Magpul introduced its DAKA Grid Organizer system in 2023, but I hadn’t really become aware of it until they released their own line of DAKA hard cases later in the year.
Fast forward to today and I was interested in upgrading my own case loadout for range day. Since I already had a hard case I couldn’t justify $300+ to drop on a new one, and what I had was an older Plano Gun Guard rifle case and access to Magpul’s universal DAKA kit.
As noted, the DAKA system ships with Magpul’s own hard cases, which look awesome but might cost you an arm or a leg, and they also offer precision-fit kits designed to install seamlessly in select Plano and Pelican hard cases.
The universal kit, on the other hand, is ideal for those looking to update an unsupported case, a gun case from another manufacturer, small cases, or for those who wish to apply the system to other applications, like vehicle or shop drawer systems.
For my Plano, I went with the DAKA Universal Rifle kit, which turned out to be perfect for the Gun Guard.
The DAKA system’s foundation is an array of grid panels, each measuring 13.25 x 9.75 inches by one inch thick. They’re designed to snap together with the interlocking tabs along the edges, and do so surprisingly snugly. The panels then accept DAKA blocks that can be arranged and rearranged in various configurations, each pressing snugly into the square gaps that perforate the grid.
The Universal Rifle kit includes eight panels for 958 total square inches of coverage, six triple blocks, six double blocks, four gear straps, and eight adhesive shims to tighten up any extra space along the edges.
The panels and blocks are made from expanded polypropylene (EPP), which essentially presents as a ruggedized form of styrofoam. Far from the type of foam you’d find in packing materials, however, the EPP is quite robust, fairly abrasion resistant, and can take a beating without flaking or falling apart.
My Plano case’s interior measured roughly 42.5 x 12.5 inches, and as it turned out the grid panels nearly fit exactly when laid lengthwise across its width. Despite the math telling me I needed to get rid of ¾ of an inch, for a snug fit I found all I needed to do was trim about a quarter inch off each end, which translated to about an eighth of an inch when the interlocking tabs were ignored.
At first I tried measuring and marking the edge of the panel, but in the end I ended up just eyeballing the edges of each subsequent panel using the first piece I cut as a reference, and things turned out fine.
For either end, all I needed to do was trim one row of the grid off the side of each panel, easily accomplished by cutting along the guide line that divides each grid row. For the corners I again just eyeballed it, cutting the corner off one square at a 45-degree angle.
My first cuts were made using a utility knife, which was not great because the blade wasn’t quite long enough and the handle wouldn’t allow me to cut deep enough into the panel, resulting in a less-than-clean cut that caused the EPP to tear and chunk along the edge.
Completing the rest of my cuts with a regular old sharp knife, like the one on my Leatherman, gave me much better results. To help guide your cuts, something like a metal ruler or straight edge is highly recommended.
Before attempting the installation I envisioned needing a way to adhere the panels to the bottom of the case, but that isn’t how the DAKA system is designed. Rather, it relies on tension on the sides and bottom of the case, and tension from the case lid and the blocks installed into the grid, to stay in place and keep the case contents secure.
To further immobilize the contents, Magpul supplies gear straps to cinch things down that you can’t effectively brace using the blocks. I haven’t had an occasion to use those yet. If more tension is needed between the grid panels and the inner edges of the case, you’ve got the aforementioned adhesive shims. I didn’t need to use those either.
With the blocks arranged to my liking and a firearm placed in the case, the Gun Guard’s lid fits fairly tightly and I detected no shifting or movement from the contents.
My installation ended up being pretty straightforward in that a single line of five panels covered the whole interior—leaving me with three spares—and it required minimal material removal to allow them to fit.
If you have a larger (wider) space to fill, Magpul recommends snapping the grid panels together beforehand to mock up your coverage, marking the edges with a paint pen or similar, and numbering the panels before cutting so you can easily put them back in the same configuration when your cutting is done. The official installation video is linked here:
I should also note that while I removed the Gun Guard’s pluck-and-pull foam insert to make room for the grid, I left in place the thin, egg-crate-style sections of foam the case came with on the bottom and lid. Lid foam in particular is recommended to give the DAKA blocks adequate tension with the lid when the case is closed.
In the end, the real genius behind the DAKA system is its configurability. By rearranging your blocks, you can customize the interior space to fit differently sized firearms and those equipped with various attachments like scopes or bipods, and you can section off empty areas for other pieces of gear like magazines, ear pro, ammo boxes or bins, and so on.
Magpul’s DAKA Universal Grid Organizer is available in pre-packaged Rifle and Long Rifle configurations. Individual components like the grid panels, blocks, and specialty pieces like angled or V-blocks, as well as small DAKA bins designed to snap into the grid, are also available separately.
And as noted above, it doesn’t have to be a dedicated rifle case to be outfitted with a DAKA system. DAKA can be applied to pretty much any small or large hard case, as well as to larger containers like vehicle-mounted or dedicated shop drawer systems.
Magpul Industries
DAKA Universal Grid Organizer—Rifle
MSRP: $100
URL: magpul.com