Beyond Discreet Weapons Carry, Pt 2
In Part One I wrote that weapons and kit carry come in three varieties: obvious, discreet, and disguised. Obvious weapons carry means carrying your weapon or kit in something that obviously contains a weapon or tactical kit.
In Part One I wrote that weapons and kit carry come in three varieties: obvious, discreet, and disguised. Obvious weapons carry means carrying your weapon or kit in something that obviously contains a weapon or tactical kit. Discreet carry means carrying your weapon or kit in something that's only clear to people familiar with it. Discreet carry bags include rectangular, black (or Coyote Tan, or OD green, and certainly camo) cases, MOLLE'ed-up tactical-looking packs and cases, and so on. These low-key or discreet carry packs have their place, but they don't really conceal your weapons status from people who know about them. If not being made is critical to you, you need disguised carry, not discreet carry; you need no-key bags, not low-key bags.
You want bags that look like something an ordinary citizen might carry. If they are black or tan or OD, or have webbing or loop Velcro areas on them, they should look like outdoor gear, not tactical gear. While there are a few (very few) manufacturers making such no-key bags for weapons, there are also a very few manufacturers catering to those that need to carry full kits with complete grayness in hostile or denied areas. After all, most behind-the-lines operations (which includes domestic operations in hostile areas) require a team to have more than just weapons, and often this "more" stuff consists of items that you wouldn't want to be discovered with. You need the capability to mule in packs of gear, all the while not drawing any attention to yourself.
Blue Force Gear currently makes two knapsacks for weapons and gear that are disguised or no-key and are designed to do this. The Pack Discreet Small and Pack Discreet Medium are, respectively, 1000 and 2000 cubic inch packs that are "gray" (actually, red or blue—see part one for what we mean by "gray" in this context) versions of military packs that they make. They could easily pass for bookpacks or a suburbanite's around-town pack. To paraphrase Marisa Tomei's character to Joe Pesci's character in My Cousin Vinny: "they blend" (which has to be said with a strong Jersey accent).
The Small Discrete Pack (pictured here) is very similar to Blue Force Gear's original Denied Area Pattern Pack, which caused quite a storm. The shoulder straps are lightly padded and the main compartment is lined with loop Velcro so that it is compatible with the full line of Blue Force Gear accessory Dappers. There is a sheet of HDPE sewn into the back panel so that you don't have to buy a frame sheet to support heavier loads. There's an exterior pocket with a web daisy-chain and a zippered document pocket on the front of the pack, and an elastic-covered comms/hydration slit in its top center. You can carry quite a bit of gear in the main compartment of this approximately 1000 cubic-inch pack (the medium version is about 2000 cubic inches. The extensive line of Dappers allow you to Velcro together an interior set of organizers and pouches to discreetly carry the equipment to serve just about any tactical mission. Handguns are easily concealed in this pack, and some smaller SMGs could be, too. The overall feel of the unit is of very high quality with heavier material than the commercial packs that it mimics, and larger-teeth zippers.
Mounted on the shoulders, the pack carries tens of pounds quite comfortably, and getting to your gear is a simple as de-slinging and yanking open a zipper-that is, only a couple seconds. The HDPE sheet is particularly helpful in distributing and supporting the pack's loaded weight. If you need to carry significant amounts of supplies, gear or weapons with no one taking a second glance, this bag or its larger brother will do the trick nicely.
