I have a problem. Anytime I do an outdoor range trip Or take a class, it’s a panic the night before or morning of to shove extra stuff into my range bag. It’s making these trainings not fun and full of stress.
I have a standard range bag, medium size, for pistol shooting at an indoor range. It’s a backpack, which is nice because I might have to stand in line to check in. And it has generally only what I need. Paper targets, marker, index cards, ammo, mags, eye pro, ear pro.
Only keep four things in there for emergencies. Multi tool, TQ, glock armorer tool, and small stuck case rod.
But when I do an outdoor range session, with rifles, or if I take a class, I find myself grabbing stuff and shoving it into my existing bag, overstuffing it, unorganized, and usually forgetting stuff. Then I show up at this distant location I put money/time into and missing something important.
So I’m thinking about putting together an overkill range bag. For example, spare set of ear pro. Sometimes I bring a friend who is a non-shooter. Not often, but it happens. Mag LULAs. Usually I’d just grab the one specific to the weapon platform I’m using and put it into a bag if I’m doing a class. Since if it’s not a class, I’ll just load up 5 to 10 mags and not need to reload mags during the trip since I won’t shoot more than 200 to 300 rounds in a few hour non-class session, not unless it’s 1990s ammo prices.
So maybe I put all of my maglulas into this maximum range bag. And 99% of the time they go unused, but on the day of the trip, I avoid having to panic shove shit into my smaller bag.
I own this stuff and have to store this stuff somewhere anyway. This idea moves the stuff from drawers/Rubbermaids into an actual bag or rollerboard or heck, maybe it’s just a Rubbermaid container. Since I’m not going to be too far from my car when doing outdoor range/class events.
An alternative to building out a huge range bag is a checklist. So I don’t have to think about what extra to shove in my standard range bag. If it’s a carbine class, bring these X additional items. If a friend is coming, bring extra PPE. So I’ll still be shoving stuff into my bag but will not have the stress of remembering or worrying what I forgot.
Modules might help. Like a spare PPE module for a friend so I’m not grabbing 4 things, I’m only grabbing one (a pouch with the 4 things in it). Module with spare AR parts for field repairs.
Anyone else have this issue or want to discuss ideas?