Background
When it comes to firearms storage and transportation consumers have a ton of different options across the entire price spectrum. You have cheap plastic and foam cases from Plano that from about $15-$20, drag bag style rifle cases for $60-$100, and Fort Knox inspired hard plastic cases designed to absorb the worst the TSA can inflict… all while protecting your favorite Redfield Swarovski glass. Those cases usually start at $200.
When picking a rifle bag, it’s important first to be realistic about your needs. If you’re a casual shooter who makes an occasional trip to the indoor range once every 6 months to shoot your Ruger 556 (great rifle!), you probably don’t need a $200 Pelican Vault.
But this is GunsAmerica and we’re not casual shooters are we? The Savior rifle bag is your standard drag bag style case. These are my go-to because they offer the most well-rounded function for my needs.
Writing a rifle bag review seems pretty straight forward right? All you have to do is talk about the material, construction, and compartments and call it a day.
Well, I wanted to make this informative and entertaining so I decided to torture test a rifle bag from Savior and see what happens. I needed a new rifle bag anyway because my old one from Drago is starting to smell funny from being covered in mud, rain, and hog blood over the last 6 years. I’ve noticed Savior’s ads popping up on Instagram and thought I’d give them a try.
I went to Amazon and ordered the mid-length bag from Savior for $80. It’s 46″x12″ and is designed to fit 2 rifles and an assortment of goodies. After delivery, I was really impressed by how rigid it felt, thick padding is in all the right spots to make carrying this case comfortable. Not to mention, the dark obsidian black color would make Spinal Tap proud.
Features at a Glance
The Savior bag is made out of rigid, heavy-duty Industrial 600D PVC Nylon Fabric. It’s padded to make carrying comfortable and has multiple different carrying options:
- Briefcase style carry
- Padded backpack style arms to haul over your back or
- Drag handles that let you literally drag the bag behind you.
The zippers were incredibly sturdy and secure with paracord loops running thru them making closing and opening the rifle bag super smooth. Running them back and forth I never felt they were ever once at risk of jumping their tracks.
The Savior bag features a large compartment designed to hold 2 separated rifles, a mid-sized compartment for ammo, and targets, and it can even hold 2 pistols, and 2 smaller compartments for holding more ammo, tools, or anything else you can cram in there. Additionally, the front of the bag has MOLLE webbing giving you an extra degree of modularity to how you set your bag up.
Their bags also come in several different color options:
- FDE Tan
- Obsidian Black
- Multicam Original
- Olive Drag Green
- SW Grey
To test how the Savior bag felt when loaded up, I intentionally picked my most bulky rifles:
- Ruger American in 6.5 Creedmoor configured with a Magpul Hunter Stock, extended bolt and muzzle brake
- PSA GF3 AK-47 with a Circle 10 extended charging handle and Midwest Industries optics rail
- 2 Polymer80’s (you can fit way more than just 2 pistols in the mid-sized compartment)
A rifle bag has a seemingly simple job: Protect your rifles and be comfortable to carry. The Savior Rifle bag passes this test with flying colors.
So far so good. But how does it hold up to accelerated wear and tear and the elements?
Torture Test
I beat the hell out of my rifle bags. I load them up way past capacity. I’ve managed to get 4 rifles into a rifle case designed to house 2. I also shoot outdoors so my bags are always exposed to rough terrain, extreme Texas heat, UV light, and random Texas rain seasons. This is the part of my test I was most interested in.
Drag Test
Well, I’m no scientist but to simulate accelerated wear, I put an un-loaded AK-47 inside of the rifle bag and strapped it to the hitch of my truck. I did this because I wanted there to be some weight pushing down on the rifle bag as I drove it across grass, gravel, sand, and dirt to ensure it was maintaining consistent contact.
I drove for about 10 minutes at varying speeds ranging from 8 MPH to 15 MPH. Keep in mind, I consider this drag test to be well outside the realm of what anyone could consider “normal use”.
The only failure point was the MOLLE webbing panel at the front of the bag. It wasn’t even the MOLLE webbing that was damaged though! It was just the seam! Everything was still functional and still intact. Color me impressed.
Texas Water Torture
Before I bought this bag, I primarily used a Drago drag bag. While incredibly rigid and comfortable, the Drago does not hold up well to water. Even though the drag test was fun- testing the water resistance is probably the more practical of the two tests.
I dumped a large mixing bowl of water onto the rifle bag making sure to hit areas prone to pooling, zippers, and compartment flaps.
My expectations were low because of my previous experience with similarly styled bags but wow. Not a drop of water made it into any of the compartments. The Savior rifle bag remained bone dry.
Water test results: The Savior Rifle Bag passed again with flying colors.
Final Thoughts
I’ll be honest, I needed a new rifle bag and thought it’d be fun to do a torture test. Before this, I knew nothing about Savior aside from a handful of Instagram ads. Well, I’m a convert. I went ahead and bought another rifle bag from them and gifted another one to a friend. Buy with confidence. These rifle bags are perfect for my needs. I probably won’t fly with one because my Pelican Vault specializes in solving that problem but for every other use case, Savior has more than earned a fantastic reputation.
Thanks for the review. Saw your post randomly while doing market research.
I’m Chris from Savior Equipment and the failure point that happened in this review has been fixed. We are pushing out a few upgrade to the Urban line of bag, I think you will like it.
Please remember, we offer lifetime replacement warranty and this is covered under our warranty.
I have three of the Savior double rifle bags in various lengths. Each of the 2 backpack carry straps have broken on the largest bag and my M1 Garand and Mauser have hit the ground hard. They need to reinforce the carry straps.
I personally will like to see how all 3 of your backpack straps broke. If you can prove it to me in a picture, I will gladly fully refund you the full amount you paid, and I will send you a replacement free of charge. The only possible way is if you have gotten our very first batch back in 2017-2018 era. All of our new bag have double bar tack and reinforced to withstand 100LB w/ 5,000 drops . Ever since the upgrade, we have yet seen any strap break.
here is my email address:
[email protected]
Bob,
Although I appreciate the review, I just purchased a Savior, I must point out something. You say you purchased the $80 version. However, if the photos here match your purchase, you have/tested the $200 bag. Maybe this is just a miss-wording in final editing, but it’s misleading.
I purchased the $80 bag due the the feature set different from the $200 version as cost was not my first and foremost consideration. I do hope that it also lives up to the above review. If it falls apart like my Drago did many years s back, I’ll right it off as chinesium also as Savior does not state where they’re made. However, the warranty is stout. Hopefully, that will not be needed.
ML
That’s NOT the $200 bag. Urban warfare in multicam is Listed for $209 on the website. These are Std. urban warfare bags that list $99. FYI
this is correct, just confirmed in my order history.
Just checked my invoices and confirmed that i did pay $80 for this bag.
Honestly, our requirement for backpack strap are set to 100LB w/ 5,000 drops. Basically, we load up our bag with 100LB of weight and drop the bag 1,000 time using nothing but the backpack strap to hold it. If your backpack strap broke with just those guns, please let us know because something is obviously wrong.
Feel free to email me directly at [email protected]