Versys Tail bag

I want a bag for the Versys. It doesn't have to be complicated or large, just a bag that I can put a bottle of water in and rainwear.  It is for small things.  Given that I am fairly decent at sewing, I figured I would make it myself, but the cost of the materials would be more than the bag is worth, so I decided to modify a cheap bag from Amazon.

The bag I got was this one as it seemed about the right size: 

G4Free Tactical Sling Bag Backpack Military Rover Shoulder Sling Pack Molle EDC Small Crossbody Chest Pack

The Rack

Looking at the bag and the rack, I figured that the bag would be a pretty good fit to the rack, and I could use the tie downs on the side of the rack to hold the bag in place.  

Looks about right

So how do we move forward with this to make it fit.

Most of the strap just in lips but there is one part where it is part of the bag.  That we will need to cut, so:

Cut Here

Now get your mum's sewing machine and run some grossgrain ribbon over the cut area like so (see below)

Get your mum to help

The ribbon finishes the edge and will stop it from fraying.  It's a bit rough as I have not done this for a while. So now that we have the bag without its strap, we need to figure out some way to fix it to the rack.  It needs to stay in position firmly and there are a number of ways we can do this.

I am not interested in being able to remove the bag quickly so rather than use hook and loop (Velcro) I will use tri-glides.  These can be obtained from local craft shops or of course from Amazon and other online retailers. I am also going to use some 1" webbing for this next part, and this can also be obtained from almost anywhere.  

The bag came with MOLLE webbing on the side (unlikely to ever be used) and the D rings for connecting the strap, so I decided to repurpose those:

Webbing and the D Ring

By carefully cutting the stitching on the webbing I can create a short length of webbing that will hold a tri-glide instead of a D ring. This will allow me to secure my attachment straps at one end of the bag.  The other side has a strip of webbing bar tacked onto the bag, that passes through the rack loops and under the rack.  This can then be tightened with the tri-glides and the bag is secure.

The 1" webbing and tri-glide.

To prevent the back from sliding around too much, I made a belt that can be used to cinch it down tight to the rack.. The smaller straps will stop it from moving too much but it still lifts at speed and just feels a little unsteady.  The belt will hold it tight to the rack.

1.5" webbing with a 1.5" buckle

Wrapping the belt around the bag and tightening it down provides very solid contact to the rack.  I might play around with a few other ideas but for now this will work.

And here it is in all its glory

The bag is the right size for the rack and usually carries my rain jacket, and a bottle of water.  The belt that I made also cinches down the bag to the rack, with the two smaller straps going through the rack loops stopping the bag from moving around.  I have had this up to ~75mph and it seems to be very solid.

Green is never quite green

One of the things that I learned when sewing was to be very careful with color.  Because I spent a lot of time making military types of equipment, color and color matching was very important.  Take green for example; even if we limit ourselves to four greens you can see they vary considerably. 

This means you can't just mix them, you need to pay attention to which green you are using.  Different military and police branches use different greens. The Army tends to use Olive Drab, the border patrol uses Ranger green etc.  Camp green is a bullshit color used by no one except some cheaply made stuff.

It's even worse with camo patterns as there are so many!  Using the wrong fabric color on a piece can can cause problems.

AK47 Rig

A client asked if I would put together a design for a lightweight AK47 chest rig.  These were the sorts of challenges I liked because if one person wanted it, often others would and these sorts of custom designs turned into a product.

4x30 Round Magazines

The design was to hold 4 x 30 round AK mags, but no MOLLE webbing, just the mag pouches.  Closure had to be buckles, and the straps lightweight.

Buckle closure

The pouches themselves were pretty straight forward, but the straps could be arranged in a couple of different ways depending on what the client wanted. As you can see from the pics, I have no included the straps. Most of the time I went with a simple cross over arrangement at the back, but I did make an H shaped harness and that worked well too.

AR15 Magazine Bag

The AR15 magazine bag was a design I put together many years back.  The idea was to have a bag that could carry maybe half a dozen AR15 30 round magazines.  No one ever came out of a skirmish claiming they carried too much ammo!

I played around with a number of prototypes and this was what I came up with.  The bag was small, easy to carry and although not pictured here, had MOLLE webbing on the back to allow connection to a pack or vest if necessary.  With that said, the bag came with a 1.5" webbing strap.

The Bag

This version was able to hold 4 x 30 round mags. Any more than that and it was too heavy really. The picture above shows the webbing strip inserted in the bag to keep the mags organized and easy to retrieve.

Mags tip forward to easy retrieval

The bag flap was quite long and this was deliberate. The flap could be folded back (when carried as a bag rather than using the MOLLE webbing) and the length of the flap allows it to be tucked in behind the bag and the buckle can be used to secure it.

Nice big buckle closure

I didn't make too many of these. I think because if you are carrying a lot of ammo, you generally have a chest rig of some sort, with a capacity of 4-8 mags.  The only folks who might carry something like this is someone with a patrol belt where only 2-3 extra mags are carried.

Another Blast from the Past

I believe I have mentioned a few times in previous posts that I like to sew.  About a decade ago I had a colleague who used to shoot with an AK47.  So for practice, I made him a lightweight AK chest rig.

Nice camo pattern

Going from my memory, I believe the camo pattern was SURPAT, favored camouflage pattern of the Russian FSO.

The build consisted of three full size magazine pouches, with shoulder straps going to a MOLLE pack panel.  The panel then had straps running to the bottom of the chest piece.  All in all, it was a solid and stable rig.  The material was 1000D Cordura.

The smaller magazine pouch on the right of the rig was for his pistol, although I cannot for the life of me remember what that was.  Maybe a Glock 21.

I just wish I had a picture of the completed rig.  I am a fan of the camo pattern though.

Lightweight AR15 rig

I was bored the other day and I thought, I don't have an AR15 chest rig.  I have a belt rig (a sort of patrol rig), but I wanted a very lightweight chest rig.  I don't have plates and I see this as more of an emergency deployment rig.

I have a 3 mag kangaroo pouch which is perfect as I can carry 3 x 30 round AR mags and 3 x pistol mags (most likely a Glock 19).

Kangaroo Pouch

All the pouch needs to create the chest rig is a way to attach it to my body. I used the MOLLE straps on the back of the pouch to secure a chest belt.  The belt is attached by adjustable buckles so I can pull it nice and tight, wear it over something bulky (in winter). 

The top and back strap form a sort of halter top, again adjustable with buckles. As this is a lightweight rig, this is all that is needed to hold the weight.  

The whole rig is very adjustable, which given the variation in weather here, is a good thing.  When I get the chance I will try this with some weight.

The Tear Away Panel

 Time for another sewing project I think.  This time the project was a tear away panel or TAP.  These are belt or pack mounted panels with a pouch that attaches via a large patch of velcro. 

The use case for this type of device, is for first aid kits or trauma kits, and these would be carried by military or police. This configuration makes it easy to grab and use in the case of emergency.

The red webbing on the handle makes the panel easy to identify and give the user something to pull on. All in all, this is a simple design but effective.  It's kind of hard to see from the photos, given that all the material is black.

HK69 Holster

The HK69 is a small grenade launcher.  It’s not every day you get asked to make a holster for a grenade launcher.

Now I was not able to actually take possession of the grenade launcher (shame!) but I had dimensions to work from. The holster needed to be MOLLE mounted but could also take a shoulder strap.

It’s very big!

The Velcro closure across the top is also held in place with a magnet, just for extra security.

Water Bottle Pouch

This was an idea that was given to me by a friend who is a former marine.  One of the issues he had when in Afghanistan was that water bottles were available, and often carried, but most often the method of carry was the pants cargo pockets.  Not ideal.

So I developed this MOLLE pouch that will carry two water bottles.

Inside the pouch there is a webbing strap that stops the bottles from rattling about.

MOLLE webbing for attachment to a pack or similar.

Grommets for drainage and buckle for closure

IWB Magazine Pouches

For those who aren’t sure, IWB means Inside the Waist band.  This is a means of carrying items in a manner that can no easily be detected.  Many things can be carried IWB like pistols, pocket knives and in this case pistol magazines.  This is often the case when concealed carry is required.  Many states in the US allow civilian carry of firearms, but some states only allow this is the carry is concealed, not open.  

I have, at various times, been asked to create IWB magazine pouches and here are a selection of them.

IWB for a pair of 1911 magazines (45ACP)

Bersa 380ACP magazines,  

The Bersa magazines are much smaller than the 1911 mags above.  This pattern also works for the Walther PPK/s and other smaller pistols.

A pair of Glock 17 magazines. (9mm)

And this is what it looks like when worn.  A keen eye will spot the extra belt clips but frankly most people don’t pay that much attention, so they are unlikely to be noticed.

If I pull the T-shirt out of the way, you can see the magazines.  In this case, I am wearing a dual pouch for Glock 19 magazines. (My carry pistol at the time).

AR7 Holster

Not everyone is familiar with the AR7.  It’s a small .22LR caliber survival rifle that breaks down easily for stowage and travel.

This was a custom design one of build for a client. He wanted a holster type pouch that the rifle would fit into, that could be carried in a pack (secured with MOLLE) or could be belt carried.  I’m not sure why you would want to belt carry, but I don’t ask too many questions.

MOLLE webbing

The build used 1000D Cordura in multicam pattern, with plastic sheet sewn into the structure of the pouch to give it rigidity. 

The pouch closure was achieved with two 1 inch buckles.

I was quite pleased with the way this one came out.  It’s a beast of a holster, but attaching this to a MOLLE pack would be simple, and makes carry a survival rifle very easy.

Loose Ammo Pouch

This was one of the first things I designed and sewed together.   The idea was a pouch to hold 50-100 rounds of loose .22LR ammo or similar. 

You can tell from the stitching that this was one of my earlier efforts.  The red lining was a lightweight nylon with a heavier Cordura fabric for the body of the pouch. There is a cover over the pouch that is elasticated so it holds closed but you can get your fingers in there to retrieve the rounds.

This one is the same pouch design but here you can see the red lining is gone and a lightweight rip stop fabric is used.  The pouches were made with both plain and MOLLE backs or belt loops.

Eventually this design led to a number of other designs, and I will be writing about those shortly.

Mini AR Chest Rig

There are a lot of AR chest rigs out there and they range in price from the very cheap to the very expensive.  However I was asked if a small lightweight rig could be fabricated, that took 20 round magazines, rather than the 30 round mags. 

This chest rig used lightweight fabric, and had two MOLLE side panels. The mag pouches were to be open top but the mags held in with elastic.

A close up of the MOLLE side panels

And finally the finished item in use

Ruger 22 Pistol Holster

Occasionally I would get commissions for unusual custom pieces.  In this case, it was a holster for a 22LR Ruger MKII pistol, with optics. The holster was to be MOLLE compatible.  

Ruger MKII pistol with optics

This is what I came up with.   The holster is pretty large and has a Velcro closure on the flap.

Wooo! Guns!

I don’t have any pics of the holster in use but I was assured by the customer that the holster performed exactly as he wanted it to, 

Special Forces Shovel Cover

This was a one off that I created for myself.  I picked up one of these special forces shovel just to keep in my truck but I wanted a cover for it.  There were two reasons for this; the shovel itself had really sharp edges and they needed covering, and I wanted a way to carry the shovel if I went hiking.

Shovel Cover Front

The front of the cover is quite plain, but on the back, I put MOLLE webbing so that I could attach it to a pack or a belt.

Shovel Cover back showing the MOLLE webbing

While the edges of the shovel are indeed very sharp, the inside of the cover uses thick plastic to protect the fabric.

It fits!

I still have the shovel and the cover. I was so pleased with the design that I made a second one in black, and I think I still have that one around here somewhere too.

This was a fun one to make.