Good Way to Carry Big Khuk

C

cliff355

Joined
Apr 19, 2003
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Check out the Swiss Rifle Pack at www.cheaperthandirt.com I've got one of these and they are excellent. There is an internal channel which will carry a Winchester muzzel down or scoped rifle muzzle up. BUT: Take the frog off your long-nosed AK or GS and slide it into this sleeve from the top and you have a high-speed low-drag way to haul said impliment. No tieing it to the pack or anything.

A rifle must be considered "cased" if carried in this pack, since there is no quick way to get it out. I think this is the clear rig for khuks though.

I got my pack seven years ago and they haven't had them in stock since. Mine cost seventy bucks, but these are going for about half that.
 
Cliff, I think you need to trim the trailing period after the URL.
 
The foot long plastic tie downs for bundling electrical wires together work good enough to tie my 20" sirupati inside the back of the truck seat so it's stays where I put it, vertically behind my left back when driving.
 
So basically the sheath would be between the bag and your back? How comfortable is that? It also looks like it would be tough to re-sheath the khuk if the sheath is directly behind your head.
 
Skeletor:

It is probably tough to tell from the pics, but the rifle/khuk/whatever is inside the bag, on the "bag side" of the internal frame. It is contained in a canvas sleeve which has an opening on the bag bottom, and comes up near the hole in the bag's top flap. That way you can put other stuff in the pack without scratching whatever is in the sleeve, and withdraw the item in the sleeve without catching on things in the pack. Sounds dumb, but it works - like most Swiss stuff.

This is no quickdraw setup and you would have to take the pack off or sling by one strap to re-holster. Rifles are a bit slow to get in and out, and the only time I carry them this way is before and after legal shooting hours.
 
I just got the pack that I ordered today and I'm wondering if you could answer a question. There are two leather straps by my kidneys, what the heck are they for? I though I could tie a blanket to the bottom of the ruck but the straps are too high for that. I like the pack but I need to figure out how to strap a sleeping bag to it and try to get the mold stink out of it.
 
Don't know about those straps. Mine didn't come with any, but there are various leather fixtures sewn on which will allow straps to be attached. It is hard to say what the Swiss used these for but there was probably some logic behind it.

This evening I will dig that rifle pack out and examine it more closely for possible ways to attach a sleeping bag. There is bound to be some way to do it.

One way to clean those packs is get a garbage can, fill up a ways with hot water and Woolite and throw the pack in. Let it soak for a good long time and then start rinsing. It takes a while to rinse, but they come out pretty clean and don't smell of mold, etc. I flip mine upside down over a Peet's Shoe Dryer to dry, but you could hang it outside to air dry just as well. The leather straps will have to be oiled up, but soaking doesn't hurt them.

How does your khuk fit in there?
 
I think I figured the straps out, they draw the big straps (the ones that go over your shoulders) closer to your body. It sort of tightens the big straps which raises the bag higher on your back. I let the ruck air out and it seems ok, also went through and oiled all of the leather. I put my WW2 in and decided that it would work better if the sheath were wrapped in cloth, allowing me to draw the strings much tighter. I might have to try cleaning the canvas along the lines that you mentioned because it is discolored, but I'm not too worried about that now. I need to try tying a sleeping bag to the back of the bag using some of those leather loops that are positioned around the bag. I'll probably just run a string through them and tie the sleeping bag up that way.
 
One more thing, I was wondering why the compartment for the rifle has a hole in the bottom. I imagine that the muzzle of your rifle would be the last thing a soldier would want in the dirt.
 
I agree with you that muzzle-down carry would be a bad idea. Every time you put the pack down you would either obstruct the bore with dirt or ding up the muzzle crown.

In spite of the picture in the catalog, I think the Swiss intended a rifle to go in muzzle up, with its buttstock extending below the pack. This is not a means of keeping a rifle handy for immediate use, but rather a streamlined way of carrying one when there is little prospect of action. This is a good setup when dragging game, or traveling through the brush in the dark when it isn't legal to shoot.

Also, if you have to go into a swamp after game a stick can be run through the compartment so it extends below the pack. If you have to take the pack off when up to your knees in loon-poop, you can jam the stick into the muck and use it as a "pack kickstand," thus keeping your gear dry. Likewise, with a rifle in place the muzzle can be propped against a tree and the buttstock will keep the pack off the ground (assuming you have a stock that doesn't mind ground contact).

Anyway, I'll be using mine to carry a khuk next weekend since I have to go quite a ways through an area hit by a tornado a few years ago. There are alot of big whitepines and spruce down and the usual underbrush which springs up after such events. It will be too thick to have a long scabbard dangling from my belt, but the pack should make things easier.

Hope you like that pack. They are very hard to find, and even harder to wear out.
 
This is a delayed reply to Cliff's very good suggestion about the Swiss back pack. The delay was 'cause I had to wait until a trip back home to pick the thing up.

It arrived from Cheaper Than Dirt in good condition (lucky probably) - no smell or mold, leather bits not dried out.

I tried carrying a 21 inch GS and an old style Tawar in the back slot (used to have to use a baldric to carry). Works very well. A string on the top flap can be used to tie down the khuk sheath so that the pommel doesn't doesn't stick out from the bottom. So the pack already allows you to draw a khuk without opening the pack and stops the chape from poking a hole in it

The string also allows the khuk to be carried at a height where even the 29 inch Tawar can be "quick" drawn with the pack still on my back. This is handy but not recommended especially when putting the khuk back. I have to use my free hand to find and hold the sheath, and already cut it once. :( :rolleyes:

Don't know if Cheaper Than Dirt has any more. But as an alternative to carrying a long khuk on a baldric or tied to a pack, this Swiss Rifle pack works pretty well. Later on I hope to test it with a 20 inch barrel, folding stock 12 gauge.

Many thanks, Cliff for the great lead! :D
 
I tried using this thing to haul a little weight around on a run, didn't work well at all. The narrow straps bit into my shoulder and some piece of metal or something was digging into the small of my back. The strap at the lower back just isn't tight enough to hold the pack off of my back.
 
Last week when I checked they still had about 160 or so of them left, so I ordered up another one for when mine wears out. Just remember to tie the hole shut at the bottom of the pack so your khuk doesn't fall out if it is a short one! I dropped a 15" AK out of mine last week and was fortunate to notice it in time.
 
"I'll leave the humping to the younger set."

Yup. Must be in pretty good shape to do funny things with camels.:D And sounds like UB knows what he's talking about (wait a minute, wasn't Sarge the one who spent time in the Middle East?)

Back to the backpack and khuks falling out of it. I like to have the khuks tied in the sleeve so that the handle rides just behind my head. That way the chape doesn't stick out the bottom of the pack (and the khuk doesn't fall out) and I can quick draw over my shoulder (downside is that your head hits the handle if you look straight up and you gotta watch out when putting the khuk back from a quick draw or you'll cut the pack, your neck, or your free hand holding the sheath - stupid I know, but sometimes I just get too lazy to take the pack off) :rolleyes: On the inside of the pack near the top of the sleeve there are two metals rings on either side of the sleeve. I'm working to rig up something using the metal rings and the khuk's frog to tie the khuk down in the sleeve (it's ends up just about the right height).

Checked the Cheaper Than Dirt page yesterday and couldn't find anything about the Swiss Rifle backpack. Any more left?
 
Another 300 pounds never bothered me as long as it fit behind the truck seat.
 
Well, I just checked their site and it appears they still have some in stock. My second one arrived today and appears to be in brand-new unused condition which was a big surprise. My first one was a bit worn though still in good shape, and had a musty pair of Swiss Army Socks in one of the pockets. I guess you never know what you will get when it comes to mail-order army surplus.
 
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