In my most recent article, Off-Body Carry for Women, I shared my favorite products for women to carry a concealed handgun off-body. One bag not mentioned in that article, because I felt it deserved its own review, and that is great for both men and women, is the Obscura Sling Bag from Savior Equipment.
This bag was released at SHOT Show, and since that week, I’ve been using it as my new off-body carry bag. It’s even been on several road trips with me so far, used on a thermal-hunting trip, and I’ve worn it to a shooting match and a range event. It’s been tested through both rain and sunshine, and I’ve yet to find something I don’t like about the bag. In this review, I’ll walk you through what makes this bag so unique.
3 Security Modes
The most distinctive aspect of the Obscura Bag is that it has three security or “retention” levels: full-access, restricted-access, and secured-access.
- Full access allows you to quickly draw your firearm with the clip attached to the rapid-pull handle.
- Restricted access disables access via the handle when the clip is not attached, preventing accidental entry. You can still access your firearm, but it requires you to manually pull down on the clip.
- Secured access disables rapid access and requires you to manually unzip the bag to access your firearm.
Holster Compatibility
The Savior Equipment Obscura Sling Bag is compatible with most IWB, OWB, and hook-backed holsters. The bag comes with a built-in 1.5-inch belt strap that retains a regular holster extremely well. If you have larger clips, I recommend swapping to 1.5-inch-long clips to be as compatible as possible. I recommend the Modular Holster from Crossbreed Holsters if you want a dedicated hook-backed holster.
Ambidextrous Carry
Most CCW-style bags I’ve seen on the market allow both right-handed and left-handed people to draw with their dominant hand. Savior Equipment was very intentional about making sure everything on the Obscura bag was ambidextrous. The sling can be clipped to the left or right side, allowing you to adjust the angle of the bag across your chest. There’s also an optional stabilizer strap available that can hook into the main sling strap on whichever side you prefer.
Gun & Obscura Sling Bag Sizing
The Obscura Bag comes in 5L and 3L sizes. You can find all measurements on Savior Equipment’s website for both bag sizes, so you can check compatibility with a specific handgun or holster. Most micro and subcompact pistols should fit in the 3L bag, while larger handguns will require the 5L bag.
Savior Equipment is a brand of the people, and what I mean by that is that it caters to everyone’s style. The Obscura is offered in Blackout, Slate, Crimson, and Indigo colors for both sizes. If you haven’t seen their Apollo hearing protection, they offer 15 color options to please the masses. I’m a big fan of color, and I appreciate Savior Equipment’s willingness to offer people options, especially beyond the basics of black or grey.
EDC & Front Pocket
What I love about the Obscura Sling Bag is that it has organized space for personal belongings separate from the CCW Pocket. The EDC Admin Panel is a large zipped pocket that sits between the CCW pocket and the front pocket. This Admin Panel features multiple pouches, both stretchy and fixed, for organizing personal items. The stretchy pouches make it easy to store a pocket knife, your wallet, AirPods, a lighter, and smaller items. The fixed pocket is perfect for keeping a ZYN container in. There are endless ways to set up the interior to your needs.
The front pocket unzips and is a great place to store small items like Chapstick, and it also has a key clip inside so you can hook your house or car keys for extra security.
How to Draw from the Obscura Sling Bag
I highly recommend dry-firing with the Obscura Sling Bag before ever carrying a loaded firearm in it. Training is important so that drawing from off-body becomes second nature. I always dry-fire before I ever live-fire, no matter if I’m switching IWB carry guns or completely changing to a new off-body carry setup.
Savior Equipment made one of the easiest designs for drawing from an off-body carry bag compared to others on the market, but you still need to practice for several reasons. When the bag is brand new, it needs some time to break in the zippers, as it can be a little stiff at first when pulling down to open the CCW Pocket. You need to understand how much force it takes to open the bag with your support hand. Then, as you practice opening the bag, you might want to adjust the sling height to find what height works best for you when drawing your gun.
I made a simple Instagram Reel on how to draw from the Obscura Sling Bag, but here are the steps to drawing from this bag:
- Hook your support hand thumb under the top loop that the clip is attached to (this is in “full-access” mode).
- Keep your support hand thumb in the loop while pulling down on the bag to add retention.
- Draw your pistol up and out of the holster with your dominant hand, only releasing your support hand thumb from the bag once the gun is clear of the holster.
- Bring your hands together on the gun as you would normally, and begin to push out with the pistol.
- Aim and shoot.
Final Thoughts
I think this bag works really well for women and men. We all know women carry a lot more personal items, and this bag certainly has the storage capacity for many items.
The two different sizes, I think, were also smart, as most women will choose the smaller version. I am using the 5L in this article and don’t mind the size, but I can see the appeal of the smaller version.
Overall, Savior Equipment knocked it out of the park with the new Obscura Sling Bag for CCW.
Read the full article here