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Thursday, September 30, 2010

Saddleback Bag‏

hi ferfal,

you posted a picture of your traveling gear, including the saddleback messenger bag. could you tell me what size, model, and color it is? it's the coolest bag i've ever seen and i want one. it's hard to tell the exact color and size on their website.

thanks in advance,

peter

i bought your book and check your blog everyday. you're doing a fantastic job.


Thanks a lot Peter.
Yes I get that comment a lot regarding my bag. It looks pretty nice. :-)
The small nicks and scratches give it more personality even if they can be easily removed with some leather grease.
All that gear fits into the Saddleback medium briefcase in the upper right corner.

Saddleback leather motto is “They’ll fight over it when you’re dead” and there’s probably some truth to it.
Mine is a dark coffee brown briefcase. Medium size, the smallest one they have. These briefcases also convert into backpacks using the strap and the rings attached to it.
Please trust me on this (Saddleback says so too): Don’t buy the L or XL models unless you’re a very big guy, (+6 feet high quarterback big, not state champion pie eater big). Even then I’d advice you not to go for the bigger models. Saddleback briefcases are the toughest leather briefcases in the planet, but that comes at an expense. The leather (of excellent quality) is easily twice as thick as an ordinary bag. This makes it very rugged but also very heavy.
 A Dark Coffee Brown Leather Briefcase, Backpack, Handbag "They'll Fight Over When You're Dead" (Medium) 
A Dark Coffee Brown Leather Briefcase, Backpack 
The medium size is just about right. You can fit a laptop, some documents, bottle of water, survival kit and other goodies you might be carrying. If you’re smart about it, you can fit everything you need in there. A bigger briefcase would be heavier and fully loaded all but impossible to carry all day.
I took mine to my trip to USA, kept it with me at all times. Excellent bag, can’t recommend it enough.
A Dark Coffee Brown Full Grain Leather Thin Briefcase (Medium) "They'll Fight Over It When You're Dead" 
If you’re a smaller frame person (or just prefer to go lighter) , you might want to consider their thin version instead.


FerFAL

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought you were trying to blend in? That bag looks expensive!

-Junker

Anonymous said...

does your bag violate the
gray man concept? if it's
a "fight over it after you're
dead" bag, wouldn't someone
want to fight you for it while
you're alive?

ghpacific said...

This looks like a great cottage industry product one could easily develop and sell at farmers markets and tail-gate booths. Cool. Just don't call it a man-purse.

FerFAL said...

Murse is one of the sissiest words. I call it a shoulder bag. :-)
Its not different from musette bags or what they used to call bread bags.

I actually was thinking about that. I have some excellent Argentine leather that I'll be using for a knife sheath. Its very good quality and the same type of leather can be used to make very tough shoulder bags.
FerFAL

ghpacific said...

Hey, how about incorporating some kevlar in it and use it for protection? Beats carrying a phone book around.

FerFAL said...

Well, its easier than you think. Nick from bulletproof me (http://bulletproofme.com/ff.shtml) he sells ballistic panels that you can put into a day pack or briefcase and make an improvised ballistic protection. Carried in front in a daypack wouldn't be that crazy, specially with school and university shootings in these "gun free zones".


FerFAL

Shambhala said...

So how easy is it to pull out your pistol from one of those murses? :)

honestly, you can carry it easily, plus a magazine or two, but is it easy to take out?

Anonymous said...

in the USA during pioneer days,
it was called a "possibles" bag.

FerFAL said...

Shambhala, these bags have a big exterior pocket (on the side that would go against your body) I suppose its meant for a magazine or newspaper but you can keep a serivce size pistol there, and speed and location of the gun would be almost like a drop leg holster. You have side pockets too on both sides for a bottle of water. You oculd keep a couple mags there if you want.
It is a funcitonal, cool bag.

FerFAL

Anonymous said...

$500 for a bag??

Not only is it out of my price range it would draw a lot of attention to oneself.

For $500 I could buy another Glock or a crapload of ammo!

Anonymous said...

A word of caution. "Bullet proof" material is meant to be worn on a person. Where the body gives it a little mass behind it. Hanging an insert on a clothes line or backed with a cement wall will cause it to fail. Its kinda late here, but I'll try to find some "proof" tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

Not too gray man, IMHO.

Also, leather is just too heavy;you start off wasting pounds that could be crucial gear instead.

I like fine leather but refuse to carry it.

Except on my feet.

Steve

Greg in CA said...

Nylon is washable, lighter, cheaper, more common, less conspicuous, better in rain.

Choosing leather over nylon needs some reasoning that's missing.

Unless it matches your chaps! ;-)

Anonymous said...

"Choosing leather over nylon needs some reasoning that's missing."

Here's the reasoning: because life goes on even in hard times, and even a Grey Man wants a little nicety to his day.

Goldsaver said...

20oz of silver? I'm on the fence on this one. Is hand made and multi generation quality. Might buy it for my Chirstmass present.

FerFAL said...

Well, its a bag so to begin with you at least are carrying your stuff, which is better than not carrying it at all. This particular leather is heavy but of extremly good quality, best quality wolrd wide I'd dare say. Its not going to rot on you if it gets wet.
As I said before you're just anoter joe with a leather briefcase and not the tactical dude with the tactical Maxped bag. At least around here, there are lots of leather briefcase and I found people can't tell if its the expesnive kind or not they just see a leather bag.
Still I moslty carry the canvas musette bag, much lighter. But this one works too, its bigger and looks awesome. :-)
FerFAL

thsu said...

I saw an earlier comment about carrying a firearm in a shoulder bag.

Don't.

Always carry your firearm in a way that is physically attached to your body.

If you put your shoulder bag down, if someone snatches it away, if someone even just grabs your bag, you no longer have control over your firearm.

It should never, ever, be that simple to lose control over your firearm.

Anonymous said...

If you hug the ballistic panel/bag to your chest and shoot one handed while moving. Then it seems a legitimate form of body armour, as long as you train with it.

Might come in handy for very hot locations or where you can't get away with covert body armor.

Shambhala said...

"thsu said..."

generally I would agree with you. But since I'm 5' 9", lift weights, and weigh 207lbs, I think the chances of having it taken away from me are very small. I keep a fairly large folder on my person at all times also.