They can be found made from vinyl, Cordura, suede, just about anything with zippers of various quality. They are/were very popular for protection while en route and have even been used for storage for protection against gun safe rash, but I wasn’t a fan----was it too easy to trap rust causing moisture.
I pressed my old wool Army socks for gun safe duty until abandoning them for keeping my fighting tools in the safe au natural and just being extra careful.
My State’s laws now requires handguns to be locked up while transporting and while some rugs are configured to accommodate a padlock, I’ve switched to MTM plastic cases for the job. I still have one pistol rug----a wee beauty made of rough out leather lined with green long nap Billiard (?) cloth that fits my stainless Centennial perfectly. I’ve no idea who the manufacturer was, it’s only marks are UMC and made in USA
I was wondering if any members used pistol rugs, which ones are favorites and what they think of them
I use them for scuff protection in transport — to drop a non-carry pistol into a range bag/box without much worry, or a long gun subject to vehicle vibration and such. For that, I’m not too particular about highest quality or particular details — protect the firearm, reasonably durable, modest price. Recently purchased pistol rugs from MidwayUSA have met those criteria for me. I have the idea that most or all of their house brand soft goods are sourced offshore.
I don’t store guns in rugs or socks. “Stored” in a vehicle would be a hard case; in the house is in a holster or safe rack. One exception is the bedside gun, where the holstered pistol is tucked into a pistol rug zipped up just a few inches from the muzzle end — to sort of “reserve” its place and keep dust accumulation down.
We don’t have any kids and none come to visit without advance warning. I keep my guns in rugs just like that in the picture when they are not in a holster on me. I won’t tell y’all where they are.
I have one for each handgun and the have a small moisture obsorbing plactic thing that I leave in the trigger to keep fingers out. They make taking things to the range easy, just toss them into the range bag and go.
Excellent topic. I’ve had great success with a SKB brand handgun bag that locks and has been designed and built to wick away moisture from the firearm when closed. It also has two zippered pockets on the outside for the magazines. Superb design and quality.
I do also use a silica gel pack inside the soft gun case to wick away moisture as well. All works wonderfully together.
Here’s a description from their website as well as some photos because I know sometimes a picture can help immensely:
"The SKB Dry-Tek Handgun / Pistol Bags feature the patented “Dry-Tek Difference”. The two-layer padding will work in tandem to draw moisture from the inner bag. The inner pad layer enables water to pass through to the outer layer where a remarkable one-way laminate membrane applied to the outer layer allows water molecules to exit the bag, but not to enter. The result, your gun stays dry!
In addition all Dry-Tek handgun / pistol bags feature oversized nylon zippers, slide-through system for padlock security, and exterior pockets for clips and accessories. All hardware is cast and rust repellent."
All of my handguns (avoiding the pistol / revolver debate) came with a hard case from the manufacturer except my Ruger revolver from 1985. For it I have a rug.
