I’ve noticed a trend in recent times. Some gun companies have a tendency to provide junky plastic cases with new gun purchases. I absolutely hate this. I don’t know how much I hate it, but I’ll do my best to describe it. Gun companies, please stop giving me crappy cases.
Why I Hate Crappy Gun Cases
The plastic gun cases that often come with handguns are junk. Pure junk. Junk that you would pick up at your local Harbor Freight for maybe ten bucks at full price. Plastic rifle cases are also often junk, but I’ve found that those are less commonly coming with new longguns. This might sound wild, but I don’t want to have a crappy case in my possession.
For the majority of gun purchasers, the included gun case is usually something that gets crammed into a closet, or into another storage spot. It doesn’t get used, because it sucks. Most included pistol cases have provisions for locking them, but they are far from secure. A sharp knife can poke through a cheap case, so it isn’t secure for storage. A cheap case isn’t a replacement for a gun safe or locker either. For travel, a fabric case will do the same job, while being easier to transport.
Besides being junky, the cases are often times far larger than they need to be. Some companies make the cases have fitted foam (H&K comes to mind), but others have massive boxes with lots of dead space (SIG & Springfield Armory). Not all included cases are made equal, but all are generally bulky and bad.
I absolutely hate getting things that either serve no purpose, or are bad at doing their intended duty. The included plastic case falls into the latter. Now I’m not one to just bitch and moan, as I propose a fix for this.
How To Correct the Case SNAFU
I have a controversial statement: Gun companies, stop selling guns in plastic cases. I know, so bold and brash, yet it does not belong in the trash.
When I think of good packaging for guns, I tend to think of S&W, PSA, and Ruger. A lot of their products generally come in carboard boxes, that can be recycled and thrown out. If you have to give me the gun in something, put it in something that I can easily get rid of.
On top of a cardboard box being easy to dispose of, it is obviously cheaper than a plastic case. If gun companies stopped using cheap plastic and switched to cardboard, I would reckon that it would slightly decrease the cost of the gun. Hell, even if it only dropped the price by five bucks, that’s five bucks saved.
Closing
I know that this might seem like a “nothingburger”, but this is something that I have thought about for years. What matters is the gun, not the packaging. Extra clutter is something I avoid, and the gun companies aren’t helping out with that. I hope this is some food for thought!
Being in the industry, I am highly sympathetic to manufacturers shipping firearms in lower-cost plastic cases. Having attempted to get better pricing from cardboard manufacturers across the globe, the most cost-effective method of shipping a firearm is within an inexpensive plastic case. Are they crappy? Sometimes. Are you free to recycle it, similar to cardboard? Of course. Are you somehow prevented by law from donating it to charity or a local hunting/shooting organization that could make use of it for entry-level hunters and kids’ education classes? It would certainly last longer than a cardboard donation!