In today’s article, veteran hunter and outdoorsman Wayne van Zwoll evaluates the Alps Outdoorz Waterproof Rifle Case. Designed as a kind of dry bag for your gun, this soft-sided case may be just what you need on your next hunt. The Waterproof Rifle Case reviewed here is personally owned by the author.
The freighter canoe pelted us with salt spray as it knifed the hard chop. In a wolf-fringed parka and mukluks, the Inuit in its stern nursed the laboring Evinrude east through great fields of ice. The Arctic Ocean writhed, dark beneath the gunwales. October skies matched its mood. Cold to my bones, I huddled over the rifle, ill-shielded from the elements in its soft canvas sleeve.
It may have been on that long-ago caribou hunt that I first craved a “dry bag” for a rifle — the equivalent of the rubberized duffel bags standard on white-water raft trips. A waterproof case, it would have padding enough to cushion the rifle on tall water or strapped to a sawbuck saddle in a mule-train wreck.
It would be pliable — no fixed dimensions, no hard corners so it could squirm into the confines of a Super-Cub cabin or slip beneath canoe thwarts. The material would be stout enough to resist tears and punctures. In cold weather, this case would house the rifle at night under the stars, instead of drawing condensation in a warm cabin or tent.
The Alps Outdoorz Waterproof Rifle Case
Alps Outdoorz didn’t exist back then. But it’s now one of the most respected suppliers of no-nonsense gear for hunting and wilderness travel. I favor its backpacks, among many products that impress me for their clever design, tough construction, and utility and comfort on the trail.
Now Alps has delivered what came to mind as the Arctic Ocean hosed me in that bucking canoe decades ago.
The new Waterproof Rifle Case is made of abrasion- and rip-resistant 500 D welded PVC material. It’s olive green in color; so too a 4 x 4-inch swatch of patching, provided with glue to fix unlikely nicks. A thick layer of high-density, closed-cell flotation foam lies between this shell and an orange polymer liner. Pinching the empty case, I feel about an inch of padding — so half an inch all around rifle and scope.
There’s no zipper. The case closes by rolling up its open end and snapping the pinch-tab buckle, per the closures common on dry bags. Compression straps of stout webbing, with pinch-buckles, snug the case about the rifle and can be used to secure a fishing rod, shooting sticks, a tripod, a spare canoe paddle — just about anything linear. They can also lash the case and contents to a wing spar.
What Guns Fit in the Waterproof Rifle Case?
This case is blessedly generous: 57 x 11 inches. Rolled three times in closing, it swallows a 53-inch rifle; five rolls still allow room for a 49-inch rifle. As most sporting rifles are about 20 inches longer than their barrels, even 26-inch barrels and suppressed rifles have plenty of room.
Scopes? Alps says its Waterproof Rifle Case will take rifles measuring up to 10 ½ inches “top to bottom” — from the top of the scope to the rifle’s lowest point. Because this case flexes, you needn’t count the stock’s toe as the lowest point. On most modern rifles, that would be the base of the grip or a long magazine (best removed anyway).
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Still, it occurred to me a bulky scope might test this limit. So, I found a rifle with a tall, steep thumbhole grip and a scope whose 56mm objective bell won’t enter many soft cases or scabbards. It slid compliantly into the Alps, proof for me that this case will accept many scopes in high mounts, and those with tall elevation dials.
Is It Really Waterproof?
Really waterproof? Yes.
Inserting a rifle and giving the closure three rolls, then buckling, I put the case in the grass under a yard sprinkler. Water beaded, then dribbled off, defeated. The rifle emerged dry. I’m convinced it would have remained so after a dunking.
While the company does not hawk buoyancy as a feature of its Waterproof Rifle Case, I expect that, properly rolled and clasped over a rifle of ordinary weight and dimensions, it would resist sinking for a time.
Easy to Carry
My sample case missed a trip into Wyoming’s Washakie Wilderness, so I can’t say how it fares atop a pack mule. Well roped onto a load, it would cushion the rifle from trail shocks and shield it from weather. Mules deciding to rodeo and horses that stumble off cliffs can destroy just about anything shy of cast iron skillets. The hard polymer case I used on that recent trip had been splintered and a latch torn off by such antics. I taped it shut.
But most back-country travel is less violent, and as the Alps Waterproof Rifle Case weighs just 2½ pounds, it’s not an undue burden strapped to a pack-frame. Besides the carry handle, it has an adjustable, detachable shoulder strap.
Pilots and the hunters they ferry should like this new case. With a rifle, it’s far easier than a hard case to tuck into the cabin of a bush plane, and it won’t scar the interior. Empty, it folds up neatly and stores in a small space. The muzzle end has a D-ring for hanging.
Affordable, and a Shotgun Case Too
Affordable at a penny short of $100, the Waterproof Rifle Case seems to me ideal where a hard case is too awkward, but a standard soft case would offer the rifle inadequate protection.
There’s a shotgun version, too. Of the same materials, in olive green or “DU tan,” the Waterproof Shotgun Case measures 58 x 9 inches, weighs a pound less than its rifle counterpart, and retails for about $70.
Alps lists what it calls a “Floating Shotgun Case” in three camouflage patterns: RealTree Max-7, DU Mossy Oak Shadow Grass Habitat and DU Mossy Oak Original Bottomland. At 59 x 9 inches, it accommodates 28-inch barrels on repeaters, even those with extended chokes. Loops in a zippered mid-section pocket store shotshells, choke tubes.
These $60 cases boast fold-over closure and the fill of Alps Outdoorz Waterproof Rifle and Shotgun cases. A “Floating Double Shotgun Case” accepts two shotguns, either side of a padded divider ($70). It has twin zippered pockets.
Final Thoughts
I’ve hunted with people who fret that a rifle’s zero might shift in transit, or that salt spray en route to a waterfowl blind will rust a prized shotgun. For these hunters — actually, anyone who cares about their firearms afield — Alps Outdoorz Waterproof Rifle and Shotgun cases merit a close look!
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