Yeah, I stayed away from the pick n' pluck stuff. I read it was more for small, light stuff, like camera bodies.

Still baffles me how "replacement" foam can cost almost as much as the case new-

quote:

Originally posted by Rinehart:
Still baffles me how "replacement" foam can cost almost as much as the case new-

I've wondered about that one myself. I have a couple cases sitting around now that I've just never splurged for new foam.

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:

Wise advice (I’ve suggested it to others myself ). (I know about cutting foam because I have owned the below case for a very long time, and well before the soft case/hard case idea occurred to me.)

In this setup, there’s room for the stuff inside the drag bag plus things not carried in the bag like a spotting scope, tripod (not shown), etc., that are not always carried in the case.

After working with a variety of military units and seeing how guys packed their gear, I started to do the same. When I breakout my Storm case, guys are expecting some scene out of Pulp Fiction where everyone peaks in the case and see's something gleaming and impressive. Instead, my case opens there's a rifle bag, and an assortment of other containers, boxes and other soft-cases packed in. Sorry guys, it's not like the movies, the foam gets removed for all the other gear.

I think the drag bag inside makes the most practical sense. It's flexible and if you change things up, the set up isn't ruined.
The hard cases we had the M24 system in had Styrofoam liners and I don't think they used all the space in the most efficient manner.

I found that using a Proton Hot Wire Cutter THERMOCUT 115/E worked well for making a few custom inserts for Pelican cases.

As a few people have said, getting extra foam takes a bit of research if you want to change things up. I kept the original foam pieces that I cut out so I can add them back in as needs change.

I found that the hardest part was drawing the pattern on cardboard to mark the foam where I wanted to cut (I guess if you a better artist, you may have to do fewer tries). I made templates for each of my weapons and each component I wanted to put in and then did a bunch of sample layouts moving the magazine patterns around until I was happy with the layout.

I did figure out that making the template a little on the smaller side (angle the pen as you trace around the gun or magazine so that it marks closer to that component ensures you have a smaller template) helps so when you mark on the foam with a Sharpie or whatever you use to trace around the template - you can then cut just outside of the line on the foam so you cut off the marked line.

The end result turned out well and it was a fun project. Took a little time and was helpful to try a few times on some practice foam to get the feel for placing the initial hole to get the cutting wire through the foam and then following the outline marked on the foam.

Enjoy...