MAGPUL GRID: ROUNDED RECTANGLE RELIABILITY

In the last twenty years, Magpul has earned for itself a reputation of trustworthy innovation that elevates the standards we expect of our hardware, be it by upgrading the benchmark or replacing the status quo with something better all together. Having introduced myriad firearms related products over the years, hearing the name “Magpul” instills a sense of quality one can confidently trust with their lives. Although a bonus rather than a priority, Magpul’s products have always been stylish in their appearance.

That being said, there’s been a common theme across Magpul’s product aesthetics that perhaps unintentionally albeit no less noticeably has come to symbolize their reliability: the rounded rectangle.

This shape has been present throughout their product history: from the original PMAG, to the advent of M-LOK, and now the DAKA (“everything” in multiple different languages, thus chosen to encompass the product line: protection from mud, water, sand, etc; everything) series of products, most recently the GRID weapon case liner system and the DAKA cases.

GRID premiered in the beginning of 2023. Although it isn’t new, and has been in circulation for almost two years, the focus of this document will serve as a quick reference in its proper use, along with my personal experiences with both it and other products in the DAKA series, and how they all work together.

• What is the GRID?

A standardized interlocking fencing organization system for rifle cases. By utilizing a modular approach, it permits for a multitude of configurations via an entire suite of components that can accommodate as many varying items one might secure in a long gun case, intuitively and on the fly.

• What does it do?

Not unlike M-LOK, it relies on negative space that only adds material where it’s needed to facilitate its function. It is reconfigurable along the X, Y, and Z axis depending on the rifle attachments and the size thereof. This maximizes the spatial availability by providing both safekeeping during transit, and compartmentalizing the remaining space for accessories.

• Why was it made?

The GRID system was developed to address a number of shortcomings found in existing case linings that use various applications of foam padding. Tedious pick & pluck, dedicated shape cut padding that only catered to particular configuration, and block foam with lesser rigidity that failed to secure case contents all left something to be desired. The DAKA GRID solves all of these problems.

Top: Standard case foam lacks rigidity and fails to hold the rifle in place during transport.

Bottom: The GRID’s EPP (Expanded Polypropylene) blocks are much more rigid, and while flexible, retain their shape while bouncing back to form with ease.

• Why is it useful?

Simply put, the DAKA GRID will securely lock your rifles, pistols, and other firearm accessories into place where you lay them, to protect them from sliding and bumping around inside the case. The GRID will also guard your case contents with its rigid bumper-like inserts against damages incurred from any tilts, drops, or slams the case sustains during transportation, with durability beyond other foam case lining prevalent throughout the industry; once again, Magpul has raised the standard.

• Who can use it?

Magpul offers the DAKA GRID for a variety of cases on the market beyond their own, in different sizes. For a complete list of third party case compatibility, head on over to https://magpul.com/gear/daka-organization/grid-organizer.html

Features and Accessories

Every GRID kit (be it for Magpul’s own DAKA case, or a third party option) comes with a series of base layer receptacle grid (duh) hard foam inserts that go over an included proprietary foam foundation layer. It’s not so much that the foam substance itself is proprietary, just the thickness it’s cut at to ensure the base layer grid sits at the proper height within the case. Otherwise it’s the same ordinary case foam you’re used to seeing prior to the advent of the DAKA grid.

Where the inserts control your X and Y axis positional bracketing, you have the option of cutting a portion of the grid layer out or removing a whole section entirely for addition of depth along the Z axis, in situations where you’re laying a rifle down on the side that enablers like white lights or IR lasers protrude and extend off the handguard rail.

Z-Axis maneuvering in two ways: Remove a whole grid square, or cut a part out from it.

With base layer grid removal (partial or sectional), the proprietary foundation layer of foam still provides protection for these enablers even though they extend below the base layer grid.

This avoids the rifle lifting up over the height of the grid inserts. However, you can avoid this by placing the long guns down such that these enablers are facing upward towards you when you open the case by laying the rifle on the opposite (and presumably flattest) side.

All the inserts: Doubles, Triples, Angles, and Vs

Once you get past the base layer grid, it’s all insert configuration from that point forward. Included with every GRID kit is a set of Double & Triple blocks, the amount of which varies based on the size of the case it’s meant to go into (a minimum of 6x each and going up from there). You really only need these, but the additional inserts that are available sold separately– the angled components, the V-blocks, and the parts bins– help you lock in your hardware and contain small parts or tools while conserving geometric space on the grid for additional accessory compartmentalization, like magazines or other containers from the DAKA product series.

What you end up with is a modular system that offers the most rugged reliability that you can customize for any rifle you could put in the case.

UDLR bracketing: That thing ain’t going nowhere.

UDLR: Up, Down, Left, Right. The main goal is to place your block inserts in such a way as to prevent the rifle(s) from moving in any of these directions, which you can test while the case is open. If you do it right you should be able to move the entire case in any direction on the ground while your rifle is locked in by the inserts by grabbing onto the rifle and testing the shift or wiggle room. However, there are some key best practices to keep in mind when you’re configuring your inserts.

Air gap the optic:

• Create a “no fly zone” around the optic relative to the case wall (Y axis) and the inserts fore and aft of the topic (X axis). This prevents any impact from transferring directly to the optic. If your optic absorbs any of the impact it could result in loss of zero, or damage to the optic itself, either internal or external. You do not want any blocks touching the optic, but you may store smaller items in the space around it. Bridge off other parts of the rifle, such as the cheek weld of the stock, the handguard rail, or the magazine well to lock in the rifle along the X and Y axis.

Lock Stock & Barrel:

• Reinforce the stock: Two blocks between the buttpad of the rifle and the wall of the hard case are recommended, but in some cases one will do. This ensures that the impact shock of the tallest one part of the rifle from top to bottom is wholly absorbed by the GRID blocks, and that they won’t be overwhelmed by the weight of the rifle.

• Two blocks between the case wall and the muzzle of the rifle is also advised, but not needed if using V-blocks and/or additional two or three space blocks along the top and bottom of the rifle.

Pay attention to the weight distribution of your rifle also, as this will dictate the direction physics will want to throw the rifle along the muzzle to butt axis. If it’s front or rear heavy, you’ll want to beef up the block reinforcement between the case wall and that section of the rifle itself to absorb the kinetic weight shift of the rifle inside the case.

Just be mindful that this may cost you accessory space, if you were planning to carry as much as you could in one case. I’m not saying you’ve got to use every single block in every single space you possibly can, just to apply some critical thinking to placement of inserts with consideration towards the strength to weight ratio of the inserts in totality.

Personal Experiences

• Configuration Layout

I’ve got two instances of the GRID system; one in my Pelican Vault V800, and the one that was included in my Magpul DAKA R44 case. Both are large enough to easily carry two rifles and a pistol, along with several magazines for each… depending on how you set your blocks up.

You can see in the above image, the top half shows the V800: I went with the bare minimum block array to provide more space to fit magazines and such. In the bottom half of the image is the R44 case where I followed Magpul’s setup guidelines more closely; this still permitted two rifles and a pistol, but one rifle needed to be split in two, and I didn’t have much room left over for rifle magazines. For local range use it’s no big deal; for air travel however, the mags would need to be transported in a separate container or luggage.

In either case, there was enough to lock the up, down, left, and right movement of the rifles within the case while ensuring the optics had enough breathing room. I tossed the vertical grip and suppressors into spaces created by laying out the initial grid, just to make sure they wouldn’t move around within the case. The red accessory cases I just tossed in where I had room; they’re a good place to keep small parts and tools to avoid them falling into or under the grid sections and needing to take the whole case apart to find them.

Higher up it appears that I have a block touching the optic; a closer look reveals there’s plenty of space between the two, with no way for the rifle to slide up into the block since the blocks on the stock are preventing upward movement.

One area where I had to improvise was sections of the grid where something fit in a space, but there wasn’t enough room to fit a double or triple block to close it in, so the item had room to slide around. You can manage this in two ways: cut a double block in half to fit a single block (not unlike cutting a portion of the grid section out for added depth) into a likewise space in the grid, and/or grab some of the DAKA Gear Straps and weave them through the openings in the GRID to cinch down whatever it is needs securing.

• Travel & Damages

Thankfully there haven’t been much by way of damages to the GRID or its blocks during travel or transport. After I got home from a class back in April, I noticed two of my triple blocks had some decent dents in them. This was most likely due to baggage handlers tossing the case around. Other than that, one of my V-blocks got indented by the barrel and muzzle device due to the way I forced them together for case storage.

Either way, I’m not worried about it. The blocks are cheap and easy to replace, and not unlike magazines, have an intentionally expendable nature about them. Beyond this there have been no damages otherwise that I’ve noticed; the GRID holds up pretty stout after a number of flights with both my V800 and R44 being packed to capacity.

• In conjunction with other DAKA products

This was a wild idea that occurred to me that I never got to try; I wondered if in a pinch one could use the DAKA SR44 soft case to contain a firearm and most of its accessories and attachments, and use a minimal quantity of blocks inside the R44 as buffers along the top and bottom of the SR44. Dimensionally speaking, it should fit with ⅛ of an inch to spare side to side.

Why you would do it, I can’t say off the top of my head unless you were flying somewhere and knew you’d be doing a lot of back and forth at your destination and didn’t want to lug the hard case with you all over the place. But that’s always been the thing with DAKA… what you put in them is your business.

That being said, it’s much more common and expected to find the smaller DAKA containers and pouches riding inside the hard case for all sorts of odds and ends typical of a range trip: Ammo, tools, spare parts, log books, cleaning kits, etc.

Why case selection matters:

Nobody wants to open their case after traveling and securing their gear to find a nasty surprise of busted attachments or a mess of loose items inside. We’ve all been there, it sucks inspecting your gear while holding your breath hoping you won’t find anything damaged or out of place; it’s worse when you actually find something.

This is testimony to the fact that we trust our cases to durably protect tens of thousands of dollars of equipment on a regular basis. Up to now, we’ve done decently with the exterior of the cases on the market, but in the past what we saw was what we got in terms of the interior lining and its ability (or lack thereof) to secure the case contents. No longer.

It’s not even a matter of picking and judging which cases are the best based on brand name or popularity; here too, Magpul has once again elevated the standard industry wide. Now, “If it uses the DAKA GRID system, it’s a good case choice” has become the new selection rubric. No matter the size, shape, or manufacturer of your hard case, if Magpul makes a GRID liner for it, you can rest assured that with proper setup, your tools will be safely locked into place during your travels.

Stay Dangerous.

Stay in this L.A.N.E.