Special Projects
DIY Pistol Case
a solution for multiple pistols

- Another Airsoft Odyssey Project
by Yosser


Airsoft pistols, ever noticed how they accumulate and an unintended ‘collection’ builds up? This raises a question - How to carry, store and protect them when travelling between events or IPSC courses? Well, searching around the internet I’ve seen many solutions now. One involved a soft case holding just a couple of pistols and magazines – of course you could just jumble them up in a bag and hope they don’t get too bashed up! And of course you could lug around multiple cases and so on. I often use a small range pistol case for just one pistol and associated magazines that works well enough – but when you have a quite a few ‘favourites’ and your heading down the range for a blast what to do?

Looking around the interwebs I found guncruzer.com – these guys have some great gun storage solutions for real steel that would translate to airsoft really well (check out their Zombie Quick Draw case!)– HOWEVER being in the USA, a 6 pistol case costs $250 then you can add shipping and whatever our good old Govt would rip us off for in Duty & Taxes to the cost, all this probably puts this great kit out of most of our price ranges to be honest.

So what’s the alternative? Make your own is the answer, after figuring out from the dimensions and descriptions that these are just standard Peli cases I realised that these can be sourced second hand from auction sites like ebay and will just require some new foam inserts. Now be aware Peli cases are high quality & make great utility cases, much sort after by camera geeks and the such like which does drive up the price, but occasionally you can find a bargain – the size for this style of build to look out for is the Peli 1550 Case (they can go for between £50 to £70 second hand, new they are silly money) keep your eyes peeled. Replacement ‘Pick & Pluck’ foam can be obtained in the UK from the likes of http://www.case-depot.co.uk/.


Before doing anything, Plan, Plan, Plan. Know what you want to achieve and if necessary use some chalk to mark out what you want to ‘cut-away’. The Peli replacement Pick & Pluck foam helps make this easy as it’s in a grid pattern and has 2 layers that can be ‘customised’. You don’t even need a knife to remove the cut-out sections, as it says ‘Pick & Pluck’.

I was lucky, in that my second hand Peli case came with some foam so I had a little waste material to practice with before setting about the new stuff I had ordered. Of course you may wish to incorporate your own designs and accommodate particular items of kit so maybe drawing plans out of graph paper first would be helpful. For mine, I’ve made it pretty generic for most pistols making the width 2 squares wide by about 17 squares long on the top layer. Spaces for magazines are just 2x2 squares. Keep ALL your cut-outs (just in case!).

The second layer repeats the above magazine cut-outs and just needs to accommodate the pistol handles and trigger guards so I made these to line up with the bottom of the open section but just 2 squares wide again by about 5 or 6 squares long allowing for an angle by off setting the opening a little (as on many pistols the grip extends the overall length of the top slide). Then it’s just a matter of assembly – using some of the off cuts from the 1st section I cut in half about 8 squares of the foam and place this back down the 1st layer, as this supports the barrel length.


Basically it’s really that easy – it will probably take you a few hours work and you have a multiple pistol case – ideal for taking to the range, storing your pistols and gear without scratching, bumping and getting marked up – also allows you to keep your magazines with the correct pistol without mixing them up.


This is a LOT cheaper than buying a ready made one. Just don’t be too tempted to overload and reduce the gaps between pistols as you need some padding between storage bays.

Great for all those airsoft gun, team badges and tactical kit supplier stickers we get from time to time!

Enjoy!
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