Range Bag For My M4

[Colt W Knight]

Hello All,

I am new to this forum, and to be quite honest, leatherwork. Growing up in a horse family, I have always loved leather, especially saddles. As a teenager, I made several crude knife holsters and even a few pistol holsters, but nothing worth bragging about.

When I was working on my undergraduate degree, I didn't have time for hobbies, and I didn't get to make much of anything.

Afterwards, I got back into wood working, and started building guitars. As a resutl, I decided to start working with leather again to make leather straps with my customers names.

Now that I am in graduate school, I don't have the time to build a lot of guitars, but Tucson has two leather stores. I have been getting some ideas, and I want to pursue this leather working hobby further.

My first undertaking, making a nice range bag for new Colt M4. Commercial range bags were all a foot too long, and designed for "mall ninjas" and "suburban commandos" with pockets for 37 magazines, and webbings for securing all your zombie killing accessories.

[Colt W Knight]

I can admit freely that I have no idea how I am suppose to do this, and I have never had any training or tutorial books on the subject. Please bare with my mistakes.

Shipping paper has worked for me when drawing out rough templates.

Rough outline

Getting an idea about how much width to allow for on this bag

My highly technical centerline method

[Colt W Knight]

Perimeter marking. I decided 1.5" would give me enough room for the rifle to slide in easily, but still fit in the bag securely.

I know straight lines are easier, but why make something custom if your are going to go generic.

Expensive drafting tool...

I find these utility knives cut pretty well with new blades

[Colt W Knight]

Fit test

I was a little worried about the handle area

So I added a little more material. Just taped on some wings and recut

Cut out the leather, and rechecked fit

Bought this tool for this project. Wow, it works nice

I have never stitched leather before, and I have some limiting hand tremors that tend to prevent me from doing a lot of repeated/tedius hand work. I liked the idea of these punches I saw at the store, and bought a set.

[Colt W Knight]

I am not a fan of plush lining or synthetic lambs wool, so I bought the real thing. No fuzzies with real wool. I hate fuzzies, and I especially don't want fuzzies in my M4.

I was sure how the two pieces of leather would mate up, so I cut the wool larger. I was worried that when I fold the leather like a taco, that the inside would protrude on the outside and wreak havoc on my whole setup.

Two firsts for me.

1) stitching - The jerk at Tandy lied to me about the HD needles I supposedely bought. Ended up breaking all of them. Went back, talked to someone who knew what they were doing, and got some what he called "harness needles" which worked perfect.

2) Handles

Place for carry strap attachment. In hind sight, I wish I would have sew in some brass D rings

[Colt W Knight]

Something that I haven't a clue about - Art/tooling/carving. Please forgive my crude artwork and skills. This is actually the first thing I have ever tooled into leather that wasn't just stamps. I used a ruler and a beer cap to draw the flower, and free handed the leaves.

Added my initials

Dyed the rest with Fiebings British Tan. I learned a lot of lessons about dyeing doing this large surface area that I never encountered with guitar strap and holster sized projects. I like how it turned out though. It looks like a Hereford bull.

[Colt W Knight]

I used contact cement to hold the sheepskin to the shoulder leather. I left about a 2" perimeter area unglued so I could stuff a zipper in there.

Then I trimmed the skin even around the edge, and beveled the wool as to not get stuck in the zipper.

I fretted about stitching the zipper in for a while. First, I couldn't find the zipper I wanted in the length I needed. I ended up buying a sleeping bag zipper. Secondly, I didn't know how I was going to keep the zipper even while stitching. Thirdly, I was afraid I would spend hours stitching, and it wouldn't line up properly. Fourth, I was afraid the zipper would get in a bind around all my curners. Fifth, how the heck am I going to find the hole under all the wool? Turns out I worried for nothing. Non of these were any trouble at all.

I was very pleased with my results

[Samalan]

Nice job!

[TexasJack]

Always cool to see a new project - and especially one as nicely documented at this.

Now, of course, you need something to carry your PMags.

Thanks for posting this!!

[Colt W Knight]

Always cool to see a new project - and especially one as nicely documented at this.

Now, of course, you need something to carry your PMags.

Thanks for posting this!!

I can put (3) 30 round PMags in this bag along with the riffle. 1 just above the barrel, and 2 above the buttstock.

[katsass]

Well CWK, my only comment at this time is -- be sure to NOT keep your shooter in that case for too long a period of time AND be sure to wipe the gun down with an oily rag every you remove it. Sheep wool has the tendency to hold moisture and many a nice rifle has ended up with not so pretty orange dots all over it. Mike

[Samalan]

Mike what would you use i will be making one for my brother and need the advice thanks. Stan

[jackd942]

Very nice, and thanks for the detail...now I just need to buy an M4 so I can make a bag for it...

[katsass]

Samalan, I've made a few over the years and initially I used A heavy cotton flannel with a fairly dense 1/2" foam witch was fitted between the outer shell and the flannel interior. After about 6 years one of them came back because the foam dried out and turned to little bitty pieces of ----- stuff. (we live in the desert) From then on I lined my rifle and shotgun soft cases with dense batting (from a fabric store) sandwiched between the shell and the heavy cotton flannel. Here are a couple of pics. The first was made for my daughter-in-law (before she was), and fits her Winchester Mod-12. The second is my son's, and fits a Beretta A-302 which has a 10ga barrel with a 12ga chamber. The two of them shoot trap. Hope this helps. Mike

[Renoir]

Nice work! ambitious for a first big project, but came out really nice.

[Samalan]

Mike thanks for the info the handles on the first one are very nice i hope i can make something half as nice as those. Trap was my game also then i had a rather rough fall well that's history. but the guy that taught me trap was a very dear friend he was a wyoming sheriff then dedham PD and world class trap shooter! trap gun # was TY 1939 wow nothing but smoke! god knows i miss him.Thanks for the info Mike.