Tired of not having a decent organizer in your rifle case? Well, there is a fairly simple fix that could be as cheap as $60. When I purchased my Pelican 1740, I was looking at the lid and thinking there was a lot of potential space wasted.

It dawned on me that it could be a great place for a velcro panel, but there were some snags. By creating your own panel, you have nearly endless possibilities in storing handguns, magazines, knives and almost any other accessory.

First, most “Patch Panels” on the market aren’t rigid and are designed to hang from a wall. The second problem I came by was the lack of velcro resources in my area. I searched high and low trying to find yardage of velcro and sourced only one supplier. Unfortunately, they sold it by the 45 yard roll only. Luckily, there’s a fantastic traditional hardware store close to my house, so I was able to track down a better solution. The velcro I found was 2 inches wide and featured a very strong adhesive backing. It’s essentially velcro with carpet tape backing, so it stays where it’s put. A better source that I found after making mine was Bryan’s DIY Patch Panel where there is a link to an online supplier that sells more types of velcro.

Materials:

• Hard Case (sturdy)
• Acrylic Board (cut to fit your case)
• Velcro Backing (adhesive backed or non*)
• *Can of spray adhesive if none on the Velcro*
• Box Cutter/Utility Knife
• Cutting Mat (or surface you don’t mind cutting into)
• Measuring Device (ruler or tape measure)

The start of this project was with a 12″ x 40″ x 1/4″ acrylic panel. You could use particle board or anything rigid that would stand up to the strain of use. Acrylic or some form of plastic will work better because the adhesive will bond better vs. wood and is much lighter than metal. Once you source a strong back for your velcro it’s time to start cutting the velcro. Starting at one side by pressing down the velcro and remember to go slow. Once the velcro sticks to the acrylic, it’s not going to want to come off. You can make minor adjustments, but be patient when placing the strips.

After setting the strips down flip the panel over to cut off the excess. Using a utility knife cuts it very easily, but mind your fingers. Once you trim the edges, it’s time to push down on the velcro to make sure the adhesive is fully bonded to the panel. With the acrylic, it’s pretty easy to see where the bubbles are to push them out, but all you really need to do is push down the velcro thoroughly.

Once you’ve made sure the velcro is fully adhered on the front, it’s time to fit it to your case lid. On the Pelican cases like I’m using here, there are four raised surfaces that get in the way. These also make it easy to place velcro though. What I did, was to adhere the loop strips on the back of the case first. Once they were put on, I then took the hook lengths (parts that go onto the back of the patch panel) and placed them onto the hook lengths on the case lid. Be sure to very lightly place them on, you do not want them to fully connect.

Next, take off the plastic that protects the adhesive and then carefully line up the panel with your case and put it against the lid. Because you lightly connected the two lengths, you can peel off the panel and they will stay adhered but separate. Now you can press them down firmly and then you are done!

Once you have made the panel, the sky’s the limit when it comes to how you want to organize. Here you can see three ITS Gen II Holster Inserts and two ITS Shock Cord Inserts being used to organize weapon lights, knives, firearms, etc. I’ve had little to no movement with the heavier items in the case. I’ve slammed the case around and the firearms don’t budge. Hopefully you’ll find this helpful and if you have any questions, feel free ask in the comments below.

Editor-in-Chief’s Note: Please welcome Maxwell as a contributor on ITS Tactical. Maxwell aka HUFFwell is proud to be a member of the Pacific Northwest Search and Rescue team and a long time gear enthusiast. He’s a photographer by trade and enjoys spending a lot of time outdoors gaining experience through training.

The ongoing trend in the consumer market of providing small, ready-to-go, individual size packages of consumables has been a win-win for the lightweight and ultralight backpacking communities. Always looking to shave a few extra ounces or grams off of our overall pack weight, these individual servings are the perfect fit for trail snacks, drinks, condiments – you name it.

However, these nicely packaged individual servings can come at a premium. They can often be pricy or difficult to find without going online and ordering in bulk + shipping. That’s when the creative types among us come up with ingenious solutions that lets us make our own alternatives using things we usually have lying around.

Which brings me to today’s topic – individual size packages of antibiotic cream. I’ve carried a few of the Neo-to-go (Neosporin) packets with me as part of my first aid kit for quite some time. They’re small, handy and easy to use, but they have some downsides. Firstly they are expensive, secondly each packet contains way more ointment than I need for a small cut or graze – an awful lot more and once it’s been opened it shouldn’t be reused or saved.

I recently stumbled upon a really clever solution to this problem that involves a tube of antibiotic ointment (generic), a plastic drinking straw, a Bic lighter and a pair of needle-nose pliers (I use my Leatherman Squirt PS4). For the life of me I can’t find the website that I saw the original version of this on so I’m going to repeat it as best I can remember – apologies to the original author.

We’re going to make very small, single use packets of antibiotic ointment using a generic alternative to Neosporin and a clean (unused) drinking straw. If you’re like me and have kids, chances are very good that you have an open tube of antibiotic ointment in your medical cabinet. On its own it is too large to carry on a backpacking trip, so we’re going to re purpose it.

Place the straw over the opening of the ointment tube and carefully squeeze in a small amount of the ointment that is approximately one quarter of an inch in length. You’ll notice that transparent straws work best for this.

Use you fingers to squeeze the end of the straw so that it pushes the ointment further up inside the plastic straw. This will provide a clean area for sealing the end of the straw without having the ointment ooze out while you are holding it with your pliers.

Hold the end of the straw with your needle-nose pliers so that a small amount of the straw is protruding. This will be used to melt and seal the end of the straw. Take your Bic lighter and carefully melt the end of the straw so that it forms a seal. I like to quickly pinch the melted end with my pliers to ensure a good seal.

Turn the straw around and find the point where the ointment went up to inside the straw. Pinch just past that with your needle-nose pliers and cut off the excess straw with a pair of scissors making sure to leave a small amount of the straw protruding for sealing with your lighter just as you did in the first step.

Now you have a single use packet of antibiotic ointment that you can carry with you as part of your UL backpacking first aid kit. These are also perfect for EDC carry in a pocket or even your wallet.

I’ve yet to have one of these burst or fail on me. Simple, affordable, and very convenient. A great way to make use of those open tubes that are lying around with just a small amount of ointment left in them. Pretty clever idea that can be used for other purposes, what do you think?

Editor-in-Chief’s Note: Brian is an avid lightweight backpacker and author of the popular Brian’s Backpacking Blog. Originally from Southampton, England, Brian has lived in the US for over 15 years, finally settling in North Carolina. His love of the outdoors started at a very early age, almost as far back as he can remember. Now he spends as much time backpacking as his work schedule and family life will allow. Be sure to check out his blog for other great backpacking tips & tricks and gear reviews.

No doubt about it, a quality timepiece is important. Especially when seconds matter and they often do. In fact, you should consider investing in a good watch or risk being lost in space.

Astronaut Gordon Cooper used a only wristwatch, knowledge of star patterns, and math estimations to correct pitch for re-entry when his capsule lost power.

via Wikipedia:

“…precision was needed in the calculation since if the capsule came in too deep g-forces would be too large and if its trajectory was too shallow it would bounce off the atmosphere and be sent back into space. Cooper drew lines on the capsule window to help him check his orientation before firing the re-entry rockets. ‘So I used my wrist watch for time,’ he later recalled, ‘my eyeballs out the window for attitude. Then I fired my retrorockets at the right time and landed right by the carrier.’ Cooper’s cool-headed performance and piloting skills led to a basic rethinking of design philosophy for later space missions.”

While most high end watches can take some serious abuse, there are benefits to using a watch cover. The cover can effectively “black out” a watch and eliminate the visual signature of the hands or display as well as add an extra layer of physical protection. It is also something you can make at home with a minimum amount of preparation and materials. This DIY will show you the quick and dirty basics to making your own tactical watch cover based on the one I was issued during my time in the IDF.

What You Need

1 – Scraps of Cordura [Black, Tan, OD or any dark color.]
2 – Velcro
3 – Sewing kit
4 – Knife or scissors
5 – Lighter

Wear your watch and measure the circumference of it on your wrist. Cut a strap of Cordura about an 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch longer than the measurement of the watch on your wrist. The width is a personal thing, but I would allow about 1/2 an inch wider than the watch face. This is be the bottom part of the cover.

Find the center and cut a rectangle, keeping it centered. Sew the loop (soft part) of the Velcro to the end of the bottom.

Cut another strip of material the same width but 1/4 shorter than the bottom. This is the “lid.” Sew the lid as you see in these two photos:

Add Velcro to the end of the lid.

Flip the bottom and add Velcro the opposite side of the soft part you added before.

Very carefully, use a lighter to burn the borders so it won’t fray.

Finally, insert the watch in the hole and wrap the cover around the watch on your wrist. The lid should open away from you, shielding the watch. You can also attach useful information on the reverse of the lid such as frequencies for the mission, a map, etc.

Here’s a quick DIY tip on how to store spare batteries for the Aimpoint Micro T-1 in the LaRue Tactical LT660 mount.

In this simple DIY project, Bryan shows how to use Plasti Dip to rubberize the handles of his Bogota Titanium Flats 4-Piece Toolset. This rubberized coating allows a more solid grip and creates a cushion that can make handling more comfortable.

Many outdoor gear brands sell thin webbing belts. These belts aren’t meant to hold much gear, they simply hold your pants up. The thin, pliable webbing makes for a svelte belt that can be comfortably worn under a pack hip belt or a climbing harness. The webbing also tends to be of a low quality and the belts are often priced ridiculously high. Why pay $15 for something that you can make yourself at little cost, if not for free?

I had worn a Frequent Flyer Belt from The Wilderness Tactical on a daily basis for a number of years. It is an excellent belt, but I occasionally found the wide and thick webbing, which is appropriate for some uses, to be uncomfortable and cause chafing under the heavy hip belt of my pack. As an experiment, I purchased a Patagonia Friction Belt when it was heavily discounted during a sale. That worked well for a while — it was more comfortable under my pack — but the webbing used was very low quality. It was also still a bit stiff. I thought, why should there be any stiffness at all to the belt? It serves no purpose in the backcountry.

I made my first Tubular Webbing Belt in early March of last year. Initially I intended for it be used only when backpacking, but it proved functional enough that I soon made three more and wear them on a daily basis. The webbing is stiff enough to hold a multi-tool and a knife, which is the most that I carry on my belt these days, both in wilderness environments and urban.

The webbing I used is simple tubular webbing. It is strong and yet softer and more pliable than most flat webbing, making for a comfortable belt. Any climber most likely has yards of the stuff laying around. I happen to use BlueWater 1” webbing, which exceeds the strength of military-spec webbing, but, in a belt, this is irrelevant. My stitching will certainly blow long before the webbing.

After sewing, I cut the webbing so that the total length of the belt is about 39”. That provides plenty of length to use the belt as improvised lashing, if I ever need it.

I first began using ladderlocs as the buckles. This worked, but I later experimented with using two D-rings. I now prefer the smoother operation of the D-ring buckle. I have experienced no slippage with either type of buckle. Both the ladderlocs and the D-rings I had laying around from previous projects, or from old gear (I always salvage the hardware from old, ratty gear before throwing the rest away).

The total cost to me for all of these belts was zero. If you had to buy the webbing and hardware, you may be looking at around $2. A far cry cheaper than any similar belt you’d find in a store! The total weight of a single belt is 50 grams (1.76 oz).