical cases, but their other other usefull pockets other than the standard 30rd magazine pockets.   If you’re going to pick up a gun case, you really should think about marking it with something so you know which gun is in there.   Keep a small multi purpose screw driver in there, allen keys, maybe something to carry batteries for your flashlight or Eotech optics, and you may seriously think about keeping your sight in tools there.  There are various types of tactical rifles cases, some are much close to sniper drag bags than something you can carry like a briefcase, but it may save you some headaches if you are always prepared.

There are som many variations of gun cases.   Some gun case can be loaded up with firearms and gear and practical have a nuke detonated on them and they’ll survive, but not everyone is concerened with that.   Some of us may want to keep our Mini 14 and Mini 30 magazines matched up to the appropriate rifle case and buy and assault rifle type case and then mark the bag and put the correct magazines with each so we don’t have to spend an entire evening preparing for the following days shooting range.    I’ve also learned to organize all of my firearm accessories and magazines so I don’t have one of those days where I show up at the range and find out I had the wrong magazines or no mags with me.
If this sounds like something you might want to avoid, as you collect firearms, try and atleast find a rifle case that is appropriate for your rifle or pistols.   Whether you are transporting a Remington 700 on a hunting trip or a Smith & Wesson model 19 to a trainings course, you may want to consider something as inexpensive as a gun case from Allen Gun cases.   The Endura pistol and rifle cases just zip up your gun and help prevent it from being scratched up.   Remember to look for the correct size case, and you may want to mark it so you know which gun it is meant for.   Spending $10-$25 on a gun case may save you some headaches and prevent disorganization of damage in transport.

Many of us know what it’s like to own a 18 gun rifle safe, but it really only holds 12 of our rifles.   Sometimes estimating storage space for firearms can be difficult do to all of the customized accessories that we put on them.    For instance, 12 guns with 20-50MM optics on them and owning semi-autos with 30rd magazines can take up a lot of room.  Some gun safes will be designed for standing up your guns, but where do you put all of your magazines, sight in tools, targets ect?

One way to clean up your gun safe is don’t put all of your stuff in there that you don’t need to put in there.  For how much it costs for a decent soft gun case you can easily spend less than a $200 and put most of  your semi-auto magazines, targets and sight in tools in Bulldog, Uncle Mikes or other tactical carbine or assault case.   I’ve seen some nightmarish incedences where people have so much junk cluttered in their safe that one big clunk could damage a $1000 optic.    I’d suggest finding a closet in your house that can be locked where all of your accessories, magazines ect can be organized so it doesn’t clutter your safe. Unless you’ve got $3000 to spend and a basement big enough to store a huge safe, there’s always a practical way of storing your guns without spending much money.

Rogue Elite.net is your source for Uncle Mike’s Gun Cases. Whether you’re looking for a new shooting bag or tactical rifle case here’s the place to shop for them. Uncle Mikes Tactical Rifle Cases come in 2 sizes. The medium case is 33″x10″ (838 x 254 mm) inside and the arge case is 41″ x 10″ (1041 x 254 mm) inside. The Uncle Mike’s Tactical Rifle cases also hold 3-5 magazines. 3 AR15 or AK Magazines in the medium and 5 AR15 or AK Magazines in the large. We also carry the Uncle Mikes Pistol Rug cases. See the Uncle Mike’s range bags to help organize your handgun or shooting accessories.
A friend of mine owns various caliber Kalashnikov rifles.   The SAR I, SAR II and the SAR III.   For those not familier with the Carbine, they are 3 calibers of basically the same style gun.   He picked up the Large Tactical Rifle Case to keep his 30rd magazines organized.  The SAR I is 7.62×30, SARII is 5.45×39 and the SAR III is 5.56×45.   It is possible get the magazines mixed up and the easiest thing for him to do is  mark each bag with the caliber of the rifle and then just keep 5 mags in the bag.   Granted you may own more magazines, but how often are you going to need to bring more than 5 mags to the range with you?   The bag sling is also a plus.   If you keep loaded magazines in  your Uncle Mikes Rifle Case the bag can get heavy and the sling mags it a little easier to carry.