For those struggling to find a good gun carrying option for your Mystery Ranch Marshall pack, here's what I landed on. Hopefully my time wrestling through options can help you. I've included some backstory of why I went with what I went with. If you're only interested in the solution that I found, feel free to skip down.
Backstory
A couple years back I was deliberating over a new mountain hunting pack. I’d been using a Barney’s Alaska pack for a number of years but was hoping to shift towards something with an internal frame as well as a load sling to keep meat and gear somewhat separate.
After pouring a good chunk of time into researching options, I landed on a Mystery Ranch Marshall pack primarily for a couple reasons. Mystery Ranch had a great reputation with regards to durability and the functionality of the pack rivalled other options (Stone Glacier, Exo, Kuiu, Kifaru, etc). I came across one point of tension, however, which was gun carrying options.
Previously, the Barney’s pack let me hang my gun off my pack frame and strap the sling into my chest strap. This made for quick access when necessary. At this point, I realize some people are happy to carry their rifle in hand. For mountain hunts, however, I’m a big fan of trekking poles, especially when coming out heavy, so getting my rifle out of my hands is a priority. I also recognize that some people are happy with strapping their rifle onto their pack while hiking, however, after a close run-in with a grizz a few years back, I prefer to keep my rifle close at hand. But that’s just me.
So shifting back to the Mystery Ranch pack, I explored quite a few sling options. Here’s a list of some of the main options I looked at and some of the reasons why each didn’t work for my setup.
Other Options
Mystery Ranch Quick Draw Sling - https://www.mysteryranch.com/quick-draw-rifle-sling
This sling is nice in the sense that it’s guaranteed to be compatible with the MR pack. From what I read, however, it gets awful reviews. The magnetic strap chest attachment is a nice idea, but the open bracket off the back of the pack, in my opinion, leaves too much room for it to constantly slip off, especially when climbing a mountain. I also wasn’t particularly keen to drop $115 CDN on a gun sling.
Stone Glacier - https://www.stoneglacier.com/product...-release-sling
The price is right for this sling. At $22 US, the setup is simple and it gets a lot of great reviews. A buddy I hunt with uses this with his Stone Glacier pack and he seems to really like it (Although the shoulder buckle has accidentally come unstrapped a few times on him and his gun has taken a few falls…) For me, the possibility of dropping my gun along with potential compatibility issues for the MR pack deterred me from going this route.
Kifaru Gun Bearer – https://kifaru.net/store/accessories/gun-bearers/
This was the front runner for a long time in my search. Randy Newberg runs this rig with his MR setup and seems to swear by it. They offer a universal model that works on most hunting packs. It also comes in at a great price. My primary deterrent from this option was muzzle control. I didn’t love the idea of this rig as it seems to leave the barrel somewhat front facing. Some people may have found this to work really well for them, but in theory, I was hesitant because this rig might leave my rifle pointing at the person in front of me when climbing a steeper inclines.
In addition to these options, I explored a number of lesser known varieties, but in terms of functionality and price, I didn’t find any solo setup that worked particularly well for me. That led me to combine a few items together that seem to have solved the issue. After all the time I spent pouring into finding a solution, I would love to save others the trouble and share what I found. If you’re a MR Marshall owner, here’s where I landed.
Mystery Ranch Marshall Gun Sling/Carry Setup
The best overall setup I found for a gun sling in terms of functionality and price was the Kuiu Quick Draw Gun Holder. This setup is similar to the Stone Glacier holder, but it is more secure in that it uses a cradle with a clipped buckle that hangs off your waist belt instead of a tension buckle. The barrel threads through a fixed loop on a strap that attaches on the bag behind your shoulder. For more info and videos, check out the Kuiu website (https://www.kuiu.com/global/quick-dr...der/86018.html).
One of the challenges in running this sling with MR packs, is due to the pre-2019 Marshall design. The pre-2019 waist-belts hold together by an open strap that when not load bearing, hangs loosely off the waist-belt. This means when the belt is detached anything (e.g. accessory pockets, bear spray holster, gun sling cradle) attached onto this belt hangs loose (The new MR packs have resolved this issue). This means adding a gun sling onto this belt isn’t very functional.
In order to get around this issue, I found a little company called Rugged Stitching (https://www.facebook.com/RuggedStitching/) out of the States. Adam, the owner, does a whole load of custom pack work. He’s fast, very reasonably priced, and his workmanship is excellent. From my experience, I would highly recommend him. One item that he makes is custom made molle webbing belt sleeves for MR Marshall packs. These slide onto the waist belt and give a secure alternative attachment points compared to the standard MR waist belt option.
Even with the sleeve, however, the Kuiu Quick Draw sling still lacks the proper attachments. I could have zip tied it on, but I wanted to find a more secure and reliable way to attach it to the molle webbing on the sleeve. In order get around this I picked up a pack of Kuiu Venture Hip belt straps (https://www.kuiu.com/venture-hip-bel...ack-acessories). These straps are designed for the Kuiu Venture packs that lack the integrated sling connection points. These worked perfectly in combination with the Rugged Stitching waist belt sleeve to attach the Kuiu Quick Draw sling.
While these items solved the issue of attaching the gun draw cradle, the MR pack lacked specific latch points for attaching the barrel holding portion of the Kuiu Quick draw sling. In order to get around this, I attached this strap overtop of the top existing Marshall side strap and into its latch points.
I ran this combination over this past season and it worked like a charm. I’m sure there are other options out there, but this did the job for me. Unfortunately, I haven’t tried this with other MR models. I am however, unsure if this would work in that the Metcalf and smaller models as they lack the necessary third side strap and its latching points that I used for attaching the barrel holding portion of the Kuiu sling.
If you’re trying to find a gun sling/carrying solution for a Mystery Ranch Marshall Pack this might work for you.
I'll try to attach a few pics below.
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Originally Posted by Bustercluck
