One of the biggest issues when it comes to traveling with guns and gear is the fact you never have enough space. I cannot tell you how many times I have traveled into a different state for training courses with multiple bags for all my gear. I reviewed the Otte Gear Range Bag a while back which is great for the day-long range days. The problem with the Otte Gear bag is it doesn’t leave much room for coats or anything you may need for a multiple-day course. I searched for a while for different solutions. Everything from Hard cased Pelicans to just taking a couple different bags but nothing really worked out. I searched around for awhile and finally came across the First Spear Contractor bag with a rolling frame. Let’s take a deeper look into this rolling locker on wheels.

Specs

There’s no getting around the fact this bag is BIG. This bag is 36″ long, 16″ wide and 12.5″ deep at the middle, so there’s plenty of room to put all your gear and ammunition in. After buying a number of products from First Spear over the years, the one common point between is the fact their equipment is almost overbuilt. This Contractor bag is no different, with reinforced zippers and handles to make it stand up to the massive capacity of this bag. The rolling frame is removable but built out of lightweight materials so it doesn’t add a ton of weight to the overall package. A built-in flat bottom on the frame allows users to stand the bag up on the frame making travel extremely easy when moving the bag around either at the range or during your travels.

Top view showing the retention straps and main carrying strap.

If the rolling frame isn’t what you want, it’s fairly simple to remove the frame turning the Contractor bag into a large duffle bag for all your needs. First Spear makes a variety of colors for the bag so you don’t scream gun guy everywhere you go which is a nice touch to me. For this review, I decided to go with generic black to keep things simple. The biggest difference I picked up when loading the Contractor bag up over other bags is the extra-large opening at the top which makes life much easier when you’re trying to load large items like plate carriers and ammo cases. MSRP for the Contractor bag is $530 with multiple colors to pick from.

The rolling frame is easily removable if it is too bulky for certain tasks.

Range and Travel Use

I’ve had the Contractor bag for roughly 5 months which has given me an excellent opportunity to take it on multiple cross-country adventures. If you’re like me and travel a fair bit, it can start to look suspicious if you have multiple bags in camo prints on a hotel cart as you check in. I think there’s absolutely no reason to bring any more attention to yourself than you need to be. Having large hard-cased Pelican cases often give off the gun vibe as well so I tend to shy away. During my travels over the summer, this Contractor bag looked like a regular duffle bag with wheels. Throwing it up on the luggage cart makes it seem like an ordinary bag even though that’s not the case.

Contractor Bag (Left) compared to Firstspear’s Speed Duffle Bag. The Contractor bag is wider and deeper.

The rolling frame makes it much easier to load up in the bed of my truck with the rolling frame being thrown up first and it’s just a matter of pushing the bag into the truck bed. all the handles are reinforced which gives me the reassurance the bag won’t split wide open mid-lift into the truck. On each side of the bag in-between the end and the main strap, there are secondary retention straps you can tighten down so things don’t move around in the bag or shift while traveling. It may not be a major feature, but it’s a really useful option when you have a bunch of items that like to shift around during travel so good job there First Spear.

Capacity

Overall capacity really is the shining crown of First Spear’s Contractor bag. This thing truly is HUGE, almost to a fault at times but man you can fit an absolutely ridiculous amount of gear in this bag. For a trip this summer, I went and shot with Dan Brokos of Lead Faucet Tactical. Trips like these make it tough to pack for so I ended up taking two different plate carriers, range belts, and multiple upper receivers to switch out if needed. I packed all of my training gear as well as ammo in this bag and there was still room left in the bag. I started getting greedy and after throwing my bump helmet in, I have finally filled the Contractor bag to its capacity.

If I had to complain at all, I would say the double edge of this bag is its size. There have been a few times I had a hard time navigating the rolling frame around tight hallway corners but this would be true for a larger gun case as well. When you start adding size to a bag, it will naturally become harder to maneuver in small areas the larger it gets. I thought this would be a great short-range day bag, but it’s just a little big to haul around for a quick range trip so I would stick with a smaller bag for that. This is really designed to haul a ton of gear over long distances which it does an exceptionally good job at doing.

The rolling frame makes moving the Contractor bag significantly easier.

Overall Thoughts

So I will say, $530 for a large gear bag is fairly steep in my opinion. I went back and forth on whether or not to buy the Contractor bag for years. I picked up a few different bags to try and fill the role of this bag without success. So now I’m out of money for the other bags when I probably just have just given in and bought the Contractor bag from the beginning. It’s really the case of buy once cry once with this bag. It’s insanely expensive but the quality is most certainly there and if you travel a lot with gear, it makes life significantly easier.

I don’t even think I have to say leave me a comment about your thoughts because I know some of you will have a lot to say about these styles of bags. Are they worth it if you travel a lot and need the space or is it better to do separate bags? Let me know in the comments below. If you have questions about gear or firearms in general, don’t hesitate to shoot me a message on Instagram @fridgeoperator. Stay safe out there.