Please excuse my run on sentences and possible rambling...I usually put way too much thought into trivial stuff like this. I didn't see a lot of discussion about these case kit's here so I figured I'd share my experience so far. I purchased the DAKA Pelican 1750 kit and the angled block add-on kit. This was copy/pasted from a post but I figured it deserved its own thread.
Okay so here we go: If you approach this wrong, it can be an incredibly frustrating experience. I I approached this with the mindset that I would use for any standard foam case. I wanted to maximize my space and efficiency so I can cram as much stuff in here as possible. The more I have in the protective hard case, the more I'm protecting right? Well, that's only right when you have the luxury of cutting custom lines.
With the DAKA, you're bound to the increments of the grid. I moved these blocks and rifles around for about an hour and a half with ever increasing frustration before I walked away and reapproached it some time later with a different frame of mind. I even tried splitting the uppers from the lowers, having them sit straight vs. at an angle, scopes facing in, scopes facing out, ugh... This time, I just wanted to get the rifles to fit. I'm already packing another hard box with all of my soft goods, so there's no reason why mags and electronics can't just go in there. The case just needs to protect the rifles and nothing else.
With that frame of mind, I was successful. Don't worry about efficiency of space or block usage, just make the rifles fit. I'm pretty happy with the overall result. Both rifles are extremely secure with no wiggle room in any direction and they even go in and out of their respective spots with ease (no needing to "push" foam out of the way to make section squeeze into place). Everything is within the raised outer boarder of the foam, meaning no parts are close enough to touch the plastic case itself (the Holosun looks close in this picture but it's just the lighting).
I'm not thrilled with the pistol placement, but it's the only spot I could fit it and get it even slightly secured. It can't escape the section that it's in, but it does wiggle a bit. It's not as secure as the rifles, not even close. But I'm also less concerned with the handgun getting jostled around so it may be a non-issue.
Some notes and a complaint:
- Magpul forgot to add the base layer of foam to my box. I need to call them about that and see if they can rush one to me, I need this case this weekend. The system does still work without that bottom foam, but the grid angles up on the left edge due to the wheel humps in the case. Also the hold against the lid isn't as tight as it could be without the supporting bottom foam, but it's tight enough to handle a ride in the trunk.
- Called Magpul and they're sending the bottom foam and putting that order in front of the line so it should get to me before this weekend**
- I honestly didn't need the angled block kit for this. I used three pieces of the angled kit because those pieces just fit the spot slightly better than the standard 1x2 and 1x3 blocks, but I could have done this with everything the case kit includes in it. That's not to say those angled blocks won't work great for a future setup with different guns, just my findings in this instance.
- I wrote the above before I tried fitting the handgun in. With trying to fit the handgun, I actually adjusted the rifle placement very slightly to allow more room in that top left corner and that opened up more opportunities that the angled blocks did fit into quite well so I'm very glad I had those. I still don't think it's a necessity, but they were certainly a good option to have. I do see Magpul adding to this in the future, as there's definitely a case for more shapes and sizes. Single 1x1 blocks, maybe even square plugs with a round top to secure a handgun by the trigger guard (think Glock factory case) or cubes with varying thicknesses on each side so you can rotate them to fill those odd gaps as needed.
- With stippling and rough textures being the standard now days, I see those spots wearing out the blocks eventually. You can try to avoid block contact in those abrasive locations, but sometimes you just can't help it ( the rough stippling on my B5 grip is on the front and back, contact couldn't be avoided). Luckily spare blocks are cheap so this isn't really an issue, just an observation.
- You definitely have to be careful with buttons and switches. The rifle with the light on it, I needed to block the top side somehow and my only real option was forward of the optic. Right in the middle of that large space is my light's switch and the most convenient place for a block was right on that switch. This material is absolutely 100% stiff enough to actuate a momentary light switch if the weight of the rifle is pressed into it. This Cloud gets HOT so I can see some melted foam if that were to happen. Luckily I was able to find a spot on the muzzle (not too crazy about that either) where a block would fit and keep things secure. I'd much rather block the rail, but I just couldn't get anything to fit and clear the light switch at the same time, and I don't trust myself to remove the battery every time I put the rifle in the case.
