The Backpack Gun Project: Part 2

hello everybody chris baker here from luckygunner.com a few months ago i showed you guys my backpack gun project the idea was to set up a long gun that was compact enough to fit in an unassuming everyday type of backpack that doesn't look like it's got a gun in it the combo i chose was a super short barreled nine millimeter ar build with the evergoods cpl 24 at the end of that video i asked if you guys would be interested in seeing some of the other guns and backpacks that i had considered and experimented with for this project the answer i got was a resounding yes so that is what we're gonna do today i have got four more guns and four more backpacks to look at these guns are all very different from each other people have a lot of different reasons for wanting to own a backpack or bag gun and they have to fill all kinds of different roles in that first video i explored the potential of a bag gun as a self-defense tool and when that may or may not be appropriate if you're thinking in terms of everyday carry of a long gun to supplement your carry pistol something like that may be useful and legal in a very narrow set of circumstances is still mostly theoretical at this point it's an interesting thought exercise but practically it's questionable and a lot of people pointed that out in the first video which i totally understand if you are looking for ways to stay safe in today's climate there are multitudes of other training opportunities and gear that will probably get you a lot closer to that goal than buying a backpack gun will but if you're going to buy one anyway you might as well get something good and of course it's always fun to learn about some cool gear that you might not have seen before guns don't have to be practical to be fun and i think all four of these guns we're about to look at are pretty fun so this time around i have taken some different approaches to the bag gun concept there are lots of other use cases and they're not all self-defense related if you are trying to come up with an excuse to justify that cool thing that you don't need consider me your enabler today the one common theme is that we're looking for every day travel to work walk around in public kinds of bags that just happen to be able to accommodate a compact long gun if we want them to we're not just looking for a dedicated rifle case that's disguised as something else all the bags i chose have a spot for something like a laptop and plenty of storage space for other stuff that you might want to carry on a daily basis or an overnight trip in addition to the gun be aware that state and local laws vary quite a bit as far as whether it is legal to carry a long gun in public in some states it's fine in others it's only okay if the gun is unloaded or in your car or only when you're engaged in certain activities in some states long guns are covered by your concealed carry permit and others they are not so be sure to read up on the laws that apply to your area and any place you might be traveling to or through one more quick disclaimer there is no paid product placement here all of the gear you're about to see is stuff that we either bought or borrowed one of the guns was loaned to us by a distributor at our request i'm under no obligation to say anything nice about any of these products now i haven't necessarily had a chance to thoroughly vet all of this gear because so just because it's in here doesn't mean it's a ringing endorsement but if i do say that i like something it's because i actually have tried it and liked it so far so with that out of the way let's take a look at the first alternate backpack gun setup okay here we go i have come up with uh dumb nicknames for all of these this one i call the no compromise surprise it is a very generic looking north face surge backpack but inside there's a surprise i've got a nine inch bcm ar with a law folding stock adapter this is for when you want to make as few compromises as possible for a rifle that'll fit in a backpack this is for all you guys who hated my nine millimeter ar as far as short barreled ars go this one could not be any more different from that one for the optic we've got a vortex viper pst gen ii one to six power scope on an adm quick detach mount i've got a set of magpul mbus pro backup iron sights a basic magpul moe sl stock the light is a mod light okw with the mod light remote switch some of you might remember this light from the review i did of the henry x models of course it makes a lot more sense on this gun i am using a lancer 20 round magazine and i've got these little identifier bands i put on here just so i don't accidentally load a mag full of 556 in this gun i've also got a blue force gear sling i'm storing it in a separate pocket in the bag so i can retrieve it when i need it rather than keeping it on the rifle the law folding stock adapter is really what makes this work as a backpack gun these have been around for a few years now it's a pretty clever system it works with any standard ar lower receiver the adapter attaches to the rear of the receiver and then you just screw a standard buffer tube into the other half of the adapter there's a hinge in the middle and this little button that releases the two halves and then you stick this little plug in the back of your bolt carrier to make up for the extra length it only takes a few minutes to install if you already have the correct tools to install a buffer tube assembly the only major downside to the law adapter that i've discovered so far is the weight it adds about 11 ounces to your ar which is definitely noticeable makes the balance of the rifle feel a little awkward of course this rifle feels extra awkward because i've also got two pounds worth of optic and mount on the top so all of the weight is at the rear of the gun other than the barrel and the 20 round mag everything on this gun is pretty much full size i didn't go out of my way to get any especially large or heavy components or accessories but i also didn't get any special compact or lightweight stuff for it i also kind of took the middle of the road in terms of cost i didn't cheap out on anything but i did try to avoid the super high end gucci tier accessories you could argue that the mod light may be an exception to that either way weight and cost add up quickly so the end result is still heavy and not exactly budget friendly it weighs ten pounds loaded in this configuration and the final price tag comes to just over three thousand bucks minus the optic the light and the tax stamp it's more like seventeen hundred dollars and seven and a half pounds if i was going to use this long term i might try a different optic optic mount and stock just to shave a few ounces off the weight on the plus side it should be almost as reliable as a standard 16-inch carbine recoil is mild and for the most part out to about 200 yards it's really just as effective as pretty much any intermediate caliber ar both in terms of ballistics and in terms of how easy it is to get hits on target i think theoretically something like this would not be a bad general purpose do everything kind of carving you could run it in a carbine class a lot of people use them for hunting and for pest animals it's an ideal barrel length and cartridge to run with a suppressor the fact that it's only 19 and a half inches folded makes it a lot easier to travel with whether you're throwing it in a backpack and putting it in your trunk for a road trip or you have to use a hard sided case to check it in at the airport if you don't want to register it as an sbr you could set it up as a pistol with a brace at least for now anyway a nine inch barrel still gives you plenty of real estate on the handguard for a mostly normal shooting grip and stance compared to other short barreled black rifles it is a nice balance of easy to store easy to shoot and ballistic efficiency but in reality a 300 blackout sbr does not usually work out as a general purpose carbine quite as well as people might hope it will that's simply because of ammo cost and availability even when the ammo market is not completely bananas like it is right now 300 blackout can still be hard to find especially if you've got a specific load in mind 556 range ammo is always a fraction of the cost just due to the economy of scale if you do a lot of shooting and you're looking for something like this to be your one rifle to rule them all you're probably going to end up getting a 556 upper to go with it let's take a closer look at this bag for a minute the other bags i picked out were recommended by backpack enthusiasts they are made by companies that only make bags that is their specialty they are sleek and well made and thoughtfully designed they also tend to be more on the expensive side of the spectrum uh this one is not cheap either but the north face surge is just a backpack it's a decent name brand backpack but it's not really exceptional in any way it's a lot like any of the dozens of other smallish backpacks made by the north face and the other big outdoor companies and that means it doesn't stand out it looks completely boring and normal nothing about this suggests that there is a gun in here and that's what we want i have made two small modifications the first is the addition of these uh velcro straps to keep the excess on the shoulder straps from dangling freely i've actually added that to all of these backpacks except for one that already has something similar built into the straps the bottom of the bag is not very well reinforced and it could not handle a 10 pound gun without part of the bag just really sagging drastically on one side so i cut out a piece of a rubber floor mat and just stuck it in the bottom of the bag to act as kind of a platform for the gun to rest on and that has made a huge difference the main thing this bag has going for it other than looking ordinary is that it's got a ton of pockets that's good because we can leave the gun in a pocket by itself and put all of our other stuff in the other pockets you don't have to expose your miniature ar to the public every time you want to get out your sunglasses but it might actually have too many pockets i used this bag for a couple of weeks and i kept forgetting where i had stored everything it also seemed like the pockets and pouches were not as roomy as they first appear to be or maybe it's just because the material is kind of soft and limp compared to some of the other bags we're going to look at it's just fine if you're packing clothes or snacks or electronics when you start putting stuff like loaded mags and multi-tools in there you kind of get the impression that it's not exactly designed for that kind of thing i know that the north face has not always been a friend to the firearms industry in the past and that's gonna turn off a lot of people but as far as decent quality regular joe middle class suburban camouflage kind of backpack that could potentially pull double duty as a gun bag this is a pretty good example all right our second of four alternate backpack gun setups is one that i'm calling the cult classic plinker and i'm calling it that because this is the almost legendary goruck gr121l which is a backpack with an almost cult-like following and today it's holding a ruger 22 charger takedown which is of course the pistol version of the classic 1022 rifle i've got it set up with an sb tactical folding brace attached via a ferrotech adapter since it is based on the ruger 1022 there is no end to the accessories and aftermarket parts available to dress this thing up but i've gone with a minimal approach here i put this one together to have a more accessible option it is fun and easy to use for shooters of any skill level and it's a lot more affordable than most the other options not including the backpack the gun with all of these accessories runs about 850 bucks total the charger does not come with iron sights so i have got a basic hollow sun red dot on the optic rail uh this is an older model that they're not making anymore but the current equivalent would be the hs403b i'm using the mount that came with the optics so no added expense there the surefire g2x is the most affordable light in the surefire lineup just 60 bucks from most places it's got a single brightness level and a momentary only tail cap switch and that is just perfect for a weapon mounted light there's not an easy way to put a proper light mount on this four end unless you go with one of the expensive aftermarket chassis systems for the charger most charger owners probably won't ever have any need to mount a light on the gun but i know i'm not the only one who has thought it would be cool if you could so i came up with a little diy solution here the recessed area on the fore end here just happens to be the perfect shape to nest a g2x in there i just put some velcro tape on the light and on the fore end and then secured it all down with some velcro cable ties it's not rock solid it wiggles a little bit but it would take a lot for it to completely fall off with the mild recoil of 22 it should stay in place just fine for a while today is not the day i will choose to make a case for 22 as a self-defense cartridge if you want to carry a backpack gun just in case you need to go to war with the terrorists at the company christmas party this is not the gun for you but should you find yourself in that unfortunate quandary you could do a whole lot worse than a 25-round compact semi-auto that can be fired from the shoulder if necessary but let's think past the self-defense thing for a minute consider this set up to be the in case of range or pest emergency plan so your buddy calls you while you're at work and he wants to know if you can meet him at the range later you can but you don't have enough time to go back home first and get your stuff well it's a good thing you have got your charger already in your laptop bag or what if you are staying with some friends or family out of town they've got a squirrel infestation that wakes you up in the middle of the night well with a suppressor and your charger you can go take care of that without even waking anybody else up this gun is super light just five and a quarter pounds loaded it also takes up a minimum amount of space because you can both fold the brace and remove the barrel it'll fit just about anywhere now you might be asking since it's already got such a short barrel what is the point of the takedown feature with a backpack don't you just need one or the other and that's a good question the charger will fit in this backpack without breaking it down once the brace is folded however if you want to actually use the rest of the space in this backpack to store other stuff breaking down the gun makes that much easier also the takedown feature is great if you've got a suppressor you can just leave it on the barrel all the time and the gun is still very packable we actually bought this gun a long time ago the backpack gun project is something we've been working on sporadically for a couple of years now since we picked this one up three important things have happened that i think i should probably mention first ruger started offering a version of this gun that already has a picatinny adapter so that is now an option straight from the factory if you want it second the whole pistol brace issue has gotten a lot messier and its future more uncertain i won't go into that today i did a whole video about pistol braces and short bill rifles a couple of months ago if you want my take on that i am of course not suggesting that you buy one of these with a pistol brace in order to circumvent the national firearms act the third thing that's happened since we bought this ruger charger is that the price tag has kind of gone through the roof we picked this one up from a local gun store for i think 340. the msrp is 419. i checked a couple of days ago and i could not find one in stock at any of the major online retailers there were a couple of private sellers asking a whole lot more than msrp but that's just how supply and demand works and everybody has decided to demand a gun right now the non-takedown version of this gun seems to be currently a lot easier to find for what it's worth if you wait ruger will probably do another batch of these soon and the prices will go down at least until they sell out again so for the moment this option is not quite the budget option that i had intended it to be that said even at 2021 prices it is still more affordable than most backpack gun setups that you'll see another alternative would be to just get a vanilla ruger 1022 takedown model and then pick up one of the magpul backpacker stocks it will not break down as small as the charger with a brace but it's still a super slick setup and it solves the problem of securing the two halves of the gun in storage goruck makes high quality extremely durable bags and the gr1 is probably their flagship product they used to come only in black but they have expanded to other colors in recent years since it's got all this molly webbing all over it i wanted a color that would make it look less tactical the blue sorry midnight navy i think accomplishes that well there is a special non-molly version that comes only in black and is only sold by one retailer but the blue one was on sale for almost half price so we went with that one instead as a side note i have noticed this amusing trend where companies that are not marketing to gun owners and have no connection to that industry are putting webbing and all kinds of other tactical or military style features on their bags and backpacks meanwhile some of the companies that are marketing to gun people now have bags designed to look as innocuous and non-tactical as possible with no webbing or velcro or big logos for an everyday type of bag i still think it's best to avoid the tactical looking stuff whenever possible in my experience gun people are not nearly as good at blending into a crowd as they think they are fortunately this bag has a place where you can put a morale patch so if anyone gets suspicious about the webbing i have got the macho man to throw him off the scent anyway i could take or leave the molly on the outside of the gr1 but it also has webbing on the inside and that's actually useful in this case i did not want to just stick the two halves of the charger and the magazines in the bag where they could move around and bang into each other the receiver half fits in this pocket that's in the back of the main compartment pretty nicely like that and then for the barrel half i got this molle compatible water bottle holder it is just the right size for the barrel with the flashlight attached it fits pretty snugly in there and then for the magazines i've got this large rifle magazine holder from max petition that will hold two 10 22 magazines i've got the 15 round mag that the charger came with and then a 25 rounder there we go still plenty of room in here to put other stuff other stuff if i want the gr1 is a minimalist design it is the complete opposite of the north face bag that we just looked at in the main compartment we've got two zipper pockets and one small pocket on the outside and then the laptop compartment here and that's it doesn't come with a sternum strap but it does have webbing on the shoulders so you can add your own if you want i actually don't love this bag it does seem extremely tough it'll probably last forever but i don't think it's particularly comfortable the shoulder straps are just really stiff and when i put a laptop in the designated sleeve it kind of feels like i'm wearing a back brace i know a lot of people love these but the non-sale price is around 300 bucks and that is a lot to spend on a bag that you're not 100 happy with so before you make that commitment my advice would be to find somebody who's got one who will let you try it out first number three on the list is the urban cowboy no it is not travolta on a fake bowl what we've got here is something much better this is an urban assault 24 backpack from mystery ranch and inside is the kiapa alaskan 1892 takedown lever action in 44 magnum this gun was loaned to us by taylor's and company who is the sole importer of these guns in the u.s it doesn't go together quite as easily as the ruger but it's still pretty straightforward barrel's got these interrupted threads so you just stick it in here give it a quarter turn that last little bit's kind of tricky and then we thread in the mag tube it's got this little lever that you fold down once it's all the way in one more time around there we go and then close the action and that's it i am probably gonna end up doing a full review of this gun for our lever action series plus i don't have a whole lot of trigger time on it just yet so i will not go into a ton of detail on this gun today as far as the basics though it is based on a winchester 1892 action it's got a satin chrome finish a rubber coated wood stock and a 16 inch octagonal barrel for sights it has a red fiber optic front and a skinner peep rear sight with a picatinny rail i've got a vortex viper mounted on there for now the ammo carrier here is from galco that gives me a place to put six rounds of 44 magnum but the tube actually holds eight rounds so if i want to top it off i've got another six rounds in this pocket ammo carrier from brown coat tactical that i can stick in the bag with the gun with these accessories the alaskan weighs just 7.4 ounces fully loaded takedown lever actions are just plain cool in general there are a few shops that will convert your existing lever action into a takedown model as a custom job these chiappa models that taylor's has been importing are some of the only non-custom factory takedown lever actions being produced right now so the 1500 price tag might seem a little steep but keep in mind it's a lot more affordable than a decent custom job would be obviously this gun is far from an ideal option if you're looking for something that can be deployed quickly even if you do manage to put it together quickly you still would have to load it because you cannot store the tube loaded when it's broken down but it's still a pretty useful concept it would be great for backpacking or hunting when you want a long gun but you don't want to have to carry it on a sling all the time of course those are some of the reasons take down rifles were originally developed at least back as far as the 1800s but i also know that some people who travel a lot for work don't necessarily have control over whether they get to stay somewhere that is especially safe or secure they like to have a long gun in their hotel room if at all possible something that you can break down that doesn't have to go with you in a big rifle case would be ideal plus lever actions are legal in all 50 states now if you're really trying to fly below the radar you might think that buying a bag called the urban assault wouldn't be the best idea in the world mystery ranch is a company with one foot in the military world and other in the outdoor industry but they did make this bag to be low profile and not draw attention there is no extraneous webbing or velcro on the outside this one did end up being a lot more like an army green color than it looked like in the photos online but they've got several other colors and i actually think any of the other ones would probably look a lot less military-like than this one honestly the main reason i wanted to try out this particular bag was because not many of the other backpack recommendations that i was getting included water bottle pockets on the outside i actually think that's a very useful feature i also wanted to try out this uh unique three zipper setup for the main compartment but after using it for a few weeks i could actually take or leave it but overall it is an excellent bag it's got plenty of pockets on the inside there's lots of organization in here but not too many like that north face bag the pockets are well thought out and usable the material is not as thick as the go ruck but it does seem like it would be reasonably durable it's kind of an unusual shape for a backpack of this size it looks bigger at the top than at the bottom i think that's just so it distributes the weight better when you pack it really full i have taken this on a couple of day hikes not with the gun but with plenty of other stuff in it and it did seem to be a little easier on my back than the average small backpack i played around with a few different ways of securing the two halves of the lever action inside this bag just like with the ruger i didn't want the pieces banging into each other the interior pockets in here were not really cutting it so i decided to try out a rigid molle panel or rmp from gray man tactical this is a thick rigid but lightweight plastic sheet with a grid cut into it that gives you a ton of options for arranging your gear or your pouches or whatever you might have that you want to put in your backpack that you don't want to just throw in there haphazardly this is really something that any of these backpacks store we're looking at could benefit from whether or not you had a gun in them you could also set up multiple rmps with different gear so you could quickly swap them out depending on what you're going to be doing so you might have one that's got like your everyday stuff on it and then a different one that's for hiking and then maybe a third one that's got emergency medical gear on it you could stick the whole thing in whatever bag it needs to go in for that day you can secure your stuff with pretty much any kind of straps that you might already have like these uh kind of generic straps i've got at the bottom here or at the top i've got a couple of quick detach shock cords that i got from gray man tactical that work a lot better for something like this you're going to be taken on and off the panel frequently the rmps come in a wide variety of sizes that'll fit almost any backpack they make them also for pelican cases and car trunk lids and car seat backs this one is i think 10.75 by 15 inches and it weighs just under 10 ounces there are a lot of other backpack organizer type devices that would basically accomplish the same thing but this is one of the only ones i could find that was rigid enough to support something like this lever action the last backpack gun setup i am calling the half and half it is a vertex commuter xl sling 2.0 it's only got one shoulder strap so it's kind of like half a backpack and inside i've got half a shotgun it is a remington v3 tac-13 semi-auto 12 gauge i have not done much to dress this one up i've got a trijicon rmr on the optic rail the gun comes from the factory with a barrel clamp and short picatinny rails that attach to either side so on the left side i've got a streamlight tlr-1 hl on the bird's head grip i have a demonstrated concepts recoil strap the mag tube holds five shells loaded the total package weighs in at 6.8 pounds i've also got six extra shelves here on a vancomp shell carrier normally i would just throw a piece of velcro tape on the side of the receiver and put the shell card there but the vertex bag has this handy hook and loop compatible panel here so it's easy enough to just stick it there i would actually be very reluctant to recommend this gun for any serious purposes it's got some merits but its practical role is limited even by backpack gun standards and this is another case where availability has changed a lot since we bought the gun we picked this up a year ago for 850 since then on top of the huge demand spike for firearms in general remington declared bankruptcy again the gun manufacturing arm of remington was sold to a new owner supposedly they are going to keep things going but i would expect availability to be a little spotty for a while the tac 13 in particular is difficult to find right now and people are regularly paying over 2 000 bucks when they do show up on auction sites i'll just say that i already thought 850 was a lot to pay for a current production remington anything it's no secret that remington has struggled with quality control for the last several years the tac 13 is based on the gas system from the remington versamax shotgun by all accounts that is a solid and reliable design the execution is not always great fortunately this one has not given me any problems it's been completely reliable with all of the birdshot and buckshot i've thrown at it so far maybe 300 shells so that's a good sign despite my misgivings about remington i wanted to try this out because i was curious to see if the semi-automatic stockless shotguns would be easier to run than their pump action counterparts and the answer is a definite yes the recoil is easier to manage this is a relatively soft shooting gun as far as short barreled shotguns go the recoil strap helps with that too especially using the technique suggested by rhett numero from demonstrated concepts not having to cycle the action manually is also a big deal when you can't shoulder the gun the pump action bird's head grip guns are a lot more prone to short stroking and other user induced malfunctions compared to the same guns with a full shoulder stock so the tac 13 definitely softens a lot of my criticism of the stocklist shotguns in general but even with that in mind and even if you set aside the quality issues i still have some major reservations about recommending something like this for a backpack gun depending on how it's going to be used a shotgun is a great self-defense tool inside the home at close range outside the home the potential range for a defensive gun use is a much bigger variable we don't have control over that part of it the longer the distance to the target the more of a liability your shot spread becomes so it's not so much a matter of can you hit your target but can you avoid hitting things that are not your target you are accountable for every pellet and that is something a lot of people seem to forget when they are practicing with these things but if you're in the minority who has done the work and you are already squared away with your social shotgun skills you might find some application for something like this i could maybe see it filling the role of defense against dangerous animals on a camping trip or like the lever action it could be something that you bring with you on a trip where you don't want to freak out the front desk people at your hotel in any case if you do decide to carry around a tac 13 as you go about your normal business in polite society the vertex commuter sling xl is probably one of the best ways to do that without raising too many eyebrows it's an unusual shape for a backpack i think if i saw someone walking around with this thing i might wonder what they had in it but i probably wouldn't immediately assume it was a gun it looks like it could just as easily be maybe some kind of instrument case vertex does cater specifically to the gun-owning crowd their bags are made to carry guns discreetly this big compartment here in the back is just big enough for a 26-inch firearm like the tac-13 and that is completely intentional as an alternative it is also just big enough for an ar-15 with a law folder and a 14 and a half inch barrel with a pinned and welded muzzle break i tested that out myself and it does fit so if you don't want to mess with an sbr or a pistol brace or any of that stuff this bag gives you a way to carry a quote-unquote regular gun it's also got another large compartment here in the middle where you can put a laptop or any of your other non-gun stuff plenty of room in there you could maybe even put your gun in that part if it was shorter than 26 inches then on this back panel there is some hook and loop and some webbing if you want to attach pouches and any other stuff like that like all vertex bags the straps come with little velcro tabs so you can roll up the slack and keep it out of the way that's where i actually got the idea to add the velcro straps to all my other bags i actually used the smaller version of the vertex commuter sling as my everyday bag for about three years it held up really well but in that process i discovered that sling bags are just not for me especially when it had more than just a couple of pounds worth of stuff in it and i had to carry it for any length of time like through an airport terminal all of that weight on one shoulder gets to be pretty uncomfortable after a few minutes and just kind of feels off balance and awkward if anything this larger version of the bag feels even more awkward and uncomfortable now i don't necessarily think that is a design flaw it might just be the nature of sling bags so i'm not trying to knock vertex here i've actually been very happy with their stuff in general in fact the vertex gamut or the ready pack would probably work as solid alternatives to any of those other bags that i've mentioned today but if you want to use something as long as the tac 13 for a bag gun your discreet backpack options are few most of them are going to be bags that are disguised as instrument cases or sports equipment or something like that the vertex might be a little less conspicuous than something like that but just keep in mind that the sling style strap is not for everyone okay guys that is the backpack gun project for now i might revisit this topic again sometime down the road if i come across anything that grabs my attention that magpul fdc9 folding thing looks like a good candidate but there is no telling when that will actually be released next time i will be continuing our lever action series or maybe i'll end up doing something else who knows stay tuned and find out

Channel: Lucky Gunner Ammo

Views: 269,433

Rating: 4.908401 out of 5

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Id: Dut1V8ikO08

Length: 36min 18sec (2178 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 27 2021