Tag Archives: gear

Those soft-sided water carriers

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Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

One thing about this hot weather, man….you can go through a lot of water in a hurry. I was up at Glacier a couple weeks ago and found that for most of my needs, a Nalgene bottle hanging off my belt in a RolyPoly was good enough. However, I did bring along a Platypus ‘soft bottle’ to keep in my bag in case it looked like more water was called for.

“Exuse me…mind if I take a look at that? Thanks.”

Funny story – I was completely unfamiliar with these ‘tubeless’ water bladders that were being used in lieu of ‘hard’ water bottles. I was up in Alaska doing the touristy thing when I saw one of the park guides with the Platypus bottle. My curiosity being aroused, I asked her about a dozen questions about it. The newly-minted missus found this amusing and actually took a picture of me grilling the poor gal about this water bottle that I was unfamiliar with. Naturally, once I got back to someplace where internet access wasnt charged by the minute, I started doing some research.

Note the three different type of caps…regular, pull spout, and drink tube. Also, the reinforced lanyard holes are extremely handy. L-R:Platypus® plusBottle 1L., Platypus Hoser 1L (tube removed), Platy Sports Bottle – 1 Liter (with tube from Hoser)

While I’m a big fan of the CamelBak-style ‘hydration bladders’ there are times I just wanna have a small container of water that can be tucked into my gear or into a pocket. These things turned out to be just perfect for that task. The two big players are Nalgene and Platypus. One thing that really pushes the Platypus to the top of my list is that in addition to being used as a water bottle the threaded caps are interchangeable between a regular cap, a pull-to-drink spout, and a drink tube. That’s the sort of modularity that I find extremely attractive in a piece of gear. As an interesting side note, it appears that Coke/water bottle caps are threaded similarly that they can be used if the cap of the Platypus is damaged or lost. (And that’s really my only complaint about these things is the non-captive caps.) The larger capacity Platypus (Platypii?) also have reinforced attachment points so you can just clip a carabiner through them and hang them off your pack or whatever…that’s a mighty useful feature since on most Nalgenes all you can do is use the lanyarded lid for that task and that sometimes puts way to much strain on that part.

A local sporting goods store closed a few years ago and most of their stuff was marked down 50%. I cleaned ‘em out on the Platypus stuff. I’ve got a plastic tub full of these things in storage.

Nalgene 48 oz. ‘Cantene’….holds 50% more water than usual-sized Nalgene bottles.

Nalgene, the folks that make those rugged drink bottles I like so much, also has a presence in the market for these sorts of products. Since I got such a good deal on the Platypus stuff, I tend to stick with them. However, the Nalgene does have some interesting uses…for one thing their large 48 oz version ( Nalgene Wide Mouth Cantene ) has the same size/threaded opening and cap as their hard bottles. This means that any of the accessories that thread onto the hard bottle mouth will work with the flexible one. More interestingly, in the book Six Ways In And Twelve Way Out it is mentioned that for a small survival kit the Nalgene wide-mouthed bottle is an excellent container to protect your small items from the environment. The idea being that you keep your little stash of matches, fish hooks, paracord, whistle, etc, etc, inside the Nalgene to keep them protected. An interesting idea except that once you decide to actually use the thing for it’s intended purpose of carrying water you now have a couple handfuls of small items you have to find a way to carry.

Anyway….in weather like this I usually take a hard Nalgene bottle, fill it 1/3 with ice tea, freeze it over night, and then fill the remainder with more iced tea. After that it goes in my bag (or on my bag, more likely) and keeps things cold most of the day. But I keep one or two of the Nalgene or Platypus soft-bottles in my bag ‘just in case’. Why? Well, you never know when you’re going to find yourself in a strait where you’re going to want to have as much water as you can carry. Remember those old movies where the guy is in the desert and he tilts the canteen to his lips and only a few drops of water come out? He looks at it and then disgustedly throws it away. What they don’t show is that when this genius eventually does come across a water supply he know has no way to carry the water. So..I carry an extra or two, empty and rolled up, in my bag. They take up far less space than a hard bottle and if, for example, it looks like a real killer of a day I can load up at the nearest water source and have extra water to carry…or to hand off to a less-prepared partner.

Another nice side benefit of these things is that as you empty them you can squeeze the air out so the things don’t make any sloshing noises like you’d get with a half full (or half empty) canteen. Don’t know about you but I hate hearing that sloshing noise every time I take a step when I’m out hunting.

Durability? I’ve read that the Platypus is a bit better than the Nalgene. The complaint with the Nalgenes seems to center on where the threaded neck is ‘welded’ to the pouch itself. Apparently they sometimes leak. I’ve had a bunch of the Platypus and have never had a problem. haven’t accidentally punctured one yet, although I suppose it’s possible…which is way i usually keep the full ones in something like a Maxpedition Rollypoly (which is what I use..great product) or similar cordura ‘holster’ to protect it from the rigors of life. And, nice thing is that when the Platypus is empty I can also roll up the RollyPoly to it’s compressed size and tuck it away.

If you’re only using the hard bottles you may wanna check these out.

Windup roundup

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Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

I have some of the early generation BayGen flashlights in storage. I bought them back around…mmm..must have been around 2000 or 2001 when CostCo cleared ‘em out when the Y2k stampede was done. These are the ones made in South Africa and use incandescent bulbs. They’ve sat , patiently, awaiting the time they’d be needed. I think they were about $20 ea. when I got them. (I also have one of the older SW/AM/FM radios as well.) Of course, now it’s ten years later and everyone seems to be making a handcrank light or radio. As is usual in technology, the prices dropped and the technology improved. The incandescent bulbs are replaced with far superior LED bulbs, and the bulky mechanisms have been made smaller. More interestingly, the ‘clockwork’ technology has been used in other devices as well.

Two of the most interesting devices, which I have no experience with, by the way, are the Freeplay Weza generator and their 12v device charger. The Weza is basically, as I understand it, a cross between one of those 12v battery packs you buy for jumping vehicles and a Stairmaster. You step on the pedal to turn a flywheel generator that charges the internal battery. I’m guessing it’s gonna take alot of pseudo-stairstepping to charge a 12v battery but if you have nothing else to do and its the only thing standing between you and no lights/communications………….

As I’m discovering the increasing utility of devices like IPhones and iPads I am becoming convinced that even without phone service these devices have tremendous utility. Depending on what you stuff into them they do spreadsheets, note taking, photography, take and view video, provide translations, hold reference books, calculations (inc. ballistics), etc, etc, and they do it all in a package smaller than 20-round rifle mag. This handcrank device charger (Freeplay FreeCharge 12V Black- AK060) looks like just the ticket for keeping the iPhone or iPod charge…although the amount of cranking might be onerous…which is why I have one of these tucked away. (That little Goal0 panel really does work…you have to keep it in direct sun, but I’ve used it a bunch of times and it will indeed charge up an iPhone although some people report mixed results.) However, the ability to produce enough power to charge up a USB device when the sun isn’t cooperating is something that I can see being mighty handy.

For small AM/FM/weather radios, I wound up with one of these Etón radios and have been quite pleased with it. I keep it in my everyday bag so that if things get weird in a hurry I can at least glean some inforamation off of the AM/FM bands. The flashlight function is also quite good for indoor navigation.

Interestingly, someone brought this to my attention. It’s a windup headlamp. I had no idea such things existed. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised….I’m rather pleased this is a technology that has started to go mainstream after being almost exclusively limited to Third World relief products.

One of the common complaints about these things is that the handcrank invariably breaks. Well, that makes sense since it’s a fairly high-stress part. The trick is to wind the devices purposefully and carefully. If you just grab the crank and start rotating it as fast as you can like your landing a fish then when the spring hits the end of the spool youre either going to rip the handle off the thing or similarly damage it. Wind it in a manner so that if the handle comes to a sudden stop your grip either naturally slips or you have enough time to stop your movement. I’ve yet to break a windup device this way.

There are tons of cheapo windup lights and stuff out there. Even the cheap 3-in-a-package ones from CostCo do a decent job of throwing light around a darkened house. But, be smart….check the reviews and don’t be hesitant to spend a few more bucks. Ive a Freeplay 360 that I use in my kitchen when I’m cooking or cleaning and have never had a problem. On a sunny day, with the volume kept fairly reasonable, I can just sit it in the sun and not even have to crank the thing. I’ve got plenty of flashlights and a goodly amount of batteries to run them but these newer windup lights and radios really do provide a secondary level of redundancy that is very appealing. If you havent checked out getting such devices I think you may find them worth your time.

Review – Streamlight Sidewinder 14032

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Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

I was fairly taken with the compact version of the Sidewinder but after playing with it a bit, I found it good but lacking. My biggest complaint was that when clipped to a piece of gear it would be unstable and sway around, unbalanced by it’s size and weight. I liked the features, I just wasn’t a fan of the physical envelope that contained these features. So…I bit the bullet and ordered the larger, but still fairly compact, full sized version. Big difference in my satisfaction.

The larger version (Streamlight 14032 Sidewinder) arrived just before I left for Glacier last week.

My biggest complaint about the Compact was that when you clipped it to a bit of webbing or what have you, it would sway about wildly. Let me try to describe it. Imagine you take a paperback novel and affix it to your shoulder strap so that the spine of the book is against you. The rest of the book juts out there and sways unsteadily as you move. Same thing.

This larger version of the Sidewinder, because of its large battery compartment, is  far more stable. A few other features separate it from the Compact:

  • It runs on AA batts, as opposed to the CR123 used in the Compact, so my logistics are streamlined a bit.
  • Has a lanyard attachment point.
  • The metal clip that you use to clip the light to your gear is removable. This is important because it you think the clip isn’t providing enough force to keep it from sliding off whatever you clip it to, you can remove the clip, bend it as necessary, and then put it back the way was. Couldn’t really do that with the compact.
  • Battery compartment lid is captive. No losing it in the dark or when your sitting somewhere changing batteries when the cover falls between your legs and into the tall grass. Nice touch.

I’m going to go ahead and give the non-Compact version of the Sidewinder a better rating than the compact version. Price isn’t too terribly different, and although it is a bit bigger I believe you will get better use out of it than the Compact.

Note that the SIdewinder series are available in different color-combinations…you can get, for example, one that has white, green, red and blue emitters. I went with white, red, blue and IR. I don’t have anything that let’s me take advantage of the IR (at the moment) but that doesn’t mean that someday I won’t.

As I said, only real drawback is price. There’s plenty of LED lights out there for less, but the features on this thing (clip, lanyard, flash mode, adjustable brightness, swivel head, subdued color, hands-free operation, waterproof, etc, etc.) pretty much fill all the requirments I wanted in a light that could be affixed to a vest or webbing strap (also darn near perfect for clipping to a vehicle visor for use within the vehicle cab). So, yes it’s expensive but to me it seems worth the money.

Zeltbahns…sorta

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Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

Looks like a zelt to me.

I think I’ve mentioned it a couple times in the past, but one thing I’ve always wanted to get my hands on and examine is a German zeltbahn. Unfortunately, originals (and even repros) are hard to find at reasonable prices. Fortunately, other countries adopted the basic design and, surprisingly, Sportsmans Guide has some Swedish ones. At least, they look like zeltbahns. Check this out. It isn’t that I necessarily think this design is any better than the current ones (although it is much more imaginitive), but I’d like to have one to examine and experiment with and, if I like it, use as a template for a version using modern materials and camo patterns. I have a copy of the original German (translated) manual for the use, care, and specifications of the Zeltbahn and while it’s an old design I think it has one or two advantages of the modern rectangular one. Regardless, I’m gonna have to order up a couple of these just to goof around with. If nothing else they’ll make nice covers for my bicycle when it’s locked up outside.

Mag degreasing

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Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

Spent the afternoon disassembling, degreasing, lubing, and re-assembling a couple dozen surplus Uzi magazines. There is very little as annoying, dirty and slightly hazardous as degreasing military surplus. See, you figure you could just wipe down the mags with solvent and be done with it. Nope, gotta pull the mag apart and degrease the inside as well. And that is where it becomes a pain in the posterior. I stripped the mags, put them in an empty one-gallon pickle jar, filled it halfway with kerosene and laid it lengthwise to allow the mags to soak. Gave it a good shake every so often to move stuff around. Waited a while, fished ‘em out, laid ‘em in the sink and poured boiling water over them. The water washed away the kerosene and heated the mags up to the point that they dried themselves…no moisture. Wipe things down with a touch of Hoppes, re-assemble, and good to go.

Except, of course, I smell like a fuel leak.

Filson

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Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

My buddy calls me up and asks me about the Filson coats I have been lusting after (specifically, this one and this one). I ask him why the interest. Turns out, he found a gal selling new Filson products at a discount. I have no money to spend, but figured I’d tag along. Big mistake.

I wound up with one of these, MSRP $310, for $120 and one of these, MSRP $140, for $20. Well, sure, it wasn’t in my color but for $20 you’d have to be an idiot to take a pass. She has more stuff so Im going to go through the Filson website, make a list of things Im looking for, and if she has them I might wind up spending even more money that I don’t have. But…but…but how can you pass up +60% savings on Filson gear?

Schrade knives

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Im reading the new Sportsmans Guide catalog and they have a cool Schrade ‘survival knife’. I think to myself “Hmmm, that’s odd. Schrade went out of business a year ago.” Then I see in the description that the knife is made in China. :::facepalm::: This is the same thing that happened to Grundig. A well respected brand disappears and the name is bought and used on cheap Chinese products. So: if youre buying a Schrade these days, make sure it is not a Chinese version.

Its sad, but it seems that the really good American knifemakers are falling by the wayside. Increased materials cost, union problems, overseas competition, etc, etc. Its gotta be tough.

Moving up from Fred Flintstone stone axes, the knife is your most basic tool. I own too many to keep track of and like guns no one tool does it all. Theres an old saying that you can use a big knife to do tasks suited for a little knife but not the other way around. Most of the time this is true but I’ve had occasions where there simply was no substitute for a smaller knife. (Cleaning brook trout, for example) On the other hand, you can almost never get a little knife to do the job of a big knife (splitting deer pelvis, prying things apart, hacking limbs from trees, digging firepits, etc, etc.)

It’s a personal preference thing so Im just gonna tell you what I like and why.

Multitool – I like the Leatherman Wave. For me, it fits the overwhelming majority of my needs. It has two blades, one serrated one not, and I use the serrated blade almost exclusively, keeping the regular blade in reserve for when I need a razor sharp edge for some delicate work.

Pocket folder – Since I carry the Leatherman I don’t usually carry a pocketknife. When I do, I like the small plastic handled Gerber folders. I find the Gerbers are easier to sharpen although it seems that the Buck holds an edge longer.

General Utility Sheath Knife – I like the Glock field knives. They are very inexpensive and very rugged. I find them to be an excellent all-around knife. For a little more money I also like the now-discontinued Becker Knife & Tool sheath knives. Brute ruggedness.

Others:
Most Kershaw knives…they just seem flimsy.
Cold Steel – decent product but I don’t care for Made In Japan much more than Made In China. Yeah, they have a great history of making swords, but unless its some wizened old Japanese man folding a bar of steel a thousand times to make my pocketknife rather than an industrial steel press, I’ll avoid them.
Spyderco – I like the knives but I am extremely hard on those belt clips. I do like their defensive knife with the terrifying S-shaped blade.
Ka-Bar – Seem like fine knives. I realize they went up Iwo Jima but that doesn’t mean better designs haven’t happened since then. Theyre an excellent knife for the money and I certainly wouldn’t turn one down as a gift, although I prefer the newer Kydex sheaths.

Whenever possible, I like half-serrated blades. Theyre harder to sharpen but I like that they cut smooth materials better than a non-serrated edge. (Wet nylon rope springs to mind.)

On the ‘specialty’ side of things, I have a lovely Anza hunting knife that I use for that purpose. For more bizarre adventures I have the BK&T ‘Tac Tool’.

To me, all gear is expendable. If the situation calls for it I’m willing to abandon, destroy or discard whatever is needed. Examples? Slip and fall during a river crossing and have to drop your pack or gun. That sort of thing. So, ideally, I like my gear to be good but affordable so I can have spares. While SureFire makes some really razoo folding knives I am not paying $350+ for a folding knife.

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Interesting link of the day

Jericho, CZ rifles, components, boots, Mountain House order

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Looks like the reports of ‘Jericho’s cancellation may have been a bit…premature. It is reported on various online entertainment websites that the network is rethinking its decision in the face of fan email/mail barrages.

I find this interesting for a couple reasons. Across the board every single forum I’ve been to that mentions the program has countless detractors who say the series isn’t ‘realistic’ or that theres too much ‘interpersonal drama’. And yet when the show does get cancelled theyre outraged. Go figure. I think the series has, in fact, jumped the shark, but am quite willing to continue watching.
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Finally got my 10-rd mags for my CZ550 the other day. This means the only two serious tasks left for this gun are a) new heavyduty sling and swivels, and b) a Pelican case. Once that’s done and the ammo is loaded I will be done spending money on this thing. In an exercise of fiscal recklessness, I shall now tally the damage:
$600 – base gun
$360 – 5 standard mags, 5 10-rd mags
$120 – Picatinny rail base
$30 – rings
$700 – IOR scope (10×56 MP8)
$30 – scope cover and muzzle protector
$20 – scope caps

So that’s..uhm…carry the three…$1860. Add in the case and it’ll just crack $2k. Expensive? Yup. However, its taken me almost two years and change to get this far so it was spaced out over a goodly amount of time. The alternative is a $600 rifle with a Bushnell Sportview and that would be just silly. Optics and guns are expensive. Spending $600-$1200 for a rifle and then putting a $95 scope on it is a bit self-defeating. If all you can afford after the initial outlay for the gun is a cheap scope, well, that’s better than no scope but after a year or two you should be able to move on financially to getting more deserving optics. Yes, you can spend a lot of money on an accurate rifle. You can spend as much money as you’d like. What I did was spend as much money as was needed.

On the other hand, being able to totally pwn everything within a circle a little under a mile across will be worth it. (Fast math – a one-mile circle means that if you were in the center your longest shot would be 880 yards in any direction…not out of the realm of possibility for the .308 since it wont be transonic until around 1100 yds..)

I still have to buy some spare parts for this thing..a few springs, a firing pin, extra screws, that sort of thing but that shouldn’t be more than a hundred bucks or so.

I took the CZ to the range yesterday to test the new mags and fireform some new Lapua cases. Rounds 3 & 4 out of mag #4 failed to feed (bolt rode over). Reloading the mag with another five rounds did not duplicate the problem. I made a note and will test that mag at length on the next trip to the range. I am very much liking the IOR scope and thus far have no problem recommending them. Heavy, but this rifle isn’t a ‘wandering around the boonies’ gun.

The dot in my scope is apparently 1moa since it covered a 1” orange targdot at 100 yds. Fluorescent orange on white is a bit tough to see. Best groups were .70 and .67 for five shots at 100 yards. Worst groups were about twice that, around 1.5”. (Hey, it happens.)
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I continue to be frustrated at the hit-or-miss availability of various ammo and components these days. For example, finding 55 gr. FMJ .223 bullets at a reasonable price(and that’s the focal point here) has been tough. I finally found some after relentlessly hounding my distributors every three days and even then it was only by sheer luck that I happened to make my call the same morning they had a truck come in. Even then I was only able to get one case –6000 bullets – out of it. I remember when 7.62×39 ammo was $90 a case and I was stacking cases up in the bunker thinking this might be a waste of money since AK ammo seemed plentiful and cheap. Now? No regrets. Theres a dozen stories floating around about why ammo and related materials are so expensive these days and, generally, I don’t care why its happening…I care about the result of it happening more than I care about why. However, all the things I hear are of a temporary nature (although on a large enough scale, everything is temporary)…someday the Chinese will be done buying up raw materials, the Venezuelans/American military/Chinese will be done buying ammo, or whatever the reason du jour is and prices will stabilize and, more importantly, availability will increase. In the meantime…well, this is why I stockpile ammo when I can. (And also why a person should reload their own ammo.)
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My Altama jungle boots arrived the other day. They look like the jungle boots Ive seen on various feet my whole life. Hasn’t anyone figured out a way to modify or otherwise modernize these things? No matter. For $30 a pair I get US made boots. Good knocking-around boots for summer. I have a nice set of the suede desert boots and they are, hands down, the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn. Theyre a little big at 10W. These ones I ordered are 9.5W and I think that’s the size I’ll order another three pair at. Go back a couple posts and you’ll find a link to the boot deal. I have such a hellacious time finding footwear I like that when I find something that fits and I like I will buy as many pair as I can afford. Sure, there are websites that specialize for wide feet (how wide? EEEEE. That’s 5E kids! I can walk on snow like a moose!) but my footwear needs are a bit more specific. I don’t need a pair of walking shoes or a pair of loafers. No, I need combat boots, desert boots, Mickey Mouse boots, that sort of thing…and finding those in my freakish feet size can be a bit of a challenge. So these jungle boots, which will make excellent everyday wear as well as good summer duty boots, will be ordered en masse as soon as I can free up a hundred bucks for three more pair.
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Mountain House order went in the other day. Everything was on hand except the white rice and the corn. Those will be ready in ‘about two weeks’ I am told. Everything else was ready. So, if you ordered either of those two products you can expect a delay but you can also expect maximum shelf life on those products since they’ll have been packaged most recently.

Mountain House is a division of Oregon Freeze Dry which not only does the MH foods ( a very small part of the biz, I am told) but does other things like freeze drying plasma and other goodies. Since I know theres only a couple places in the country that can freeze dry food on the scale these guys do I inquired if they had any overruns from military contracts. I always ask them this and I am always directed to ask someone else whose voicemail gives me the impression they really don’t wanna deal with it. But this time….success. Turns out they had a hundred or so cases of #10 cans of raw pork chops. Cool, eh? A little freezedried applesauce and some freeze dried vegetables and rice and you can have a pretty decent meal. As expected, like most FD meats, the price was not cheap. However I did order one case to try out. Price is going to be about $39 per can but its pork chops, man! (Normal price, I was told, would be $54 per can…if you could find them) No idea if they are boneless but I cannot see the point to freeze drying a product and leaving the bone in. We shall see.

Specter 3-point slings

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Someone, I cant remember who, asked me about three-point slings. The girlfriend was nice enough to get me a very nice one for my AR15A2 a couple years ago and I’ve been pleased enough with it to recommend it. The sling was from CQB Solutions which has changed its name to Specter.

I’ve ordered another sling for use with my HKlone and should probably get another for the Bushie Dissipator carbine I picked up a few months back.

By the by, theres a very nice illustrated tutorial on the various ways to use a three-point sling. I think most of you might find it interesting.

Camillus closing

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As I predicted/forecasted/warned, the folks at Camillus have closed their doors.

Fortunately, I did get not one but two of the knives I wanted from them.

BUT…I still need the TacTool.

Its sad that these good American knife companies are going under. I was in WallyWorld the other day and even some of the Buck and Gerber knives are mafe in China. Even if the Chinese did make quality stuff, I’d avoid it just on principle.

I think KaBar might be the last choice for a large sheath knife thats US made. We’ll see. I have a gun show this weekend to attend so perhaps there’ll be another Becker knife in the future if I come across one.