The Story Behind EbikeScabbards

Where design, engineering, and manufacturing intersect a passion for sporting clays. 

I am Chad Conroy, an avid NSCA sporting clays competitor with ~145 tournaments and ~25,000 registered targets under my belt.  I've competed in tournaments across Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Illinois, Iowa, North Carolina, South Carolina, Colorado, and at the NSCA nationals in San Antonio, Texas.  I am also a Mechanical Engineer with over 25 years experience in design, manufacturing, and engineering management.

In early October of 2021, on a weekend shooting trip to Rock Ridge Sportsmen's club in Northern Illinois, necessity lead to invention. We had driven seven hours to visit our friend Paul for the weekend and participate in the one-day tournament while in the area. It was a hot day, we walked and lugged our shells around the long hilly course, and I ended up throwing my back out. That's when I realized there had to be a better way— I needed a solution that was low cost, easily hauled to tournaments, would fit in my garage, and that I would enjoy using outside of shooting.  However, it was October and we were heading to Nationals in a couple weeks. 

I quickly realized that an e-bike was the answer.  Though e-bikes were gaining popularity at that time, they were not quite as mainstream as they are today.  After a quick search of YouTube and Marketplace I quickly bought a RadRunner2 e-bike and ordered the best available bike scabbard the internet had to offer.  I installed that scabbard (with some difficulty) and headed off to San Antonio for the '21 Nationals.  It was there quickly realized that the e-bike worked great...but the scabbard needed some work.

The available scabbard products on the market had been developed years ago for peddle bikes and were just not built to protect the expensive shotguns we use in sporting clays AND still provide easy access to the gun at each station. 

Over the winter and the following year, I dedicated myself to solving the problem.  I needed a solution that protected the gun and at the same time allow me to easily grab and go with the gun when pulling up to a station.  I also wanted the scabbard itself to be easily removed when not in use and to be universally adaptable to all bikes. After multiple design iterations, prototypes, and testing, I had a solution that I would use at every shoot I attended going forward. 

Fast forward a few years and today my e-bike shotgun scabbards are in use in 36 states across country and two Canadian provinces. The are particularly popular with:

• High volume shooters who need a second vehicle at big shoots for when schedules do not line up or need an easy to transport vehicle for local shoots.
• Shooters who do not have room for a cart at home and just do not want to pay the $120-$140 cart rental at bigger shoots.
• Shooters attending local tournaments where rental cart availability may be intermittent or not an option at all.
• Senior shooters who do not want to walk and may not want the hassle of hauling a trailer when traveling to tournaments by themselves.

And then... as people started seeing my shotgun scabbards at NSCA shoots, they started asking about other similar solutions.  The first is my "Umbrella Scabbard" which has a been a request from shooters who live in the rainier states.  As well local Geocachers have been asking for this to carry TOTT on the trail.  Numerous people have requested solutions for scoped rifles, fishing rods, and fly rods.  Stay tuned for what is next...