Maxpedition Active Shooter Response Bag Review

Jan. 15, 2015
Officially called the “Mag Bag” on the Maxpedition website, and available in two- or three-magazine versions, the Mag Bag is ideally suited for active shooter response.

It’s been over fifteen years now since the events at Columbine High School inspired the Active Shooter Response protocol explosion. Since that time we’ve seen response strategies change and evolve and some of the most knowledgeable instructors out there still disagree on what the best strategy is.  The most honest ones will tell you what they would do if they were responding to such an event at the school of their own child(ren). What none of them disagree about is the need to carry more than just your usual duty belt and equipment into the building in such a response. They might disagree about how to carry the items they all suggest you should have.  One solution is the Active Shooter Response Bag from Maxpedition.

Officially called the “Mag Bag” on the Maxpedition website, and available in two- or three-magazine versions, the Mag Bag is ideally suited for active shooter response.  Let’s take a look at the design features and why I view it as the near-perfect bag to be kept in your trunk right next to your patrol rifle.

Before we get into the bag, I need to be ugly honest up front: I prefer a response vest to every bag out there.  Why?  The body armor we cops typically wear, in my opinion, needs to be upgraded if we’re going into a known high risk environment.  Active Shooter events are known high risk environments.  Further, they are events where we specifically are called upon to put ourselves into the line of fire, potentially taking rounds to keep those rounds from hitting the children we’re there to protect.  Knowing all that, if I can don a vest, complete with better armor – or at least duplicating the concealed armor I have on – and carrying the equipment I need while keeping both my hands free, I feel that’s our best option.

Many of us can’t afford to exercise that option. We can’t afford the extra vest, the armor upgrades, the pouches, etc. to prepare that piece of equipment just so we can leave it in our trunk day in and day out. The next best option is a bag we can grab, sling and go when we grab our patrol rifle out of our trunk.  If your patrol rifle is in a lock in the passenger compartment of your car, your response bag may still be in your trunk… hopefully on top of all the other stuff or off to one side where you can quickly grab it without digging. TIME is of the essence.

If you’re grabbing that one bag, it should contain everything you think you’ll need as you go into that high risk environment.  Some of the items recommended to be kept in that bag are:

  • Extra magazines for your rifle. Some experts say one extra is enough. Others say two. Yet others say as many as you can carry.  Just remember, once you’re in that building, you can’t go back out and get some more until after the event is ended – and then you won’t need more, so carry whatever you think you MIGHT potentially need.
  • Extra magazines for your pistol.  If your rifle malfunctions or if you run out of ammo for it, your pistol is what you have. Be able to feed it.
  • Basic trauma supplies.  If you take a round, you’d better be able to treat yourself and extract yourself because the rest of your team, if you have one with you, will be focused on hunting bad guys.  None of them is going to stop and help you put on a tourniquet or apply a pressure bandage.  Make sure you have what you need to treat a bullet hole, or two, and then double those supplies so that when the shooting does stop you can start helping others who have been wounded.
  • Search, movement and security supplies.  This can include door chocks, cord for tying doors shut, colored tape (for various scenarios), a SERE mask (basic smoke filtration mask to wear if you don’t have a full pro-mask), duct tape, magic markers and more.

Now, let’s take a look at the Mag Bag from Maxpedition.  The design features we need to concern ourselves with, as published on the Maxpedition website Mag Bag product page (three magazine pocket version) are:

  • Overall size: 12"(L) x 5.5"(W) x 9"(H)
  • Main: 10" x 4" x 9" Loop lined for CCW or other modular accessories
  • Front: 3x (three) 3" x 2" x 7.5" Magazine pouches, with elastic retention.  Each pouch holds 2x 30 rnd 5.56mm NATO mags, 1x .308 mag, or 1x 30 rnd AK-47 mag
  • Left: 4 rows, 2 channels MOLLE (no spaces between webbing, equal to 2 rows, 2 channels PALS)
  • Right: 2 (two) 1" x 1.5" x 5.5" Pistol mag pouches, with elastic retention. Fits Glock, 1911, other pistol magazines
  • Back: quilted, with 1" webbing waist belt with SRB closure
  • Shoulder Strap: 1.5" webbing, with dual SRB attachments; breathable non-slip shoulder pad (removable).  Adjusts from 52" max to 28" min.

Let’s take a look at those features as applied to answering our needs and requirements of such a response bag.  The front face of the bag has three magazine pouches which will hold two 30-round magazines each for the typical AR we see in patrol vehicles today.  That’s a total of six magazines or 180 extra rounds of ammo.  While there are still some folks who will say that’s not enough, it’s the equivalent of the average infantry load out for a combat soldier.  Let’s take on faith that it is enough for lack of any easy way to carry more.

On the left end (if you hang it around your neck and look down at it, front facing away from your body), is MOLLE webbing that allows you to attach a pouch of choice.  You can mount a gear pouch, water bottle pouch, another magazine pouch, etc.; whatever you feel your greatest need is for expansion of what the bag will carry.

On the right end are two pistol magazine pouches that will hold just about every pistol magazine used by contemporary law enforcement today.  With Glocks being most common, and an assortment of high capacity 9mm/.40S&W caliber handguns making up the large majority of the rest, you’d be unique if YOUR pistol magazines won’t fit in those pouches.

The main compartment offers 360 cubic inches of storage space for those other supplies we discussed.  The inside of both the front and back face are loop lined (as in hook-and-loop) so that you can secure modular accessories thusly equipped.  I know some folks who like to carry an additional pistol, so this feature would allow you to secure a holster, etc. if you see the need.  I’m surprised Maxpedition doesn’t provide a divider or two that could be position adjusted to further compartmentalize the interior space.

The shoulder strap is adjustable and there is also a strap to go around your waist that is adjustable and secures with a quick release buckle.  With practice, once you’ve adjusted the shoulder strap and the waist strap to the proper size to fit yourself, you can don this bag – grab it, throw it over your neck/shoulder and secure the waist strap – in about five seconds.

The test model I have is OD Green in color, but the Mag Bag is available in black, foliage green, tan and a “hunter” version which is tan with blaze orange magazine pouch flaps to increase visibility. On the range, reloading from the magazine pouches proved easy after a bit of practice. One word of caution: Be cognizant of how you place the magazines in the pouches.  One of the things we teach, to increase speed and ease of reloads, is to have the magazines in your pouches on your support side with the bullet noses pointing toward your strong side.  The same goes for putting rifle magazines in these pouches: put them in with the bullet noses facing forward so when you grab one for a reload it’s already facing the right way in your hand for most efficient feeding into the rifle’s mag well.

Reloading my handgun from the two pistol magazine pouches proved equally easy after a small bit of familiarization and practice.  Positioning and placement still matter, so pay attention.

A Google search revealed some online retailers selling this product for as little as $103 and change; some with free shipping.  That’s a good price for a bag with these features from a quality manufacturer like Maxpedition. I consider it a good option for a trunk-kept go-bag and would recommend it if you’re in the market for such.

Stay safe!

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