I haven’t been ecstatic about my equipment backpack, the Easton Deluxe Recurve Pack, for a while now. It’s not anything in particular that’s wrong with it—it’s that I’ve wanted more protection for my riser than a backpack gives. I’ve never loved how the riser fits inside a backpack-style enclosure before, especially when considering the attached plunger and arrow rest.
After purchasing the 29” Gillo GT, though, it forced my hand because the riser doesn’t fit in the backpack. Well, it actually fits inside the backpack, but it strongly pushes outward upon the top and bottom of the pack and it doesn’t fit inside the internal storage compartment. This means that, because the limb pockets are only separated by the thin layer of backpack from the outside world, they can take some force to them if someone roughly moves my pack without knowing how things are stored inside.
I don’t want the headache of such things on my mind.
As a result, I purchased a Legend Atom Hybrid Roller Recurve Case with the intention of forming a “gun style” case out of it. I’ve always wanted to put my riser and limbs in a hard-shell case with foam surrounding them, but I’ve never gone the hard shell route because they seem to lack storage flexibility (they tend to be shallow, which often disallows putting a quiver in them, for instance). As I thought about the Legend Atom and it’s depth, it seemed to me it would be possible to outfit it with foam for the riser and limbs while also storing my arrows, quiver, and all other shooting essentials—one case for everything I need when shooting.
I purchased the case along with some solid charcoal firm foam from The Foam Factory (both 1” and 2”). This is what it looks like when I open ‘er up:
You can see that I have two risers: a 25” Spigarelli 650 Club and a 29” Gillo GT. I also have my limbs with the string, my stringer, and a container with parts to the risers. Everything fits tightly with no movement at all. This is what I’ve desired for a long time but didn’t have the proper container to do it with.
You’ll note in the above picture there is a piece of foam at the top of the picture. This foam lays over the risers to keep them “sandwiched” in the case. When I first open the case it looks like this:
In this portion of the case there is a 1” layer of foam on the bottom, a 2” layer that the riser and other parts sit snuggly in, and the top 2” layer of foam you see in the picture that keeps everything in perfect place. I cut out small holes for the plungers to sit in, protected from any undue pressure.
With all this foam in place, the case is still easy to close—the foam really fits perfectly. I used an electric knife to cut the foam and it made easy work of it.
Below is a picture of the top portion of the case, where you can see I store my arrows, stand, and quiver (along with a bow scale, stretch band, and Allen wrenches:
If I travel with this rig to a tournament, I can easily remove the foam to store clothes in—allowing me this single case to store everything I need for a trip. Other than that, though, I love how the foam keeps everything in perfect, safe position.