Tactical Operations - Drag Bag Series 2
|
Tactical Operations never seems to be satisfied with what they have, or with just
resting on their laurels, and as such, they continue to improve their rifles
and their other products that they manufacturer. One of these products is their
drag bags. Some may recall that I reviewed their original drag bag several years
ago and you can read that review here. I still use
that bag and it has held up very well, but I had heard they were coming out with
a new version of the bag and I thought I would do a write up on the new bag, as I
have wanted a larger bag to carry my Bravo (KATE) with the suppressor
attached.
I ordered up a new bag in the "coyote brown", which is a limited edition
run of brown colored bags they have in stock right now. The cost is $295 which
is on the high end of the drag bag offerings out there, but certainly not out
of line when comparing to other high quality bags. Tac-ops made a number of
improvements to the bag, none of which are "earth shattering" but they do all
add up to make a better product.
One of the things they improved was the sturdiness of the material and especially
the construction, with more stitching in most all areas, especially in high
stress areas like the handles. These handles were also redesigned and relocated to
better hold the rifle and case balanced when the proper bag size is selected for your
rifle. Many of the features on the old bag are still the same on this new series of
bags, like the shooting matt, shoulder straps, internal pocket for your cleaning rod
(down the spine) etc. So the previous review does still apply to this bag also.
One major and noticeable improvement was the replacement of the "D"
rings on the shoulder straps with a square ring. The reason this was done was
because the "D" rings were found to not be holding the shoulder straps in place
and they were twisting up and generally causing a headache. The square rings prevent
that and work great so far.
There are two sizes of bag, one built for the 24" barrel length rifles, and
one sized for the big bertha rifles. I ordered one of the "howitzer sized" cases,
as Tac-Ops likes to call them, and the size turned out to be just about perfect.
My bravo has a 22" barrel (measured from the front of the receiver, about 23"
if measured from the actual start of the barrel like most manufacturers measure)
and it is threaded for a suppressor. The suppressor is 8" long. The overall
length of my Bravo is 49" with the suppressor attached, and I have about
1.5 - 2" of extra room in the bag with the suppressor attached and the rifle
strapped in.
The muzzle protection pocket inside is actually sized for a suppressor, but
works fine on just a barrel also. There have always been suppressor pockets on
the outside of the Tac-Ops bags, but it has now been redesigned with a cover over the
top of the pocket, and the removal of the drain eyelet at the bottom of the
pocket to prevent any possible marring of the suppressor while the bag is being
drug around with the suppressor in the pocket.
One other really noticeable difference is the physical size of the outside
rear pocket; it is about 6" larger than previous. Some of this is do to just the
larger size of this bag, but I confirmed with Tac-Ops that this pocket was significantly
enlarged on all bags, both large and small.
One other minor improvement I noticed was the replacement of the actual grip
portion of the YKK zippers with just a bit of 550 cord. It is just an added bit of
cleanness to the overall product. All other functionality and quality of the bag
remained on par are better than the previous version of the bag and I see
no reason why this bag will not serve me as well as my previous one, which will
still see extensive use. Tac-Ops, keep up the product improvement, we all
appreciate it!
|
