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Patriot Cases: A Review, or something.

Patriot Cases out of Smithfield, North Carolina is our next victim reviewee.  Is that a word?  Reviewee?  Well if it wasn’t it is now.  Somebody call Miriam-Webster and tell them to update the dictionary.

Patriot Cases is run by Brack Wilson.  No relation to Wilson Combat, Tom Hanks’ volleyball, or that old dude Dennis the Menace terrorizes(seriously, why hasn’t that kid been arrested?) but don’t hold that against him.  What you can hold against him, is the fact that he’s an Eagles Fan.  Mr. Wilson started Patriot Cases WAAAAAY back in 2012, after leaving a pretty successful career at Starlight Cases.

See How the bedding is one solid piece, and not that pluck foam crap?

They do things a little differently there, and that was one of the things I found really interesting.  The bed of the case is not the pluck foam you’re probably used to.  You know, that foam where you tear out little cubes until you get the shape you want.  The bedding on Patriot Cases are made from a solid piece of mil-spec high density polyethelene.  That basically means Brack Wilson goes deep into the forests of North Carolina twice a week and harvests the eyebrows of bears to make the stuff.  You know why there are no bear eyebrow harvesting videos on Youtube?  Because  nobody has ever survived trying.  Except Brack Wilson.

They make these for different guns, but since I have an AR style Modern Sporting Rifle, I thought it would be relevant to get an AR Case, which yes, I paid for, so shut up.  Anyway, you’ve got this obviously oversized sort-of rifle shaped cut out, which you then cut to fit your rifle and put back in the case.  Think about this for a second.  If you have a bedding of pluck foam, once you’ve made the cut out a certain size, you’re stuck with it.  If you put a shorter barrel on your rifle, or get a smaller optic, or decide to take the optic off completely, you can’t really put those little cubes back into the foam bedding.  You just have to take the whole thing out and start over.

With this system, you can just cut a piece off the cut out, and re-insert it to fit your needs.  Then, if you put a longer barrel on your weapon, get a bigger optic or handguard or whatever, you can remove the piece of foam and voila(that’s French for tada!)! Your case fits your gun more betterer than before.

It looks so sad without a scope, doesn’t it? (Looking at you, Leupold,Vortex & Swarovski)

Now if you look at the picture above, you’ll notice that I have a Burkett Offset mount on my rifle.  That made finding a case that would fit my rifle properly kind of a pain in the butt, and I was fully prepared to bitch and complain about nobody making cases that fit guns with offset mounts.  Do I get to do that here?  Nope.  I was expecting the case to not shut, or twist or stretch or in some way go wrong.  As shocking as this may be( except to my wife), I was totally wrong!

The case fits fine, closed with out a hitch, and does not deform where the offset mount is.  This required no special modifications on the case whatsoever, which is a big plus for shooters who have offset sighting systems, or some other modification on your rifle that makes it unusually large.  Most cases, I’ve found, are built much more narrowly and won’t close properly if at all.

In America, those red arrows would point at 30 round magazines. Two each for the bottom two arrows. Not so in California.

Another thing I like is the additional cutouts.  There’s a place for additional ammo and 5 magazines if you live in Free America.  If you live in one of the commie weirdo places like the People’s Democratic Republic of Kalifornia, you can put more ammo in there, or a cleaning kit or something, and leave your fixed 10 round magazine in the mag well.

This is the last thing I’ll say about the bedding and I’ll move on, promise.  The foam is water proof and solvent proof, so you don’t have to worry about the Hoppe’s #9 or Fireclean or what ever your CLP of choice is eating through the foam.

Take a look at the lid.  That LOOKS like your standard, piece of crap el cheapo egg crate foam, doesn’t it?   Well it’s not. While it IS egg crate foam, it’s pretty dense.  It also doesn’t fall out when you open the lid.  These are good things when you want to protect your rifle.

Guess where the locks go. Go on, guess!

The latches are sturdy, and snap shut solidly.  There is no doubt the case is closed, but you don’t need three mules and a sledge hammer to get them to secure.  If you’ll take a look at the picture to the right you’ll notice the subtle indicators pointing out the four padlock holes on the case.

I put a lock on one end, and tested how hard it would be to get to the gun from the opposite end of the case.  It was actually really easy,  as you can see below.  I put a lock in the middle, and it was fine.  The case is by no means insecure, but it’s going to bend when the only locking point is over 3 feet from the end you’re prying on.

It’s a pretty small gap, but I wanted to ask about it anyway.

     One of the very few things I dislike about the case is the cut out in the back along the seam.  I asked Brack Wilson about it, and he said the gap is caused by the dense foam, and will shrink as the foam settles.  Fair enough, but don’t think you’re going to drag this case across the bottom of  a jungle river and not get your stuff wet.  When or why you would ever do that, I don’t know.  Maybe you’ll be kidnapped by some super rich guy that wants to hunt you for sport but he’s giving you your rifle and choice of cases, and you have to carry the rifle in the case until you’re ready to shoot or something.

     This case is not a replacement for a Pelican case or a Storm case.  You’re not going to take this scuba diving, and it is, according to the illustrious Mr. Wilson himself, “not a deployment case.”   This case is built to protect your rifle going to and from the range, and in most States(do your own research, this isn’t a definitive legal statement, I’m not a lawyer) it should meet the safe container law for the storage of a firearm standards.  It has an ATA II rating, which means it IS rated for air travel, and meets TSA requirements.  I didn’t get the chance to fly with mine, but Brack Wilson said he’s flown with the same case several times, and it’s still holding up fine.

This case is definitely best of it’s class.  For the price, I was surprised at how well put together and how high quality the case was.  It is definitely worth the money, and is a fantastic value.  Even more so, if you have offset optics or an unusually shaped rifle.  They’ve got over 100 sizes of case with all kinds of different layouts.  Oh, and they just came out with rifle case bedding cutouts for AK’s and SCAR’s.

Ladies,

     You deal with enough snot, poop, and yucky stuff to deserve a hazmat license.  You are the gentle, safe place in every child’s heart. You are the warm smile and hug that makes everything ok. You are the magic, booboo healing kisses that we need when we get hurt.  You are the stern look that keeps us in line, and the back hand when the look doesn’t.
     Thank you for being so much for us.

Fellas – spoil those women in your life who are blessed with the job of “mom.” They deserve it.

One of our, shall we say, “less experienced” team members decided to challenge himself with some dryfire drills from PredatorTactical.com. Needless to say, he’s not quite as cocky as he was before trying the drills.  Check out the Draw At The Beep if you want a great test of draw to first shot speed.

This section of the site has a ton of good drills to really challenge a shooter who maybe can’t find/afford the ammo to hit the range.  There are some drills on there that also will give a shooter a more accurate assessment of their actual “draw to first shot”, as opposed to their “rip the gun from the holster and mash the trigger once it’s pointed in a downrange general direction.”

Equip, Train, Dominate!

We just moved to a new content provider.  www.predatortactical.com will still have the same great gear and guns for sale at prices you won’t find elsewhere.  We will also have some new features.  Head on over and click around!

If you see something you don’t like, or don’t see something you do like, hit the new Help tab on top.  There’s a nifty new helpdesk feature, a contact tab, and some other neat stuff.  Let us know what you think, and if you have a suggestion on how we can make the site easier for you to use, fire away!  After all, the website is for you, not us.  If you don’t like it, then the site is kind of pointless.

Now here’s the discount for you:  Until May 1st, all orders get free FedEx Ground shipping.

Equip, Train, Dominate!

We’re having some issues with our credit card transaction system.  You can still phone in orders at (602) 652-2864 or send an email to sales@predatortactical.com

We’re very sorry for the inconvenience.

The cat is now out of the bag.  Predator Tactical is now the official handgun of 3 Gun Nation!

Matt Burkett tearing it up with the 3 Gun Nation special edition.

We are sad to report the death of former Prime Minister of England Margaret Thatcher.  She was a staunch ally of our country during the height of the Cold War, and a good friend of Ronald Reagan.  Sadly, she was Britain’s last great leader.

Rest in peace, Maggie. Your courage and leadership will be missed.

Read it, and enjoy.  Hat tip to the brilliant and venerable Michael Bane of Shooting Gallery, Downrange.tv, and about a zillion other things.  Seriously, you can’t not know who this guy is.

Anyway, read the link below and have a bit of a laugh.  We can’t be super serious all the time.

Click this link

Hey folks,

Have you seen the pictures up on the Facebook page?  They’re pretty sweet!  Click this right here to check it out.  Just so there’s no misunderstanding, those are all guns that are actually going out to customers.  They’re not “safe queens,” and we don’t edit photos to touch the guns up.  They actually look that awesome when they leave the shop.

Equip, Train, Dominate!