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Coming soon in three sizes, and likely more in the future, the new Magpul DAKA Hard Cases are a family of well-thought-out rifle and gear cases with a Lego-like modular foam padding system inside.

Grid blocks come in multiple sizes and shapes to allow for the custom-configuring of the internal padding structure. With a peg on one side and hole on the other, the grid blocks connect together and can be re-configured as often as you desire.

These blocks were made of a dense, rubbery-ish closed cell foam of some sort. My first impression feeling them, twisting them, pressing on them, etc. is that they appear to have struck a very nice balance of toughness and squishiness.

Big latches are designed to operate easily with only one hand, and they do. Pass-throughs are available for zip ties as well as padlocks.

The case itself is molded from gas charged polypropylene, whatever that is. It feels solid, it has a little flex, and Magpul says it’s tough yet lightweight.

The DAKA Hard Cases aren’t available yet, but are coming soon.

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35 COMMENTS

    • An interesting idea, I’ll admit. I’d prefer a slightly lighter color (charcoal? dark gray?) to help visually contrast your black gunz-n-gear. And maybe make the foam “blocks” look a bit less choppy. Otherwise, I’m intrigued at this first offering. Maybe they’ll get quality feedback to make improvements.

  2. A hard case with a liner that you can reconfigure at will to fit different contents is a really nice idea. Too bad it looks like a bunch of cinder blocks thrown in a box, though!

    Currently I have plenty of hard cases. They should sell a bag of blocks separately, I’d likely try them out in one of my existing cases.

        • Good Lord. That answers my question. It’s a nifty idea, but I had a feeling this wasn’t going to be worth whatever Magpul charged for it.

        • That’s the “DAKA Grid organizer” to convert a standard case (Pelican Vault) with this Magpul product. If you just need the blocks, Magpul sells an expansion kit for $30

        • Thanks for clarifying this.
          If Magpul makes this full package available for the Italian produced Explorer case products, I’ll pick one up for the 45″ case.
          It’s handy to have the ability to reconfigure a case (prior to traveling and based on how the rifle will be used) without cutting up new foam inserts.
          After five years I’m on my third set of foam inserts.

  3. This seems more like a toy for an OCD person than a practical step forward. With eggcrate foam on one side and MOLLE on the other, you can configure all your accessories the way you want them and use them outside the case, all for less money.

      • Yes, and Pelican thinks their cases are made of gold if you look at the prices compared to what a person really needs. No doubt about it, Pelican cases are tough and durable etc…. all the things claimed and they deserve their reputation. But, for example, how many ordinary gun owners are going to be doing something like, say, throwing their rifle cases out of aircraft at 30,000 feet into a combat area.

        So yeah one could say “hey, pelican is the gold standard for a tough case so pay the couple hundred more.” – but if ya just need a case and not something built to withstand something you will probably never encounter like dropping your case from the top of the Empire State building (yes, that’s an exaggeration but its representative of the marketing and legend concepts put forth for Pelican cases by retailers and people) – it doesn’t make sense to pay Pelican prices.

        Ya just want a case that going to be good to go for 99.9999999999% of the ordinary gun owners then do something like these for a lot less than a Pelican case price > https://mtmcase-gard.com/collections/gun-cases

      • Yeah, Pelican THINKS they’re the gold standard.
        They actually were around two decades ago.

        Funny how so many who regularly transport their gear in extreme conditions AND used Pelican cases back in to 2000s are now using Explorer cases.

        https://www.explorercases.com/en/home/

        Weigh down a Vault case and a similar priced Explorer case, then drop them in the deep end of a pool, leave overnight. You’ll see what I mean.

        I swear by the Explorer cases, own around a dozen.

  5. “These blocks were made of a dense, rubbery-ish closed cell foam of some sort.”

    Its EVA foam (closed-cell Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate).

    • Would this closed-cell foam rub the blueing off a firearm similar to rubber?

      I’ve seen enough older guns (particularly hunting rifles and shotguns) that obviously rode in a truck gun rack or an ATV gun rack that used rubber for padding. This eventually ended up rubbing the blueing off on the barrels in certain spots. Spend enough time with something and one would be able to rub the blueing off a gun but it’s going to take a heck of a lot longer with silk or cotton than with rubber. I understand that if one has a $5,000 over-under it probably already comes with a molded case and they’re not going to use this. Say someone uses this DAKA hard case to pack their CZ 550 Safari Magnum across the planet to go hunting only to open it up to see the blueing is rubbed off their gun in various places. I know, get a gun sock but I’d like to know how potentially detrimental the material of these blocks would be to the blueing on a firearm.

      • “Would this closed-cell foam rub the blueing off a firearm similar to rubber?”

        it shouldn’t. its not rubber, just a sort of ‘almost grippy but more kinda slick’ feel similar to a sort of rubberized feel.

        • but of course…prolonged rubbing of a lot of types of materials against a gun will rub. the bluing off.

          personally I make my own ‘foam inserts’ for cases, so I can get a pro looking custom fit instead if using that low quality cut-out-blocks or egg crate foam stuff that cases come with. I use packing foam and EVA sheets from foamorder.com

    • Probably causes Cancer only in California……jus’ sayin’😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

      • Well, it causes birth defect brain damage only in California too and that explains a lot about California …. jus’ sayin’😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

  6. Magpul is proving kits for the mid-level Pelican Vault cases.
    Will there be kits for the higher quality Explorer cases in the future?

  8. They just complicated the fuck out of a simple solution. But of course, some OCD mfer is thinking “this is so cool” as they spend 10x more than they should.

    • well of course. That’s how the ‘high price firearms market’ thrives, people going “Hey, this is so cool, I want one.” or “Hey, this is the top of the line and quality.”

      I remember when a well known firearms company (not going to say the name but a hint is the letter ‘D’) was selling their stuff for really high prices based upon “Its the top of the line, the absolute best, we make our own stuff and its top quality and well worth the money.” sentiment being thrown around. Review articles raved about it and pushed it. Then it was discovered what ‘they make their own stuff’ really meant was that Anderson Manufacturing was making their stuff for them under contract and putting that company branding on it, and you could get the same thing from Anderson with the Anderson branding on it for a few thousand less. Yet people were running down Anderson for their Anderson branded same product as ‘inferior’ to the ‘D’ company product when it was actually the same thing as the ‘D’ company product and the only difference was the ‘D’ company branding was on what ‘D’ company sold.

      Anderson wasn’t doing anything wrong, its common (and legal) in industry for one manufacturer to be making the product for another company under contract with that company branding on it and claiming they make their own stuff. The ‘D’ company just wasn’t disclosing (which is not illegal in this case) although they could legally ‘truthfully’ claim to be making their own stuff because Anderson was basically a ‘contract employee’ entity making their work product the production product of the company it was really an Anderson product just rebranded.

      Anderson makes a lot of things for other firearms companies under contract with that companies branding on it, for which these other companies claim ‘we make out own stuff’. Everything from barrels to hand guards to parts and a lot more, and you can find a match for it in the Anderson branded products for less $$$ than what the other company is selling their branded product for. I guarantee you that you will find someone, maybe a review article or some other ‘expert’ or someone in a blog comments or on a forum or in a gun store or on the manufacturers web site reviews comments claiming the Anderson branded product is ‘inferior’ to the other company branded product when its the same thing.

      • Another example; A well known company sells firearms parts (a hint, the letters “AT” and ‘possibly’ a number is in the name). One of the things they sell are hand guards and one of these is one with their brand on it and they claim to make this hand guard and go on about their quality control in production and how they designed this hand guard and how special it was and etc… all the expected ‘flowery – best thing since sliced bread’ marketing language.

        Some research found a small company (lets call it company X) up north that makes various fire arms accessories and among these is a hand guard. In the review comments for the ‘AT’ company hand guard it was pointed out that company ‘AT’ hand guard was exactly like company X hand guard to which company ‘AT’ and review customers replied in defense of company ‘AT’ hand guard that company X hand guard was inferior for a whole bunch of reasons. Then it was discovered that company X designed and made the company ‘AT’ hand guard and it was the same hand guard, same quality and everything as the company X hand guard except that company X under contract simply branded their production run for the company AT branding. Company X sells their hand guard with their branding on it for $35.00 and company ‘AT’ sells company X hand guard with company ‘AT’ branding on it for $120.00.

  9. If some of you OCD lego gun folks want this set up from MagPul, the case with the blocks is greater than $300.00 … ya can save some money by going to one of these three links:

    https://mtmcase-gard.com/products/double-scoped-rifle-case-51
    https://mtmcase-gard.com/products/tactical-rifle-case-42
    https://mtmcase-gard.com/products/single-scoped-rifle-case-51

    and get one of those cases, remove the foam insert it comes with …. then get the lego blocks only from Magpul.

    A bag of the blocks from Magpul will supposedly cost $160.00.

    The MTM case (the three links above) is $56.00 to $83.00 range (depending on which case you pick from the links).

    So lets say $83.00 for the case + $160.00 for the bag of blocks from Magpul …. 83 + 160 = $240.00 …. Magpul price for case and blocks = > $300.00 … so lets say $300.00 – $240.00 = $60.00 saved so you can now afford that McDonalds Happy Meal ya been wanting.

    Oh but wait, you don’t need a whole bag of the blocks for the MTM cases. You just need an expansion kit of blocks for pelican cases which Magpul will sell for $30.00’ish (unsure but supposedly right now for this but even if it is a little more you will still save by going the MTM case route and rolling your own)… so lets look at the math again with the MTM case and the Magpul block expansion kit…

    $83 + $30 = $113.00

    Magpul case with blocks = > $300.00 …. $300.00 – $113.00 = $187.00 you can save by rolling your own with an MTM case and a Magpul block expansion kit. And if for some reason you decide you need more blocks juts get another Magpul block expansion kit

    Unless of course you are just really intent upon that complete Magpul setup case + blocks.

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