{"id":3198,"date":"2014-02-05T12:38:43","date_gmt":"2014-02-05T18:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/?p=3198"},"modified":"2014-02-05T12:38:43","modified_gmt":"2014-02-05T18:38:43","slug":"initial-thoughts-vism-shooting-matrifle-case-combo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/?p=3198","title":{"rendered":"Initial thoughts: VISM Shooting Mat\/Rifle Case combo"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my previous post<\/a>, I mentioned that I had ordered a combination rifle case and shooting mat to go with my new boltie. Well, it’s here, and it’s awesome<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Back when I did Appleseed<\/a> a couple of years ago, I didn’t have a shooting mat so I just used an old comforter. By lunch the first day I new I was going to have a problem. By the end of day two, I had a bruise where my ribs were contacting the concrete.<\/p>\n

I needed a new case to go with my new rifle anyway, and I just happened to find this VISM shooting mat\/case combo<\/a>\"\". Now, I had never heard of VISM<\/a> before, but apparently they’re a division of NcStar which is not known for it’s quality and they’ve been around for years. I saw one in person at a gun show the day I bought the rifle, and after a couple of days decided to go ahead and get it. I figured the worst case scenario would be that I’d have a $65 soft rifle case.<\/p>\n

Now, I haven’t laid on it for 6 hours straight, but my initial thoughts are that this thing is fantastic. It’s a rifle case! It’s a shooting mat! It’s a backpack! It’s a drag bag!<\/p>\n

There’s so much going on with this that I’ve got a ton of pics. The Amazon and manufacturers descriptions really don’t do it justice.<\/p>\n


\nClick to embiggen any of the pics.<\/p>\n

\"Manufacturer's<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0So here’s the “front” of the bag. This is the side that faces outward if you were to wear it like a backpack. It’s got MOLLE\/PALS webbing which may or may not be actually usable (more on that in a minute). In any case it adds the the strength of the bag. There’s also an ID holder, two drag handles, and a carry handle. \"PALS<\/a> PALS Webbing.<\/p>\n

\"ID<\/a> ID Holder.<\/p>\n

\"Top<\/a>Top drag handle.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Handle<\/a> Handle hides away in a velcro pocket to prevent snagging.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Side<\/a> Side drag handle.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a> The side drag handle tucks away into this pocket. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"Carry<\/a>Carry Handle.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a> The carry handle <\/span>also<\/i> tucks away to prevent snagging when using the case as a drag bag. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"There<\/a>There are also attachment points on the short ends of the bag.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Back<\/a> Back of the bag.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the “on your back” side of the bag. There’s a pouch that contains the backpack straps as well as some non-PALS webbing. This webbing has no way to attach anything to, because that would make it useless as a backpack. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

\"Carry<\/a> Carry handle on the back side.<\/p>\n

\"Pocket<\/a> Pocket for the carry handle.<\/p>\n

\"Hides<\/a> Hides away quite nicely.<\/p>\n

\"Padded<\/a> Padded straps come out one side of the center pouch.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a> The padded straps have d-rings and a chest strap.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a> The other side of the pouch has the bottom portion of the straps.<\/p>\n

\"There<\/a> There is also a belt strap in here.<\/p>\n

\"Backpack<\/a> Backpack straps<\/p>\n

\"And<\/a> And in case you don’t like the straps, they’re connected to the bag at these d rings so you can replace them without having to sew.<\/p>\n

So now let’s open up the bag…\"Step<\/a> Step 1<\/p>\n

\"Step<\/a> Step 2.<\/p>\n

\"Step<\/a> Step 3–And now it’s fully open.<\/p>\n

\"See<\/a> See the hump to the left of the rifle? That’s the backpack straps.
\nRemember earlier when I said the PALS webbing was kind of useless? Well, if you actually attach anything to it, you’ll be lying on top of it at this point.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a> It took me a bit to figure out what this is. I thought maybe it was to hold the rifle’s sling. \"<\/a> But as it turns out, that’s actually for a full-length cleaning rod. Neat, huh? \"<\/a> The rifle is secured in place by placing the barrel in a pocket and locking the stock in place with this contraption. \"<\/a> Here’s a pic of it without the rifle. \"<\/a> And here’s the barrel pocket. \"<\/a> Here’s a closeup of the rubberized material that provides extra padding. \"<\/a> On the right side of the mat, there’s this shell holder. It’s sized for .308 but it’ll fit .223 just fine, in case you’re wondering. \"<\/a> It’s also got a waterproof zippered pocket behind it. You can use it for maps or a Mildot Master<\/a>\"\" or a log book<\/a>\"\". \"<\/a> On the left side you’ve got a windowed pocket for your range card, and another waterproof zippered storage compartment behind that.<\/p>\n

Now, what if you’re a left handed shooter and want your range card on the right?<\/p>\n

No problem:\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Both pieces are like that, so you can swap them over.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I’m pretty excited about this purchase. I may end up needing a foam mat<\/a>\"\" as well, but I won’t know that until I do another Appleseed. At ~$65, though, I won’t be disappointed if that turns out to be the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my previous post, I mentioned that I had ordered a combination rifle case and shooting mat to go with my new boltie. Well, it’s here, and it’s awesome. Back when I did Appleseed a couple of years ago, I didn’t have a shooting mat so I just used an old comforter. By lunch the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3198\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunscarstech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}