Review: Propper -Pistol Rug

As first seen on Breach Bang & Clear today ... 

Here's an interesting piece from Propper, with some pretty specific uses. This padded, zipperable case is marketed as a pistol carriage case, and here's what I thought of it. Constructed of durable Cordura material on the outside, and with a quality zipper set along two and a half of the three sides, the case is both well put together and well presented. A leather foot fits along the base of the zipper, to ensure it remains secure and adds to the overall finish of the piece. This is the Propper Pistol Rug.

Propper offer this in 8", 11" and 13" sizes, the two I have are the . Probably the best feature of the case, is the all-encompassing soft closed-cell foam that fills the middle of each panel. This foam runs right up to the very edge case, and is faced with a soft fabric lining. This will keep your gold-inlay and pearl handles safe and scratch free, but for me the best part is that that soft foam keeps whatever you have stored in the case pinned in place, and yet doesn't silhouette against the outer faces. You don't get any indication of what is inside it once its zipped up.I have a base-guitar case that I carry swords around in from time to time, like some sort of Aussie nordic metal mariachi, and apparently you can do the same thing with firearms too.

Living in Melbourne, Australia, its rather difficult for a regular citizen to own a handgun; not impossible, but there are a lot of red tape to get and then maintain the appropriate licenses. I've not gone down that path, but I do have a reasonably good mock-up training tool at my disposal. This solid aluminum cast of a Walther P99 gives a decent look-and-feel. You can see that you can also carry a reasonably big knife like my Super Colubris in one of these too, to the same effect. Both are contained nicely by the bag and can take a fair amount of abuse before the tools contained slip around and reach an edge, away from the padding.

One very clever piece of design is that the metal d-ring located at the closed-zipper end of the bag, as well as acting as a lanyard loop if needed, can also act as a locking point, for you to slip a little padlock through to offer you some additional security. Sure, it won't stop a dedicated evil-do'er or zealous airport boarder-security professional, but it will certainly keep little-hands and drunken idiots off the dangerous tools. It will also limit the chances of an accidental exposure of your particular piece. Especially important if you want to transport your tools without flashing the neighborhood. It isn't armoured, it isn't waterproof, it isn't high-speed. It's just a padded bag, but we well thought out one.


When filled and zipped, the bag will slip nicely and inconspicuously into the bottom of a pack, again without silhouetting or drawing unnecessary attention to itself. With no other external features other than the logo, it's stealth without LOOKING like it's stealth, which is perfect for the casual carrier. Security through obscurity.

[Late note:] I managed to swing a play with one of these simulation/training Glock's this week and the Pistol Rug seemed to work perfectly. I managed to stop myself from wandering off with the pew pew toy and thus will live to play another day.