by Tom Gaylord
Writing as B.B. Pelletier
This report covers:
- Back story
- No sale!
- UTG Rapid Mission Deployment Daypack
- Designed by a traveler
- How I use the pack now
- Other uses for the pack
- Quality
- Why this report
Sometimes I have to step out of the mold and tell you about a great product that may not sound like it applies to airguns. In truth, it can and does apply, but only if you make it do so.
Back story
I was in the aisles at the 2016 SHOT Show on the last day — about 3 hours from catching the shuttle to the airport to return home. Suddenly my computer case handle broke! I call it a computer case, but it’s actually a small traveling office that weighs about 33 lbs. when packed. Time for me to go into the Boy Scout mode and improvise — because I am sure not carrying that load under my arm (left the strap at home — the case is too heavy for it) around through the exhibit hall for three hours, then the casino and then the airport!
No problem, because this is the SHOT Show and it’s the last day! Some vendors sell stuff on the last day. So I look around for some tactical equipment cases and find one that looks rugged enough to take the strain. And it’s only $80, knocked down to $66 because I’m buying it off the display at the show! Hurrah! So I make the deal and promise to return at 10, when they tell me I can pick it up.
I return at 10 and they have just sold my case to someone else! They tell me they will send me a case as soon as they get back in the office on Monday. I won’t tell you what I told them, but it wasn’t polite. Now I had a real problem and only an hour left.
So I went to the Leapers booth, where I have seen tactical backpacks for the past several years. Never paid much attention to them, but I was desperate. Would they please sell me the largest backpack they have? I prayed that it would hold my 2 laptop computers and everything else.
No sale!
They just removed the stuffing from the backpack on display and handed it to me. Thank you, Leapers! I really would have been pleased to buy it, because I know two things about Leapers tactical cloth products. First, they are very reasonably priced and second, they are made better than any other tactical cloth products I have seen. I won’t say who I am referring to, but I can think of a company that makes very expensive designer tactical cloth products, and Leapers beats them every time.
UTG Rapid Mission Deployment Daypack
Time to get specific. This pack is called the UTG Rapid Mission Deployment Daypack. I got a black one, but it also comes in tan, though I don’t see that color on the Pyramyd AIR website. The first thing I did was put my 2 laptops (yes, I carry 2 when I’m on the road) into the pack to see if they fit. It swallowed them like a python swallowing a chicken! Then all the other stuff went in and I was able to throw my old case away. This pack is larger inside, yet smaller outside than my old case. I think part of it resides in the fourth dimension! It also fits under the seat in front of me on the airplane. My old case was getting too fat for that.
The pack looks small on the outside, but it holds my office on the road!
Those padded straps are a real blessing when the pack is full.
I use the front pockets for adaptors, power supplies and modem/camera gear.
Inside the front pouch is room for a whole office. This is pretty much how I pack mine, with medicine and emergency supplies added. Then there are two more huge pouches not seen here that each hold the largest laptop!
The pack has a carry handle that looks like it will support 3 times the weight I packed in it. That’s handy for moving it around, but the real plus are those two padded backstraps! I didn’t need to carry all that weight in my arms any longer! There is a chest strap that holds the two backstraps together, to keep the weight high on your back. And of course every strap is adjustable. The compartments that don’t hold the computer(s) are set up like a briefcase — just like the flimsy computer case that was replaced.
Designed by a traveler
David Ding, one of Leapers owners, designed this pack. He is a frequent traveler and knows the value of lots of pockets and places to carry stuff. He made sure this daypack has them! As I wrote this report I even found a couple places I didn’t know about.
How I use the pack now
Every time I need to be away from the house, I pack up the computers and go. I now keep a portable power supply in the pack at all times, so I can just unplug accessories (keyboards, hard drives, trackballs, etc.) and go. If I’m on the road, I pack a keyboard, hard drive and trackball in my suitcase for when I am in my hotel room. This pack is so convenient that it has changed how I work.
Other uses for the pack
This could also be an excellent range bag. It has more than enough room for everything, plus a couple of handguns and ammo. If you look carefully at the first photo, there are cloth loops for holding smaller items on the outside of the pack. They are for grenade handles, but they work for lots of other things, too. Just use your imagination.
Quality
I have used Leapers UTG bug-out bags for many years and have learned some valuable things about them all. They have tough zippers and Velcro closures. When the zipper run is long, they give you two sliders, for greater flexibility. If there is such a thing as a mil-spec zipper, I bet that’s what these are. And when they sew fabric together, they reinforce every seam. There will be no unexpected breakdowns with UTG cloth products!
Why this report
I told Leapers I would write this report and I always meant to after the SHOT Show, but this year hasn’t exactly gone according to plan. And while I have been doing unscheduled things, the case has been my constant companion. Some of my medications have changed and the pockets of the pack have been designated for them, as well, and I still carry everything else that I need.
I own a number of smaller UTG bug-out bags, but until I needed it I had no idea a backpack like this could be so handy. Now I can walk through the airport with my hands free, because the pack has everything I need.
If you are looking for a new range bag or laptop case, take a long look at this one. And please note the price. It’s less than the discounted pack the other guys sold out from under me. I don’t think you’ll find a better bargain than this one.
Nice review.
About the grenades….
Hanging grenades by the handles may look good for John Wayne in the movies, but once the spoon goes away,
Mr. Grenade in not your friend…
The loops are called MOLLE
“Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment.”
Which was based on the PALS system.
“Pouch Attachment Ladder System” for attaching gear to Load bearing gear.
I know a little after your time in the military.
Besides, no grenades allowed on planes anymore.
I meant to say, I know this came about a little while after your time in the military.,
But it didn’t come out hat way.
45Bravo,
I know about MOLLE. PALS is news to me, though. Thanks for the update.
I assure you — we did carry grenades that way. Maybe they were mostly smoke grenades, but that was how they were carried.
B.B.
True, we carried smokes the same way, weren’t supposed to, but we did.
By the 1980’s when I was in, OSHA had crept into the military…..
Yikes, I heard about this on a documentary about Vietnam. A reporter says that a heavily loaded American infantryman had his grenades strapped onto his fieldpack. While moving through the brush, a branch got tangled with a grenade and the spoon released whatever that is, apparently a device for triggering the grenade. With all his equipment tied on, there was nothing he could do… So the soldiers started attaching the grenades to the front of their bodies.
Pockets were not the answer either. There is another anecdote of a soldier who loaded grenades into the cargo pockets of his pants. During a nighttime attack, a new recruit was reaching into his pocket for grenades when the spoon caught and released. The wearer of the pants went into a frenzy dumping all the grenades out of his pocket and managed to get them out just barely in time..
Matt61
Matt,
The spoon is the handle we have been talking about.
B.B.
Matt61, this applies to smoke grenades as well as conventional explosive grenades.
There is a pin that is attached to a ring.
It takes a fair amount of force to straighten the pin to pull it.
The pin holds the “spoon”in place, which holds a spring loaded striker under tension.
You ideally hold the spoon firmly in place with one hand, and pull the ring attached to the pin with the other hand.
At this point, as I said, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend.
As long as the spoon is held down nothing happens, but once the grenade is thrown, the spoon is released, the spring loaded striker swings over, and strikes a cap that starts a timed fuse to burning inside the grenade, when the fuse reaches the end, it ignites a blasting cap that sets off the main charge.
Maybe this gives you an idea of the sequence that has to happen..
45Bravo,
I really liked your comment about Mr. Grenade. No, he is not your friend. It is more of a “my enemies are your enemies” kind of relationship.
BB,
Looks exactly right for my type of work. Question: At the bottom of the pouches where you put your laptop is there a bolstering of 2 to 3 cm foam going around the corners and covering about 3 to 5 cm of the sides? When it is not there I always put that in when using a backpack and I advice my clients to do that too.
This because of the habitude of people to put the backpack down on the ground with quite a thud thereby breaking the corners of the laptop and sometimes the screen if the ground is tiles, which is usually the case in airports.
Regards,
August
August,
You will probably want to add the foam to the pack. I never set it down hard for this reason.
B.B.
This is the one reason apple laptops can charge the prices they do. Doing that kind of thing will not break them. The metal bends not breaks.
Cool, I like it. I have not flown in years and from what I see on the news, it looks less than an attractive venture. At 33# though, a handle and wheels sounds appealing. No doubt they have little 2 wheel collapsible dollies that could be stowed, or “swallowed”, inside the pack,.. or stowed in the overhead.
Back packs do seem to be all rage though. I see them everywhere and quite a few people at work use them.
Chris,
Yes, wheels would be better, but I absolutely detest them at trade shows. People are always tripping over them because they aren’t under the control of their owners. SHOT is too jammed for a wheeled cart, though lots of people use them.
During all but the final day I carry a small bug-out bag with my camera, phone, medicine and other important stuff. That and one Leapers cloth bag (they are the finest at the show) that gets emptied every day.
B.B.
BB,
I did not have the opportunity to comment yesterday, but I felt like I really had to say this. No, you do not know everything there is to know about airguns, but you are one of the most knowledgeable people on the subject and are listened to with respect by all but a few who are not worth listening to.
Here is one of the definitions of Godfather.
A man who is influential in a movement or organization, through providing support for it or through playing a leading or innovatory part in it.
You are indeed “The Godfather of Airguns” and I consider it an honor and privilege to know you.
For those who may be curious, Hard Air Magazine just did a review of the Beeman Dual in .177. They must have reopened the opium dens in China.
RR
I wonder how many will buy one of these jokes in the belief that they will get two full power shots consecutively without recocking ? Or that they will be able to select which barrel fires ?
Or that they will get two full power shots at the same time ?
Will be some wild misconceptions floating around about this one . They should sell a bunch of them before reality sets in .
TT
TT,
“They should sell a bunch of them before reality sets in.”
That is a succinct statement of the Chinese airgun business plan.
B.B.
Now if they would make it a swivel barrel so you could rotate the barrels and cock it for a quick second shot, that’d be another thing… like some swivel barrel flintlock rifles I’ve seen.
The other model has a .177 and a .22 barrel and you can select which one to use with a movable transfer port. If it was gas spring it would almost be usable.
Ridgerunner,
Thanks, a nice read, but what use is this gun? The only guarantee you have is that it will miss at least once? From what I see from the shots at 10 yard, it is not even remotely consistent. Maybe I am missing something in this game?
Regards,
August
No, you are not missing anything. This is a prime example of marketing run amok.
I believe its like I said to Michael in the 853 part 3 report the Beeman 2016S dual is a novelty gun as from the HAM report it clearly is not accurate or even close to being usable for much more than a conversation piece. Also the writers report of FPE figures at least to me is illogical in that he is adding the two pellets energy together to give a FPE figure and for that to be even close to accurate both pellets would have to hit the exact same POI at the exact time so in my opinion anyway the power is only what one pellet produces as a total FPE number.
I think it would be a cool gun if it was designed with such precision so that the barrels were actually angled in the action to place both pellets at the same POI at whatever the given distance they designed it to be shot at most or the preferred range for its power output. It is clear that the swept volume of the piston and chamber was not increased to accommodate the need to propel two pellets instead of just one from the poor velocity figures the report showed. So I say it was a poor exercise in what otherwise could be a very unique and fun gun to own and shoot.
BB
I would like to say as most others have already stated that you do not give yourself and most definitely Edith enough credit for the advancements or impact on the world of airgunning both of you have made and continue to make everyday by your perseverance and undying dedication to provide the daily reports and place for all of us to be able to come and pool our thoughts and opinions. This is truly a group meeting place where like minded people can gather and discuss whatever we choose to without fear of being belittled or ridiculed for not knowing everything there is to know about what we enjoy so much doing.
I can speak for myself by saying that just under three years ago when my health started failing and I was forced to quit my profession as a technician/mechanic on motor vehicles it was a difficult time at first dealing with to much idle time and the inability to keep my hands and mind busy. Then out of just pure boredom and desperation I went digging in my closet to find my old Crosman 1400 to see if it maybe still worked and I could find something that would give me something to do with my time. Low and behold after some oiling and wiping down it came back to life and I found my savior in something I could still do and feel like I had a purpose in life.
I took the bull by the horns and ran with it and have never looked back and in my quest for more info on my new found interest I found your blog and it was my light at the end of the tunnel to give me a direction in my life to keep me going and my sanity intact. So to you I say thanks for all you have done and all you will do for me and all of us here that read this blog daily and see it as highlight of our days in this world.
Your title of ” Godfather of Airguns ” is truly deserved in my opinion.
BD
Buldawg
Total agree!!
Fido3030
Fido3030
Yep 100% as well.
BD
B.B.,
A very nice looking and rugged looking pack. I did an image search and found it in tan, which will be the color I buy after Pyramyd AIR gets them in stock. (Hint, hint, P.A.) Leapers also seems to make them in gray.
Michael
Does this bag have straps inside so it holds the laptops when you are forced to open it in the airport? I know they now demand you split the bag before sending it through the Xray.
StevenG,
No straps inside. The laptops have to be out of the case when they go through X-ray.
B.B.
B.B., great review on the pack; it looks like a really useful piece of gear; thank you. =)
I can fully understand this review having had a similar experience myself. One day after coming home, I saw that the bottom of my backpack was frayed open and the laptop inside was hanging by a thread! To find a replacement, I thought I would go to the shooting and surplus catalogues where I often browse. The technology has indeed improved from the days when they offered something called an A.L.I.C.E. pack which I believe was the issue in the Vietnam era. Now there is a variety of smart-looking gear. It came down to a choice between a one day assault pack and a five day assault pack. I don’t plan to assault anything for more than a day, so I went with the smaller option. But when it came, I saw that it could extend out in accordion fashion to be the equivalent of about two and a half ordinary backpacks in depth. And there are all sorts of nice features like a rubberized lining for the time when my water bottle leaked in my range bag and all sorts of little pouches. I can’t imagine how the five day pack would expand.
Plus the pack is helping me build my persona as a lethal weapon. Some new acquaintances asked me if I was military based on my pack. No. With the load of guns and ammunition that I bring to the range along with my purposeful manner, people seem to think I am a bad dude. Some have asked me if I am F.B.I.! Let ’em wonder. Incidentally, I just watched a fantastic film with Denzel Washington called The Equalizer. It is a Jason Bourne type movie and no doubt he is the sort of person people are envisioning me to be. Ha ha.
Matt61
Gunfun1, regarding ricochets, the physics seems to give me a measure of security. Somewhat selfishly, I was thinking only about the danger to myself. For a bullet to rebound essentially backwards with dangerous force at 75 yards, the physics of elastic collisions (billiard balls) says that the bullet would have to hit something incredibly rigid and utterly stationary, like a steel wall. But anything that hard would deform the bullet, releasing a lot of energy. Once bullets start rebounding at an angle, then I’m protected by the MOA progression or the ballistic cone in reverse. For a projectile fired at an angle, the lateral distance will progressively increase. What makes me miss shots at 100 yards will cause rebounds to miss me at a similar distance!
Forward of the target, anyone is in danger, but I will safeguard that by putting my resealing ball at the base of a berm. So, the danger that remains is back scattering to either side of me. There is some danger here but now distance is my friend as well as angle. Anyone behind the firing line and displaced to the side will have a greater distance to the target than me. So any rebounds hitting them will have even less energy than the ones that might hit me.
So, much for theory. But has anyone empirically heard of anyone getting ricochets at 75 yards? I haven’t.
Matt61
Matt61
Does ricocheting off a log at 100 yards with my .25 Marauder count?
It wasn’t a direct hit to the log and I heard a secondary hit on a tree behind and to the left of my target. And it was a solid thud at that.
And as far as it goes at 75 yards. What happens if the projectile glances upward and may be hits a tree branch and comes back at you.
Also we was shooting my brothers 9 mm at a can in front of a old tree stump and that bullet wizzed back over our head.
Then I was shooting the 1377 at a plastic bottle attached to a metal rod by some yarn around 20 yards out and one of the pellets hit the breezway window to the left of where I was shooting from inside.
I have shot my steel spinner paddles put at 50 yards and the pellets have hit my other spinners 10 yards to the right or left of each other.
Ricochets can happen in more ways than you can imagine. I have more that I can tell about that go back to when I was a kid shooting on the farm. All I can say is if you think you know where the projectile will stop at your fooling yourself. I’m not trying to be ignorant. I just have seen things happen. I trying to say is think about where the projectile could go when you shoot. Be safe than s what I’m getting at.
GF1,
That is a pretty strong argument for cardboard and paper targets backed up with a berm. Think, eliminate or at least minimize,… and have at it. Thanks for sharing some real life examples. Also, a pretty good reason to wear shooting/safety glasses. I must admit, until recently, I did not wear them. My eye glasses are safety, but I don’t wear them for shooting. Then I tried the same fuller, yellow, safety glasses that I wear for night driving and it really made a difference all around in contrast and scope clarity. So,.. if for no other reason, I wear them for that.
Chris USA,
My prescription glasses are safety glasses. I wear them always and at work in the shop. I have the side sheilds I put on the ear prices while at work. I should wear the side sheilds at home when I shoot but I don’t. I bring them home with me in the car. When we step foot in the shop at work the safety glasses and side sheilds have to be on. So that’s why they are in the car and ready for when I get to work.
And I have tryed alot of different glasses throughout time to try to help with my R/C airplane flying. The kind that fit over prescription glasses. Tryed different color and types of lenses. Best I found is on one of the websites years ago that has R/C planes and supplies. It was a dark blue on the outside and which I don’t know if that did anything and they made everything have a slight brown color when I looked through them. They were great in bright sunshine as well as low light conditions. Even rain. They eventually got so scratched up from use over the years that I had to throw them away. Haven’t found anything like them to this day. Found that those fishing glasses that help you see into the water and see the fish to be the closest to what I had.
And I know some people don’t wear their prescription glasses when they shoot but I do. So I have to take that into consideration when I’m looking for shooting, fishing or R/C airplane glasses. But yep if you get the right pair of glasses it does help. And then they have to be safety rated glasses I would say for shooting.
GF! & Chris,
I always use safety glass in my prescription glasses and have for years dating back to when I was growing up on a farm. I had a rock thrown by a bush hog hit the glasses I was wearing and star the lens. When I got the glasses replaced, the lady suggested that I get safety lenses and have been using them since. She might need to work om her sales pitch: She claimed my skull would break before the glasses.
I ran across bifocal safety glasses on another blog recently and booked marked the spot.
http://www.safetyglassesusa.com/bf68.html
I never ordered a pair so I don’t know anything else about them.
Jim
Jim,
Wiley X seems to fit the bill on polarized and yellow, see below. 135$ on the other hand,…. I may have to think on that just after taking the “deep” plunge to the “darkside”.
But yes, thank you for that. Walmart sells those (eye glass shop) as well as the Harley shops.
Jim
We have the bifocal safety glasses at work. They come in different magnifications.
I didn’t start wearing prescription glasses till I was in my early 30’s and they weren’t bifocal. I mainly started wearing glasses because I couldn’t see the R/C planes good enoughwhen I flew out at farther distances. But that’s basically when I found those one good pair of glasses I mentioned above.
I started needing bifocals about 4 or so years ago. Can’t see up close for anything anymore. So for shooting I really could go without my prescription glasses. It’s just arms legnth and in is where I have problems seeing.
But I would like to find me another good pair of safety glasses that work in multiple lighting conditions that would fit over my prescription glasses.
GF1,
I got a pair of those fishing glasses, Berkley I believe, and tried them, Blue too. For me, the yellow ones work better. The next step might be a Polarized yellow, if I could find any. I need to look some more,.. other than local.
Chris USA
I tryed the yellow ones and they are only good in lower light conditions.
When I do decide to take a woods walk at times with my air guns there are multiple lighting conditions that I encounter. Plus that’s where the safety glasses are really needed with all the trees around. You need a pair of glasses that work in multiple conditions. No time to switch glasses around if I encounter something to shoot at or if I’m trying to spot something.
Haven’t found any glasses lately that work good in all conditions. But I do need too.
Chris USA
Maybe try an opthalmologist or optomitrist and tell them exactly what your needs are. I’ve known top skeet shooters who have done that.
Fido3030
Fido3030
You replied to me but addressed Chris.
If your comment was to me. My prescription clear lenses are fine for most of the shooting I do. But the blue colored sun glasses that fit over my prescription glasses that I talked about above gave everything a light brown tint and were great.
If I was in the woods and was looking at a target out in a bright feild I could still see good with those glasses. Or the opposite. If I was looking at a target in the dark woods and I was in the bright feild I could still see it good. Or if I was in the dark woods and the target was to I could still see it. Or even if I was out in the bright feild and the target was to I could still see it good.
What I’m getting at is that pair of sunglasses I had that went over my prescription glasses kept the glare or extra brightness minimized but also allowed a bright picture in the shade. As I said different light conditions.
I don’t want to put a bright yellow glasses over my prescription glasses to brighten things up one minute. Then the next have to put some dark tinted ones over my prescription glasses to see in the bright sun shine.
The sunglasses I’m talking about costed around a $150 back in the mid 90’s. They if I remember right was called pilot glasses. One of the guys I knew back then was in the air force and was at one time a fighter pilot instructor. He was the person that recommended those type of glasses to me.
Gunfun1
Sorry for the mistake. Just blundering along. 🙂
Fido3030
Fido3030
All good.
🙂
BB,
Thanks for the review. I will keep UTG in mind next time I buy a pack.
It takes some self control when carrying a larger bag not to keep adding extra stuff that you have room for.
If I was going to be traveling a lot I think I would go through that Pre-Screening process so that I wouldn’t have to go through the security routine every time I was at the airport. There is even an international version of pre-screening.
David Enoch