gun transport case

TRX
10-10-2011
My neighborhood has deteriorated substantially in the last 20 years. I have a cardboard box I throw the pistol rugs in, and another box I use for the AKs, but I'd like to drag the Mosin off to the range sometime soon. It arrived in a brown cardboard box, which would work, but it's time to get away from the cardboard box thing.

My first thought was a "musical instrument case" of some sort, but alerting the local crackheads that there might be potentially-sellable musical instruments in an unattended home would be just as bad as letting them know there were guns here.

I looked through sports bags, duffel bags, tent bags, fishing rod cases... there are long tubular bags that are made to hold five basketballs, for some reason. I looked up the diameter of a basketball, it looks like they'd work for most rifles, but not the Mosin. Then this came up:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Armor-Gear-Vars ... 4690064020

This is a "golf bag cover." Apparently you're supposed to put a golf bag inside it. There are lots of them, this is just an example. It's 52" by 15" by 15", the general range seems to be 50-52". Most of them are about as wide and tall, which I didn't really like, but that leaves room for plenty of padding, muffs, etc. All the covers unzip from the top when laying down, instead of from a small end.

The "covers" all seem to have wheels and pull handles as well as carry handles. In my advancing decrepitation, that sounds like a good idea.

They're all soft nylon, so I'd need to roll the Mosin in a blanket or something before putting it in. Ideally, I could build a "transport box" (like the old Soviet boxes) from 1/4" plywood and put it inside for maximum protection, with provision for two or three rifles. At 15x15" it'd probably hold eight, but it'd be awfully heavy then...

Anyway, does anyone have a better idea? Mostly, I want something long enough to take a Mosin, that doesn't immediately make people think "gun case!" when they see it.

TRX
10-21-2011
The bag showed up a few days ago. It looks like it'll be satisfactory, at least for now. It's long enough to carry a full-size 19th century battle rifle like my 1891 Mauser or Mosin-Nagant, anyway.

For now I'm just going to wrap the rifles in a blanket and/or bubble wrap. Later I'll see about building a wooden transport case to fit inside the bag.

TRX
10-22-2011
The Mosin and the Mauser are pathologically long at 50". There are lots of "sports bags" that will handle ordinary-length rifles. I found one that will nicely hold my Arisaka or Enfield that's not nearly as bulky as the golf bag cover.

If you have an underfolder AK you can stuff it into almost anything...

Before I found the golf cover I was thinking of a plywood box with something like "Estes Model Rocketry" or "Optiplex Surveying Equipment" stenciled on it.